Cuz We Said So

Happy Birthday, America!

(Picture by BL1961)

Air NZ Staff Deliver Safety Video Wearing Only Body Paint

From Stuff.co.nz (via @GuyKawasaki); "The airline has decided to expand its use of body painted staff from advertisements to the in-flight safety video used on 737 domestic flights. It hopes to catch the attention of travelers ...who often ignore the safety video despite being told they need to watch it even if they are frequent customers."

Some Nice PowerPoint Templates

I ran across these this morning while searching for something for a client.  They are free for personal use (though if find yourself using PowerPoint a lot in your personal life, you have my deepest sympathies).  There are some nice designs here.

"The Girlfriend Experience"

Talk about counterprogamming.  In the middle of a summer filled with giant robots and time travelling Vulcans comes a Steven Soderbergh film about the life of a high class call girl.  This is the very definition of a "small" film.  There are no stars (unless you count the lead, Sasha Grey, who is a porn star) and there's very little in the way of production value on the screen.  I think the permits to shoot in Soho (shout out!) probably cost more than the salaries of the entire cast.

But small doesn't mean bad.  Soderbergh does an interesting thing with the editing, switching around between a number of scenes that the girl (Chelsea) is in: talking to a fellow escort, talking to a journalist, talking to her longtime boyfriend, talking to her new john that she starts to fall for.  Her performance is pretty good.  The story implies that she's got a wall up around her at all times, so she seems pretty flat most of the time.  She has a couple of acting scenes (laughing, crying, etc) which work fairly well.  But I'm not holding my breath for a cross-over acting career.

What was kind of surprising (though not in retrospect) is how unsexy the film is.  Even the scenes of sensuality have a kind of plastic coating over them.  It's obvious that Chelsea's "interest" is feigned, and that her clients (except for one memorable guy at the end) see her as a commodity, not a person.

The best scene is one in which Chelsea visits a "sex connoisseur" who offers her an excellent review on his website in exchange for some free sex.  This guy was the most wonderfully unlikeable character I've seen on film in years.  Take this line that comes during his proposal to take Chelsea on a working excursion to Dubai: "The best thing about it is that it sounds like white slavery... but it's not."

All in all, it's a pretty interesting film, and not nearly as seedy as the premise (or the casting) might indicate.

Summer '09 - Blockbuster #7 - "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

Here's a refrain that anyone who reads my reviews might recognize: this film was okay, but not as good at its predecessor.  If you don't like big, dumb blockbusters, or if you saw "Transformers" and didn't like it, do not see this one.  In fact, I can't recommend it at all.  It kind of blows.  (But not nearly as much as the other critics think.)

First, the good.  Strangely, I really liked Josh Duhamel's military guy in this one.  He seemed kind of flat in the first film, but he's much better here.  That's the main improvement, as far as I can tell.  There's one really amazing battle sequence in the middle of the film where Optimus has to fight off three Decepticons.  That one raised the bar... which the film never seemed to live up to for the balance of the two-and-a-half hour running time.

Basically, Michael Bay decided to multiply everything about this film.  Some of the increases were okay, but most were just annoying.  I liked the fact that there were more robots to follow, but at some point it just got confusing trying to keep track of them.  There're more action sequences, which is great, and they're bigger, which is also great.  But they're also more disjointed and meandering.  He also greatly increased the danger to humanity in this one compared to the first film... but it seemed strangely tacked on and uninvolving.  I'll go into a little more detail about that in the next section, where I'll be spoiling some of the "plot" points.

Summer '09 - Blockbuster #6 - "The Taking of Pelham 123"

This one I really liked.  Yes, I have a fondness for these kinds of Die-Hard-like films, but I think this example of the genre has a lot of things to recommend it that put it a notch above the average heist-hostage flick.

John Travolta's character takes over a single subway car and then proceeds to send his orders for monetary payment to the transit authority.  Denzel Washington is the guy unlucky enough to answer the call.  The main fun about the movie is the conversations these two guys have.  They're both brilliant, but in very different ways.  Washington is a quick-thinking, logical, pragmatic multi-tasker.  Travolta is a fly-the-the-seat-of-his-pants genius.  Both performances are great, but Travolta gets extra points in my book for making it clear that his character is actually a little bit crazy, while he pretends to be much crazier.

The supporting cast (John Turturro as an FBI agent, James Gandolfini as the Mayor of New York) are good, too.  The action is enjoyable, and the ending is really quite good.  This isn't the best film of the summer (that one had a few more Vulcans in it) but it's definitely a candidate for second place.

Summer '09 - Blockbuster #5 - "Terminator Salvation"

Wow, did the critics hate this one.  I'm not going to be putting it on any Top Ten lists, but I'm also not putting it on any Bottom Ten lists.  So, pretty good, not nearly great is my short review.  For details (and spoilers) read on...

David on Twitter Today

• 22:40 's ct resting hed on keybord. Mking it difficult to type words with leftmost letter in them #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Unique Ice Cream Flavors

And by "unique" I think they may mean "horrifying."

Observe, Interpret, and Intervene

How to make decisions outside of your core competencies in BusinessWeek.  “When faced with a new challenge, forget about acting fast. Instead start a three-step process to formulate the best solution.”  As an NT, of course, I love this idea.  Via Lifehacker.

Coppertone Sport SPF 50: Miracle of Modern Science

In the Florida sun for hours on end yesterday; with no sunburn at all.  Those of you who know how pale my skin is will realize just how impressive this is.

links for 2009-06-13

• Results for Zagat's 2009 Fast-Food Survey are Up
  Cheesecake Factory did well in several categories. Also, the winner for best fast food burger is not a surprise to me. A pity there are those of you who haven't had the pleasure.

links for 2009-06-12

• The next great crisis: America's debt
  Including a chart that's rather harrowing. "At this rate, your share of the load will be $155,000 in a decade. How chronic deficits are putting the country on a path to fiscal collapse."

Should A Dome Cover Houston?

Well first, let me answer that for you.  YES! 

Those people who know me well know I am not a fan of Houston weather, though I’ve lived here off and on for many years.  I hate… and I mean hate the heat.  The humidity is worse.  I’ve joked more than once that I’d welcome summer in Houston as soon as somebody stuck a dome over it and fired up some air conditioning.

You know, though, guys… I was actually just joking. 

KPRC 2 Houston:

It seems like an idea from science fiction, a comic book, or even The Simpsons movie -- a 21 million-square-foot dome encompassing a city and insulating it from hurricanes, humidity, and heat. The Discovery Channel program Mega Engineering recently explored the possibility of a dome that would stretch out over downtown. It would be made out of Ethylene Tetrofluoro-ethylene or ETFE -- a light, durable material that withstand winds up to 180 mph, which is well above the speed for a Category 5 hurricane. …Air vents would regulate the temperature and massive doors would allow transportation in and out of the structure.

Bottom line: possible, but probably not for another fifty years.  Crap!

Summer '09 - Blockbuster #4 - "Night at the Museum: BOTS"

I was a fan of the first film in this series.  It was an enjoyable combination of nifty special effects, a sweet story, and Ben Stiller shifting into family-friendly territory with his comedy.  I mean, I loved "Dodgeball", and I loved "Tropic Thunder".  But he's good when he's not edgy, too.

This looked like it was going to be enormously enjoyable from the trailers.  The magical tablet that brought the New York museum to life gets transported to the Smithsonian in Washington; hijinks ensue.

The problem is that there are so many characters to return to, and they have so many new ones to introduce that everyone gets short shrift.  Robin Williams's Teddy Roosevelt is reduced to little more than a cameo.  Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan (as the tiny little cowboy and centurion figurines) have a couple of good scenes.  Sacajawea has almost nothing to do.  Bill Hader and Christopher Guest are funny, but their characters (George Custer and Ivan the Terrible) are barely sketched out.  The second best new character is Hank Azaria's evil Egyptian Pharoah wannabe.  His effete lisp is hilarious.

The best new character is Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart.  She's feisty, just like you imagine Earhart would probably be, which is an excellent excuse for her to tag along with Ben Stiller as he tries to sort everything out and save the day.

I had fun, particularly when the artwork came to life.  (Loved the dancing Koons dog.)  But the film didn't really have the magic of the first. 

But, in its favor, it did have Clint Howard in a fantastic cameo.

Summer '09 - Blockbuster #3 - "Angels & Demons"

First off, I was a big fan of the film "The DaVinci Code".  Yes, "DaVinci" isn't really the guy's name.  Yes, it presupposes a relatively wild conspiracy theory about Christ.  Yes, Tom Hank's hair was kind of crazy.  But I really liked the movie and I really liked Hanks's performance.  Of course, I really hated the book on which it was based.  Yee-ikes, was it bad.

Now, the previous book in the Robert Langdon series, "Angels & Demons" was of a similar stripe: Langdon uses his encyclopedic knowledge of history and symbology to thwart a mysterious bad guy intent on bad-guy things.  But that novel felt more real, somewhat more believable, and had a truly awesome ending.  So, I had very high hopes for this film.  If this movie could be as much of an improvement over the last film as the the book version of A&D was over DVC, it would be amazing.

Sadly, it's not that amazing.  It's a fun romp through Rome, with some nifty characters and nifty performances.  Ewan McGregor does a nice turn as a Vatican City official.  Stellan Skarsgård is his usual prickly self as the head of Vatican security.  (And he dies.  Skarsgård always dies.)  The story is interesting: a canister of antimatter is stolen from CERN and has been set to blow up the Vatican precisely when the cardinals are selecting a new pope.  They even tied in the previous film nicely; the Vatican officials realize they need Langdon's help to avert disaster, but they're wary of him for revealing their big secret about Christ.

Sadly, the film never really takes off.  It's one dependably directed (by Ron Howard) scene after another.  It's Hanks doing his grim thinker routine.  But it's never really that exciting.  I'll admit, the ending was everything I'd hoped for, but the rest of the film was merely good, not the great I'd hoped for.

links for 2009-06-10

• The Beginning of the End of Private Health Insurance
  Subtitle: "How Obama's public health insurance option will quickly evolve into the only option"

Can software make older drivers sharper?

Maybe… but I don’t think we know yet.  SFGate:

Earlier this year, a car ran a red light at an intersection in Pittsburgh and narrowly missed smashing into the driver's side of W. Larocca's car.

Larocca, 57, was able to stop in time. He believes what saved him was the 40 minutes a day he spent using brain fitness software that supposedly improves reaction time and peripheral vision.

The program was part of an experiment run by Allstate Insurance and Posit Science, a San Francisco software startup.

"I was thinking it was just like the (software) game," he said, remembering his near-miss. "I was looking straight ahead - I didn't expect this car on the left. I can't prove it, but I'm 100 percent convinced that if I hadn't taken the course, I would have been hit."

…Although it's not clear how effective these programs are, interest is growing in this type of software, which is evolving rapidly. Some firms are attracting venture capital. USA Hockey last year signed a partnership to develop brain fitness software for its players, and the Army is using it to screen soldiers before they're deployed.

The article’s headline is actually “Software designed to make older drivers sharper.”  The emphasis in the headline should really be on “designed to”, because we don’t know yet (at least, from the information provided in the article) whether the software works.  It would appear there is more work to do on the science before we can draw conclusions.  I am always of two minds when I see a report like this, on research for which results are not yet available.  On one hand, it is interesting that such studies are underway, and it would be of great benefit if it turns out such software can be effective.  On the other hand, I suspect there are a great many people who will see this article who don’t have much grounding in how scientific research works.  How many people will reach the headline, not read the article, and think “huh, they have software now that can make older driver’s sharper!”  How long before there are unscrupulous entrepreneurs out there selling software that claims to do this very thing?  Indeed, while I have not investigated, I would not be surprised to learn such software is already out there.  (I am assuming, though I don’t know for sure, that the popular games out there along these lines are clearly identified as games, and make no medical claims, in which case I would not count those as unscrupulous.)

links for 2009-06-08

• Health Care Reform: No Silver Bullet for the Budget
  The New America foundation's Maya MacGuineas argues that most health-care inflation is the result of new technologies, that the Obama Administration's reform ideas will be both expensive and ineffective, and that health-care reform must be an incremental process.
• This Just In: Crunch Berries Not a Fruit, Judge Rules
  I'm glad this question for the ages is finally resolved. I'm also glad to see that at least some of the time, the legal standard for "reasonable person" still means what I think it means.

David Eddings, RIP

Fantasy novelist David Eddings died yesterday in Carson City, Arizona at the age of 77.  

Eddings is best known for The Belgariad series, the first installment of which, The Pawn of Prophecy (1982), prompted Lester del Rey to tell him, "You've written a classic." The series introduced many to fantasy, and inspired some to write themselves (including Stephen Hunt, whose tribute to Eddings is here). Eddings was himself inspired by the success of The Lord of the Rings, which he was startled to discover was in its 78th printing when he encountered a display copy in a bookstore.

When asked in a recent interview what made his books so successful, Eddings replied with the same answer many of his fans would give: "Characters. My people are as real as I can make them."

I don’t read as much fiction these days, but Eddings has been one of my favorite authors since I discovered him back in college.  Sorry to see him go.