Great shot of a supermarket from 1964. What amazes me is how little the experience has changed in the past 44 years.
Behind The Lens In Mumbai
An interview with Sebastian D’Souza, the photographer in Mumbai who took the photos of the terrorists that took over the city:
The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D’Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back. “I first saw the gunmen outside the station,” Mr D’Souza said. “With their rucksacks and Western clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles.
Star Wars In The Right Order
Today was one of those great parenting days, Yes, today, my kids watched Star Wars for the first time.
Earlier this year, I took my son to see the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie (not one of the finer products out of LucasFilms), and ever since, he’s been completely obsessed with the franchise.
After picking up the multi-disc set from the Library, doing a little prep work (“There are no animations. There are real people in these movies.”), we sat down this morning in our post-Thanksgiving sloth to enjoy the show. While tempted to have a 14 hour Star Wars marathon, we held back and just watched the first one.
And here is where the debate begins…which one is really the first one? There has been much animated discourse on which order do you show your kids these movies – theatrical release order (Episodes 4,5,6,1,2,3) or numerical order?
I decided that he should view the series in the theatrical release order since the original three movies are easily the best of the bunch (even though Jedi introduced us to Ewoks) and I felt that seeing them in the theatrical order is how Lucas intended us to experience the story – getting thrown right into the middle of the story via Star Wars: A New Hope (IV).
One day, I may take the time to watch them in numerical order to see if it changes my perspective on the series. That way, at least I’d be able to get Jar Jar Binks out of the way early.
A Spongebob View of the Economy
My son is a big fan of Spongebob Squarepants and all his cronies from the Krusty Krab (OK, Daddy watches it here and there too :). So a couple of weeks ago he was watching the “Who Bob, What Pants” episode, in which Spongebob suffers amnesia and somehow finds his way to a town unknown to him called New Kelp City. In his visit to New Kelp City, he is referred to as a “jobless deadbeat”.
So with this context, I take you to my son’s Kindergarten class. His teacher is talking to the class about the poor Economy and specifically discusses how people are losing their jobs and are unemployed. So as any good teacher would do, she reviews the discussion with the class to see who was paying attention. And during this review, she asks the class “So class, what is the word for people who are not working?”. And without missing a beat, my son raises his hand and blurts out “Jobless deadbeats!”.
I would have paid money to have seen his teacher’s face when he said this. Ah, the wonderful world of Spongebob!
Flip The Switch
Received today from a friend. I just laughed. With all the miserable news these days, someetimes I do feel this way:
DUE TO RECENT BUDGET CUTS,
AND THE RISING COST OF ELECTRICITY, GAS AND OIL,
THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL HAS BEEN TURNED OFF.
WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCESincerely,
Your US Government
Lando Calrissian For President
Calrissian or Emperor Palpatine. This is just a riot. And they actually got Billy Dee Williams to participate in the video. Via Buzzfeed
Go Vote!
Hope you are going to vote today. Everyone is doing it.
Track the news, results, and idle banter here:
And there is always Comedy Central’s site: Indecision 2008