"An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted." - Arthur Miller

Monday, March 08, 2010

Links of the Day

Tron Legacy Teaser Trailer - Click the link to view the trailer or download it in various HD quality sizes. It look is looking sweet with great mix of the old Tron design with new.

ABC News Fakes Toyota Acceleration Report? - Gawker media seems to have confirmed that Brian Ross of ABC News may have faked a recent report on Toyota acceleration. It appears the network used creative editing to indicate an on camera occurrence of the unintended acceleration that has plagued Toyota. So far, the reports have not actually been verified, relying almost exclusively on customer reports of events. In addition, the network relied on a study of Professor David Gilbert for their network. It turns out he is being paid by lawyers in a class action lawsuit against Toyota, so not exactly an impartial source for information which wasn't revealed in the news report. But then the press and transparency are foreign concepts nowadays. It turns seems that the car ABC used for the video was rigged with an electronic throttle that "was modified in a way unlikely to ever occur in the real world." That modification would then cause the exact same "unintended acceleration" to occur on multiple makes and models of cars including those from GM, Honda, Ford and more. Long story short, all indications are that ABC News falsified a story in an ongoing quest to scare their viewers into watching their news program. Click the link above for more information and video of how ABC's test may have been falsified.

OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass Video" - A fantastic Rube Goldberg machine that goes with the song. It seems to be one continues shot of a whole bunch of different and unique triggers go off to the song. Worth a watch.


Presidential Reunion - In a call for financial reform, a bunch of SNLers and Ron Howard created the below video as they reprised their various Presidential roles from their SNL years. This includes Dana Carvey (George Bush Sr), May Rudolph (Michelle Obama), Dan Aykroyd (Jimmy Carter), Jim Carrey (Ronald Reagan), Chevy Chase (Gerald Ford) and more. I doubt it will make a difference as reform is essentially dead with Republicans unwilling to accept any type of regulation for any reason and Democrats unwilling to fight Wall Street considering it has demonstrated a wiliness to make the argument that election choices may adversely effect stocks, something the public is susceptible to due to the recession. I do applaud the effort.



2010 Oscar Winners - The award season has finally drawn to a close after what seems like many months of Hollywood breaking its own arms to pat itself on the back. The finally tally is the Hurt Locker is apparently the best film of the year with six wins to Avatar's three. For reasons I don't really understand, Avatar didn't sweep the technical categories as expected. My best guess is actors, who are the largest voting bloc, reacted to genuine fear that the movie represented the next step in movie making where actors (and really the huge paychecks they like to get) will become obsolete. This was indicated with more than a few snarky comments during the program. As for the show, if you missed it, be glad as the opening number from the host extraordinaraire (but not Oscar host) Neil Patrick Harris was about the only thing worth watching.

No comments:

Post a Comment