Time is short, so just a few links from the depths of the internets. Go forth and be merry:
- Are Critics Too Lenient On Early Summer Movies? – Matt Singer takes on Devin Faraci’s theory that “critics gets less forgiving as the summer goes on.” This is based on Man of Steel‘s relatively craptacular 59% on Rotten Tomatoes versus Star Trek Into Darkness‘ pretty amazing 87%. Even though I found Star Trek to be better than Man of Steel, I do think it’s a lot closer than Rotten Tomatoes bears out, and there is a sorta intuitive sense that maybe critics are getting worn down by blockbusters by this point (Man of Steel is especially rough in that respect, that last our is just pure action and special effects, which I imagine grating on critics.)
- Other Knight Rider License Plates Guaranteed To Fool No One – More glorious stupidity from Previously.tv that nevertheless made me laugh loudly. Utterly brilliant. In other news, hell yeah (cannot wait for their podcast).
- How JAWS 3D Was Almost JAWS 3, PEOPLE 0 – I’m sure it felt like the right decision at the time, but just imagine how awesome it would be right now if they actually made JAWS 3, PEOPLE 0. Missed opportunities.
- The Tragic Imprisonment Of John McTiernan, Hollywood Icon – This doesn’t really explain what happend to John McTiernan after his amazing late 80s, early 90s run of great action movies, but it does highlight why he hasn’t done much over the past decade or so and why he’s serving a year in prison (supposedly due to some weird actor vendetta).
- METI: Should We Be Shouting At The Cosmos? – David Brin wonders why we’re shouting at the universe with METI (Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), a sorta splinter group of SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). It makes sense to try and figure out if there are other intelligent species in the universe (Via SETI), but we may not want to be as overt as METI.
Recently, several groups, ranging from radio astronomers in Argentina and Russia all the way to the web advertising site Craigslist, have declared that they intend to commence broadcasting high-intensity Messages to ETI… or METI… an endeavor also known at “Active Seti.” Their intention is to change the observable brightness of Earth civilization by many orders of magnitude, in order to attract attention to our planet from anyone who might be out there.
Let there be no mistake. METI is a very different thing than passively sifting for signals from the outer space. Carl Sagan, one of the greatest SETI supporters and a deep believer in the notion of altruistic alien civilizations, called such a move deeply unwise and immature.
That’s all for now…