Is Justin Timberlake flipping us off in the new trailer for “The Social Network“?
Looks like a double middle finger to me.
I kind of can’t believe the MPAA allowed that!
We’re Number 3! We’re Number 3!
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 5:10 amBy Josh
And now for some happy news this Friday morning: “10 Signs The U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country“.
Gah!
Pentagon Mosque
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 5:05 amBy Josh
This article is from a week and a half ago, sadly it doesn’t seem to have picked up much traction in the whole Cordoba House brouhaha: “There’s a mosque inside the Pentagon!“
Megacities
Friday, August 20, 2010 at 5:00 amBy Josh
Just read an interesting fact in an article about Chinese megacities over at Foreign Policy.
In Britain, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, there are only two cities with a population of more than 1 million; in the United States, there are just 10 such cities. But already in China, there are 43 cities of more than 1 million, and by 2030 there will be 221, the McKinsey Global Institute predicts.
Wow.
American hatred
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 2:30 pmBy Josh
Another mikeyhemlok article from the “Attackerman” blog: “Getting Ugly Out There“:
I’m getting increasingly uncomfortable with where we find ourselves going. It’s moving quickly past mere reprehensible politics, fueling itself with more vitriol, more lies, more fear and more hatred, taking us all too fast to a place that, as an American, I believed was behind us for good …
So I look around, at all the racial and ethnic hatred spewing forth from every corner, and I wonder where we can go from here. Is there a path back from all this, or have we passed some kind of tipping point from which there is no return? Will it all fade away after November, or have we lit the fuse and now stand helpless, perhaps even regretful, as we await the inevitable explosion? This all seems like such a very, very bad idea. As the rhetoric gets uglier, the hatred more explicit, it can only be a matter of time before somebody feels threatened enough to push back, and then somebody is going to die. And at that moment, when, shocked into silence, we all hesitate and draw a collective breath and wonder if we should just stop and think, talk to each other, LISTEN to each other, will we have it within ourselves as Americans to back away? Or will we, the most heavily armed nation in the world, reach for our weapons and go to war against ourselves?
Cordoba House
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 6:40 amBy Josh
I could go on-and-on about the Cordoba House Mosque and Islamic Center controversy all day. But most of my thoughts are being said elsewhere on the internet tubes, so why not link to them instead?
One of the blogs I regularly read is Spencer Ackerman’s “Attackerman”. Lately he’s had guest posts, and one gentleman (at least, I think he’s a he) “mikeyhemlok” and I agree on many topics. His post on the Cordoba House is pretty fantastic: “It’s Not About THEM, It’s About Us.”
It’s a short article, I almost pasted the whole thing here but this is the key:
No matter how you personally feel about Muslims and mosques, you have to recognize that this is a one-way trip, a simple, irreversible binary choice. As there can be no real doubt that the Imam and his congregation have every right to build their mosque where they wish, it comes down to something more nuanced, and much more pernicious. Do you want people, either by dint of their popular majority or their frantic shrieking and hand-waving to have the power to over-rule the basic rights and freedoms granted to all Americans? Do you understand that if it’s just Muslims today, it will be Jews tomorrow and atheists after that and in the end, the battle for the smouldering rubble of the American experiment will be fought between Catholics and Protestants, with the victors laying claim to just another totalitarian theocracy?
It truly makes me wonder. Can even the likes of Gingrich and Palin actually be proud of an America so willing to run away from her core values? In the name of political expediency and tribal nativism, balanced against all the history and sacrifice that has come before? If they actually got their way, and Cordoba House project was blocked, would they see it as a bright and shining moment for America? Or would it be a Pyrrhic victory, with the taste of ashes, as they wondered if it could be a Mosque in New York today, might it be a Church in Kansas or a book in Georgia or a political party in South Carolina tomorrow.
Abu Dhabi Logo
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 6:30 amBy Josh
Our friends in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE and neighbor to Dubai, have a new logo: “The Abu Dhabi Brand: Rich.”
I like it. It’s classy, which is nice; sometimes Middle Eastern design veers a bit gaudy for me. Fantastic work.
Bourdain in Dubai
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 at 5:00 amBy Josh
Back in April the Travel Channel aired an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations shot in Maine (see Bourdain in Maine).
Now, last week, the episode went to Dubai!
Here’s a clip:
It’s for sale on iTunes if that’s the way you get your cable TV.
Return of the Dubai’s Hard Rock
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 8:41 amBy Josh
When we lived in Dubai we were fans of the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a ten minute walk from our house and they had burgers, salads and, most preciously, beer. Well, beer for awhile – right before I left they lost their liquor license (see Hard Rock Cafe Dubai Update).
Needless to say, shortly thereafter it closed altogether (see Hard Luck For Hard Rock In Dubai).
Well good news from today’s Gulf News: “Hard Rock Cafe to dish up a second serving in Dubai.”
Soon-ish there’ll be a new 26,500 square-foot restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel end of Dubai Festival City. Also, because it is after all, Dubai, the new Hard Rock will build the tallest ornamental guitar in the world outside.
Sadly Festival City is about an hour’s drive from our old apartment, so our friends who are still in Dubai probably won’t make the trek often.
Also there’s no new news about the Hard Rock Hotel Dubai was supposed to be getting (see Hard Rock Hotel Dubai).
Perhaps the recent economy has derailed that train?
RIP Harrison Price
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 5:42 pmBy Josh
Oh that’s sad, I just heard that Harrison “Buzz” Price has passed away: “Disney Legend Harrison “Buzz” Price Dies at 89.”
Briefly, Price was the MBA from Stanford who figured where to put Disneyland and Walt Disney World back in the 1950s and 1960s. He put everything into the hopper – economic analysis, population projections, land values – and came out with Anaheim and Orlando.
Clever guy.
His autobiography, Walt’s Revolution!: By the Numbers, is simultaneously fascinating and frustrating; I love how he did what he did in the days before computers, but a co-author would have helped immensely. Sometimes numbers guys should stick to the numbers.
I’m glad he wrote his story down, though, it shows how Disneyland and Walt Disney World were the product of so many clever individuals and not the sole brainchild of one man.
Ramadan Kareem!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 6:42 amBy Josh
Today’s the first day of the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims. I spoke about the practices back on the Newlywed in Dubai blog (see Ramadan).
The basic gist is that for a month Muslims fast from dawn until sunset; using it as time for inner reflection, devotion to God, and self-control. The usual practice is to have a pre-fast meal in the early morning and a post-fast meal after dark.
I was amazed in Dubai how many consumer products used Ramadan in marketing. One example I showed on the blog was the Ramadan M&Ms bag (see Ruining Ramadan).
There was an bus stop poster ad I always meant to take a photo of but didn’t. It was always too hot to stop, and I was driving fast in my air conditioned car. After the ads came down I kicked myself.
But then I found an image online.
First a little background – the Islamic calendar is lunar, so the start of Ramadan is based on the first waxing crescent moon.
Pretty awesome, isn’t it?
Ramadan Kareem, everyone. Go in peace.
Saab’s Future
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 5:00 amBy Josh
Why am I on a car kick this week?
Just read an interesting blog over at the New York Times: “Saab’s Owners Offer a Peek Into Its Future.”
I’ve had a soft-spot in my heart for Saabs since the late 1980s when my folks first got one, and then a 1991 Saab 900S was my first car out of college. Just this weekend I saw a beautiful convertible tooling around Portland and I got a twinge of jealousy.
Anyway, the article says that Saab’s new owner, Spyker Cars, needs to sell 85,000 cars worldwide by 2012 to break-even.
At first that didn’t sound like a lot, until I saw recent production numbers – Saab produced 94,751 cars worldwide in 2008, but only 20,791 last year.
My skeptical mind noted that the first number, 85,000 is “sales” while the second set of numbers is “production”. Perhaps misdirection or perhaps just available figures, you can decide.
Either way, Saab has an uphill battle, I hope they can figure this out.
The Italians Are Coming, the Italians Are Coming!
Monday, August 9, 2010 at 5:00 amBy Josh
Just saw this from last week: “Fiat returning to U.S., looking to open Florida dealerships.”
Their Fiat 500 is pretty cute:
UK UFO Cover Up
Sunday, August 8, 2010 at 5:05 amBy Josh
Did you see this: “Churchill ordered UFO cover-up, National Archives show?”
Key quote:
Prime minister Winston Churchill ordered a UFO sighting be kept secret to prevent “mass panic”.
It got me thinking about that Keep Calm and Carry On poster, so I made this:
Insect Food
Sunday, August 8, 2010 at 5:00 amBy Josh
I know this idea makes sense on a rational level, but still, yuk: “Insects could be the key to meeting food needs of growing global population.”
Key quote:
“We’re looking at ways of grinding the meat into some sort of patty, which would be more recognisable to western palates.”
Recognizable, but I’ll take a burger, thanks!
One Last Thing on Hiroshima
Saturday, August 7, 2010 at 6:38 amBy Josh
Some articles about Hiroshima point out that a number of Japanese citizens feel that we should apologize for the atomic attacks: “At Hiroshima Ceremony, a First for a U.S. Envoy.”
I think that it’s impossible to apologize for Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor, or any other act of war, especially six and a half decades later. That’s why wars end and treaties are signed.
Closure.
Using the events as a means to discuss nuclear disarmament isn’t a bad idea. Let’s just not place any blame, okay?
That’s my final thought – well, at least until Monday’s anniversary of Nagasaki.
Kidding!
More on Hiroshima
Saturday, August 7, 2010 at 6:11 amBy Josh
I’m up at an earlier hour than normal (the cat from Arabia was cold and unhappy, and wanted to share with someone) so I’m reading a little more about Hiroshima this morning.
Two other things that amaze me about the attack are the Japanese reaction immediately before and after.
An hour before the bombing Japanese radar picked up the planes approaching and set off an air raid alert, but fifteen minutes before the drop they estimated that there were only a handful of planes, so the alert was lifted. Plus it wasn’t Japanese policy to intercept such a small formation, so no planes were scrambled.
Afterwards nobody knew that anything was out of the ordinary for quite some time. The radio station in Tokyo noticed that the Hiroshima station was off the air, but couldn’t contact the station by phone. The telegraph operators realized that the main telegraph line was not working just north of Hiroshima. Railroad stations 10 miles away reported a huge explosion, but the Imperial Japanese Army couldn’t get through to their station in Hiroshima.
The army was baffled by the silence – they knew that no large enemy raid had occurred and that no sizeable store of explosives was in Hiroshima at that time – so they sent an officer by plane to survey the damage.
It wasn’t until they had flown for three hours – when the plane was still 100 miles out – that they saw the smoke from Hiroshima.
Hiroshima
Friday, August 6, 2010 at 7:46 pmBy Josh
Holy cow – I didn’t realize it was August 6 until listening to NPR on the way home. Today’s the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
I love recent history because generally it’s easier to imagine what someone of my parents or grandparents generation was going through than Ancient history; Rome, Greece, or any other Empire might as well be an alien planet.
That being said, the way that the second world war ended still baffles me.
While this sounds beyond barbaric you have to put this in context; it had been almost 3 months since VE Day, the allied forces had been firebombing the hell out of 67 Japanese cities over the previous six months, without effect. The Japanese Emperor rejected the Potsdam Declaration in July. The ultimatum clearly stated that without a surrender, the Allies would attack Japan, resulting in “the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland”.
Of course, it didn’t mention the atomic bomb – but that would be tipping our hand a little too much.
Return of the PeopleMover
Friday, August 6, 2010 at 6:28 amBy Josh
Weird.
So in 1975 Walt Disney World revamped their Tomorrowland, adding some attraction named “Space Mountain” along with with the a people mover named, well, the “WEDWay PeopleMover”. After the fancy refurbishment of Tomorrowland in 1994 it was renamed the “Tomorrowland Transit Authority” but little changed otherwise.
Apparently now it’s going to be re-renamed to the “Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover” – “‘PeopleMover’ is Coming Back at Walt Disney World.”
Also, to be a nitpick, this article is incorrect when it says the pollution-free linear induction motors were introduced at Disneyland in California in 1967. Disneyland’s PeopleMover (which closed in 1995) used the propulsion system of rotating Goodyear tires.
Its sponsor?
Why Goodyear, of course.
A-Rod Deserves a Star
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 5:05 amBy Josh
600*
So this finally happened yesterday: “Rodriguez Hits 600th Career Home Run.”
Yep, give that guy a star!
