There is something wrong with NBC. This statement should not surprise or offend, as anyone who has watched the network over the last several years on a night that isn’t Thursday is already keenly aware of the network’s myriad problems.
For instance, it has become perfectly normal for me to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by watching Leprechaun 4: In Space. It’s easy to see why I love the film. First of all, it’s in space – wait, let me finish.
Moon is a film by Duncan Jones. It stars Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, an employee of a lunar mining company that harvests helium for energy use on Earth. Sam is alone on the Moon, with no direct human contact and only his robot GERTY to keep him company. At this point, the film could have become one of three things. It could have become some sort of space opera where Sam fights Moon Men over natural resources. It could have become a cerebral, elegant, and poignant science fiction film in the vein of 2001. Or it could have become Mystery Science Theater 3000. And despite my unabashed love of MST3K, I am please to report that Moon is one of the best pure science fiction films I’ve seen in quite a while.
The difference between Keynes and Hayek is that Keynes’s theories were primarily concerned with providing politicians cover for expanding government control of the economy, whereas Hayek’s were concerned with explaining how things work.
I’m not going to bother explaining what the iPad is. If you’ve been anywhere near a computer today, you’ve seen it and formed an opinion on it. My opinion, predictably, is of the OHMIGODITSTHECOOLESTTHINGEVERIHAVETOHAVEIT variety. That said, I understand that some people aren’t as enthusiastic. They ask why it’s preferable to a laptop. They say it’s essentially an oversized iPhone or iPod Touch. They question its purpose, and the purpose of tablets in general. In short, they don’t “get it.” That’s understandable, and honestly there’s nothing wrong with that. And while I’m not an expert in theories of media consumption, I have been thinking about the issues raised by the iPad and by other recent technological advances in some depth, and would like to offer my perspective.
I finally decided to dive headfirst into Wodehouse – that is, Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, famed British novelist and playwright. I had been recommended his work over the years, but never actually made a serious effort to read any of it. His most famous creations – bumbling playboy Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves – were brought to life in an acclaimed British television series starring comedy geniuses Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, and were also the subject of a Lovecraft-inspired short story included in Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (which I should say is thus far my favorite installment in that particular series). Given that Wodehouse’s works had influenced the works of those three titans of British popular culture, I figured I might as well give him a chance.
Note: This post was originally dated July 22nd, 2009, but in light of the series’s debut last Friday, I feel obligated to repost. I’m a big fan of Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica, which finished its run on the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi earlier this year. Having spent years wrapped up in the drama [...]
I commemorated the New Year by reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm for the first time. I came away with mixed feelings. I’m not generally enthusiastic about allegories, mainly because they’re usually so focused on making observations about history that they fail to present these observations in a compelling way. By applying the narrative of the Russian Revolution, and particularly the rise of Stalinism, to a British farm, Orwell removes his readers from the realities of the Soviet Union and allows them to view the events in a dehumanized, almost more objective way. It’s an interesting idea that has been used successfully in other tales. But the novel ultimately left me disappointed, for two reasons. First, Orwell uses the farm to parallel the Stalinist regime, rather than symbolize it. Second, Animal Farm reads much more as a subjective history than as an individual’s story. As a result, readers are kept at arms distance throughout.
In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power? Watch Caprica to find out…?
The Onion claims to have been purchased by a Chinese company and has adjusted its content accordingly. Having studied in China, I believe I have the authority to decree this gimmick mind-blowingly hilarious. Check it out. Police Still Searching For Missing Productive, Obedient Woman