They Hates Our Freedoms: Boxers vs. Briefs
The Shoe-Bomber. Now the Underpants-Bomber. These guys are scary, sure, but ineffective, inept, except at ensuring that under-trained airport and airline staff are increasingly responsible for making air travel inconvenient and uncomfortable. We shuffle through the security checks in our socks. We're subjected to mandatory pat-downs. Makes me glad I'm not traveling to the States this year. Someday the TSA will work out a way to implement an effective and efficient system of detection and prevention. If the GOP allow a director to be appointed or a bill to get them some money to be passed. But they didn't get that done when they were the majority, either.
24 December 2009
Dances with Aliens
So much for the snark, although I suppose I could go on. Avatar is terrific. I sprang for the whole Imax 3-D experience and it was totally worth it. Sure, it's 3 hours of my life, but it rocks, rolls, and left me reeling (quite literally, as I'm a bit prone to vertigo and the 3-D stuff did get to me now and then, but I was able to mostly control for it). I haven't bothered about any of the other big 3-D releases there have been lately, but having done Imax, I think I'll have to do another, just for comparison.
O.k., all science fiction movies come down to westerns in the end, and this one is no different, but seeing Sam Worthington's giant blue girlfriend crouched above his prostrate and incapacitated form, snarling at the villain in giant's armor, well, that was worth the price of admission. And while it's usually considered quite daring for an incipient leading actor to take a role that spends that much time in somebody else's face, the makeup and digital effects are such that you never lose sight of him and that each character is sufficiently distinct and recognizable, which is only a little disconcerting in the case of Sigourney Weaver.
Great stuff, a triumph - and a serious contender for Best Picture, I reckon.
So much for the snark, although I suppose I could go on. Avatar is terrific. I sprang for the whole Imax 3-D experience and it was totally worth it. Sure, it's 3 hours of my life, but it rocks, rolls, and left me reeling (quite literally, as I'm a bit prone to vertigo and the 3-D stuff did get to me now and then, but I was able to mostly control for it). I haven't bothered about any of the other big 3-D releases there have been lately, but having done Imax, I think I'll have to do another, just for comparison.
O.k., all science fiction movies come down to westerns in the end, and this one is no different, but seeing Sam Worthington's giant blue girlfriend crouched above his prostrate and incapacitated form, snarling at the villain in giant's armor, well, that was worth the price of admission. And while it's usually considered quite daring for an incipient leading actor to take a role that spends that much time in somebody else's face, the makeup and digital effects are such that you never lose sight of him and that each character is sufficiently distinct and recognizable, which is only a little disconcerting in the case of Sigourney Weaver.
Great stuff, a triumph - and a serious contender for Best Picture, I reckon.
City Views
While I was out, I took a few photos, intending to capture a bit of summer imagery.
Coming back from Kirribilli, I found that the World has come to Sydney, as, in another sense, it usually does, this time of year.
"This time of year" being the run-up to New Year's Eve, when they'll set the Harbour Bridge on fire, sort of, and reveal the logo in the centre, which, from the framework already in place, you can't really work out. The theme is captioned "Awaken the Spirit." I think I miss the disco ball.
The sun's well up by 8 a.m., and glaring off the surface of the water.
There's a similar effect looking into the city from the Botanical Gardens as there is looking across an open prospect out of NYC's Central Park, but things are a bit more open here somehow. Still, I like some of these buildings; they show a bit of flair. Although I wonder at the lack of solar panels. Wouldn't that just be smart?
The Sydney Opera House is a well-known and over-photographed construction, but it's a stand-out nevertheless.
What you don't much get, though, is how broad the forecourt is. During the days of flashmobs, I thought it would be a good place to have a large number of people walking up and down in some kind of pattern and then suddenly dispersing. Maybe with umbrellas, too.
One thing about the harbor: it's very clean. Clean-looking, anyway. I'm not inclined to try the fish.
While I was out, I took a few photos, intending to capture a bit of summer imagery.
Coming back from Kirribilli, I found that the World has come to Sydney, as, in another sense, it usually does, this time of year.
"This time of year" being the run-up to New Year's Eve, when they'll set the Harbour Bridge on fire, sort of, and reveal the logo in the centre, which, from the framework already in place, you can't really work out. The theme is captioned "Awaken the Spirit." I think I miss the disco ball.
The sun's well up by 8 a.m., and glaring off the surface of the water.
There's a similar effect looking into the city from the Botanical Gardens as there is looking across an open prospect out of NYC's Central Park, but things are a bit more open here somehow. Still, I like some of these buildings; they show a bit of flair. Although I wonder at the lack of solar panels. Wouldn't that just be smart?
The Sydney Opera House is a well-known and over-photographed construction, but it's a stand-out nevertheless.
What you don't much get, though, is how broad the forecourt is. During the days of flashmobs, I thought it would be a good place to have a large number of people walking up and down in some kind of pattern and then suddenly dispersing. Maybe with umbrellas, too.
One thing about the harbor: it's very clean. Clean-looking, anyway. I'm not inclined to try the fish.
22 December 2009
Around Town
I took a wander into the city this morning, ultimately heading over to Kirribilli, which was dull, but a nice ferry ride back, had some lunch over in the Rocks, and then spent some time at the MCA, which had a show on that I'd noticed but forgotten about and another (free) that was also worthwhile.
Almanac is a presentation of various works from the collection of Ann Lewis, a collector of some note, and provided a look at some truly excellent examples of modern Aboriginal paintings, along with some various other, locally-produced sculptures, photographs, and paintings. My local art dealer, Honeyant Gallery often has works by some of the artists presented in this show, and these were certainly fine examples, as are those Honeyant exhibits.
The other show is one by an artist who has, at least once, made me regret leaving NYC: Olafur Eliasson. Mr. Eliasson is the artist responsible for the waterfalls around NYC's waterways last year. In this show, "Take Your Time", he is working with light, and the works are, each and all collectively, such that you leave the room smiling. The yellow room has delightful and spooky illusion effects - your skin looks grey, and the rooms visible beyond look purple. The circle of light room, which changes color as you stand within in, made the blood flow in my eyes visible to me, but more importantly, as the light shifted into different colors and intensities, eliminated space, suspending me in the colors themselves, blotting out all peripheral vision spectacularly. Other bits were more simply playful, but no less delightful. I'm so glad I went.
I took a wander into the city this morning, ultimately heading over to Kirribilli, which was dull, but a nice ferry ride back, had some lunch over in the Rocks, and then spent some time at the MCA, which had a show on that I'd noticed but forgotten about and another (free) that was also worthwhile.
Almanac is a presentation of various works from the collection of Ann Lewis, a collector of some note, and provided a look at some truly excellent examples of modern Aboriginal paintings, along with some various other, locally-produced sculptures, photographs, and paintings. My local art dealer, Honeyant Gallery often has works by some of the artists presented in this show, and these were certainly fine examples, as are those Honeyant exhibits.
The other show is one by an artist who has, at least once, made me regret leaving NYC: Olafur Eliasson. Mr. Eliasson is the artist responsible for the waterfalls around NYC's waterways last year. In this show, "Take Your Time", he is working with light, and the works are, each and all collectively, such that you leave the room smiling. The yellow room has delightful and spooky illusion effects - your skin looks grey, and the rooms visible beyond look purple. The circle of light room, which changes color as you stand within in, made the blood flow in my eyes visible to me, but more importantly, as the light shifted into different colors and intensities, eliminated space, suspending me in the colors themselves, blotting out all peripheral vision spectacularly. Other bits were more simply playful, but no less delightful. I'm so glad I went.
17 December 2009
Running Hot & Cold
Kyoto was a farce, mostly because the U.S. bailing out was a great excuse for others to do the same or to do nothing. So my expectations from Copenhagen were not high, even though we have a President who recognizes the science and is willing to make an effort. Because the closer we get to actually implementing a way for every nation to participate it will indeed be the smaller, less industrialised countries that get left behind unless Europe and the U.S. are going to need to share the burden fairly and their innovations in carbon-reduction quite freely, which is unlikely to happen easily if at all. Otherwise, Third World industrialisation comes to a standstill to the point where they can’t compete and shut down entirely, leading to the worst kinds of anarchy, dispossession, and an increase in economic refugees, right alongside the waves of environmental refugees set to increase as global warming progresses, a juggernaut of inertia that carbon reduction will only slow over decades. So the haves keep what they’ve got and increase it at the expense of the have-nots, who continue to lose and lose. And then it’s still just an excuse to do nothing until we absolutely have to so it all takes that much longer and has an even more extensive effect on the less fortunate. It’s all very Aesop’s Fables.
Kyoto was a farce, mostly because the U.S. bailing out was a great excuse for others to do the same or to do nothing. So my expectations from Copenhagen were not high, even though we have a President who recognizes the science and is willing to make an effort. Because the closer we get to actually implementing a way for every nation to participate it will indeed be the smaller, less industrialised countries that get left behind unless Europe and the U.S. are going to need to share the burden fairly and their innovations in carbon-reduction quite freely, which is unlikely to happen easily if at all. Otherwise, Third World industrialisation comes to a standstill to the point where they can’t compete and shut down entirely, leading to the worst kinds of anarchy, dispossession, and an increase in economic refugees, right alongside the waves of environmental refugees set to increase as global warming progresses, a juggernaut of inertia that carbon reduction will only slow over decades. So the haves keep what they’ve got and increase it at the expense of the have-nots, who continue to lose and lose. And then it’s still just an excuse to do nothing until we absolutely have to so it all takes that much longer and has an even more extensive effect on the less fortunate. It’s all very Aesop’s Fables.
Service Interruption
I've got one day left before my annual leave starts, so when do the State Transit bus drivers decide to throw a strike? That figures. It's a Friday, and there's one last set of reports to run, and the departmental holiday picnic, and I'm seriously considering staying home. Cabs to Central will make a packet, I expect, since it's just that much too far to walk for many of us, and the trains are all that's left, but at least I work somewhere where that is an option, if a long ride with multiple transfers. And this after the change in schedule debacle that's made the drivers incapable of meeting a wide-open timetable. Oh, and fellas, many of us have foregone pay increases last year to keep our companies profitable, if not viable. Do a better job, get more sympathy.
I've got one day left before my annual leave starts, so when do the State Transit bus drivers decide to throw a strike? That figures. It's a Friday, and there's one last set of reports to run, and the departmental holiday picnic, and I'm seriously considering staying home. Cabs to Central will make a packet, I expect, since it's just that much too far to walk for many of us, and the trains are all that's left, but at least I work somewhere where that is an option, if a long ride with multiple transfers. And this after the change in schedule debacle that's made the drivers incapable of meeting a wide-open timetable. Oh, and fellas, many of us have foregone pay increases last year to keep our companies profitable, if not viable. Do a better job, get more sympathy.
10 December 2009
DIY Checkout
Local supermarket giant Coles recently introduced self-service checkout terminals and have been strongly encouraging of its customers to use them. I did, once. I may never do it again.
I pretty much do my own bagging anyway, but, as in the article linked from the BBC, that “unexpected item in bagging area” error is annoying, but only because I got caught answering “no bag” on a couple of things that I decided belonged in a separate bag from the food items I was otherwise processing. It was easy enough to rectify, but still an addition to a tedious process.
Scan. Do you want to bag this? Yes. Bag. Scan. Do you want to bag this? Yes. Bag. Scan. . . . Scan. . . . SCAN! For the love of God, Scan! No, o.k. then type in the 85-digit code, written in tiny characters that even with reading glasses I can’t see easily.
Somehow it all works so much more easily and quickly when there’s an employee present to do the scanning for you. Although the self-service option doesn’t appear to have resulted in a reduction in staff at the checkout. I was “helped” by at least two separate persons on three separate occasions – one who insisted on teaching me how to operate the machine, which is pretty obvious, and then who struggled over the scanner after seeing that the item I was attempting to purchase wouldn’t scan. (And he couldn’t enter the 500-digit code either), and another who helpfully removed items from my bag even if they weren’t actually the offending items preventing the completion of my transaction, let alone all of them.
Checkout clerks may not be terribly efficient, and nobody seems to know how to bag things properly anymore, but even when they’re surly or simply non-responsive, that’s still a better interaction than staring at an uncooperative computer.
I don’t doubt that it will be sooner rather than later nevertheless before I am all lost at the supermarket.
Local supermarket giant Coles recently introduced self-service checkout terminals and have been strongly encouraging of its customers to use them. I did, once. I may never do it again.
I pretty much do my own bagging anyway, but, as in the article linked from the BBC, that “unexpected item in bagging area” error is annoying, but only because I got caught answering “no bag” on a couple of things that I decided belonged in a separate bag from the food items I was otherwise processing. It was easy enough to rectify, but still an addition to a tedious process.
Scan. Do you want to bag this? Yes. Bag. Scan. Do you want to bag this? Yes. Bag. Scan. . . . Scan. . . . SCAN! For the love of God, Scan! No, o.k. then type in the 85-digit code, written in tiny characters that even with reading glasses I can’t see easily.
Somehow it all works so much more easily and quickly when there’s an employee present to do the scanning for you. Although the self-service option doesn’t appear to have resulted in a reduction in staff at the checkout. I was “helped” by at least two separate persons on three separate occasions – one who insisted on teaching me how to operate the machine, which is pretty obvious, and then who struggled over the scanner after seeing that the item I was attempting to purchase wouldn’t scan. (And he couldn’t enter the 500-digit code either), and another who helpfully removed items from my bag even if they weren’t actually the offending items preventing the completion of my transaction, let alone all of them.
Checkout clerks may not be terribly efficient, and nobody seems to know how to bag things properly anymore, but even when they’re surly or simply non-responsive, that’s still a better interaction than staring at an uncooperative computer.
I don’t doubt that it will be sooner rather than later nevertheless before I am all lost at the supermarket.
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