The D0llhouse

oh yes my lambs, i cannot wait till January arrives.. and with it, brings me a d0llhouse.

Have i mentioned my love for El Senor Joss Whedon?

First review. My heart Pounds.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37214

Me.want. to.watch.
Me.hungry. to. watch.dis. movie.
Me.thirsty. for.de. dark.knigh.

Interesting stuff

A most lovely sight is the descent into San Francisco, especially at night. When coming from the north, you fly south along the bay and then make almost a 360 turn before landing. The runway starts almost at the water so you fly low along the water and then you touch ground.
Sydney airport has a similar runway, but I have only landed there in day light, early morning to be exact. So none of the loveliness of the lights along the water.

On other news, "Footage from a video camera handed out by an Israeli human rights group appears to show Jewish settlers beating up Palestinians in the West Bank." The article is very sad and it still amazes me that Palestine can be legally occupied like that. It boggles the mind.
However, what was more surprising was the beautiful, practical and feasible solution to counter human rights violations, implemented by these people.

The human rights group called B'Tselem seems handed out about 100 video cameras to the palestinians in the west bank region.
The thinking behind the project is that when trouble flares, rather than just giving a statement to the Israeli police or army, video carries much more weight.
"The difference is amazing," says Oren Yakobovich, who leads the Shooting Back project.
"When they have the camera, they have proof that something happened. They now have something they can work with, to use as a weapon."

I really really liked this idea of handing out video cameras to build accountability. A wonderful use of new technology.

Fiançailles

If you like the movie Amelie, watch A Very Long Engagement, by the same director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring the very same Audrey Tautou. The movie has the same whimsical story telling and characters. Maybe there were too many characters, maybe the ending was too feel-good... can such a movie ever end badly? but it was sweet and heart felt.

So guess what i watched tonight? :-)

check out...

Valardur's recent post on some AMAZING new directions of research! blows my mind and makes me want to try out crack cocaine.

Contact

Did you all hear about the newly discovered uncontacted tribe in the Amazonas in Brazil? It is such an amazing thing that there are still parts of the world which civilization has not yet corrupted. Here are more photos of the tribe and their little world. I find the one where the tribesmen are pointing their arrows at the plane the most powerful -- they don't know what a plane is. From what I understand, the tribe is to remain isolated. It makes me wonder if it is ok for them to remain untouched by civilization. Isn't also good for them to choose how they want to live?
Alvaro mentioned how this policy of leaving them alone seems in line with that of Star Trek - don't contact a new world, unless they contact you first. They need to grow and be mature enough... don't you wonder how many other worlds are watching us, waiting for us to 'mature'? :-)

Also, it seems there are more than 100 of these uncontacted tribes, more than half in south america, incl. Colombia, but a fair number in New Guinea (isn't that fascinating?). But 'uncontacted' doesn't necessarily mean that they don't know of the world outside. Some decide that they don't want to assimilate, and so go further in, in to the jungles.

Unrelated to this, I started reading about New Guinea and it seems it is known for cannibalism, although ceremonial, up until even 1970s. The interesting thing is that the reason the Aussie government outlawed cannibalism in their part of New Guinea because it led to a disease........

New App1e product: the i-Rack!

Really funny video!