They Fade Away

Conditions: Fading.

Shoot the Messenger

Recently the EU demonstrated how little they understand what the internet is when they ruled that people do have the right to get internet search engines to remove links to websites that basically they may not like.

Google is readying a tool that would allow folks in Europe to request the company to remove search results about them. It's the first time Google has made moves to create such a tool, and we have the feeling other countries around the world will take similar actions as well.

Google is forced to create this tool following the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), ruling on Tuesday. Based on the ruling, search engines such as Google and Bing must delete personal search information that is considered outdated by users.

- techtimes.com

The fundamental problem here is that the search engines are supposed to be mindless. They accumulate hits based on what parameters have been entered. So if someone has a problem with hits that are being found then they should be addressing those individual sites that are hosting the information, not the search engine that is displaying the sites. And if the information is wrong, or out of date, then let it be addressed at that level. Why is the search engine, and the company behind it, being penalised when it’s not actually doing anything wrong? Stupid.



Lucky Star

Last week an artist passed away who is responsible for many of the nightmares that lurk deep down in the darkest places of our minds. Farewell Mr Giger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPZaNlYX2vk



Film Review: Escape Plan

You know, if this film had come out about ten years ago it probably would’ve made a billion dollars. The fact that today it barely registered at the box office is a sad reflection on the faded power of former superstars Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Throughout their careers they mostly played mavericks, loners, tough guys that don’t need no-one and nothing. Nowadays they seem to prefer more to team up with others, including each other. Perhaps it’s that, teamed with the fact that Arnie’s been away for a long time, teamed with the fact that it’s a prison movie rather than a guys-shooting-things movie, that meant it didn’t appeal. It’s an interesting premise. Stallone plays a guy who makes his living breaking out of prisons in order to help make prisons more secure. He gets contracted by the CIA to try out one of their new secret prisons that are all the rage these days.

As odd as that sounds, Stallone seems to think it’s on the level. So when he gets knocked out and wakes up in a vast underground prison with see-through walls and sadistic guards, it’s odd so see that he’s surprised. What did he expect, club med? Anyway, Arnie soon finds him, playing another prisoner who’s in jail because apparently he knows where another guy is who’s a whistleblower on the U.S government, or something. Sly starts trying to figure out how to escape which is when he finds out that the warden is a big fan of Sly’s books on prison escaping. So the film becomes a complicated slog through details about how the two of them are going to get out while being watched very carefully.

Fortunately Arnie knows everyone and is able to arrange diversions and get various materials they need for their plan. And it helps that there’s a large number of prisoners who seem quite happy to start attacking each other and then get beat up by the guards at the drop of a hat. In the end the big escape sequence is started, with the help of an Islamic guy who totally needed more background and a happier ending. I think the biggest issue with this film is that when it’s all over, there is absolutely no intention at all to actually go back and free the other prisoners from the secret prison, or blow the lid on the abuse that’s going on there. Instead it’s just business as usual. I can’t help but think this film is a big missed opportunity: a chance to make a big statement about prisons and the aftermath of the war on terror that’s been completely sidestepped. Instead it’s kind of a slow drag through hell. Both actors actually do a good job with their characters and how they interact with each other: Arnie in particular gets to cut loose with some fun eccentricities. But overall it kind of feels like a bit of a creaky gimmick going on here, that in the end doesn’t really make the kind of stand we were looking for. Three German swear words out of five.



- Peace out