Archive for September, 2012

The Annoyance of Facebook

Despite the stock’s continued downfall, the social networking website, Facebook, is still more popular than ever.

From staying in contact with distant relatives to re-connecting with past friends to chatting with current friends, neighbors and co-workers, Facebook can be a really handy website.  Although my own usage of the website has greatly diminished over the past year, I still keep my account open to see what other people are up to from time to time.  And of course, Facebook’s features helped spread the word during the darkest of days two years ago.

But there are those people and companies and organizations that take Facebook way too far.

From the more vocal people who feel the need to share every single detail and thought with the FB world to those companies that keep insisting that you “like them on Facebook,” the novelty of FB is long gone.  These days the website is so saturated with mindless crap that the mere act of visiting the website can be a frustrating and annoying experience.

Let’s take a look at a few examples about how Facebook has lost its novelty and really become a pain in the ass.

1) Politics

The presidential election is coming up this November.  We’ve already made it past the primaries, and both candidates have been on the campaign trail for several months.  The political mud slinging is in full force.

Many of my friends on FB share similar political views that I do.  Other friends are on the opposite side of the aisle.  A few friends still claim to be “independent” though almost all of their postings clearly point to a non-independent view. Read more…

Movie Review – Destination Moon (1950)

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Those famous words by astronaut Neil Armstrong became embedded in our minds back when he made his famous moonwalk in July of 1969.  Okay, maybe it was eleven years prior to my time.

Since the conclusion of the Second World War and the capture of German V-2 rockets and their scientists, people have been fascinated with rocket flight.  Specifically, building them bigger and ultimately sending a payload and a person into not only Earth orbit but the deep unknowns of outer space.  The 1950s era gave us some of the best science fiction movies of all time, from the serious to the fantasy.

One of the better science fiction movies that took a serious look at space travel was Destination Moon.  Being released back in 1950, Destination Moon was also one of the earliest science fiction movies dealing with realistic space flight.

The plot for Destination Moon is fairly simple.  A team of industrialists come together and decide to build a rocket capable of flying to the Moon and returning home safely.  They decide to make this a private endeavor as A) unknown people (indirectly referring to Communists) are sabotaging current rocket flight experiments, and B) whatever gains they make will most likely be seized by the U.S. government.  The bottom line is that it’s up to them to build a rocket and reach the moon before the Russians, as the country that controls the moon will gain a tremendous military advantage for waging wars on Earth.

The rocket’s construction takes place out in the desert of the U.S. southwest.  The wide open spaces help keep prying eyes away from the secret project.  Are the industrialists worried about breaking any laws regarding rocket launches and flying in space?  Not really, as they mention just going ahead with the project before the government makes laws against it.  The government does try to stop the rocket’s launch at the last minute, but the astronauts launch anyway and embark on their quest.

Destination Moon (1950) – (c) Eagle-Lion Classics Inc.

Destination Moon is not one of those highly technical or complicated movies that leaves the audience baffled by the terminology or technology.  Early in the movie we see Woody Woodpecker explaining the concept and physics of space travel to a group of investors (just like the Mr. DNA character in Jurassic Park).  On board the rocket is Joe Sweeney, a mechanic drafted at the last minute to join the lunar flight.  Joe has a strong New York City accent and doesn’t have much understanding of space flight, so the other astronauts keep explaining concepts to him (and the audience). Read more…

Movie Review – The Running Man (1987)

Imagine a totalitarian world where a police state has control of the media and censors most of society include cultural activities.

Yet in this bleak world exists a horrific yet highly entertaining game show.  The television show pits society’s criminals against enforcers (known as “stalkers”) in a gladiator-style arena, complete with fighting to the death for fame and fortune.

Enter the world of 1987′s sci-fi action movie, The Running Man.

Based loosely on the novel by Stephen King (a.k.a. Richard Bachman), in The Running Man, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Ben Richards, a military pilot who was imprisoned for his failure to take part in a civilian massacre in Bakersfield, California.  After a few years in a prison labor camp, Ben Richards and his friends take place in a jailbreak, killing several armed guards in the process.

Instead of joining a resistance movement, Richards flees into Los Angeles to seek refuge with his brother.  He later discovers that his brother was also imprisoned, and a new person, Amber Mendez, is now living in his residence.  Richards uses Amber in an attempt to flee to Hawaii.  While in the airport, Amber yells for the police and Ben Richards is once again captured.  This time his destination is to the ICS television network and The Running Man TV show.  The show’s host, Damon Killian (played by Richard Dawson), blackmails Richards into competing on the show.

And why does Killian want Ben Richards, a military warrior, to compete on his top-rated television show?  For the ratings, of course.  He knows that people love blood and violence, and a criminal such as Ben Richards will help the show dominate its time slot and make Killian a fortune.

After the airport incident, Amber Mendez is at home working on a project when the local news captures her attention.  Sure enough the news reporters talk about the capture of Ben Richards, but as she sees, the story isn’t quite as accurate as the reporters claim.  In fact, it’s intentionally wrong.  The reporters portrayed Richards as a violent criminal who critically injured several people during his arrest, when in fact the opposite occurred.  This news story motivates Amber to return to ICS to try to find the truth about Ben Richards.

The Running Man (1987) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Meanwhile, The Running Man TV show begins and the live studio audience sees edited news footage detailing Ben Richards’s alleged crimes.  Just like the news media, the TV network has Richards portrayed as a bloodthirsty killer who massacred unarmed civilians despite his superiors ordering him against the attack.  After that Ben Richards takes the stage, and with the command of Killian, he’s launched on a rocket sled into the world of The Running Man. Read more…

Book Review – Michael Crichton’s “Micro”

Just how well do you think that you know about nature?

I’m not talking about the weather or geography here, but rather plants and insects; some of the most dominant forms of life on this planet.  If you were to step outdoors, could you accurately name at least some of the plants and insects found outside of your home?

Sadly, I fall with the majority in my lack of knowledge of the great outdoors.  Trees are trees, plants are plants, and bugs are bugs.  Some of them fly, others can sting.  But as a whole, I just don’t have the detailed knowledge that I should have concerning the world found outside of the home.

Michael Crichton’s book, Micro, easily changes your perspective on the world of plants and insects.  Sadly, Crichton died in 2008 before Mirco was finished.  Author Richard Preston was asked to pick up where Crichton left off and complete the story.  Mirco was finally completed and published in 2011.

Micro begins with a corporate espionage break-in of the company Nanigen.  Nanigen’s headquarters is located on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.  The company itself specializes in some incredibly advanced technology.

Mario Rodriguez, the person breaking into Nanigen, is somewhat puzzled as it’s really easy to break into Nanigen.  There doesn’t appear to be any type of a security system.  He walks around some of the laboratories before noticing that he’s bleeding.  The cuts just mysteriously appeared on his body.   Frightened, Rodriguez flees from Nanigen and returns to the person who hired him, a man named Willy Fong.  Fong is being visited by an unknown Asian man when Rodriguez arrives.  Rodriguez tries to tell Fong what happened at Nanigen, but all three men are cut by the mysterious forces and they all die within a matter of minutes.

The police arrive at Willy Fong’s office a few days later and discover the three dead men.  The cuts on their bodies were made with surgical precision.  However, there’s no murder weapon found anywhere inside or outside of Fong’s office.  And to make the mystery even more puzzling, the doors and windows are all locked from the inside.  There’s no sign of a forced entry or a fourth person at the scene of the crime.  It’s as if the three men were sliced open by a ghost.

Mirco then jumps halfway around the world to the land of academia at Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Seven graduate students, Rick Hutter, Karen King, Peter Jansen, Erika Moll, Amar Singh, Jenny Linn and Danny Minot, at an unspecified college are leading experts in botany, insects and venoms.  One day the students are visited by Nanigen’s president Vin Drake, the CFO Alyson Bender, and another Nanigen executive, Eric Jansen.  Eric just happens to be Peter Jansen’s older brother. Read more…

Movie Review – TRON: Legacy (2010)

Back in 1982, the world was captivated and amazed by the computer-generated world of TRON.

Other computer movies came and went since that time, but the genre as a whole became dominated by The Matrix trilogy.  No complaints there.  But in a world that became fascinated with The Matrix, would it be possible to bring TRON back to life, keeping it separate enough from The Matrix?

Released on December 17, 2010, TRON: Legacy returned us back to the exciting virtual computer world of TRON.

Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn, a gifted computer programmer and head of the ENCOM company.  Garrett Hedlund plays the role of Sam Flynn, Kevin’s son and primary shareholder of ENCOM following his father’s sudden disappearance.  Starring alongside Bridges and Hedlund is Olivia Wilde in the role of Quorra, one of the last ISOs and a warrior who fights with Sam and Kevin.  Bruce Boxleitner also reprises his role of Alan Bradley, an executive consultant with ENCOM.

TRON: Legacy (2010) – (c) Walt Disney Pictures

Tron: Legacy begins back in 1989 as Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is telling his son, Sam, tales from his adventures in the Grid.  Before leaving for work that night, Kevin promises Sam that they’ll play his popular TRON arcade game again.  That night was the last time anybody saw Kevin Flynn.  We see several news clips that help fill in the gaps, such as the death of Sam’s mother in 1985, the ENCOM board taking the company away from Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), and a hinting that Kevin Flynn discovered something really important inside the Grid.

But that’s it.  Kevin’s disappearance is still a mystery. Read more…