To Be Continued

Hello, anyone out there in blog-reading land that might actually be keeping up with these.

You're very likely confused that there was no topic post on Sunday, nor is there a 9 AM post with actual content for today.  After a bit of discussion among some of our regular contributors, it appears that we're going to put our blog on a short hiatus.  None (well... not many) of us are superhuman, and other things in life (particularly school) need to take priority.

There's no real established timetable as to when our blog will make a return, though I'd imagine the likely possibilities exist around the notable breaks in school.  That being said, if anything changes, I'm sure we'll post an update, so feel free to click back every once in a while to see what's going on.

On behalf of all of our contributors, both regular and occasional, thanks for reading so far, and we hope to see you back again when we resume this.

2040 Is Not Very Far Off

As mentioned in a previous posts, overly sensational titles bug me. That's exactly what this article has, and that's what drew my attention to it. "You won't need a driver's license by 2040." I was half-expecting to read an article about microchipping people or something else to render the license obsolete as a means of providing identification, but... yeah. I was off on that guess, but the resulting article ended up being far more interesting.

The focus of this article is on the idea of self-driving cars and how they're finally starting to become a realistic technological possibility. The most interesting idea that it considered, which had never occurred to me, was the idea of how this could reduce traffic. If we could convert to driverless cars, suddenly the entire idea of an asshole driver disappears. Instead of having to determine the most efficient route to a location given traffic, you can have your car controlled by a centralized hub that could route traffic to be much more evenly distributed than usual.

While the idea of taking one's own hands off the wheel may be unnerving, I think that the possible impact this could have on transportation would be completely worth it.

Pretty Roman Pictures

So this week's article is archeology-based.  It is about a mosaic that was found under a farmer's field in Turkey.  Now, I am not really sure how you can grow a field over a tile mosaic.  Or, more importantly, why you would want to.  Roman mosaics are so pretty that it seems a shame to cover one up with grass and crops.  This mosaic was from the 3rd or 4th century, too!  That's a really long time for a mosaic to stay in as good a condition as they found it in, especially if there were roots growing down from the plants above.  Anyway, I just thought that the article was cool, since you generally don't think about still finding mosaics unless you go out on an archeological dig to specifically look for signs of a civilization.

Happy Belated Constitution Day!

For anyone who doesn't know, yesterday (Sept. 17) marked the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.  (I personally have Facebook to thank for the reminder, because whoever printed my calendar decided to leave this holiday out).  Anyway, I'd like to urge anyone out there to use the time they would have spent reading the novel-length posts that I usually write, and instead go and either read the Constitution if you're not familiar with it or just reflect on it.  Or if you're in a pinch for time, you should look up the School House Rock version of the Preamble, which I think is pretty darn cool and informative.  

All cats are worth having around.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/world/2012/09/16/mabuse-eco-leopard-skins.cnn

There's a guy in South Africa trying to sell artificial leopard skin clothing to religious tribes, in an attempt to help preserve the leopard population.  While it's not uncommon for people (particularly in other countries and cultures) to use animals and their pelts for attire, there comes a point where the desire for said pelts has to be weighed against the longevity of the animal.  Even more troubling is the fact that the laws concerning the wearing and trading/selling of leopard pelts are apparently being flaunted and nothing is being done about it.

Leopards are pretty.  Let's not kill them.

Week of 9/16 - More Current Events!

Hey all, sorry that this is a bit late. This post is gonna be a quick one.

This week is another one of each of us discussing various things going on in the world today. John'll start tomorrow, and I'll be back on Friday. Enjoy!

The Problem is I Don't Watch Enough Movies

The favorite television show was easy. My favorite movies, not so much. I'm not just not as interested in movies as I am TV, because the spans are shorter and often times I feel the good ones are all slightly depressing and therefore do not feel like watching again. I can say a couple of the movies I have just seen and currently enjoy and I suppose I do have a favorite movie, which I can state below.

I am an anime fan, so whenever I think of my favorite movies, my mind goes to Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, my favorite of which is Princess Mononoke. His films did gain traction after Spirited Away earned so many awards, and I think his films are therefore not as unknown as they could be. I can easily say I am a fan of all of his work.

But really, I barely go to the movies. I have long list of television shows I want to watch, and those always come before my desire to watch a Redbox or OnDemand movie, although I will set aside time to watch the cheap actions flicks. The Die Hard trilogy is a good set of fun, and the first Iron Man movie still probably stands my favorite so far of the Avengers flicks.

I did watch The Grey recently, the one staring Liam Neeson. That was a pretty violent movie, especially in the beginning, but all who say it could be like the "Jaws" for wolves do not get the way the movie portrayed the animals. Perhaps it wasn't at all how wolves act in real life, but I can away with respect for them. I actually liked the wolves and the way their relationship with the people moved throughout the film. It was unexpectantly good, but as I mentioned in my first lines, it is one of those emotionally draining movies that you do not want to see twice - at least for a while.

I suppose I am going to stick this under movies, just cause it was one of those long TV miniseries - Dinotopia. It's my guilty pleasure, apparently not as interesting to some of the people I know as I find it, but there are dinosaurs and I enjoy the storyline and its characters. It comes to almost four hours long, so it makes a good movie/mini series to watch on a long car ride.

Considering I have things to get ready to go to, I shall leave it at that. I hope maybe some of that was interesting to you.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Films

I had to make some tough decisions when abridging this list of my favorite movies, because there are so many really good movies that I would love to recommend.  But, in the interest of not making this post super-duper long, I’ve only included my absolute favorites.

You’ve Got Mail

This movie happens to be my favorite rom-com of all time.  Period.  Even though I own the DVD, I always have to stop and watch this movie whenever I see it as I’m flipping through the channels.  The chemistry between the characters and the setting is fantastic, the dialogue is great, and the storyline is so sweet and charming.  It’s just one of those movies that you watch and always end up with a smile on your face by the time the credits start to roll.  

Driving Miss Daisy

This is one of the sweetest movies I’ve ever seen, and not sweet in a sugary, toothachy way, but sweet as in just plain good for the soul.  This movie is another example of what good writing, good actors, and good chemistry can accomplish.  Plus, the musical score is really, really nifty.  (Semi-spoiler alert) My favorite thing about this movie is the simplicity of the final scene and how it explains so much about the relationship that those two characters had built over the years.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

This film happens to be my favorite Disney movie!  I remember how much I loved the gargoyles and the music from when I was younger, but watching this movie again years later really brought this film to a new level and solidified it amongst my list of all-time favorites.

Amadeus

Whoever knew that the guy who voiced Quasimodo was also Mozart? My Classical and Romantic music class watched this film last year, and it has since become one of my favorite movies.  Even if you’re not a fan of Mozart’s music, the storyline is quite interesting, albeit not entirely historically accurate. 

The Sound of Music

Makes me want to go frolic and sing in the hills of Austria.  I always have watch the entre ‘act, because I love seeing all of the pretty shots of gorgeous Austria.  This movie is such a classic. 

West Side Story

Even though this movie is a mere shell of what the stage musical is, I still love it.  Score wise, this is probably one of my favorite musicals of all time.  I remember watching this movie for the first time and being shocked when the gang members started dancing ballet, which I thought turned out to be kinda different and cool, no pun intended.

Schaffner’s Planet of the Apes

Even though I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, I really enjoyed this movie.  I remember years and years ago the first time I saw this movie, and the ending really stuck with me for a while in a way that not many movie endings do.

Waterloo Bridge

With Robert Taylor and Vivian Leigh.  I’ve cried during tragic movies before, but this one affected me differently than any other movie ever has and I’m not sure why.  I’ve included this film on my list of favorites, because I have never seen another movie that touches on the areas of love and humanity that this movie does. 

Gone With the Wind

All I can say is, of all the movies I’ve ever seen this one is my favorite by far.    

Like moving pictures in my head, for years and years they've played

I'm not a big movie person.  I never really have been.  I got novelizations of movies while I was growing up, because my parents wanted to stress the importance of reading over watching a series of pictures on a screen.  To this day, I have bookshelves full of movies that I haven't watched, and probably never will.  That being said, I'll just list off a few of my favorites... well, the ones that come immediately to mind, anyway.

Battle Royale by Koshun Takami - I think I may have mentioned this back in the "favorite books" week. ... Yep, I did.  There's a live-action movie along the same lines (and a sequel, too, which isn't as good, sadly).  Again, if you like The Hunger Games, you'll probably like this.  ... It's just a lot more violent and bloodier.

Knight and Day - I'm a decent fan of Tom Cruise.  I've enjoyed most of the movies that I've seen where he's had a significant role.  This is the most recent movie with him in it that I've seen, and I thought it was enjoyable.  Kind of like a romcom mixed with a James Bond movie.  My only real complaint with it is the main character's name.  "Roy".  ... I just don't feel like that a strong name for a badass-but-ultimately-tender good guy.  I dunno.

8 Mile - Again, mentioned in weeks past, I'm an Eminem fan -- but the mere fact that he's the starring role in this movie isn't why I like it.  I like it because it feels like a very real, honest story about someone who has a shitty life and wants desperately to get out of it, but finds himself having trouble taking that leap of faith.  It's a good story and I really enjoy watching it... and, yeah, I like Eminem too.

Tristan & Isolde - almost like Romeo and Juliet, but set in more modern times (though not as modern as the Leo DiCaprio/Claire Danes Romeo and Juliet).  I like the basic story of Romeo and Juliet a lot, and so this appealed to me right away.  I've only been able to watch it once, however, because the end of the movie left my ex a hysterical, sobbing mess and I never wanted to repeat that.  It was a good movie, though.\

War - Jason Statham and Jet Li are another two actors that I like.  This features both of them in a story of two warring factions and the people caught in the middle of it.  Plenty of twists and turns, a couple of decent fight sequences, and a fairly crazy ending.

Minority Report - Another Tom Cruise movie, about the police using psychics to prevent crime by arresting people before the crime is actually committed.  It's a good, smart story with several clever bits put in, and genuinely likeable characters.  Also, it has fantastically awesome computer-glove-things that I hope are made into reality and sold to the public one day.

Rambo: First Blood - an older movie, but still one I enjoy.  One guy comes home from serving his country in a war and finds himself looked down upon by the general population.  He gets treated like dirt and decides to stand up for himself, and it all escalates into a giant conflict.  It doesn't have a happy ending, but it's still a very real picture of what life was (and is) like for some of our veterans.

And, here are all of the other noteworthy mentions that I felt would be more mainstream (and therefore not in need of explanation):

Star Wars (yes, all six of them)
Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children
X-Men (but NOT X2 or X3)
Mortal Kombat
Avengers
Iron Man
The Karate Kid (1 and 2, not 3 or "next", jury's still out on recent reboot)
The Lawnmower Man

Coming soon, to a DVD player near you...

Movies are an awkward medium for entertainment, in my experience. You have only a couple hours to introduce characters, get people invested in them, setup a compelling plot, and wrap all of that up in a satisfactory manner. I'm not really sure how people do it, honestly. With that, I'm going to start getting into a handful of the more notable movies that I've seen. I'm gonna go ahead and throw in trailers for each of these recommendations, because you know, why not, but I don't think any of them actually do their respective movies justice.

...Okay, I know what you're thinking. Trashy romantic comedy. Well, yeah, a little bit, but Down With Love is a bafflingly engaging movie experience. Everyone I know that's seen it has walked away from it feeling completely and utterly confused at what just happened, but in a good way. Without giving away too much, this movie does a pretty good job of playing with your expectations in a way that isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it has a unique charm to it that I'm not sure many other movies that have come out in the past several years have.

I love horror movies. Well, no, that's not true. I love certain horror movies. A lot of them (The Final Destination series comes to mind) are mostly because they fall into that so bad it's good genre. The Scream franchise is something different, though. A lot like Down With Love, really, it's very self-aware and falls into that stealth parody genre. It highlights terrible horror movie tropes and then immediately turns around and enacts them. With the exception of the third one, which was cheap trash put out to cash in on a brand name, every entry in this series has managed to present an interesting spin on whatever the current trend in horror movies might be. Anyway, all of that aside, I'm highlighting the fourth movie because 1) a lot of people aren't even aware that it exists, making it excellent to recommend to people and 2) it shockingly manages to capture the same kind of energy as the original in a completely different context.

I have a soft spot for musicals. Rent is probably one of the best movie adaptations of a musical that I've seen, and it tells a fairly-predictable, but heartwarming story of a group of starving artists (and Joanne) in the early 90s. There's a DVD out there that has the final Broadway performance on it, and if you come across it, I highly recommend it over the movie. I don't think I know anyone that doesn't cry every single time they see it, and I know a lot of people that have seen it several times.

Okay, okay, okay. Just one more chick flick, I promise. He's Just Not That Into You manages to successfully weave together completely random and over-the-top relationship advice with a love dodecahedron. Unlike your typical romantic comedy, it doesn't necessarily end well for everyone involved, but it's probably one of the most satisfying experiences that you can have in this genre. Plus, as you've probably gathered, you know that I love incomplete deconstructions.

Finally, I present what is probably the most terrifying movie on this list. The Rugrats Movie. It was a pretty intense experience as a small child when it came out, and after watching it a few weeks ago with my sisters, I realized that it was even more terrifying when you took the time to think about what was actually happening in it as an adult. You have a group of toddlers lost in the woods, and some pretty downright evil behavior on some of their parts regarding Dil. A particular scene that sticks out to me is when Tommy is preparing to maliciously pour a container of banana flavored baby food onto his new brother in the hope that he'll be kidnapped by a group of (likely diseased) circus monkeys. And this shit is supposed to be for kids.

Anyway, I hope that at least one of the movies on this list has sparked your interest. If you've seen them all already, then go watch one of them again! You probably need a break from all that work if you're a student that's just recently started back to school.

Topic Announcement: Favorite Movies

So this week we are looking at an actual topic, which shall be our favorite movies. It is one of those weeks where we get to share our recommendations with you, and we hope to give you a chance to discover new and unique movies that you have not seen nor heard of before. I know we always have different perspectives on these kind of topics and our interests are varied and fun. Movies, after all, are a window into the human condition and an exploration (sometimes) into what it means to be us. Of course, there are also mindless action flicks, but those are often more fun than a heart-wrenching drama. I am sure that we will see enough of both this week to fill your movie needs. So let the favorite movies week commence!

SPAAAAACE!

Okay, so my topic for this week's current event is not really based on a specific news article.  Instead, I'm just going to talk about the stuff that has been happening on Mars.  As I am sure you are all aware, there is a rover on Mars that has been going around collecting images and samples for us to study.  Which I think, as a scientist, is way cool.

So, why do we keep returning to space travel?  Humans have always been trying to expand their territories, and they end up needing more and more space to live as the population keeps increasing.  But travelling in space has always been something more exciting.  Little kids want to be astronauts when they grow up, just because they want to get closer to the stars and other planets.  We had the Space Race in the sixties where we went to the moon, and we have had many other trips, manned and unmanned, which send satellites and space ships out to the surrounding solar system.  Why?  Because we want to know what is out there, and we want to eventually be able to see it for ourselves.

Now, Mars is the closest planet to ours, and is the only one so far that we can send probes to without it getting swallowed up by gases.  There have been rovers going to Mars for a while now, but you only hear about the super important events, like leaving and landing.  Most of the rest of the time, the general populace has no idea what that rover is doing.  Unless you have super nerdy geology professors like I do who track its progress.  But I digress.

I think I'm going to wrap up this post.  I just really like the idea of knowing what other planets and stars look like or what they were doing billions of years ago.  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my rambling post about SPACE!

Mmhmm, yep, uh huh... Wait, what?

With both the Republican and Democratic conventions happening this week, the subject of politics came to the forefront of my mind.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to go on any political rants, and to be honest, I’m not entirely sure whom I’m going to vote for in the upcoming Presidential election yet.  I know, I need to get on that, but I think that these next few weeks will be very telling… Anyway, that’s not the point of my post this week.  I’ve been watching parts of both Republican and Democratic conventions and it’s interesting to see and listen to crowd responses.  By watching and listening to the crowd’s responses alone, it’s pretty easy to figure out the make-up of each crowd.  Republicans go to the Republican convention and Democrats go to the Democratic convention.  I know, duh.  I definitely think that both conventions serve their purposes well and act as facilitators to rally each party together.  And don’t get me wrong, I think that this is definitely necessary.  My point is that the casual observer notices moments in each convention where there’s lots of cheering and other moments with collective booing, and, not to mention, lots and lots of head nodding.  Like I said earlier, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with rallying together with those whom you share ideologies with.  I just wonder if, after all of the cheering, booing, and head nodding by not just those in attendance, but also by those watching at home, how many people on either side of the political spectrum really give much thought as to what they’re affirming or rejecting.  I think that most of us are guilty of this to some degree, and every so often we catch ourselves doing this.  Something to think about…

Violent games turn kids into killers, too, y'know.

Today's post is brought to you by the letters C, N, and N again, courtesy of this link.

Underage drinking has always been an interesting subject with me.  Neither of my parents are particularly heavy drinkers.  Occasionally, my dad may have a rum and coke at home; more commonly, if we go out to eat at Ruby Tuesday, he'll order one of their tall glasses of beer.  Sporadically, he and my mom will go to tastings at one of the various number of wineries in the area.  That's about it.  I can likely count on one hand the number of times I've seen either of my parents severely intoxicated.  My sister, on the other hand, is a heavy drinker.  There was a point where she would completely shitfaced every night, which led to a lot of anger and stress and yelling and needless drama.  The worst of that -seems- to have passed, though I'm not ready to swear to that just yet.

So, underage drinking.  Obviously, I have no idea what went on with my parents back in their younger days, but given that my dad joined the Navy fresh out of high school (... I think?), I'd assume he had at least a few drinks before the age of 21.  My sister... well, who knows about her.  I wouldn't put it past her.  A lot of people make an association between underage drinking and alcohol abuse/addiction, and I don't think that's fair.  Other countries have significantly lower age requirements for drinking, and as far as I know, there haven't been reports of mass alcohol-induced chaos from any of them.  ... Except, maybe, for Ireland, but that's a different story.  One of my friends/ex-co-workers took a trip abroad for a notable amount of time, and he drank freely while he was there.  It didn't change anything about who he is, or his behavior, except that he complained more about the US's age limit for a while.

One of the key questions at the heart of this matter is whether allowing children to experience alcohol before the age limit is more beneficial or damaging.  The answer, I think, is pretty simple - it depends entirely on the person, and on the environment that is created for them.  I can freely admit that my parents let me taste wine, champagne, and beer long before I was even 18.  The first experience was almost nondescript, and the latter two only reinforced my line of thinking that they weren't for me.  In this situation, the experience was a positive one - I was able to learn from the experience in a safe, controlled environment.  It was more than a bit different in the neighborhood I grew up in, though.  One kid's parents' were of the mindset "Whatever, he'll do it somewhere if we say no, what's the point", and gave him free access to all of their alcohol.  Irresponsible?  You bet.  On more than one occasion, when I went to hang out with the group of kids, they reeked of beer and other alcohol, and I found myself infuriated at their inebriation.  Drinking, to them, became just another thing to do - almost like a game.  It didn't take long for me to cut all of my ties to them, swiftly and completely.  Those ties are still cut today.

I don't think introducing alcohol to someone under the age of 21 is necessarily a bad thing - but ONLY in the right manner, and ONLY in a safe, controlled environment.  The key point, also, is that it should be an introduction; an experience to learn from.  Once it becomes a habit, it's already gone too far.

Just for shits and giggles, here, have a very loosely-related Calvin and Hobbes comic that I enjoy.  It's a bit bigger than I would have liked, but otherwise you can't read it, and it's useless.

And I'll bet Calvin never wanted to smoke again.

Plus, Everybody Should Watch Extra Credits

For this week, I decided to pick a bit of news that isn't so much an article as much as it is a video. See, I went on an archive binge of Extra Credits, and then it had a lot of crappy updates that lacked real content, and I lost interest, so I've started yet another archive binge. If you have no idea what Extra Credits is, I fully recommend checking it out. It's almost always just interesting things about developing video games as a form of media and exploring the potential that they have for telling a fantastic story.

This episode, however, focuses more on discussing an issue that society is going to face pretty soon much more universally: spectrum crunch. The video explains it much more thoroughly than I can, but to sum up, we are running out of bandwidth in the air for transmitting data across large distances. At the rate we're going, we'll likely run out of space by 2014. This will be disastrous, and it's already leading to increases in costs for cell phone and internet access.

The most apparent way to fix this issue, at least temporarily, is for television networks to stop broadcasting over-the-air. For some incredibly rural areas though, this is the only real way that they can get live news and such, and some people might argue that eliminating their access to television is not the solution.

That being said, this is not an issue that's going to go away anytime soon, and it'll only get worse until more people are aware of it and trying to actually fix it. If I had more time, I would do a little more research to post about all of the potential solutions that have been proposed. Unfortunately though, I have classes and such to get to, so hopefully this video is enough of a starting point to encourage getting educated on this impending doom.

Week of 9/2 - Current Events

Once again, this week will be about interesting recent events.  Kathleen will start us off tomorrow, and I will be back to finish up on Friday.