Since I live in the U.S. I just *now* heard of this movie. Apparently it's been wildly popular just about everywhere else in the soccer-loving world: Bend it Like Beckman. I WANT a copy of this!! But it doesn't seem to be out here in the U.S. yet. (At least it's not available as DVD on Amazon.com yet.) Hell, I just love the poster!

I stumbled across this excellent article about the intersection of women, citizenship and the end of poverty today. The opening lines are intriguing enough:

One day in the early 1990s a friend of mine - a long-term servant of the United Nations - bluntly remarked, "It is better, Hilkka, that you keep quiet about the Nordic welfare society. It is such a luxury of the rich, the poor countries cannot even dream about it."

This remark annoyed me immensely. Intuitively I felt that it was not true, but I did not have a good answer. So I began to study the history of emerging wealth in Finland and the other Nordic countries. These countries are located far to the North in a harsh climate where nature does not permit more than one harvest a year. Furthermore, the Nordic countries never had colonies, from which most of the world's other rich countries have extracted wealth for centuries. Yet, according to the United Nations, the Nordics are among the world's wealthiest and most equal and democratic countries.

Finland has gone from being a poor country early in the 20th century to ranking tenth in the world in life expectancy, education, and income.

Check it out.

An extensive site about the damage to Iraq's National Museum and other cutural resources: The 2003 Iraq War and Archaeology.

This was kinda nifty: 3D Photos of Churches & Cathedrals in Finland

Unfortunately I don't have any of those silly 3D paper glasses handy. I wonder if I could make one?

Jeff noticed a discussion on Slashdot about a NYTimes article regarding the vocal fans of the TiVo device.

The article itself is interesting, but also downright annoying. The tone of the article and the portrait it paints is almost EXACTLY like what magazines and newspapers did with regards to email and the Internet back in the very early 90's.

There's the "suspicion" factor. The article talks about "giving up privacy" and lets you assume that the service will know exactly what YOU are watching. The suggestions work the same way Amazon.com's "other people who purchased this book also purchased" suggestions work, and your "viewing habits" are just as anonymously demographic. TiVo doesn't know that Fazia Rizvi watches X, Y and Z. The service knows that in the central Texas region, men and women aged 20-35 who watch Alton Brown's Good Eats also watch West Wing, but not Emeril Live. You are not you, you are a demographic. And by NOW people should be used to this. After-all, it's been going on for decades.

Then there is the "fans are in the minority of society and therefore are cult-like" factor. I'm almost certain - judging from my past experience being the subject of interviews for things like the Internet or the DDEB - that a lot of the folks quotes were taken out of context to enforce the "these people are weird" spin the article has. Been there, had that done to me. I can tell from the quotes that these are indeed enthusiastic TiVo fans, but there are only choice quotes used that support the "ew, ick" spin of the article.

Then there was the "but freedom comes at a price" bit. The prices given are less expensive than the first VCRs were and the service cost is less than what most people pay for internet access or cable. It seemed like a bit of a stretch, but again, it feeds into that "these people are not like us normal people" spin.

And of course there's the side-ways hint that the TiVo watcher (like the Internet user) will be socially stunted because of the use:

Mr. Rothenberg said that subscribing to TiVo had had an unintended effect. By skipping ads and filling his viewing time with documentaries and shows about gardening rather than the regularly scheduled fare, he took himself "outside of culture," he said. When friends joked about the ubiquitous Budweiser "Wazzup?" advertising campaign a couple of years back, Mr. Rothenberg said, he had no idea what they were talking about.

Okay, so I have no clue what's going on with The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, The Hermit, The Six Midgets and a Wacky Maiden or whatever the hell else stupid reality show is now the big thing in American pop culture. Boo-hoo. If this means I'm socially crippled for life, I deal.

And of course they over and over again talked about "binges" and "marathons" of sitcoms etc. (Sorta like they'd point out an early Internet user's Star Trek fan identity.) There's no mention of watching several "This Old House" in a row to get the feel of a project. Or mentions of season's passes to travel shows, documentaries, Masterpiece Theater, cooking shows or anything that might hint of learning or more high-brow viewing habits.

At least it got this right:

So why do TiVo owners feel the need to tell everyone about it? Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor at New York University's interactive telecommunications program, said it might have to do with the nature of the medium. "People watch a lot of TV, so anything that has an even slightly positive effect on it is disproportionately important to peoples' lives," he said.

There's another theory -- that there is something thrilling about being unshackled, at least partly, from a device that for years has had people at its mercy. Skipping ads and thumbing your nose at the scheduling structure imposed by corporate broadcasters feels, if not exactly revolutionary, at least titillating.

"There seems to be something slightly illicit about it," said Michael Crowley, an associate editor at The New Republic who has written about his relationship with his TiVo. "You feel like you're working the system. You're in on a racket, and a racket is something you like to brag about."

As for me? I'll just roll my eyes at this kind of reporting. I've seen it before and they were as much idiots then as they are now.

Most ancient DNA ever?
The oldest ever DNA has been found preserved in ice in Siberia. The record-breaking samples are from plants which lived there 400,000 years ago.

'Earliest writing' found in China
Signs carved into 8,600-year-old tortoise shells found in China may be the earliest written words, say archaeologists. The symbols were written down in the late Stone Age, or Neolithic Age. They predate the earliest recorded writings from Mesopotamia - in what is now Iraq - by more than 2,000 years. The archaeologists say they bear similarities to written characters used thousands of years later during the Shang dynasty, which lasted from 1700-1100 BC.

Printable version
<Prev | Next>

	November 2008October 2008August 2008April 2008March 2008February 2008January 2008November 2007October 2007September 2007August 2007July 2007June 2007May 2007April 2007March 2007January 2007December 2006November 2006October 2006September 2006August 2006June 2006April 2006March 2006February 2006January 2006December 2005November 2005October 2005September 2005August 2005July 2005June 2005May 2005April 2005March 2005February 2005January 2005December 2004November 2004October 2004September 2004August 2004July 2004June 2004May 2004April 2004March 2004February 2004January 2004December 2003November 2003October 2003September 2003August 2003July 2003June 2003May 2003April 2003March 2003February 2003January 2003December 2002November 2002October 2002September 2002August 2002July 2002
			1	2	3	4	5
	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
	20	21	22	23	24	25	26
	27	28	29	30