The Pentagon's Newest Unmanned Drone</h1> <article> <h1>The Pentagon's Newest Unmanned Drone</h1> <p>Pat — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 08:59:00 GMT</p> <p>Good to know my tax dollars are being well spent!</p> <p><br /><a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/video/pentagons_unmanned_spokesdrone?utm_source=embedded_video">Pentagon's Unmanned Spokesdrone Completes First Press Conference Mission</a><br /></p> </article> <article> <h1>China's Thought Police and the Olympic Games</h1> <p>Pat — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:17:00 GMT</p> <p> When China won the Olympic games, one of the things it agreed to do was a bit unusual -- it promised not to censor media reporting on anything related to the games, and to allow uncensored Internet access within the Olympic village before and during the games. It's already broken these promises several times, the most recent incident taking place on Friday. Apparently thousands of people were waiting in line to purchase tickets and a fist-fight broke out around 4am. Hours later, in daylight after the incident was over, reporters were turned away from people standing in line whom they wanted to interview. <br /><br /></p><blockquote>Security was ramped up today, and reporters were denied access to people in the lines by military police guards. Hong Kong television showed journalists being shoved by security officers as they tried to film, less than a mile from the main Bird's Nest Olympic stadium.<br /><br />``A reporter was trying to go into a restricted area, refused to comply with orders and was brought away by police,'' said Sun Weide, the chief spokesman for the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee. ``The police were trying to maintain order and we hope that journalists can comply with our rules.''<br /><br />Beijing organizers have pledged to give reporters the same freedoms as at previous Olympics. Beijing police didn't respond to a fax inquiring about the trouble last night and the security policy today. <br /></blockquote><p><a target="_blank">Bloomberg story here.</a><br /><br />The Wall Street Journal reports that some journalists were arrested and others were required to destroy footage. It goes on to talk about how this news is being censored within the media centers of the Olympic village. <br /><br /></p><blockquote>Meanwhile, the government continues to block news Web sites such as the BBC's Mandarin site and the Chinese-language, pro-democratic Apple Daily of Hong Kong. That is happening inside Olympic media centers, despite the promise of China's Olympic organizers that Internet access would be unfettered. It was always unlikely that China's media cops would be willing to suspend their censorship habits for the Olympics, and Friday's overreaction to one unfortunate incident will harm China's image far more than any reporting would have.<br /></blockquote><p><br />I could find only those two stories about the incident through Google News, though granted it's not a huge incident. <br /><br />Others attending at the Olympics are also reporting censorship unrelated to this event. Amnesty International's web site is blocked, for example, according to various blogs. <br /><br />I'm thinking that now that the games are about to begin, there's little the International Olympic Committee can do -- they can hardly pull the games at this late hour, and doing so would likely be seen by most (including me) as an overreaction. <br /><br />I think what should happen is that the media needs to wake up and shine a VERY bright spotlight on this issue, instead of the dim and half-noticed one they're kinda/sorta/thinking-about shining on it now.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Where in the Hell is Matt? (2008 Version)</h1> <p>Pat — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:48:00 GMT</p> <p>Matt Harding is a video game designer, but he's mostly known for his "Dancing Matt" videos. This is the 2008 version, which came out about a month ago. YouTube founder Jawed Karim called the original version his favorite video posted to YouTube. I just think it's cool. </p> <p></p> </article> <article> <h1>The Encyclopedia Baracktannica</h1> <p>Pat — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:19:00 GMT</p> <p>I'm having trouble getting this one working. If it doesn't show, just follow <a class="" href="http://aiusfemail/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.slate.com/id/2184502/">this link</a>.</p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>AMV</h1> <p>Pat — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:51:00 GMT</p> <p>AMV stands for "Anime music video", a very popular pastime amongst anime fans. The general idea is to take a song that is familiar to your friends and then find a bunch of anime clips that support the lyrics (lip-syncing the words). If you do a search on the initials "AMV" on YouTube you'll pull up a result of MILLIONS, however many of them are quite mundane, simply showing scenes from a popular anime program while playing a familiar song. But the more creative ones actually try to add something to enhance the viewer experience in some way, such as having the clips follow a specific theme, transitioning the figures in and out, and of course having the characters "sing" words appropriate to their programs and specific backstories. <br /></p><p>The wikipedia has an article on trend here:</p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime_music_video">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime_music_video</a></p> <p>Here's an example that shows how creative they can be. The music is "Spirit Never Dies" by power metal band Masterplan. The clips appear to be from Naruto, Cowboy Bebop, Bleach, and others I don't recognize. <br /></p> <p></p> </article> <article> <h1>Sydney Pollack</h1> <p>Pat — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:01:00 GMT</p> <p>Sydney Pollack died yesterday. I'm looking for a good video tribute and will post one here if I can track one down, but in the meantime I thought it might be interesting to look at his all-time Top Ten list, which was published in 2002 (in no specific order):</p> <p>Casablanca<br />Citizen Kane<br />The Conformist<br />The Godfather, Part II<br />Grand Illusion<br />The Leopard<br />Once Upon a Time in America<br />Raging Bull<br />The Seventh Seal<br />Sunset Boulevard</p> <p>It's quite a list. I wasn't familiar with The Conformist and had to look it up -- it's a Bernardo Bertolucci film from the 1970s; a political film about fascism. The Leopard, by the way, is a classic Italian film starring Burt Lancaster about Italian land owners in the 1860s, currently available on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection. I haven't seen either film. </p> <p>No good tributes yet but we can at least watch one of his memorable performances, this one from The Sopranos:</p> <p> </object></p> </article> <article> <h1>Pat Buys an Information Appliance</h1> <p>Pat — Sun, 25 May 2008 07:20:00 GMT</p> <p>So my cell phone died last week (ok, I left it on top of the car and it disappeared on the way to work), and I decided it was time to get a smart phone. I checked 'em all out, including my boss' iPhone (too expensive!), and finally decided on an HTC Touch. It runs the new, Vista-like Windows Mobile 6 OS, accepts miniature Flash cards with up to 16mb of memory, and has a cool touch-screen interface. GPS navigation, Google maps, music and video, TV stations, all kinds of crazy stuff. 2 megapixel camera with video, too, which the iPhone won't do (the video part). Even high-speed wireless from the cellular network and supposedly it connects to 802.11 WiFi (though I'm not sure why you'd bother -- the cellular network seems really fast). All for less than half the cost of an iPhone. </p> <p>I've already got it linked to my GMail account, and the interface for that is really sweet. I was surprised how easy it was to reply to an email. But the really cool part was all the cool OS customization available. I had no idea people were putting out so much software for Windows Mobile. No wonder there was so much fuss when Apple initially said no to open software for the iPhone. </p> <p>One complaint is that it doesn't seem to be as easy to "tip over" to landscape mode as it is with the iPhone. The iPhone has a built-in sensor for that, but this device requires you to push a button. Unfortunately the button is kinda buried and I haven't found a shortcut key for it yet (although I figured out that if I slap the camera on and then return to Internet Explorer it stays in landscape mode, which I think is a bug!). </p> <p>The image on the right below shows the standard Windows "Today" page (which is a lot more cluttered on mine, having added some do-dads to show time, weather, email and news at the same time). The image on the left is the "touch" interface, which allows you to quickly grab what you want without having to go through the cumbersome Windows Start menu. It doesn't show it here, but it pages left and right, with the page on the left showing all the quick-dial numbers (which you can cover with images of the people at those numbers). Kinda cool. </p> <p><br /></p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Diebold Accidentally Leaks 2008 Election Results</h1> <p>Pat — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:57:00 GMT</p> <p>The Onion has gone video. Very funny stuff. </p> <p><br /><a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/video/diebold_accidentally_leaks?utm_source=embedded_video">Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early</a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Across the Universe</h1> <p>Pat — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:08:00 GMT</p> <p></p> <p>Check this one out, I thought it was oddly entertaining. It's kooky as hell, but it kinda sucked me in. I especially enjoyed the Bono and Joe Cocker cameos. It's way over the top, but it's also really original. The way they tell most of the story with the music, with very little dialog, was just really cool. It's the very best kind of tribute to the Beatles -- one that doesn't say a thing about them, instead dwelling in their ideas and emotions. <br /><br />BTW, the Blu-Ray release is awesome. The picture quality is absolutely stunning, and it has all the extras from the DVD (including extended versions of several songs) but with a cool twist -- they're fully color-balanced and in high definition with full digital sound, just like the movie. Deleted scenes usually get really bad quality treatment, which is normally fine, but it makes a lot of sense here so I'm really glad they did that. </p> </article> <article> <h1>All South Park Episodes Now Online</h1> <p>Pat — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:55:00 GMT</p> <p>Woot! All the South Park episodes are now online. Here's the address and a short clip from one of my favorite episodes:</p> <p><a href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/">http://www.southparkstudios.com/</a></p> <p></p> </article> <article> <h1>One of the best speeches I've ever heard</h1> <p>Pat — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:26:00 GMT</p> <p>Amazing.</p> <p> </object></p> </article> <article> <h1>Old Sword & Sandals Flick Getting a New Image on DVD</h1> <p>Pat — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 22:14:00 GMT</p> 1964's <i>The Fall of the Roman Empire</i> is set at the end of the reign of Emporer Marcus Aurelius and the rise of his son Commodus. Although it was poorly received at the time, it's maintained a lot of interest over the years and it does <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fall_of_the_roman_empire/" target="_blank">maintain a 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes</a> (though in fairness it only has 5 reviews posted). <br /><br />The film opens with one of Aurelius' last battles against the Germanic tribes in the forests along the Danube frontier, during which time he indicates his desire to see his throne go to his chosen successor, a little-known protoge who happens to be in love with his daughter Lucilla. Aurelius is poisoned and Commodus ascends the throne, exiling the protoge, which leads to war. Eventually the hero deposes Commodus by dueling him to the death surrounded by a cadre of soldiers, saving Lucilla, but refusing the throne for himself. <br /><br />Wait... have I possibly confused this with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator_%28film%29" target="_blank">another Oscar-winning film</a>?!?! Oh, whew, of course not, silly me! <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(How about some props for my mad googling skills?!?!)<br /><br />Anyway, in THIS version of the story, Marcus Aureilus is played by Alec Guinness, Commodus is played by Christopher Plummer (two reasons that alone make the film worth seeing), and the film also stars Omar Sherif, Sophia Loren (Lucilla), James Mason, and Stephen Boyd as the hero, whose name is Livius. Boyd is mostly famous for playing Massala in Ben Hur.<br /><br />Ironically, the original intent was to cast Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius! He, of course, went on to play Aurelius in Gladiator. Harris took the starring role in <i>This Sporting Life</i> instead, which earned him an Oscar nomination. <br /><br />Boyd was actually offered the role of Antony with Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, but had to turn it down for this part, which turned out to be a huge mistake. The <i>Fall of the Roman Empire</i> flopped, and Richard Burton was nominated for an Oscar for his Antony (Cleopatra received 9 nods and 4 awards). <i>Fall</i> was recognized by the academy only for its musical score.<br /><br />Anyway, the movie has been available for several years on a really poor import DVD, but now it's getting a full star treatement from The Miriam Collection, the Weinstein Company's new video rejuv enterprise, which recently did El Cid. Netflix, unfortunately, only carries the old version, but it is already listed at Amazon for only 18 bucks. Not bad.<br /><br />Something to watch for. <p>Here are a couple of YouTube videos related to the film. The first one is a 7-minute clip that someone placed on YouTube for no apparent reason (good clip, though), and the second is the official theatrical trailer, which runs about 4 minutes.</p> <p> </object></p> <p> </object></p> </article> <article> <h1>Jack Nicholson's Hillary Ad</h1> <p>Pat — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:13:00 GMT</p> <p>I got a kick out of this just as a movie fan. </p> <p> </object></p> </article> <article> <h1>3d-like head tracking with a Wii controller</h1> <p>Pat — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:39:00 GMT</p> <p>Cool video. I'd love to see a game take advantage of this.</p> <p> </object></p> </article> <article> <h1>Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!</h1> <p>Pat — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:52:00 GMT</p> <p>Strange fascination, fascinating me!<br /><br /> </object></p> </article> <article> <h1>Roy Scheider</h1> <p>Pat — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:36:00 GMT</p> <p>Roy Scheider died Sunday. </p> <p></p> <p>He was a great actor. Jaws wasn't my favorite film with him, actually. The main roles I remember him for are (envelope please?): </p> <p>1) Gene Hackman's sidekick in The French Connection -- a sadly overlooked classic these days (which still has one of the <a class="" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Z9whoQfyw&feature=related">best chase scenes</a> ever filmed). (Don't laugh, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for that role, losing to Ben Johnson from The Last Picture Show.) </p> <p>2) His powerful delivery of scientific logic and reason as Dr. Heywood Floyd in 2010 (a movie I liked in spite of all the criticisms, and I note for the record that it still scores 65% on the Rotten Tomatometer!).</p> <p>3) Bob Fosse in All That Jazz. Another oft-overlooked film that really had some great bits in it, and was more or less rescued by a classic off-character performance by Scheider. (He got his second Oscar nom for this one, losing to Dustin Hoffman for Kramer vs Kramer.) </p> <p>I also often think of him in The Seven-Ups (<a class="" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg4QtYizPKM">another classic car chase!</a>), and as Jane Fonda's pimp in Klute, while trying to forget Blue Thunder and SeaQuest (sigh). Although Scheider was always seen as a method actor, known for grity realism and a down-to-earth nature, he was really a top-notch performer, and his gradual (but not complete) withdrawl from acting has always been seen as something of a Hollywood mystery. </p> <p>He did return as a kind of 'elder statesman' (playing father roles) late in his career, and more recently actually returned to starring features, with two currently in post-production. Iron Cross is the one that will probably garner the most attention, since he is in the starring role, ironically as a retired New York City cop.</p> <p>He will be missed.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Then and Now</h1> <p>Pat — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 03:25:00 GMT</p> <p>Question: What does the very first issue of Consumer Reports, issued in 1936, have in common with the current issue, 71 years later?</p> <p>Answer: Both issues warned of the dangers of lead in paint.</p> <p>Kind of a sad statement about the irrelevence of consumer awareness of public safety issues, if you ask me.</p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>The Michael Vick Chew Toy</h1> <p>Pat — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:44:00 GMT</p> <p>The perfect Christmas present for your furry friends! </p> <p></p> <p><a href="http://www.vickdogchewtoy.com/">http://www.vickdogchewtoy.com/</a></p> </article> <article> <h1>The Concert</h1> <p>Pat — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 05:07:00 GMT</p> <p></p> <p>By all accounts Led Zep's concert last night, the first in 27 years, was amazing. Rolling Stone's David Fricke has an article on it here:</p> <p><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17601364/led_zeppelin_the_full_report_from_david_fricke">http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17601364/led_zeppelin_the_full_report_from_david_fricke</a></p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Chimps Have Better Short-Term Memory Than Humans?</h1> <p>Pat — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:11:00 GMT</p> <p>Fascinating story about some Japanese researchers who took the usual chimpanzee recognition tests to a slightly higher level. Watch what happens about halfway through the video. Wow.</p> <p> </object></p> </article> <article> <h1>Perfume: The Story of a Murderer</h1> <p>Pat — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 06:31:00 GMT</p> <p> </p> <p>I put this one off for ages because from the previews I thought it was "Chocolat 2.0" -- a boring "chick flick" for sure. Holy cow was THAT wrong. In fact it almost defies description, but the closest I can come is <b>"American Psycho" meets "The Princess Bride"</b> -- yes, it is THAT twisted. <br /><br />And that ending! Oh my god! <br /><br />From Roger Ebert's 4-star review:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>"Why I love this story, I do not know. Why I have read the book twice and given away a dozen copies of the audiobook, I cannot explain. There is nothing fun about the story, except the way it ventures so fearlessly down one limited, terrifying, seductive dead end, and finds there a solution both sublime and horrifying. It took imagination to tell it, courage to film it, thought to act it, and from the audience it requires a brave curiosity about the peculiarity of obsession." </em></p></blockquote> <p>The book actually dates back to the 1980s, and Kurt Cobain called it one of his favorite books, and Nirvana did a song about it. Stanley Kubrick once called it "unfilmable", but he was wrong -- it works very well. </p> <p>See this movie. It is just freaking insane. </p> </article> <article> <h1>Carlin says fire victims deserved it</h1> <p>Pat — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:50:00 GMT</p> <p>Link includes video: <br /><a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20153859,00.html">http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20153859,00.html</a></p> <blockquote> <p>"People are selfish," he said. "These people with the fires and the floods and everything, they overbuild and they put nature to the test, <strong>and they get what's coming to them</strong>, that's what I say." </p></blockquote> <p>At least seven people are DEAD because of those fires. This was on one of the most popular daytime television programs in the country. What an idiot.</p> <p>Can you imagine the furor if he had said that about Hurricane Katrina victims, who "chose" to live below the flood plain?</p> </article> <article> <h1>Cobert (ColBERT?) on Meet the Press</h1> <p>Pat — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:36:00 GMT</p> <p>Hillarious. </p> <p> </object></p> <p>Part two may be found by clicking <a class="" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JbBFNCRp1A">here</a>. </p> </article> <article> <h1>__\o/__: 1, ___/\___: 0</h1> <p>Pat — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 01:44:00 GMT</p> <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10470196">http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10470196</a> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>The Wilhelm Scream</h1> <p>Pat — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:04:00 GMT</p> <p>I haven't done a new scene deconstruction in a while (I'm working on a couple but haven't had much time), so here's something movie-related to tide us over. It's a little video tribute to the infamous "Wilhelm scream", used in virtually every action flick. </p> <p> </object></p> </article> </main></body></html>