Three Finalists for "Man of the Year"

Via RB, in one of those email forwards:

(Didn't want to delete them, but didn't want them in my inbox either)

So, was Immunity Really Granted?

As pissed as I am about the FISA update right now, at least one lawyer (or legal aid, or something) is maintaining that the bill does not preclude accountability. If I'm following this correctly,

• Civil cases will be dismissed, but it says nothing possible criminal prosecutions.
• Obama has indicated that he would still hold lawbreakers accountable. (Differing from informal tradition of just pardoning everyone so the country can "move on")
• Bush is unlikely to issue a pardon, because it would be an admission of guilt.

If so, things might not be so bad. On the other hand, I think that last point is a bit weak, and I've grown suspicious of simply trusting Obama. (And yes, I feel that he did break his promise from the primaries to filibuster any bill containing retroactive immunity. He may be making a political calculation, but if so, I believe it is a poor one.) So, in the end, probably nothing will happen, nothing will be fixed, and all these assholes will get away scott-free.

Sigh.

Buy-N-Large

Part of me wants Pixar to fail. The really evil, jealous part of me.

I went to see WALL-E on opening weekend with my wife and two boys half expecting to be overjoyed, but ... also somewhat suspicious with a different type of twisted anticipation. I mean their latest concept ... movie about robot ... couldn't really be that creative or good, could it? I mean, eventually, these Pixar guys have to start phoning it in, right? That much success that many times in a row CAN'T be good for quality control.

Not only was I happily surprised at how good it was ... the movie sort of transcended my every expectation. Visually stunning, heartwarming, with interesting background thems on everythign from consumerism vs. the enviorment with what it means to be human.

And the kids really liked it, too.

Now, I'm left with both the joy you get after seeing a really good piece of art that stays with you ... and the sadness I get from realizing I will probably never work for a company that is as creative and amazingly successful as Pixar.

If you haven't yet, go see the movie, with or without kids. I can't recommend it highly enough.

And then, go check out the website for buy-n-large, the fictional mega corp in the movie.

http://www.buynlarge.com/

Their EULA is particularly entertaining.

Solar-sooner than you think

Arcticle about the dropping cost of Solar Power cells:

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/06/23/grid_parity/index.html?source=rss&aim=/tech/htww

-m

Tank Man

Can't make beer today, but wanted to post a tidbit for discussion to the blog, anyway, that was fascinating to me on multiple fronts.

China is obviously on a lot of people's minds these days, and not just the people in China. I happened upon an excellent film on PBS program Frontline last night entitled "Tank Man", which explored the history of the Tienanman massacre, and speculated on the fate and whereabouts of the man in the famous images from that event ... not only in terms of personal history, but in terms of China's current economic and political state.

There was a very interesting contrast drawn in the fim between the student uprisings of 1989 and the response of the government since then, focused around mostly economic reforms. When you really examine the impact of these reforms upon the average worker, though, the contast with what life is like for the average citzen or worker really contrasts with the original spirit of "Communism" and workers rights, to say the least.

The other fascinating topic here, tied to this theme, was the censorship of media present in China today. Probalby not suprising to anyone, I know ... but it's effectiveness was astounding in an interview with a group of students from the same Bejing university that formed the heart of the Tienenman protest group just 20 years before. The fimmaker showed these modern students a copy of the infamous "Tank Man" picture, and not one of them recognized it or had much idea what it was about ... or professed to, at least. Helps you appreciate how much we take for granted what we can Google, vs what they can't.

Some interesting examination of the role American complies such as Cisco, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google played and continue to play, which is probably old news to many of you.

Here is a link to an interview with the filmmaker, which should give you a pretty good feel for the topics discussed, including trying to balance fair and truthful journalism with Chinese handlers while filming over there.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/etc/thomas.html

You can also watch the full movie from that PBS site, if you are so inclined. It was over an hour and a half long, but very interesting bit of recent history and perspective on China.

One final topic just briefly touched on in the documentary ... to many in the West, the image above exemplifies resistance against military force against all odds ... but very briefly, the Chinese government itself used the images on broadcasts to make the case of restraint on it's part ... after all ... they did NOT run over Tank Man ... and they certainly could have. Wheter or not he was executed afterward is a matter of open debate.

Still ... would coallition forces in Iraq show such restraint if a "peaceful citizen" stood in front of a US tank?

Plan B (Wii Ware Game Developer)

I was telling some of you guys about Wii-Ware, the Nintendo downloadable mini-game service they launched last week to compliment Virtual Console. This looks like a way to develop and distribute (small) games with a low barrier to entry.

I am sure we have all fantasized in some way about developing games...but all accounts of the industry is that it's a real grind. Wii-Ware, and the Xbox/Playstation equivalents, seem like the ‘indy-film’ version of gaming.

I downloaded a couple of the Wii-Ware launch games for between $5-$7 and thought they weren’t bad. Here is the web site to one of the developers:
http://www.nnooo.com/home/nnooo.html

I read his story in a blog, and it is literally a 2-3 man operation out of Australia. He has a history in the gaming biz, so he wasn’t exactly starting from scratch, but it’s doable. He had good things to say about the Wii Ware development tools, especially in comparison the Xbox equivalents. He said he has to sell 30k copies to break even, and that the split with Nintendo is %65-%35 (that him-Nintendo). This is about $137k Australian dollars, but I think AU$ is within 5% of US$ right now… There are many millions of Wii’s out there, so I think he shouldn’t have a problem breaking even. (Being a launch title has to be a huge boost!)

I have an (admittedly lame) idea for a game along these lines. I'm sure we could come up with half a dozen other idea's over beers in one afternoon. We all know how to code and we have a built-in supply of beta testing in our all our gamer teens (andrew, neil, sean, little big jay etc...)

-Morgan

Death of an Artist

The famous american artist, and my distant cousin (actually, the 1st cousin of my Grandfather, I'm told), Robert Rauschenberg, died on Monday at the age of 82.

I never met him, but have seen his works in art museums before. They even have a few of his works at the Portland Art Musuem. And like much modern art, it is rather ... different.

This is one of his breakout works, "Monogram", a "composite" work done in oil, canvas, tire, traffic barriacde, and stuffed goat.



Supposedly he was groundbreaking in coming up with ways of transferring photos and images to the surfaces of odd objects. For example, I'd like to see a Kong print on a BMW 635 Csi.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-05-2004/0002225658&EDATE=

Very interesting ... But is it art? Discuss. Preferrably over lots of beer.