Repost: Anita's Irony

Joseph Reagle has coined a new Internet law (à la Godwin's law) called "Anita's Irony," which states that "Online discussion of sexism or misogyny quickly results in disproportionate displays of sexism and misogyny." The rule comes in response to the ridiculous and depressing backlash against Anita Sarkeesian over the Tropes Vs Women in Video Games video I posted about previously. It's amusing, accurate, and all the more depressing for that.

(Via Feminist Frequency)

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'Reposts' are inspired by other articles or blog posts around the Internet. They are used here with accreditation as the basis for short bursts of Max's interests.

The Best Thing College Humor Has Done in Years

I. Have. No. Words. This video is perfect. Instant classic.

CollegeHumor's Favorite Funny Videos

Facebook Law

College Humour has put together an amusing video explaining why all those "For the Record: I hereby declare..." Facebook statuses you've likely been seeing on your newsfeed. I was a particular fan of the inclusion of the Rome Statute, which (as my International Law class recently learned) gives the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and aggression. Whoever originally wrote the block of text that's being passed around willy-nilly clearly had a good sense of humour.

Ben Franklin Was a Dirty Dude

The recent release of Assassin's Creed 3 has allowed the less historically inclined to enjoy some of the more offbeat moments of America's past, including the eccentricities of Ben "Founding Father" Franklin. Kotaku has put together a video showing off Franklin's rant about why men should take older women as mistresses, and it should not be missed. None of this should be surprising if you've looked into Franklin's history before, but the accurate depiction in a blockbuster video game is likely to surprise a lot of gamers. Check it out below:

I'll have much more to say about Assassin's Creed 3 soon so check back if you're curious about the game.

Honest Trailers: Prometheus

My hate-on for Prometheus continues with this hilarious Honest Trailer from Screen Junkies. It's not new or anything but it's making me laugh this morning so I figured why not share? Also it's nice to finally be able to laugh about how bad Prometheus was instead of being sent into an angry hate-spiral. Maybe someday I'll be able to watch it again without experiencing the cinephile equivalent of a post-traumatic acid flashback. Not that I'm eager to test the waters, mind you. Anyway, enough stalling/passive-aggressive griping, enjoy the video below:

More Grumblings About Prometheus

Red Letter Media has released their own unique take on Prometheus, and it's appropriately just a series of questions that point out the logical flaws in the film. It takes them four minutes. Yep.

Even after all those (extremely valid) questions, there are still yet more logical problems that I wish had been addressed. Like, why did they never mention the whole squid-alien-baby thing again after the sequence except in an off-hand line in which Michael Fassbender mocks Noomi Rapace for still being alive. That really bugged me. A simple "Holy shit! That was a really horrible thing that just happened to me! Maybe the most horrible thing that's ever happened to anyone ever!" would have sufficed. One line of dialogue, that's all I ask...

Topless Robot has posted a fantastic two-part FAQ in which Rob Bricken struggles through the mess of a plot, and then tries to sort through the meaning of it all. It's a great read if you've got some time, I thoroughly recommend it.

Last but not least, I want to share a fictional text message thread between Noomi Rapace and one of the Engineers. It's worth a read in addition to all of the stuff above, if only for what has to be my favourite dig on modern cinema this year: "All will be revealed in James Cameron's PROMETHEUSES"

LoL: David Mitchell's Soapbox

This morning I was made aware of David Mitchell's wonderful YouTube account where he releases short video rants in a series called David Mitchell's Soapbox. If you're familiar with David Mitchell and his sense of humour from great British programs like Peep Show then you'll know exactly what to expect here. The basic gist is that each three minute episode is a rant by Mitchell for/against something like "group consensus" and modern standards of spelling. As you can probably tell from that description, the videos are incredibly dry and sarcastic, so if that's the kind of thing you're into then you're bound to love them.

The one below is on 'LoL' and you might be surprised by Mitchell's take on the, erm, "word" (?). My favourite part of the video comes near the end when he shifts gears and starts into the use of smileys in texts/emails. It's a well thought out little rant that's as insightful about societal niceties as it is hilariously overwrought, which is exactly why I like it.

 

(Via Julia)

Censored Doonesbury Cartoon on Women's Rights

Doonesbury cartoonist Gary Trudeau has come under fire this week for his set of strips mocking recent legal developments surrounding abortion and contraception in the United States. Specifically, the strips detail the trials of a young woman attempting to get an abortion in Texas. As The Guardian reports, some papers have refused to run the strips while others have relegated them to the editorial page.

The series is presented in its entirety below thanks to Media Watch, a blog run by SACOMSS.

I'm not going to write much about this, mostly because it's late and I'm tired right now, but also because Media Watch has already said everything I could possibly say on the issue. Briefly, this is not only a pretty depressing example of censorship, it's also (unusually) clearly indicative of the larger social and political problems behind the disputed abortion/contraception laws themselves. This isn't the first time Doonesbury has taken a controversial political stance, and likewise it's not the first time the strip has been censored. However, to my knowledge it is the first time that so many strips have been censored at the same time so as to completely stamp-out an issue. And it doesn't strike me as entirely coincidental that the political tipping point was a law about abortion/contraception, and more accurately about women's rights. Just don't take my lack of surprise as a sign of acceptance or apathy, it's more accurately a deeply rooted cynicism about how minorities are treated south of the border.

Anyway, it's late and I'm tired. The comic is above so give it a read.

(Via Media Watch via my friend Sam)

A Visual Summary/Review of Drive

Please enjoy this shockingly accurate visual summary of Drive that I found on reddit:

Seriously, like 70% of the movie's run time is taken up by silent, awkward pauses while people wait for Ryan Gosling to answer simple questions. That said I did enjoy the movie, though I thought it was a victim of over-hype. 

Normally this is where I'd promise that there's a review coming, but honestly that's about as close to one as I'm likely to write.

(Via reddit user DrBrian)

Leap Years Explained

On this day of February 29th, 2012, it seems appropriate to take a moment to consider that strange (and wonderful?) phenomenon that is the leap year. Not merely a crappy (and ill-timed) Amy Adams vehicle, the leap year is actually a method of timekeeping devised in an attempt to eliminate errors resulting from the irregularity of the Earth's rotation around the Sun. I'll let the video below explain further, but suffice to say it's a surprisingly interesting and complex concept. Anyway, please enjoy this interesting and educational video on leap years:

Today also presents an opportunity to pause and reflect: where were you on the last February 29th? I mean that literally, meta-phorically/physically, spiritually, however you want to consider your life really. For me, it was 2008 and I was living in Montreal and working my way through the third year of an undergraduate degree in English Literature and Cultural Studies. Most importantly I had not yet attended law school and was therefore a much, much, much happier and less cynical person. Ahh, memories... 

Belated Media: Scream

The latest awesome thing I've found during my daily scouring of the Internet is Belated Media, a video series of film reviews steeped in sarcasm, geekery, and pretension. There aren't many videos in the series but they can all be found here on YouTube (there's also a very ugly tumblr blog and a Facebook page). Some of my favourites are the Top 10 of 2010 video and the Black Swan review (that started it all?), but the absolute best is the Scream review embedded below. Just watch it, Belated Media speaks (at length) for itself. Suffice to say it's a fantastic review of an incredible film:

This video series is the perfect match for me. It's snide and geeky and funny, and more than one person has already pointed out significant similarities between our styles. In that sense I suppose my admiration is almost an indirect form of vanity, which I am completely ok with. I'd be lying if I said that watching these videos hadn't made me at least consider putting together a video review of one of the movies I've seen recently and enjoyed (reviews are incoming, I swear). But regardless of all that, Belated Media presents witty and intelligent commentary on popular movies. You should check it out. End of story.

Lessons in (il)Literacy: Ayn Rand

This post is the first in what I cynically expect hope will become a series of my favourite bad quotes in literature/academic writing. I have a few examples ready to go but hopefully I'll find more as I go along. Basically the idea is just to share the best examples of terrible writing by widely liked respected known authors. To start things off with a bang, I want to share an old favourite quote from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Slight disclaimer: I haven't actually read Atlas Shrugged in its entirety. I tried to get through it just to experience the batshit-crazy curious objectivist philosophy, mostly because my interest had been piqued by the game Bioshock. However, about 80 pages into the "timeless" classic I put the book down in disgust, partially at the politics but more so at the writing. It was just so... I'm not sure what the right word for it is. Pathetic, disgusting, amateur, horrendous, these are all words that come to mind, but none of them seem quite right. I'll just let the quote below speak to the general quality of the prose. It's always stood out to me as one of the most simultaneously painful and hilarious few sentences I've ever read, so hopefully you can get some sort of kick out of it too.

Eddie Willers shook his head, as the screech of a -rusty mechanism changing a traffic light stopped him on the edge of a curb. He felt anger at himself. There was no reason that he had to remember the oak tree tonight. It meant nothing to him any longer, only a faint tinge of sadness—and somewhere within him, a drop of pain moving briefly and vanishing, like a raindrop on the glass of a window, its course in the shape of a question mark.

Max Landis' The Death and Return of Superman

Max Landis, son of director John Landis, is the writer behind the recently released Chronicle, a film about three high school friends who get superpowers and "make an amazing discovery." I haven't heard anything about the movie but its synopsis isn't exactly inspiring, and when I saw the trailer I initially thought I was watching an old ad for either Hancock or Heroes. Those are both bad signs. However the movie seems to be doing relatively well critically so maybe it's better than it looks. I'll probably check it out. But none of that is what I'm posting about today.

In (what I assume is) a move to support Chronicle, the younger Landis has released a short film in which he rants about the (apparently terrible) mid-90s comic series The Death and Return of Superman. In case you need the painfully obvious pointed out to you, it's a comic wherein Superman dies and then comes back to life. Because he wasn't already being compared to Jesus enough already. Anyway, the Death and Return storyline is generally panned as being emblematic of everything that was wrong with modern comics in the 90s, namely that they relied on big crossovers/events that shocked people into buying issues that lacked actual substance. So in the video Landis breaks down how terrible this Superman storyline is, point by (hilarious) point, and also discusses the underlying comic-industry-executives rationale behind the whole event. Meanwhile various celebrities (Mandy Moore, Elijah Wood, etc) act out what Landis describes in a similar fashion to the always incredible Drunk History videos.

If you've taken the time to read this far into the post then for your own sake please take 15 more minutes to watch the video below. It's hilarious, insightful, and kinda made me want to check out Chronicle. Also I promise to make this my last post about comics for a while, it's only now dawning on me that there have been a lot of them lately.

 

(Via Topless Robot)

Over-thinking It: Batman's Politics

As a lifelong fan of Batman above all other superheroes, I've often been troubled by the political implications of his crusade against evil. Many times I've found myself awake late at night, tossing and turning as I struggled with the inconsistencies between my purported liberal notions and the Dark Knight's (sometimes) disturbing conservatism. It's enough make even the most strident bat-fan wonder: should I enjoy Batman so much? Can I justify my affection? As I grow older and more introspective this has become perhaps the most tumultuous ideological debate of my life, ranking alongside my choices between boxers or briefs, 7 Up or Sprite, and butter or margarine. Now more than ever - with Bruce Wayne staunchly on the side of the 1% as the heir of a billion dollar dynasty - I find myself questioning my allegiance to the Dark Knight.

A few illustrative examples from Batman's history will demonstrate the kind of conservatism I'm talking about:

1) Batman is tough on crime.

Everyone knows that today's Batman is above the outright killing of criminals. The Dark Knight's compassion is so important because it's what separates him from the criminals he fights; without it, he'd just be a guy in a bat suit out beating people to death. However what a lot of non-fans don't know is that Batman was originally a pretty cold-blooded killer. There are many instances in his early days when Batman straight-up slaughtered his enemies, including his first appearance in Detective Comics #27. There Batman remorselessly punched a guy into a vat of acid, and then callously referred to it as "a fitting end for his kind." That's cold!

Batman as he was originally depicted was not above killing in any way, shape, or form; even today he sometimes play fast and loose with the no-killing rule. In particular I'm thinking of the infamous scene at the end of Batman Begins where the caped crusader leaves villain Ra's al Ghul to die on a runaway train, saying "I'm won't kill you but I don't need to save you." That's getting into a serious moral grey area there, Bats. Also, while the modern Batman tends to avoid murdering criminals outright, I've never heard of him publicly opposing the death penalty. Seems to me like the caped crusader is less anti-killing and more just doesn't want to get his hands dirty.

2) Everyone is potentially Batman's enemy.

Batman has a plan for how to take down everyone. If anything bad happens, Batman will have predicted the possibility and have a contingency plan ready. He's prepared for any scenario, up to and including bringing down any of his so-called allies should the need arise. This has been the setup for numerous stories, including Tower of Babel in which Ra's al Ghul steals Batman's contingency plans and uses them to decimate just about every other major superhero. Some choice examples of Batman's nefariousness include giving the Flash light speed seizures, making Aquaman hydrophobic (i.e. afraid of the water he needs to live the way we need oxygen to breathe), and using science to overload every organ in Superman's body simultaneously. Wow. Needless to say, the other heroes are less than impressed by Batman's, ahem, foresight.

It's more than "If you're not with us you're against us." It's "If you're not me then you're probably an enemy." I'm pretty sure the Lannisters employ a similar philosophy, and Game of Thrones fans know how well that turns out. Batman is the epitome of self-assured, paranoia-inducing isolationism, which brings me to my next point...

3) Batman knows what's best for you.

This is the "Big Brother" factor. It goes hand in hand with the whole "crazy-prepared loner" syndrom described above, in that Batman basically thinks that he knows better than everyone else in the world. Take The Dark Knight for example. First Batman uses some sort of cellphone radar system that allows him to audibly/visually spy on every person in Gotham in order to find the Joker. It's ludicrously invasive and reprehensible, but Batman's modus operandi has always been a purely Machiavellian "the ends justify the means" kind of deal. Even Lucius Fox calls out the whole operation for going too far, and this is the guy who gave Wayne (who he'd never met before) a military arsenal for basically no reason ("Spelunking"). Not exactly careful planning there.

But even the radar thing pales in comparison to when Batman decides to take the rap for Harvey "Two-Face" Dent's sudden murder spree at the end of the movie. The general idea is that the people of Gotham can't take the truth about Dent because it more or less proves the Joker's thesis on human nature; as such the best thing is apparently for Batman and Commissioner Gordon to hide the truth and pretend the caped crusader is a violent killer so the city can rest assured that good people do exist in the world.

Ignoring the whole 'put the city at ease by convincing them the guy who prowls the streets at night dressed like a bat is a murderous psychopath' thing, let's consider Batman's foreboding statement that "Sometimes the truth isn't good enough." The truth is dissatisfactory and so Batman just decides to cover it up and pretend it's something more convenient? That's rewriting history, authoritarianism at its finest! Also, since the whole thing makes everyone in Gotham think that Batman's a murderer it more or less makes him the city's ruling crime lord (which is actually another one of his contingency plans in the comic Batman: War Games). And with that interpretation in mind Commissioner Gordon's involvement in the cover up starts to look a lot like a "better the devil you know than the devil you don't" type scenario. In one move Batman and Gordon position themselves the puppeteers of Gotham city's law enforcement and the de facto heads of its criminal element. It's a disturbing, artful, and an effective solution all at the same time, and it doesn't paint a pretty picture in terms of demonstrating Batman's politics.

Conclusion

So what's a liberal-minded Batman fan to do? Write to DC Comics in protest of the ideology they're exposing to impressionable young minds? Occupy my local comic shop? Or maybe I should just put less mental energy and political thought into superheroes? Chime in dear reader and let me know, because the only thing more important/worthwhile than this article is your opinion on it!

The Way the Occupy Cookie Crumbles

Occupy Sesame Street

A commenter over at The Onion's AV Club who writes from the perspective of Sesame Street's Cookie Monster has put together the most coherent and concise explanation of the Occupy Movement that I've seen. I'm reposting it here because it's both hilarious and so clear that it needs to get spread around as much as possible. Lately I've noticed too little understanding and too much misinformation about OWS going around for my liking. Especially with regards to the reasons behind the protests and the "lack of clear goals." This short piece doesn't pull any punches and gets right to the heart of the issue by responding to the far-too-typical "You're just complaining that you're poor" critique.

Anyway, enough talk, here's the post:

Yes, there always going to be rich and poor.  But we used to live in country where rich owned factory and make 30 times what factory worked make.  Now we live in country where rich make money by lying about value of derivative bonds and make 3000 times what factory worker would make if factories hadn't all moved to China.

Capitalism great system.  We won Cold War because people behind Iron Curtain look over wall, and see how much more plentiful and delicious cookies are in West, and how we have choice of different bakeries, not just state-owned one.  It great system.  It got us out of Depression, won WWII, built middle class, built country's infrastructure from highways to Hoover Dam to Oreo factory to electrifying rural South.  It system that reward hard work and fair play, and everyone do fair share and everyone benefit.  Rich get richer, poor get richer, everyone happy.  It great system.

Then after Reagan, Republicans decide to make number one priority destroying that system.  Now we have system where richest Americans ones who find ways to game system - your friends on Wall Street - and poorest Americans ones who thought working hard would get them American dream, when in fact it get them pink slip when job outsourced to 10-year-old in Mumbai slum.  And corporations have more influence over government than people (or monsters).

It not about rich people having more money.  It about how they got money.  It about how they take opportunity away from rest of us, for sake of having more money.  It how they willing to take risks that destroy economy - knowing full well that what could and would happen - putting millions out of work, while creating nothing of value, and all the while crowing that they John Galt, creating wealth for everyone.

That what the soul-searching about.  When Liberals run country for 30 years following New Deal, American economy double in size, and wages double along with it.  That fair.  When Conservatives run country for 30 years following Reagan, American economy double again, and wages stay flat.  What happen to our share of money?  All of it go to richest 1%.  That not "there always going to be rich people".  That unfair system.  That why we upset.  That what Occupy Sesame Street about.

(Via SF Weekly. Thanks Sarah!)

Batman is the 1%

Definitely my all-time favourite Dorkly bit.

Schrödinger's Cat in Under 2 Minutes

Not a lot of commentary today, just found a cool video explaining the basic idea behind the "Schrödinger's cat" thought experiment. I've always been a fan of this particular pop-paradox, so I figured I'd share with the group. Enjoy!

(Via Geekosystem)

The Ballad of Mike Haggar

Over a month after it was first brought to my attention, the incredible Ballad of Mike Haggar still leaves me speechless after every viewing. I don't care if you're not interested in video games, poetry, or general geekery, everyone should bear witness to this amazing video. And if you just so happen to be very much interested in all those things (and if you're reading this blog then the chances of that are pretty decent) then this awesome epic will quite simply blow you away. The only possible downside is that it might leave you semi-catatonic, but trust me: it's worth it.

Did you watch it yet? Good. Now watch it again.

In other news, let this stand as my second "apology for not posting" post. This fall is gearing up to be among the busiest I've ever had and so my time/energy for posting has been at an all time low. But I have not abandoned this blog! Far from it, I am positively bursting with ideas/opinions/etc, I just need to schedule some time to write them. I should be settling into a routine in the next week or so and then I'll make sure to get this blog back in business.

So if you've stuck with this blog (or even this post) long enough to be reading this then thank you, I promise not to make you wait much longer for some good old Max Rambles-brand pretension and attitude.

A Lannister Always Pays His Debts...

Hey everyone. So remember when I said back in April that there'd be a "brief" interruption in my blogging schedule while I was writing my first year law exams? Well, as you can see, that turned into three month long, unexplained hiatus. I figure it's about time I give a bit of an explanation, and a statement about the status/future of this blog.

So, first thing's first, what have I been doing all this time? Well, a few things: I've been working for a professor doing research on the state of Internet/e-commerce law in Canada (way more interesting than it sounds, to me at least); I've also been enjoying the summer sun, spending as much time outside as possible; mostly, however, I've been reading the A Song of Ice and Fire books by George R. R. Martin.

If you've been living under a rock for the last few months then you may not have heard about HBO's latest show, A Game of Thrones. Named after and based upon the first book in Martin's saga, the show's first season was a huge success. Going forward the show will continue with the events of A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, the recently released A Dance With Dragons, and the unreleased final books in the series. As a result of the show's success, sales of the books have skyrocketed, and I have very much been caught up in the excitement. I started the first book right after finishing my exams in mid-April, and am currently halfway through the fourth book.

I won't bother to get into why I'm loving the books so much (I'll save that for a later post) but if you're interested/curious then I strongly encourage you to read this article. It avoids spoilers but contains just enough info on the basic premise to get you into the first book, and is a great way to whet your appetite.
Suffice to say these books have been taking up a great deal of my time. Specifically I've been feeling far more inclined to read them in my spare time than I have been to blog.

That doesn't mean Max Rambles is over. I fully intend to get back to this in the coming weeks (possibly with a post or two on the Ice and Fire books), although not necessarily immediately. For the moment I'm quite enjoying spending my days working, reading, and relaxing. I will get to blogging in my own time, most likely when I finish the books Martin has currently released. At that point I'll start back up posting the latest and greatest things I find online, and providing scathing pseudo-intellectual critiques of movies.

Until then, I'll leave you with what I think is a hilarious song called "Damn It Feels Good To Be A Lannister." And yes, in case you hadn't figured it out by now, I am fairly one-track minded these days. Cheers for now!

'The Governator' Trailer Wreaks Havoc on Reality/Human Consciousness

This.... THING.... simply must be seen to be believed:

My first thought, naturally, was that this had to be some sort of joke. A cruel prank James Cameron was pulling on his old buddy Arnie at this momentous point in his already legendary career. But no, it is real, terrifyingly and unapologetically real. More than that, I'm starting to think it might be the perfect weapon, politically and commercially speaking.

Lets break it down:
- It's a cartoon about former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger retiring from politics (which is actually happening)
- He decides not to return to cinema, instead choosing to become a private citizen (which is... sort of happening? Does voice acting count as returning to film? I don't even know)
- When evil robots that can transform into what look like Smart Cars (suck it, Michael Bay) attack, Arnold is forced back into action
- With the help of his team of teenagers (interns?) he runs a complex military facility which houses his weapons, including a combination Kaneda's bike from Akira and Arnold's own hog from Terminator 2: Judgment Day
- Apparently Arnold's now some sort of cyborg/Power Ranger? Also he's been training with Neo from The Matrix?

Those are the facts, presented with minimal commentary. So the question then becomes, how do you make fun of that? Seriously, Arnold's an old dude, he's gained a lot of weight since he went into office (as referenced in his cameo in The Expendables); he's more than likely concerned about his image now that he's returning to... entertainment. This cartoon is literally the most ridiculous thing he possibly could have put out, and seems to predict all possible mockery. What do you say about something that is totally serious about being completely ludicrous? He's subverted any possibility of satire or derision by making it totally clear that he knows. What do you say to that?

The thing that really gets me about The Governator, though, is how fucking mind-bendingly meta it is. Upon retiring, Arnold has decided to make a cartoon about him retiring. Does the Arnold in the cartoon make a cartoon in the cartoon about him not becoming a politically themed superhero? (Note: if that story becomes an episode somehow I want royalties. You are my witness, the Internet) I'm having a mental Crisis on Infinite Earths just thinking about the possibilities. Large Hadron Collider be damned, Arnold Schwarzenegger's cartoon about his own retirement is going to create a black hole that swallows us whole, at least culturally.



On an unrelated note, I hope you'll excuse me if this is the last post for a while. I'm about to go into exams and so I'm probably not going to be posting for a few weeks. Cheers till then!