This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on August 23, 2010). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.
Sometime between August 12th and August 23rd, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!
- Ten Things I Know About the Mosque – Roger Ebert’s Journal: "The First Amendment comes down to this: 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' It does not come down to: 'The First Amendment gives me the right to repeat the N-word 11 times on the radio to an inoffensive black woman, and when you attack me for saying it, you are in violation of my First Amendment rights.'"
- Beloit College Mindset List: Class of 2014: "The class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Since 'digital' has always been in the cultural DNA, they've never written in cursive and with cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wrist watch. Dirty Harry (who's that?) is to them a great Hollywood director. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat. "
- Russia in Color, a Century Ago: "With images from southern and central Russia in the news lately due to extensive wildfires, I thought it would be interesting to look back in time with this extraordinary collection of color photographs taken between 1909 and 1912. In those years, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time – when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun."
- Did ‘Star Wars’ Become a Toy Story? Producer Gary Kurtz Looks Back: "After the release of 'Empire'…the partners could no longer find a middle ground. 'We had an outline and George changed everything in it,' Kurtz said. 'Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn't want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.' The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone 'like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,' as Kurtz put it. Kurtz said that ending would have been a more emotionally nuanced finale to an epic adventure than the forest celebration of the Ewoks that essentially ended the trilogy with a teddy bear luau."
- Be Careful With Your Safari Extensions, and Turn Off Auto-Updating: "I'm a big fan of Safari Extensions. I've written several of my own, some of which I share with the Internet public. But because I've built those extensions, I've realized how easily a malicious developer could harvest all sorts of information about you, using a method that could sneak in and evade immediate detection."