Thai coup d'etat

If you haven't heard about it read the news!

I know most of you, probably by my being an unpaid unofficial reddit sales person, read articles from reddit. Nonetheless, I have to point this one out. Late last night, I stumbled upon this. It reminded me a lot about the old videos and books about the many coups in Bolivia. The neat thing, though, is that usually accounts like this one come up months if not years or decades after the actual coup because one of the first items in most coup's agenda is to prevent the free flow of information and to arrest, torture and kill people who have not-so-positive things to say.

Just in case you didn't read through the whole thing (I don't blame you it is long!) here are some interesting links that come up towards the middle: 19Sep and pictures.

The internet is changing the way we go about business, ain't it? I wonder if one day we'll have the equivalent of the open source movement for news coverage. The main problem I can foresee is the one wikipedia struggles with: the credibility of the sources. However, you don't have to believe everything you read. After a while (much like with wikipedia) you know when a source is good and when one isn't. I think this problem would be a lot more bearable than the corporate control of the media that we have going on now around here.

On a completely different note, I hope king george doesn't decide that it is time for the US to go enforcing democracy in Thailand. So far, it seems that it is going to be this way, luckily. I've always believed that most peoples have the power to do away with their tyrants and I am sure the Thai people are no exception -- specially after reading the live internet journalism. That is the kind of thing that gets you arrested in times of coup yet Alpha_Binary doesn't seem to be scared that much. Hats off to her!

What is Popeye to do now?

I was reading Cecilia's blog since there wasn't a new comic today. I had heard about the e-coli spinach infection and all that, but I didn't realize it was causing so much havoc. I guess the fact that my mother all the way back in Bolivia heard about it should've clued me in (yes, I've been slacking and not reading the news these last few days).

In any event, whatever news article about this I skimmed this morning was so paranoic! Be scared, be very scared, the evil spinach is out to get you. It reminds me a bit of the airport-security debate I've gotten myself into a few times recently. Why do we react before we think?

Do not buy spinach! Avoid greens! Careful you might die in a car crash...oh wait, we don't worry about that one.

The first few results of a google search on e coli facts seem to suggest that if you cook your spinach at 160 fahrenheit you will be ok. Second, suppose there have been 1000 cases (an overestimate I think), that is 1 in 3 million people or 0.0000033 of the population. Of course, I couldn't find that info on the news (I admit I didn't do the best job at looking since I have to go to class soon). All the info the news seem to have given is about where the first cases were found, how many people got it, what you should avoid, etcetera. Be very scared!

All in all, Cecilia is right: you are more likely to die in your daily commute than by eating a spinach salad for lunch. So, I say Popeye should eat himself a can's worth and go kick the meida's rear. I would, but I better head to class.

Ojos de vainilla

Wanalee has rated 237 netflix movies and has 130 movies in her queue. That is a movie a week for the next 2.5 years. Netcrackix sounds like a better name for that. Anyways, last night, among those 237 movies came up Vanilla Sky which got 3 stars in Wanalee's book. It'd get only 1 or 2 in mine. However, we both seemed to agree that Abre Los Ojos was phenomenal. But, but, but... it is the exact same script and even the same lead actress! How is it that the Hollywood version managed to leave me with a "man, that was stupid!" while the Spanish version somehow made it neat, and left me with some kind of warm and fuzzy yet nostalgic feeling? It is the exact same script!



Wanalee hypothesizes that it is the cinematography and I think I agree. Sort of the same reason that the first photo seems much better than the second one or the same reason that the acoustic Hotel California seems a lot richer than the first one. Alas, perhaps that is all subjective but it seems to be there nonetheless (oh, I know I have a better case with the photograph than with the song -- the solo at the end in the original version is fantastic).

In any event, I think there is a second component to all this. Vanilla Sky is a Hollywood movie whereas Abre Los Ojos is a pelicula española. Watching the first one is nothing, you go to the movies and you watch it. To watch the second you have to go out of your way a bit, research it a bit, know the director or study a bit -- something. I think people who do that also tend to think that the are refining their taste by going out of their way. Hey, at least I know I'm guilty of this. In fewer words, it seems that it is easy to be biased towards liking the foreign version because it is (or makes you feel) more "culturally rich" or something similar. Again, I'm certainly guilty of this. But, given the track record of Hollywood, I think the bias is fair. And yes, this is the all-american foreigner saying all this. Ha!

In any event, the nerd in me says that an experiment is in order to show that the bias is a fair one. When I have time I'll put them both in the netckrackix queue and watch them one right after the other trying to make notes about what makes Abre Los Ojos better than its counterpart. I think the claim I'd like to make is that what makes it better is not just subjective, but there are some tangible things as well. We'll see. I'll publish the report in this peer-reviewed space, though all y'all don't get to tell me that my stuff is crap before I publish it, only afterwards. Take that PRL!