http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Thu, 7 Apr 2005 11:11:29 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/07/111129.php Jeremy Chrysler"As late as 1997, males made up 65% of all Internet users. But things have shifted, and quickly."As a matter of fact, women now make up 51.6% of all Internet users in the US. That number seems a bit surprising at first, but when compared to the overall population breakdown in the US, which is 51% women, it looks as if about the same number of men and women use the Internet relative to their portion of the population. The most interesting thing is the dramatic shift. But it's nice to know that the web is, at least in the US, an equal opportunity program.Originally posted at The Blog Engine Sci/Tech27868@blogcritics.org Thu, 7 Apr 2005 11:11:29 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/01/03/114304.php Jeremy ChryslerWhilst on his expedition aboard the Beagle, Charles Darwin witnessed an earthquake / tsunami in the Pacific, where they are much more common and where warning systems are currently in place:Shortly after the shock, a great wave was seen from the distance of three or four miles, approaching in the middle of the bay with a smooth outline; but along the shore it tore up cottages and trees, as it swept onwards with irresistible force. At the head of the bay it broke in a fearful line of white breakers, which rushed up to a height of 23 vertical feet above the highest spring-tides. Their force must have been prodigious; for at the Fort a cannon with its carriage, estimated at four tons in weight, was moved 15 feet inwards.A schooner was left in the midst of the ruins, 200 yards from the beach. The first wave was followed by two others, which in their retreat carried away a vast wreck of floating objects. In one part of the bay, a ship was pitched high and dry on shore, was carried off, again driven on shore, and again carried off. In another part two large vessels anchored near together were whirled about, and their cables were thrice wound round each other: though anchored at a depth of 36 feet, they were for some minutes aground.The great wave must have travelled slowly, for the inhabitants of Talcahuano had time to run up the hills behind the town; and some sailors pulled out seaward, trusting successfully to their boat riding securely over the swell, if they could reach it before it broke. One old woman with a little boy, four or five years old, ran into a boat, but there was nobody to row it out: the boat was consequently dashed against an anchor and cut in twain; the old woman was drowned, but the child was picked up some hours afterwards clinging to the wreck. Pools of salt-water were still standing amidst the ruins of the houses, and children, making boats with old tables and chairs, appeared as happy as their parents were miserable. HT: Boing Boing Culture23864@blogcritics.org Mon, 3 Jan 2005 11:43:04 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/29/153643.php Jeremy ChryslerIt should be noted that this miracle of science ocurred using umbilical cord stem cells, and not the heavily politicized embryonic variety. A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years is walking again after scientists say they repaired her damaged spine using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood.Hwang Mi-Soon, 37, had been bedridden since damaging her back in an accident two decades ago.Last week her eyes glistened with tears as she walked again with the help of a walking frame at a press conference where South Korea researchers went public for the first time with the results of their stem-cell therapy.They said it was the world's first published case in which a patient with spinal cord injuries had been successfully treated with stem cells from umbilical cord blood.This is good news for everyone, should it turn out to be true, because we may have a new and ethically unambiguous way of changing peoples' lives. I'd say it's about time for a confusing metaphor.The use of stem cells from cord blood could also point to a way to side-step the ethical dispute over the controversial use of embryos in embryonic stem-cell research."We have glimpsed at a silver lining over the horizon," said Song Chang-Hoon, a member of the research team and a professor at Chosun University's medical school in the southwestern city of Kwangju.Here's a little more to read if you're interestedClinical trials with embryonic stem cells are believed to be years away because of the risks and ethical problems involved in the production of embryos -- regarded as living humans by some people -- for scientific use.In contrast, there is no ethical dimension when stem cells from umbilical cord blood are obtained, according to researchers.Additionally, umbilical cord blood stem cells trigger little immune response in the recipient as embryonic stem cells have a tendency to form tumors when injected into animals or human beings.For the therapy, multipotent stem cells were isolated from umbilical cord blood, which had been frozen immediately after the birth of a baby and cultured for a period of time.Then these cells were directly injected to the damaged part of the spinal cord."Technical difficulties exist in isolating stem cells from frozen umbilical cord blood, finding cells with genes matching those of the recipient and selecting the right place of the body to deliver the cells," said Han Hoon, president of Histostem, a government-backed umbilical cord blood bank in Seoul.Han teamed up with Song and other experts for the experiment.They say that more experiments are required to verify the outcome of the landmark therapy."It is just one case and we need more experiments, more data," said Oh Il-Hoon, another researcher."I believe experts in other countries have been conducting similar experiments and accumulating data before making the results public." Politics22718@blogcritics.org Mon, 29 Nov 2004 15:36:43 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/19/155216.php Jeremy ChryslerSomewhere deep under the Hollywood Hills, Jerry Bruckheimer has a giant blender. Into that blender Mr. Bruckheimer threw a copy of Raiders of the Last Ark, an American History text that was missing a few pages, a few giant snowcats, some bulletproof glass, a touch of poppy sarcasm, and just for good measure, Jon Voight, Sean Bean and Nick Cage. Out of this mishy-mash came National Treasure.The ingredients might not sound wonderful together, but the sum is surely greater than its parts, providing you the viewer are willing to check your cynicism at the door with the be-vested high school ticket taker.The film, which follows one family's quest for a hidden treasure (is there any other kind?) of mythic proportions (the only kind worth making a movie about), is a frolicsome, if innaccurate, romp through American history and will certainly entertain most audience members. As the film opens, we find Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) and Ian Howe (Bean) rocketing across the Arctic ice fields in enormouse treaded vehicles in search of a lost ship called the Charlotte. Within the Charlotte lies the next clue to the mystery that is the National Treasure, a collection of antiquities and fineries built up from Solomon's time, preserved by the Masonic founding fathers, and valued somewhere North of $10 billion. As with most films about large sums of money, Deadly Sin #5 kicks in and everybody wants more of an impossibly large fortune, leading, of course, to tension, high-speed chases and historical intrigue. The film, though far-fetched and formulaic at the same time, is well-executed and is well worth the matinee money you put up for it, particularly if you have kids whose interest in history you'd like to pique. And while it is certainly guilty of embellishing U.S. history, it does so with what I would almost call reverance, leading viewers to a desire to know more of our great country, and perhaps an opportunity to reflect upon the real importance of Her founding documents.If you're looking for a fun film that is kid safe and engaging throughout, and you are willing to overlook some historical and mathematical impossibilities, you will enjoy National Treasure. Just don't expect to learn much.7.7 / 10 Video22418@blogcritics.org Fri, 19 Nov 2004 15:52:16 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/19/122104.php Jeremy ChryslerIt's counter intuitive, but my personal experience bears it out. When I Tivo, I have to watch closely, or I miss the beginning. It's like commercial concentrate - When mixed with everything else with my brain, it tastes just like normal commercials, in 5% of the time. This *may* lead to shorter commercial spot tests - 15 seconds, with text-heavy impressions, to make sure that the Tivo crowd sees it.Here's the report, which you'll hear more about, as soon as it's released:CBS will reportedly release surprising digital video recorder (DVR) research that shows that while DVR users fast forward through commercials, the very act of paying attention to what they're forwarding through vastly increases ad recall. Ads that were "skipped" were recalled at a 23 percent rate, higher than typical "viewed" commercials show. This may indirectly show what many ad buyers already suspect: that commercial pods tend to be ignored by viewers. Video22407@blogcritics.org Fri, 19 Nov 2004 12:21:04 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/10/121904.php Jeremy ChryslerAccording to reports: WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has chosen White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, a Texas confidant and one of the most prominent Hispanics in the administration, to succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft, sources close to the White House said Wednesday.Ashcroft announced his resignation on Tuesday, along with Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a Texas friend of the president's.After a National Security Council meeting, Bush was sitting down Wednesday with Secretary of State Colin Powell, another figure being closely watched for signs of whether he will stay or go. Powell has been largely noncommital when asked about his plans. Will the appointment of a Latino a tougher US border policy easier to swallow, or does it signal something else. Colin Powell recently spoke on the record about changes, but his words are pretty ambiguous: "With the new Congress, and the president re-elected, we think the environment has improved significantly for this kind of reform," Powell said at the 21st annual meeting of the U.S.-Mexico Binational Commission. Cabinet officials and agency chiefs from both countries met in working groups at the Foreign Ministry.In comments echoed by Bush administration officials in Washington, Powell said the president plans to work closely with the new Congress to change the nation's immigration laws, although he cautioned that "we don't want to overpromise."love it or hate it, there's more of it at Pacetown. Politics22080@blogcritics.org Wed, 10 Nov 2004 12:19:04 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/05/123712.php Jeremy ChryslerAirlines are now saying that it is costing the more to operate because people have gotten heavier. Through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The extra weight caused airlines to spend $275 million to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel in 2000 just to carry the additional weight of Americans, the federal agency estimated in a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. When fuel burns, or at least Carbon based fuel burns, Carbon Dioxide is released into the air: The extra fuel burned also had an environmental impact, as an estimated 3.8 million extra tons of carbon dioxide were released into the air, according to the study. That's a lot of waist.And it's costing you in your car as well, since, as Americans, we're driving around an extra 3 billion pounds or so every year. Culture21911@blogcritics.org Fri, 5 Nov 2004 12:37:12 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/05/110832.php Jeremy ChryslerAccording to Pixar, each frame of animation (representing 1/24th of a second of screentime) takes about 6 hours for their server farm to render. By my math, this 115 minute long movie thus took 993,600 hours to render me absolutely speechless. Seriously. I was at a loss for words when the Disney lady outside the theatre asked me what I thought. "Extraordinary" I mumbled. "Anything else?" she kindly asked. "Umm...(shifting my weight uncomfortably)...it was really very good." Pixar and Disney's penultimate project is absolutely sure to please pretty much anybody who shows up, and rack up darn near $400 million in domestic receipts while doing so. It's that good. Pixar's previous efforts have been so successful for being uniformly entertaining for both kids and adults alike. The Incredibles certainly doesn't waver from that formula, and yet it feels more sophisticated and stylized than past efforts. The Incredibles' world is one where art-deco-cool never gave way to the refried bauhaus minimalism that plagued so many aspects of American design in the latter-middle of the last century. Every detail --from the wood-trimmed interactive GPS system hidden in the dash of Mr. Incredible's car, to the period font on the back of a teenage magazine read by his daughter, to the disproportionate representation of monorails -- reflects the filmmakers' healthy appreciation for triumph in design. The result would be a joy to observe even if the film lacked an exciting plot, engaging characters, witty dialogue or heart-pounding action. But these it has in no small measure, which is why, again, you and everyone you know, will enjoy this movie. The film begins in an era when superheroes like Mr. Incredible and his lovely wife, Elastigirl are both willing and able to actually be superheroes. However, after Mr. Incredible saves a man from committing suicide and actually is sued by said man, everything changes. Suddenly, anyone affected by the work of the superheroes becomes the potential plaintiff in a lawsuit, and the government has to relocate the superheroes anonymously, forcing them to live, not, unlike the X-men, as normally as they can. Mr. Incredible retires his blue spandex for a shortsleeve-shirt and tie job at a greedy insurance company, suffering through the days and generally living a miserable, detached, pre-mid-life-crisis existence until ultimately he loses his grip so to speak, and finds himself in the middle of a plot aimed at world domination. From there, everything turns into a sort of Superman meets James Bond meets Ozzie and Harriet, back against your seat, tongue-waggling, chiller-thriller that nearly, and I admit, very-nearly had my crying with laughter at one point. It is a great film, in conception and execution, and it is surely Pixar's best work to date. If you like Pixar, this movie isn't to be missed. If you immediately dismiss any animated film as not worthy of your time, you should loosen the choke chain on your imagination a bit and take a couple hours to enjoy yourself. I promise, you won't be disappointed. This is a legitimate work of art, animation and target audience notwithstanding, better I would think than at least 2 out of 5 of the Oscar contenders in the coming year, but I doubt the Academy will agree with me. And since movie reviews love money quotes: Walk, Run, or Fly to this movie, but get there early so you can have a good seat. love it, hate it, there's more of it at Pacetown. Video21906@blogcritics.org Fri, 5 Nov 2004 11:08:32 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/03/112947.php Jeremy ChryslerThere is truth in anagrams dear friends, and we would be neglectful bloggers not to to open our eyes to it.An anagramical dissection of "early exit polls" may indeed reveal what went wrong. Perhaps we should have "let a sex pillory" get more involved in the process. Maybe the Kerry campers were a part of the "Italy loserplex". Who knows? Maybe they are urging the overseas voters to contest the election, saying, "Lo, Sir expat, yell!"What can we say about "John Forbes Kerry", whom his wife calls "her fry joker snob", affectionately of course. She also saves kind words for Kerry's running mate, whom she calls "jerky boner frosh", at least until he serves a second term in the Senate at some point in the future.While I do believe the the headlines will ultimately read "Bush Wins Ohio", if he hadn't won, I'm betting that some republicans would have been saying "I unwish hobos", particularly since his advisors were advising that he capture the criminal vote, saying, "Hi Bush, woo sin".There is bound to be controversy surrounding the "touchscreen voting" once America discovers all the problems that occurred due to "conceiver thug snot". However, the ladies at Victoria's Secret did seem to take to them quite fondly, in a political phenomenon soon to be known as the "coercive thong stun". This occurred because, in my opinion, the Democrats should never have never issued the command to "Go, hunt not crevices". I guess you live and you learn.In a response on his website, "big Mike Moore" gave his opinion on the election and validated a popular theory among conservative operatives by saying, with very poor, but understandable spelling, "I'm ok, mi be ogre." Muddying the waters, he later said "Gimme, I broke". Who knows?If indeed, the "youth vote for kerry", we could be waiting for another 28 hours as they say to "evoke forty hour try". Disenfranchised convicted escorts from Cleveland cooly responded to the new youth voters, "try hooker vote fury!"At the end of the day, all I could say was that the "big voter turnout" made the difference. Can we "tout big-turn Rove" for this? Probably. But if the election isn't officially decided soon, I know that many people will throw up their hands with "grit voter burnout." One thing we know about "George Bush", and that's that "he bugs Gore". He probably got that from his dad, "George Herbert Walker Bush", whom Mike Morton and the Anagrams call the "huge berserk rebel warthog".Hopefully it will be, as John Kerry might wax in French, "over sans odor", at least if "Soros and Rove" have anything to say about it...love it, hate it, there's more of it at Pacetown. Politics21818@blogcritics.org Wed, 3 Nov 2004 11:29:47 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/03/093627.php Jeremy ChryslerLast night I went to bed around 2:30 central, confident that George Bush had won reelection. I was off by 14 - I missed both Wisconsin and Hawaii (my underdog), but over all, this election went pretty much how the Real Clear Politics averages suggested it would.Should John Kerry concede? I wouldn't...yet.There are still a lot of provisional ballots to be counted, by Ken Blackwell's estimates somewhere between 135,000 and 150,000 of them. In 2000, only 80% of those PB's were counted. If these numbers are reflective of this year's numbers (and I suspect that less will be valid, given higher voter turnout among first time voters), then we're talking about 108,000 to 120,000 votes up for grabs. Bush's lead is currently 134,019.The numbers don't add up for Kerry / Edwards, but *now* is too early to concede in my opinion, particularly for a Red Sox fan. It could be that by the end of the day though, the political cost for not conceding will becoming increasingly high. Americans accustomed to instant gratification are likely to get impatient pretty quickly once the reality of the above numbers sets in.The math doesn't add up for Kerry, but I think he should wait for another 12 hours or so.The election went pretty well, though, all things considered - record turnout, no hanging chads, only 84 slashed tires. Good job America. Regardless of the final outcome, you done good.love it, hate it, there's more of it at Pacetown Politics21811@blogcritics.org Wed, 3 Nov 2004 09:36:27 EST