Empire of the Iguanadons

Life is full of interesting surprises. Sometimes it also brings back reminders of the past. In this case, today, one such random happenstance has brought back a physical reminder of one of the most devastating days in American history. Pictured with this post is a piece of landing gear from one of the planes that struck the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001. This has apparently been sitting wedged into an 18 inch wide alley between to large buildings less than a block from Ground Zero for the last 12 years. Just another reminder to us all of that day, and the vigilance we need to maintain.
.........................
RIP United States of America

July 1776 - November 2012.

Earth was attacked. They came out of nowhere. We called them Scavs, short for Scavengers. There was no talking to them, no negotiations. All they wanted was to conquer us. We fought bravely, and we fought well, but in the end we were losing. They destroyed our moon, ravaging the planet with tidal disruptions and earthquakes. Then, the unthinkable became reality and we used nukes. While we won the war, we lost the planet and had to leave. I am one of the few who remains behind to monitor and maintain the machines that collect the last of Earth's useable resources for energy. I am Tech 49, Jack Harper, and this is my story.

So hopefully I got that more or less right. It's paraphrased from what I remember, so don't kill me Don't worry, I didn't just spoil the whole thing. That's been in the TV advertising now for weeks. It is, however, the intro narration to one of the best sci-fi movies I've seen in awhile, and I happen to like sci-fi in its many forms. Especially the post-apocalyptic variety of sci-fi where Earth is nothing but a shell of its former self. So when the first previews for this hit, I was sold already and couldn't wait.

Sure enough, the movie delivers on just about everything it promised, and then some. While on the surface it may not seem like a terribly original plot, it more than makes up for this with its own unique twists and turns. There's plenty of action, mysterious enemies in the night, and of course, the surprises you don't see coming. This last part was especially nice since a good portion of the audience actually did an audible double take at one of said moments.

Fear not, my special effect loving friends! You'll have plenty of that to see as well. Though what you see will be limited to the tech available to Harper and his operations, it's all completely believable. None of it is over the top in sensationalist ways and fits in nicely to tell the story. Which is how you're supposed to handle effects.

I can highly recommend seeing this movie if you're a fan of sci-fi of any sort. Universal managed to put together a good story, with good visuals, and did so without injecting a ton of gore and profanity.

On the Horizon

Iron Man 3 - May 3rd: After the last showing and its build up toward The Avengers, I don't know what more needs to be done here. Frankly the preview for it looked hoaky.

Star Trek: Into Darkness - May 17: Goes without saying. I'm there. If you're a Trek fan, why wouldn't you be? Come on Dwip... join us...

Man of Steel - June 14: Yep. Another Superman movie. Looks like the reboot version of the whole General Zod thing. Pass.

Elysium - August 9: The preview for this looks promising. Not much else known right now though.
.........................
RIP United States of America

July 1776 - November 2012.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/report-next-xbox-will-control-your-tv-cable-box-through-hdmi-hookup/

So imagine you're sitting in your living room with several friends. You've decided to watch a movie you just rented/bought/downloaded/whatever. It's been legally obtained. Everyone is gathered around the TV and you decide to show off your fancy new XBox 720 (codename, nobody knows WTF they're really calling it) you just bought. In pops the disc. The Kinect unit flashes briefly and scans the room. Moments later, the screen gives you the digital equivalent of the finger and tells you there are too many viewers in the room for your purchased viewing license. The collective WTF in the room is deafening. Who thought this was a good idea? Microsoft, that's who.

While the outlined scenario is based on leaked information from industry media sources, there's reason to believe it's where things are headed. Microsoft has already been bringing on an increasingly large number of online based features, many of which center around DRM. Yes, one of those features is exactly as described. A form of DRM for movie viewing in the privacy of your own home where the Kinect hardware counts the number of viewers in the room.

There's one more even more disturbing form though. The service is also capable of tracking when you're actually watching the screen and pausing live output if you turn away. Yes, the hardware is aware enough of when you're not looking at it to know to pause the output. Which raises some even uglier concerns not just about DRM, but about forced advertising. Want to leave the room while those commercials are playing? Sorry - XBox 1984 has decided to wait until you get back to resume playback.

So, you might be asking, "Samson, why do you care so much? You don't even have an XBox." Well, I care because this sort of thing is a pretty big warning sign in my mind for the continuing trend toward America becoming a police state and toward the Big Brother-ization of society. Kinect knows how many people you have over? It knows when you're not watching? Then it's only a short hop from there to the Government being able to monitor your home life. Or for hackers to tap into the system to determine when you aren't around so they can rob your house.

"What's wrong? All they'll see is a bunch of geeks huddled around in their underwear?" The person who asked me this was asking it in jest, but the problem is, too many people out there actually have so little regard for their rights that they see it as a serious question. Akin to those who seriously believe that "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear". People like this are why this country is in so much trouble now. Far too many people have accepted the surveillance society, and that's just dangerous.

I sincerely hope this leaked information turns out to be completely false, because otherwise I don't even want to consider how far gone we all really are that this is treated as no big deal.
.........................
RIP United States of America

July 1776 - November 2012.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/11/world/asia/south-korea-military-exercises/

So it looks like North Korea is trying to get themselves annihilated. Following on from last week's threats that everyone assumed were as hollow as Obama's promised of transparency, North Korea voided the armistice that ended the fighting in 1953.

So far, nothing has been done to back this new threat, but it's beginning to look like we shouldn't still be ignoring Dear Leader's words. It appears he's intent on actually picking a fight this time.

Perhaps his father didn't quite get him up to speed about what it means to fling around stupid propaganda. Perhaps the isolation of their country means Kim the Younger actually believed it when his father kept saying we were out for blood. If this is the case, then we'd be fools to pass this off as more empty threats and hollow posturing.

War with North Korea would mean Seoul gets lit up like a Christmas tree by the North's artillery. That would happen fast enough that we wouldn't have time to mount an appropriate response to that before thousands of lives are lost and billions of dollars in damage is done. Considering the boob we have running our country right now, I'm not even assured we'd respond AT ALL.

If hostilities do break out, then all the threats they've been making are on the table, up to and including striking the US with a nuclear weapon. If the fools actually start fighting then we need to wipe them off the map as quickly as possible. Nothing less will be sufficient to end this.
.........................
RIP United States of America

July 1776 - November 2012.

Hugo Chavez, the long time dictator of Venezuela, finally did the world a favor today and died. Apparently he really did have cancer after all, despite insisting to the world that he was perfectly fine for the last few months.

Chavez has spent the better part of the last 20 years fucking up the economy in Venezuela, suspending the rights of the citizens there, and nationalizing their resources. While nobody with a brain expects that this will suddenly come to an end now that his VP is running the place, perhaps the people there will be able to seize an opportunity to hold a REAL election and put someone in place who isn't a raving lunatic socialist.

Who knows, elect the right person, and maybe we can put a halt to Iranian influence in the area too.

In any case, here's to hoping this is a turn for the better in Venezuela.
.........................
RIP United States of America

July 1776 - November 2012.