Ok, now that I’ve finally seen Skyfall (well, I didn’t catch it when it first hit the theaters, so decided to wait for the iTunes release and watch it on my home theater setup), I watched a trailer I’ve seen posted many times to the web, an ‘honest’ movie trailer put together by some fans(or not?). Funny, but massive spoilers so don’t watch it without seeing the movie first. As for the movie…I liked it, but I’d say Casino Royale is still my all-time favorite.
Slow climate change by working less!
Now here’s an idea I think we could all accept. The Center for Economic and Policy Research has released a paper (PDF link) that looks at the impact that working fewer hours would have on climate change. It assumes that working less would also result in decreased consumption, which then decreased factory output, etc…and finds that reducing work hours by an annual average of only 0.5% over the rest of this century would eliminate 25-50% of the global warming that has not yet already been ‘locked in’ (or in other words, reduce the warming yet to be caused by future greenhouse gas emissions). The estimated impact to personal impact is a reduction of 10-25%, in exchange for increased leisure time.
Now, we just need a catchy slogan for this. Post any ideas in the comments below, let’s make this happen! 🙂
(via Inhabitat)
TV: a dying business model
TV, as we have known it, is dead…the industry just isn’t willing to give up and is doing its best to keep it on life support. The best example of this is commercial-skipping technology. ReplayTV was sued and ultimately put out of business largely due to this feature, and the latest lawsuit targets Dish Networks for similar technology, that automatically skips over commercials in recorded shows.
Does this technology impact studios’ bottom line? Probably. But the invention of the horseless carriage affected horsewhip makers everywhere…and this alone is not a reason to hold back progress. The technology is here to give the viewers a better viewing experience, but studios are doing everything they can to block change. Apple has been rumored to be working on a TV, though building the hardware is the relatively easy part…it’s the software and user experience that is the most challenging to fix….here’s hoping they can pull it off in 2013.
As for me…I cut the cord over a year ago, tired of paying so much for so many channels I just didn’t want. I replaced our DirecTV subscription with a combination of purchasing shows via iTunes, and recording free over-the-air broadcasts from the major TV networks. My iMac records those broadcasts using an EyeTV tuner, with the free software plugin comskipper automatically going through and marking commercials for deletion (I still like to review that manually as it often leaves some in there). A simple click then exports it directly into my iTunes library for viewing on any of our AppleTVs. It’s really not that hard…just imagine how awesome the user experience could be if the studios embraced technology instead of fighting it every step of the way.
TV’s business model is obsolete…it’s time to reinvent it. If anyone can do it, it’s Apple. My AppleTV prediction – voice and gesture control. Face recognition tied in with parental controls to limit what kids can watch without an adult present. An aluminum enclosure, very similar to the latest iMacs. Sales in the billions.
Introverts vs. Extroverts, explained
This is a really cool video that helps explain introverts versus extroverts. In a society where extroversion is the ‘norm’, introverts can feel out of place when in reality it’s society that needs to change, not the introverts (can’t change who you are!). This video is a good one for introverts to watch as it helps you understand why you don’t fit in, and it’s good for extroverts to watch to better understand introverts.
(In case you’re wondering, I’m very introverted…and once I came to understand and accept that, life become so much better!)
Fox News and Wall Street Journal misleading on science
Fox News (and to perhaps a lesser extent, the Wall Street Journal) have reputations for being less than factual with the news they report, but is that fair? The Union of Concerned Scientists took a look at the science reporting done by these two outlets, and have a published a report which you may view in its entirety here. In summary, 93% of the references to climate change on Fox News were misleading and most commonly broadly dismissing “the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring or human-induced.” The Wall Street Journal fared similarly poor, with 81% of letters, op-eds, columns, and editorials misleading their readers.
I see no problem with news stations having a political bias, but I do believe they have a social and moral obligation to be factual. What’s scary is that Americans are following these companies willingly (Fox News is the most-watched cable news channel in the US, with the Wall Street Journal leading for newspaper circulation). They are doing the public a great disservice by establishing this form of misleading reporting as the norm.
(via: link)