His Master's Toys

For All Mankind: Documentary about man’s mission to moon

soum — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:23:09 +0000

Watching For All Mankind after decades. Somewhere down the line, we lost the dream. Between the years 1968 to 1972, there were several manned missions to moon. If 1/100th of the money that is spent on missiles and nuclear weapons was being used to fund space technology, humanity would have touched the Gods by now. Alas.

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How far would you push others for your dream?

soum — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:51:39 +0000

Burden of Dreams, a film by Les Blank is the behind-the-scenes documentation of how Herzog ended up making his reputed film Fitzcarraldo. Similar to Hearts of Darkness: A filmmaker’s Apocalypse, this film captures the trauma after trauma Herzog went through before he could turn his film into reality. If you thought that the pursuit of Fitzcarraldo himself was insane, then try Herzog’s quest for making that film.

To quote him from the film:

Kinski always says it’s (the jungle) full of erotic elements. I don’t see it so much erotic. I see it more full of obscenity. It’s just – Nature here is vile and base. I wouldn’t see anything erotical here. I would see fornication and asphyxiation and choking and fighting for survival and… growing and… just rotting away. Of course, there’s a lot of misery. But it is the same misery that is all around us. The trees here are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don’t think they – they sing. They just screech in pain. It’s an unfinished country. It’s still prehistorical. The only thing that is lacking is – is the dinosaurs here. It’s like a curse weighing on an entire landscape. And whoever… goes too deep into this has his share of this curse. So we are cursed with what we are doing here. It’s a land that God, if he exists has – has created in anger. It’s the only land where – where creation is unfinished yet. Taking a close look at – at what’s around us there – there is some sort of a harmony. It is the harmony of… overwhelming and collective murder. And we in comparison to the articulate vileness and baseness and obscenity of all this jungle – Uh, we in comparison to that enormous articulation – we only sound and look like badly pronounced and half-finished sentences out of a stupid suburban… novel… a cheap novel. We have to become humble in front of this overwhelming misery and overwhelming fornication… overwhelming growth and overwhelming lack of order. Even the – the stars up here in the – in the sky look like a mess. There is no harmony in the universe. We have to get acquainted to this idea that there is no real harmony as we have conceived it. But when I say this, I say this all full of admiration for the jungle. It is not that I hate it, I love it. I love it very much. But I love it against my better judgment.

Highly memorable, and not just for the brilliant characters.

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Every city in India now needs a networked surveillance system

soum — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:05:57 +0000

After the German bakery blast yesterday, one thing is clear to me – Indian government needs to device a strategy around creating citywide surveillance systems that enable reviewing suspicious behavior, viewing ongoing events.

Political persuasion isn’t ever going to solve the terrorism problem ever – its not rational / logical people we are dealing with here. Neither is any amount of manual police control or tracking going to be sufficient in a place as populated.

The basic concept is similar to Jeremy Bantham’s Panopticon – create a system where everyone feels they are being watched all the time. Privacy hell? Yes, but so what.

How does it work? Simple idea outlined here –

1. Streetlight Cams – attach cams to the streetlights (or lamp-posts as they are know), controlled by small hubs

2. Make it a requirement for any restaurant / bar / club to have an always-on monitoring system. The cams need to be connected to the central surveillance network as well.

3. Create several call-center style hubs in every city, that employs young guns to review the ongoing footage. Police officers should be able to call in and get them to track.

4. Create / purchase an intelligent tracking system that can track the same object through a series of video streams.

5. Spread a massive stop-and-search police network through all the cities. Increase the size of police force by an order of ten, if not more.

City of London provides an excellent example of how networked cams create a feeling of being perpetually watched.

With the massive security loopholes everywhere in the country, the problem of terrorism is only going to escalate with increasing population.

Yes, above is easier said than done, but anyone else got any better ideas?

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The Incredible Aamir

soum — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:21:57 +0000

Just finished watching 3 Idiots, the highest grossing Bollywood film ever released only a month ago, with my friend Hemant – who also went to the same institute as hinted in the film.

: Image via Wikipedia

You have to hand it to Aamir Khan – not only is he the lead behind two of the highest grossing Bollywood films, the man, even at the age of 45, plays the role of a twenty year old student and manages to pull it off with incredible success.

Watch and learn how to tap into Indian psyche.

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Watched Inside Man by Spike Lee last night. Great twist to the…

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:40:11 +0000

Watched Inside Man by Spike Lee last night. Great twist to the conventional bank robbery drama. Highly recommended.

…watched ‘Touching The Void’ tonight…. …watched ‘Touching The Void’ tonight. Outstanding! ...
peetypassion: Late night walk via peetypassion: Late night walk via ...
swampandreviews: Now THIS is the real shit. This late night… swampandreviews: Now THIS is the real shit. This late...

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Watched Following (1998) last night. Brilliantly lives up to its…

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:40:04 +0000

Watched Following (1998) last night. Brilliantly lives up to its ultra-low budget, high concept goal.

…watched ‘Touching The Void’ tonight…. …watched ‘Touching The Void’ tonight. Outstanding! ...
peetypassion: Late night walk via peetypassion: Late night walk via ...
swampandreviews: Now THIS is the real shit. This late night… swampandreviews: Now THIS is the real shit. This late...

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dbg: by Slinkachu

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:00:09 +0000

dbg:

by Slinkachu

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http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741 (via…

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:00:17 +0000

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741 (via Vimeo)

Collaboration: where the internet shines!

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Absolutely brilliant – Chopin, Nocturne, opus 27 #2, solo piano…

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:00:15 +0000

Absolutely brilliant – Chopin, Nocturne, opus 27 #2, solo piano (via smalin, via fadereu). Patterns in music?

…saw Andy Warhol in Tate Modern today – the brilliant Cow… …saw Andy Warhol in Tate Modern today – the brilliant...

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black-and-white: 9/31 (via *NiNOO)

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:40:08 +0000

black-and-white:

9/31 (via *NiNOO)

fairphantom: black-and-white: by *pakpao fairphantom: black-and-white: by *pakpao ...
black-and-white: Dark clouds and lightning over NYC skyline (via… black-and-white: Dark clouds and lightning over NYC skyline (via...

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