Strap an HD video camera on the back of an eagle flying around the mountains of France, and this is what you get.
Strap an HD video camera on the back of an eagle flying around the mountains of France, and this is what you get.
Another Kathryn Bigelow film has hit the illegal file sharing sites. Like The Hurt Locker, this time Zero Dark Thirty was leaked yesterday, but long before any DVD has been sold. The movie hasn’t even been released beyond New York and Los Angeles. It’s all over your favorite illegal streaming and bit torrent sites.
How did this happen? As the above screenshot shows, it came from an Academy Award voter who received a DVD of the movie. Movie studios often distribute DVDs to voters so they can watch and vote for their films, but the voters are supposed to guard the discs and not distribute them. That didn’t happen, as you can see by the watermark on the screen shot.
Your reaction to Madonna’s Super Bowl performance, and the kinds of people you follow on Twitter, may hint at whether you’re a positive or negative person. Let me explain.
Watching the wreck that was the Madonna halftime show at the Super Bowl, the first thing I did was reach for my laptop to see what my followers were writing on Twitter. I follow around 330 people, of whom about 50-75 were tweeting about Madonna. Monitoring my stream closely, there wasn’t one positive comment about Madonna’s performance. Not one. Not even a borderline positive comment.
Now check this out: some CEO marketing hack (Mark Ghuneim) from an outfit called Wiredset says that Madonna’s performance had 59% positive, 31% negative, and 11% neutral response on Twitter. How’s that possible?
Am I following very negative people because I’m a negative person (not that there’s anything wrong with that!)? Maybe the people we follow on Twitter does say something about us.
Here are the two Tweets I wrote about Madonna:
Betty White should have done the half time show. #superbowl #nfl
Madonna has chronic fatigue syndrome #superbowl
Did you read any good Madonna take-down tweets?
Everyone is writing a Steve Jobs tribute article. I’m not, but I will give you the formula to selecting an evocative photo for your tribute. It’s pretty easy.
Setting the appropriate tone for your tribute can be easily achieved by selecting the right photo.
I was this close to getting my radical, hair brained 9/11 memorial design built on ground zero.
In the spring of 2003 I was taking the graduate course “Memory and Tragedy” with James Young, a professor of English and Judaic Studies at UMass Amherst. Around the world, Professor Young is often consulted about memorials to tragedies. He was the only person from the United States on the committee that chose the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe design in Berlin. He’s a big deal, in addition to being a smart dude with a dark sense of humor.
One class in April Professor Young was 20 minutes late, which was unprecedented, but he had a good excuse: he’d just been asked to be one of 12 jurors of the September 11th Memorial Design Competition.
It was a timely opportunity for the class to explore what kind of memorial should be built. Professor Young led a few conversations about the nature of this future memorial. I think the first question was, is it too soon to design a memorial? What the hell are we memorializing 2 years out from the events? Because the memorials that punch you in the gut hardest both reflect back on the events and have an eye towards the future, we thought about how design could reflect that at the ground zero site in New York City.
I had my ideas. Every week I’d come in with another memorial concept for Professor Young to consider. Here are my two favorites, that funny enough resemble the design that was built, though not in every regard.
The memorial as built is good enough, I guess. Kind of boring, though.
I won’t cover-up the lede with prologue: the quickest way to improve your writing is by finding your own voice.
Ah. Notice how I didn’t tell you it was the easiest thing to do? And I didn’t mention exactly what that meant — even though most of us have heard the advice, we probably haven’t understood it. With the help of my favorite book on writing, below I’ll give you three ways to find your own writing voice.
In a clever piece about losing his once forceful voice to a battle with esophageal cancer, Christopher Hitchens describes the advice an editor gave him about a well argued, but boring piece: write “more like the way that you talk.” Hitchens can talk. He’s a throwback to a time when intellectuals had public debates about the issues of the times. Not only were there smart people having a public dialog, but they could talk, like, in coherent, logically structured sentences. Hitchens:
To my writing classes I used later to open by saying that anybody who could talk could also write. Having cheered them up with this easy-to-grasp ladder, I then replaced it with a huge and loathsome snake: “How many people in this class, would you say, can talk? I mean really talk?” That had its duly woeful effect. I told them to read every composition aloud, preferably to a trusted friend. The rules are much the same: Avoid stock expressions (like the plague, as William Safire used to say) and repetitions.
Since most of us don’t speak very well, it’s a tough leap to grasp onto what finding our own writing voice means, but I’ll make an attempt, with the help of John R. Trimble. He’s the author of one of the most useful, slim, books about writing: Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing. Trimble doesn’t make this argument, but based on his words, here are 3 ways to find your own writing voice:
What makes your writing sound more like you?
Photo by chuckthewriter and republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Last night I watched the 28 year-old bio-epic movie, Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough. Of course, the story is an inspiring one, about the life long struggle Gandhi fought for human rights through the use of non-violent protest. As a film buff who watches and studies many movies, what shocked me was the grand scale of the film; it was a historical epic film we haven’t seen in decades.
There have been epic films made since Gandhi, but are there any of these films made today without computer generated imagery (CGI)? Since Jurassic Park in 1993, film makers and studios have found using CGI cheaper and more efficient. Too bad, because there’s something awe inspiring about watching the funeral scene in Gandhi that used 400,000 extras. And there are other scenes that probably used just a thousand or two (see the screen capture above, for example).
The same chaotic energy can’t be captured by computer animation; CGI is too controlled, too painterly, too fake no matter how good the technology, because in the back of your mind the thought “this is cool computer work” is always floating around.
The limits of CGI are probably expressed the greatest in epic films, which are a genre all their own. Wikipedia summarizes epic films as
An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale. Epics are more ambitious in scope than other film genres, and their ambitious nature helps to differentiate them from similar genres such as the period piece or adventure film. They typically entail high production values, a sweeping musical score (often by an acclaimed film composer), and an ensemble cast of bankable stars, placing them among the most expensive of films to produce. The term “epic” comes from the poetic genre exemplified by such works as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Ramayan.
To my mind, the epic film isn’t just about what was captured on the celluloid, but the process of filming too. It’s also about the struggle to corral and capture thousands of extras on film, which then affects the performances of the lead actors. That’s a dynamic that can’t be reproduced in a studio in front of a green screen.
Too bad. Bye, bye epic film.
What’s the point of drinking a beer that tastes like water steeped with recycled copy paper and lemon? Beer should have a flavor profile that makes you ponder its origins, and daydream about the cool people who crafted it. If you can’t picture in your mind real people crafting that beverage, then you’re probably drinking the wrong beer.
I just finished watching the documentary Beer Wars (a good blog that’s always updated with various beer news)
Over the past few years I’ve been drinking at one of the best beer bars in the United States, The Moan and Dove. There are many things that make the Moan great, but at the top of the list is that Jason (the owner) and his crew love good beer. That’s the philosophy of the Moan: find great beer and serve it fresh. That sounds simple, but it’s not. You have to convince a customer base that paying $9 for De Ranke XX on draught with straight CO2 gas is more satisfying than paying $3 for a Bud draught.
If you don’t know where to find great beer in your locale, check this directory out at Beer Advocate. I suggest first going to a good beer bar and asking questions. Taste a few different beers. Taste them. Enjoy the beer, because it’s not a race to fill your gut. You deserve to have beer that was made with care and that actually tastes like something.
It’s fasinating how musicans can take songs written by someone else into a whole new direction. One of my favorite cover songs is Aztec Camera’s version of Van Halen’s “Jump”.
Here is Beck Hansen in the studio working on some INXS songs: “New Sensation,” “Devil Inside,” and “Guns in the Sky”.
It’s Spring in New England which means people are digging bicycles out of storage and hitting the roads. Where I live, on Route 47 in Sunderland, MA, cyclists often jam pack the road — it’s a very scenic ride, if not always a safe one because of the narrow road at times. But Route 47 doesn’t make the list of most dangerous roads to ride in Western Mass because I’ve never had a problem (I did almost hit a horse while I was riding on Rt. 47).
Least safe states 2008 (click to enlarge)
First some bicycling safety statistics before we go through the list. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (PDF report), there were 716 bicyclist deaths in 2008, accounting for 2 percent of all traffic fatalities. Most people that are killed while riding are older — and getting older. In 1998 the average age of a bicyclist killed was 32; in 2008 the average age was 41. In 2008, Alcohol was involved (either by cyclists or motor vehicle driver) in more than 1/3 of all accidents that resulted in the death of the cyclist. Most of the cyclists killed in 2008 were male (87%). (You can find a lot of great information at bicyclinginfo.org)
Safest states 2008 (click to enlarge)
How about a few Massachusetts bike safety stats? These come from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which is a great database of all kinds of traffic statistics going back to 1994 and sortable by state. In 2008 there were 10 bicyclist fatalities in Massachusetts, which put the state below the national average (MA 1.54 per million population; national 2.35). An interesting thing to note, despite the small numbers: in Mass. there were more bicycle fatalities at intersections (6) than non-intersections. That isn’t true for the U.S. as a whole, where 65 percent of fatalities take place at non-intersections.
Let’s move on!
The intersection of Routes 10, 9, and 66 in Northampton
This is the general area where Meg Sanders was hit on Sept. 22, 2005, by an armored truck coming down Elm St. (Rt. 9) in front of Smith College. It’s a dangerous spot for a number of reasons: traffic picking up speed coming down the hills, tough left turns for cars, a lot of traffic, and on Elm St. where Meg was hit, there isn’t a lot of room for cyclist to squeeze through the parked cars and traffic. Keep your head on a swivel if you’re riding through there!
Route 5, between Northampton and Easthampton
Doesn’t seem that dangerous? Well remember, two thirds of all bicycle accidents happen at non-intersections. This area is fairly straight and mostly flat; just the kind of place motorists can lose concentration. Add on the fact that the two lane road is pretty narrow, and you’ve got a recipe for getting run off Route 5. Many factors here for disaster.
University Drive, Amherst
I wasn’t going to include this road in the list. It doesn’t make sense, there’s a bike path along the road! Well, tell that to Misty Bassi who was hit and killed on Memorial Day 2009. That’s right, the car jumped the curb, drove over a patch of grass, and hit Misty on the bike path. In general, when riding your bike around colleges and universities you should keep your head on a swivel. Most college aged drivers have had their license for anywhere between 2 and 4 years; that’s not a lot of experience behind the wheel. [correction: in the comments someone noted that Misty was not on the bike path. Funny, the media coverage of this story is very confusing.]
Mind the gap!
I got this area from a tip, noting the mass of pot holes and wind. I was on this road a couple of times last season and can testify to the potholes. If you’re bicycling in New England, you have to expect the potholes. Last year I blew-out 2 tires and had to straightened my rear rim 3 times due to running over potholes. I guess I need to practice pothole swerving.
Did I miss some dangerous places for cycling in Western Mass.? Leave a comment below and I’ll update the list.
I would like to thank some people for their contribution to this list: Marie Lisewski, Allan Douglas, and David Kutcher.
Photos by dbking and KTesh and republished here under a Creative Commons license.
