It isn't the most exciting or creatively done documentary, but pretty interesting if you are into American politics from the last 40 years. I only knew the Nader from the year 2000 on, and aside from reading about his accomplishments I never knew how mainstream he was. I had no idea that he was one of the most influential people in politics in the 70's and was on the cover of almost all major magazines at one point. It made me wish we had a fresh advocate like him for my generation. We have plenty of advocates, but none that are selfless, relentless and willing to risk everything for what they believe. Instead we have advocates that are relentless and willing to risk nothing of their own including their reputation.
for more An Unreasonable Man Reviews visit FilmCrave.com
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Shameful self promotion
People use some pretty extreme ways to promote themselves and their businesses and make money. From selling the rights to their babies name, appearing in porn movies, making tee-shirts, and being a d-bag (Dustin Diamond is a tool), tattoos, and even a man getting breast implants.
Yes, money drives everything. Subsequently the man who got breast implants decided to keep them after the bet was over. Kinda odd, but whatever floats your boat.
But one of the things that frustrates me the most is spam. Who really reads emails named: "I have kidnapped your baby child" and wants you to visit a site for the pictures? Or anything having the word Viagra in it? Are people still dumb enough to be opening them to the point where it is worth the effort to make these emails and try to come up with ways of avoiding spam filters? Even if someone opens it, that doesn't mean they will click on a link. I have a hard time thinking that all of these people are there for malicious non-monitary means. So how are they all making money off of this? What dumb people are still out there sharing their credit card numbers with strange sites that tell them they will an Ipod if they give their bank account information?
That is my rant. Here is my shameful plug for my sites :P
small business contact manager
FilmCrave's New Movie Forum
Yes, money drives everything. Subsequently the man who got breast implants decided to keep them after the bet was over. Kinda odd, but whatever floats your boat.
But one of the things that frustrates me the most is spam. Who really reads emails named: "I have kidnapped your baby child" and wants you to visit a site for the pictures? Or anything having the word Viagra in it? Are people still dumb enough to be opening them to the point where it is worth the effort to make these emails and try to come up with ways of avoiding spam filters? Even if someone opens it, that doesn't mean they will click on a link. I have a hard time thinking that all of these people are there for malicious non-monitary means. So how are they all making money off of this? What dumb people are still out there sharing their credit card numbers with strange sites that tell them they will an Ipod if they give their bank account information?
That is my rant. Here is my shameful plug for my sites :P
small business contact manager
FilmCrave's New Movie Forum
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Chrome vs. FireFox 3.0
Alright, I will admit it I am a FireFox fan, but I decided to give Google's new Chrome a shot. I expected something a bit more "new" but what I saw was an application that reminded me a lot of Safari, which is also a good browser.
Immediately I liked the layout of their tabs, it looked a bit cleaner and less blocky. I found that the "out of the box" settings are a big dumb. For instance, when you open a new tab it takes you to a page that shows you recent history instead of opening a page that you designate. If I wanted to view my recent history I would go to my history page or a bookmark, usually I want to see my iGoogle page.
I also like the "incognito mode" that keeps your browsing history private. The thing about this mode is the fact that Google has been under fire for how much information they normally track, so to me if I have to use their browser I am skeptical on how much more info they are tracking outside of this new "porn mode".
The one big flaw I saw was with it's url bar. FireFox 3.0's Awesome Bar is far superior. It does contextual searches for page titles and urls instead of just page titles. When I visited Filmcrave and then went to type in the url again. I typed in "crave" and it highligted crave.com -- I never even visited that site! I didn't like that at all. If I type in crave into Firefox 3.0, I get all sorts of Filmcrave related pages. Much nicer.
The final thing I looked at was memory consumption. Chrome appears to use less, but it is a bit deceiving because it opens up each tab as a new process while in the meantime the main process grows in size each time as well. From a fresh reboot I opened the same 4 websites. FireFox used 77mb total and Chrome used 91mb (all the processes combined). I am sure as you close your websites and it releases all of the memory that Chrome ends up using less on average, but overall it isn't that special.
In the end I was expecting Chrome to be something substantially different, and I found that it was basically a cross between Safari and IE8 due to be out this spring. Until then I am sticking with FireFox, which ironically is being funded by Google until 2011.
Immediately I liked the layout of their tabs, it looked a bit cleaner and less blocky. I found that the "out of the box" settings are a big dumb. For instance, when you open a new tab it takes you to a page that shows you recent history instead of opening a page that you designate. If I wanted to view my recent history I would go to my history page or a bookmark, usually I want to see my iGoogle page.
I also like the "incognito mode" that keeps your browsing history private. The thing about this mode is the fact that Google has been under fire for how much information they normally track, so to me if I have to use their browser I am skeptical on how much more info they are tracking outside of this new "porn mode".
The one big flaw I saw was with it's url bar. FireFox 3.0's Awesome Bar is far superior. It does contextual searches for page titles and urls instead of just page titles. When I visited Filmcrave and then went to type in the url again. I typed in "crave" and it highligted crave.com -- I never even visited that site! I didn't like that at all. If I type in crave into Firefox 3.0, I get all sorts of Filmcrave related pages. Much nicer.
The final thing I looked at was memory consumption. Chrome appears to use less, but it is a bit deceiving because it opens up each tab as a new process while in the meantime the main process grows in size each time as well. From a fresh reboot I opened the same 4 websites. FireFox used 77mb total and Chrome used 91mb (all the processes combined). I am sure as you close your websites and it releases all of the memory that Chrome ends up using less on average, but overall it isn't that special.
In the end I was expecting Chrome to be something substantially different, and I found that it was basically a cross between Safari and IE8 due to be out this spring. Until then I am sticking with FireFox, which ironically is being funded by Google until 2011.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
No sympathy for killers
Alright, this is one of my biggest political pet peeves. I read today that a man who killed two college girls is now saying he shouldn't be executed because he is too fat. His lawyer is pleading that the nurse will have a hard time finding a vein, making him unfit for death-row.
I always knew it cost more to kill a man than to keep him in prison for life because they appeal so much while on death-row. But I never realized the reasons for the appeal were so screwed up.
A person on death-row should not be afforded the same courtesy as a regular person. I will even take it a step further: there are basic human rights you give up when you show you are barely human. If you kill, rape or torture another human then you are no longer considered "human". What makes us human is not our appearance, it is what is in our hearts and minds. If you can't think or feel enough to prevent you from killing then I hope that nurse spends an hour sticking you with that needle, trying to find a vein, and maybe in that agonizing hour you will find your conciseness.
I always knew it cost more to kill a man than to keep him in prison for life because they appeal so much while on death-row. But I never realized the reasons for the appeal were so screwed up.
A person on death-row should not be afforded the same courtesy as a regular person. I will even take it a step further: there are basic human rights you give up when you show you are barely human. If you kill, rape or torture another human then you are no longer considered "human". What makes us human is not our appearance, it is what is in our hearts and minds. If you can't think or feel enough to prevent you from killing then I hope that nurse spends an hour sticking you with that needle, trying to find a vein, and maybe in that agonizing hour you will find your conciseness.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Gas Price Manipulation
It seems to me that with with the price of oil down 20% in the last couple of weeks that gas prices should have followed suit. However, what we are seeing is typical price manipulation where the price has only fallen 5% nationwide.
I have read that this is called "Rockets and Feathers" and has been the way oil and gas have worked for 20 years. The problem is the price at the pump is largely based on the price of oil in the future no today. So as prices drop, it will slowly reflect the price at the pump but you need a trend of a year of lower prices in order to have the full drop. The result is steady rising prices with no relief.
Some also say that when prices are on the incline people are more apt to price shop for gas, but when it is falling people fill-up and get there gas whenever and where ever they can making it less competitive for gas stations -- thus prices hold steady.
I don't have a solution, it just pisses me off.
I have read that this is called "Rockets and Feathers" and has been the way oil and gas have worked for 20 years. The problem is the price at the pump is largely based on the price of oil in the future no today. So as prices drop, it will slowly reflect the price at the pump but you need a trend of a year of lower prices in order to have the full drop. The result is steady rising prices with no relief.
Some also say that when prices are on the incline people are more apt to price shop for gas, but when it is falling people fill-up and get there gas whenever and where ever they can making it less competitive for gas stations -- thus prices hold steady.
I don't have a solution, it just pisses me off.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2.5/4 stars)
While I don't regret going to this movie at all, I am hard pressed to find things I can actually say were really good. The movie uses the typical action/adventure formula with goofy sidekicks, witty dialog and obvious story line (think The Mummy). So with that said, Spielberg disappointed me. Fortunately for him, this formula still works decently and made for a film that I enjoyed overall.
There were a couple of scenes that ruined my enjoyment however. To me, I separate the supernatural from the natural and when something in a movie that is supernatural occurs I am willing to believe it for the movie's sake. But when something natural happens that just couldn't happen, I have trouble getting past it. For example, in this movie Indiana takes cover in a refrigerator at a nuclear test site right before it is blown to smithereens. He then flies over a mile in the air and drops down without a scratch. These type of things ruin movies for me because they are just way too unrealistic.
Another scene was when Shai's character turns into Tarzan and is one with the monkeys. Sure monkey's are cool but this whole scene could have been removed.
It wasn't all like that, most of the action was fun to watch and even sometime funny. Overall I wasn't expecting much and it exceeded my expectations, but I was still expecting more from Spielberg who I have been slowly loosing faith in as a Director that can do something new and unique.
There were a couple of scenes that ruined my enjoyment however. To me, I separate the supernatural from the natural and when something in a movie that is supernatural occurs I am willing to believe it for the movie's sake. But when something natural happens that just couldn't happen, I have trouble getting past it. For example, in this movie Indiana takes cover in a refrigerator at a nuclear test site right before it is blown to smithereens. He then flies over a mile in the air and drops down without a scratch. These type of things ruin movies for me because they are just way too unrealistic.
Another scene was when Shai's character turns into Tarzan and is one with the monkeys. Sure monkey's are cool but this whole scene could have been removed.
It wasn't all like that, most of the action was fun to watch and even sometime funny. Overall I wasn't expecting much and it exceeded my expectations, but I was still expecting more from Spielberg who I have been slowly loosing faith in as a Director that can do something new and unique.
Teeth (3/4 stars)
I expected this to be horrible, but it is actually a really good comedy. The idea of the movie is interesting enough, but the acting and dialog was just awkwardly funny. I laughed aloud throughout the whole film and even though it wasn't a great story and you could see what was going to happen a mile away, it didn't really hurt the movie.
If this movie knew the plot was retarded and they exploited it and there is nothing better than a movie that makes fun of itself. As a horror, it isn't really there, though it did make me cringe a few times.
If you don't take this too seriously, you will laugh your ass off.
If this movie knew the plot was retarded and they exploited it and there is nothing better than a movie that makes fun of itself. As a horror, it isn't really there, though it did make me cringe a few times.
If you don't take this too seriously, you will laugh your ass off.
More Teeth movie reviews
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