Archive: November 24, 2013

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catching fire

Sunday,  11/24/13  05:42 PM

Watched Hunger Games Catching Fire today, and thought it was great.  A most worthy sequel, and amazing in its own right.  The direction and production values are excellent (those costumes!), and the story was simplified and embelished perfectly to adapt the book to a movie.  My only complaint is that since the book is written in the first person, there's a lot of subtley that viewers who haven't read the book might miss, but so be it.  Overall it was excellent! My favorite moment was when Katniss' wedding dress turns into a mockingjay outfit.  Perfect. It would be perhaps too obvious to say Jennifer Lawrence is great, but ... she is.  In fact the entire cast are as well, faithful to the characters from the book, and ... interesting.  It might be weird to say, given the fantasy nature of the whole story, but they seemed real.  I can't wait for the next, er, two (Mockingjay, the third and final book, will apparently be two movies...)

 

Sunday,  11/24/13  06:03 PM

Onward, into the calm before the Thanksgiving storm ... a quick filter pass. (the picture is my current 3D printing challenge, nested Klein bottles :) Apparently 3D printable "physibles" are the next frontier of piracy.  So be it.  I predict this will go about as well as fighting audio and video copying...  Scott "Dilbert" Adams: I hope my father dies soon.  A powerful argument for the government to stay out of the way when it comes to things like doctor-assisted suicide.  I agree with Maria Kang.  We have to stop pretending it's okay to be fat and out of shape.  As soon as I travel away from LA, as I did last week, I'm amazed at the borderline obesity you see everywhere.  Not that it doesn't exist in LA either, but somehow it is less acceptable.  Or at least not celebrated.  Maria was banned from Facebook for posting her opinion.  That's terrible.  I doubt I'll be banned for posting mine, but we'll see :) Six awesome bike sharing schemes from around the world.  Awesome indeed.  My first contact with such schemes was when I was in Dublin this Spring, but unfortunately I needed an Irish bank account.  Not too tourist friendly.  I didn't attend the 2013 LA Auto Show, but thanks to this C|net overview video, I didn't have to... the BMW i3 looks ugly, but it's all-electric, so that's cool, meanwhile the Jaguar F-type Couple looks amazing, but it's old technology under that hood.  And the Cadillac ELR is an upmarket Chevy Volt, with a bit of both.  And we now have hydrogen cars (!), at least as auto-show concepts.  How much ad / survey / link-me crap can a web page have?  This one seems to be trying to find out. How did I miss this?  Halley Suitt shares her eBook secrets, and I agree with all of them:  No glasses required.  (Change font size!) No lights required.  (Book light or backlight) Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky.  (Search for anything instantly) Have I got a deal for you.  (Cheaper all the time, and lots of deals most of the time) For the Luddites in all of us: the iTypewriter.  The best way to type on an iPad?  [ via Daring Fireball ]  This is most excellent: tournament-style brackets used to choose the best English word ever.  What's your favorite?   (I like "diphthong" but I don't think it would make my final four...) Another great list: Daniel Dennett on how to argue well (I wouldn't argue with any of this :):  Attempt to re-express your target's position clearly List any points of agreement Mention anything you have learned from your target Only then say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism A must-visit?  Africa's first underwater hotel.  I'm actually pretty drawn to the deck on the roof, looks like a perfect spot for reading :)  Excellent!  Massive new dinosaur discovered in Utah.  It looks terrifying, but we have to work on that name.  "Siats Meekerorum" just doesn't have the same ring as "Tyrannosaurus Rex".  Onward into the week!

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