"Elephant", Ebert review

"Elephant", Ebert review

"Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that. 
The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. "Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous.
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The wrong statistics

Once in a cafe I put too much sugar in my coffee, because it was weaker than the coffee at my usual hangouts. I went up and asked the waitress for a bit more coffee on top. I didn't want to insult her coffee, so I said: "I put in too much sugar. I based my estimate on the wrong statistics".

Camera Cozy

Camera cozy, article/photos.

I know you'd never have guessed it was made by a woman, but it is! And she says she stuffs a hand-warmer in by the batteries, and in that case I can believe it does do some good. Though I may have preferred a simple black one for myself.
But there's a lot of charm to this light-hearted feminine approach, can't not love that.

Animusic II

Animusic 2.0, quite cool.

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Excepting the FB ads. And yesterday I wanted to vote for a charity, but it turned out I had to be a facebook member, *and* I had to sign up for something else too, to vote. Facebook is taking over, it's like the triumph of the lowest common denominator. 

Another cheetah

Kirk found this video showing a close encounter with a cheetah in a safari park. It's a bit long, but pretty extraordinary.

Google in the old days

Google in oldie-timey computing.

Very funny. I imagine it must be doubly funny for people who have experienced such machines.

Here's an image search:

Man Of Zeal

Despite my high doubts about the new grey costume (which they hide well here, maybe they have doubts too), I must admit the Man Of Steel trailer is very seductive. Let's hope the film lives up to it.

It's funny how, every time it's been more than a couple of years since the last film with a superhero, they restart the whole story with origin and everything.

Catwoman Anne

Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, hubba-hubba.
How do women *do* that? I couldn't get my knee to my shoulder if you paid me a million, and I never could, even when I was young and slim.

Anne's producer said: "She did the most amazing stunt work. And she did it backwards and in high heels."

The above is a reference, "remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, and she did it backwards and in high heels."
Both of them pretty dang outstanding accomplishments.  I don't get how they even *walk* in stiletto heels, much less dance or kung-fu fight.

Danish statue xmas

(Clickable)

Tine N took this great foto of Christmas spirit in Copenhagen. Thanks to her brother, my old friend Morten.
To my disbelief and great amusement, I was not sure where it is located, only to be told it is like fifty meters from where I lived for three years in the early eighties! Good grief. I guess I was too focused on my own path to look much at my immediate surroundings.
Charlie Brown to Snoopy: "Always about food. You dogs have a one-track mind."
Snoopy: "I prefer to think of it as singleness of purpose."

Alice Thomas Ellis quote

There is no reciprocity. Men love women, women love children, children love hamsters. -- Alice Thomas Ellis

Celebrations!

It's funny, people have days celebrating when an area was united with another area. And they also have days celebrating when an area was separated from another area.



I'm reminded of two neighbors I knew. They lived in one of those streets with all the same type of house erected at the same time. My friends took out the glass panels next to the door and put in wood panels. Their neighbor had done that ages ago, but around this same time, they put glass panels back in again. Both parties regarded it as a nice step forward!
(Thanks to Martin for the story, it was his parents.)

Cindy Lora-Renard

I'm not a big fan of "spiritual" music, at least not the most new-agey kind, it tends to be kind of limp. But Cindy Lora-Renard has some really lovely melodies.

Summer & Smoke

(Her songs are available via Amazon, CD Baby, or iTunes.)

The War on Superman’s Underpants

[Thanks to Umbra]

The War on Superman’s Underpants, article.

When creating - and outfitting - the first superhero, Shuster was starting from scratch, and the closest version to what he had in mind was circus strongmen. This makes sense to me. Of, course, the modern argument against super-briefs is that old-time-y strongmen don't exist anymore, and today no one knows what they looked like or why superheroes are dressed like them. So take off those knickers, right?
I say thee nay!

I agree. If for no other reason than they have not yet managed to make a new-age costume which does not look silly or ugly. The latter applies in my mind to what's apparently the costume in the next Superman movie, ugh:

Much as I often favor grey as an artist, for the neutrality, on a superhero costume, it really does not work.  At least not on one like Superman, whose very essence, due to his invulnerability and his symbolism of Hope, is meant to be as flashy as possible.

Admittedly it is very difficult to make the comic book costumes translate well to the higher reality of movies. I don't think they really have found the formula yet. Batman perhaps comes closest (I just watched Dark Knight Rises, good one), though I think they tend to over-complicate them.

This Contact Lens Puts a Display Right On Your Eye

This Contact Lens Puts a Display Right On Your Eye, article.

OK, this I don't get. 'Cuz the eye can't focus on its own surface. Hold text a foot from your eye, you can probably read it. Hold it a couple inches from your eye, you probably can't. Hold it a millimetre from your eye, and you really can't read it.

One solution would be if there were a super-tiny projector to actually project onto the retina with micro-laser beams (somehow taking the light-bending of the lens into consideration). But such compact technology is at least a couple decades away, I'd think.