Happy International Suit Up Day 2010

Things you should take from this post:

1. I am a fan of How I Met Your Mother.
2. Suits are awesome.
3. Yes, I am wearing a suit right now.

I don't mean for this to sound like an advertisement for the show, but it is great, and any excuse to wear a suit is ok in my books. Here's to looking sharp:

The Sociopathic Network

David Fincher's The Social Network paints a cynical, foreboding, and above all else compelling portrait of contemporary youth culture. The film depicts the beginnings of Facebook, the internationally successful social networking website that has redefined how people interact both on– and offline. Set in the first decade of the 21^st century, The Social Network examines how the advent of the Internet as a dominant social force empowers able young minds in the face of traditional institutions of privilege. The result is a power struggle between the new generation and the old order for control of the future, and the casualties include friendship, honour, and morality.

In The Social Network, Facebook’s origins are told via flashbacks as details are recounted during lawsuit depositions. From the beginning the website’s co-creator, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), is shown alone and on the defence against friend and foe alike. On one hand he faces accusations of intellectual property theft from the over-privileged Winklevoss twins (both played by Arnie Hammer). At the same time Zuckerberg fights a legal battle with his one-time best friend and co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). Right from the start we know that while the website is successful it destroys the relationships of everyone involved in its creation. The Social Network explores what makes the website such an intoxicating and destructive force.

Facebook is depicted as an unprecedented source of social power, the ultimate commodity of youth. Zuckerberg sees the potential to attain status among his university peers and stoops to any means necessary to achieve it. As Napster co-creator Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) says, “This is our time,” in reference to the young innovators who have the knowledge to reshape the world using the Internet. Those with no established privilege suddenly have the opportunity to overthrow the social hierarchy, and the proposition is too great to let anything like morality stand in its way. Zuckerberg steals from the Winklevosses and cheats Saverin to create something new and cool, and all the while we know of the legal battles that result from his behavior. The Social Network shows how our contemporary social landscape was formed while giving the poignant sense that something was irreversibly lost in the process.

The brilliant soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross perfectly captures the sense of dread that pervades The Social Network. The opening track, “Hand Covers Bruise,” uses dour, resonating bass notes set against a delicate piano and hair-raising strings to initiate a sense of innocence and impending doom. The central thematic conflict is reflected in the soundtrack as rising electronic beats demonstrate the excitement of the young programmers achieving social dominance. Meanwhile a nightmarish industrial take on Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” evokes the failure of the old order. Not since There Will Be Blood has there been such an original, evocative, and atmospheric motion picture soundtrack.

The Social Network is a captivating film that paints an extremely cynical portrait of the people behind Facebook. None of the characters are depicted positively but none are cast as complete villains either. Instead they all look like victims of a general lack of conscience and foresight. The movie could be worth seeing for the soundtrack alone, but in context it makes an already great film spectacular. Don't miss The Social Network, easily one of the best films of 2010. 

Check out these sites for more reviews. Click here to download a five track EP of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's incredible soundtrack to the film.

HDR Imaging is Stunning

A few weeks ago a San Francisco based studio called Soviet Montage Productions produced the world's first high dynamic range video, as seen above. For those of you who have never heard of HDR (i.e. most people), it basically refers to images that display greater light and dark values than traditionally possible through conventional methods. There are numerous ways to accomplish this but the simplest is to capture multiple images of identical content at different contrast levels and then merge them. If that sounds like gibberish then maybe the image below (c/o Wikipedia) will help to explain:

An HDR image (above) and its source images (below)

As you can see the products of HDR imaging are, in a word, stunning. For a better explanation of the technique(s) involved check out the fascinating Wikipedia article on the subject. Below you can see an example produced by photographer Andrew Rees. His video is a black-and-white HDR time-lapse of Cardiff, Wales, and as Gizmodo points out it looks very much like a sketch pad come to life. Simply breathtaking: 

I just wanted to share some of these incredible sights and the corresponding Wikipedia article. I'll leave you now with an amazing shot of New York City at night, one of the most impressive examples of HDR imaging I've seen thus far. I only became aware of this photographic technique a few weeks ago but it's quickly become fascinated by the potential it displays (ha). It's more vivid and lifelike than anything I've ever seen, and I'm very curious to see what intrepid artists (especially cinematographers) can do with it.

(Shamelessly stolen from Geekosystem and Gizmodo)

Hilarious Video: Test Your Awareness

Check out this hilarious video. See the comments section for my thoughts, I don't want to spoil the punchline.

Trolls: Activists for the 21st Century?

Over the last week "trolls" from the 4chan boards have staged multiple highly-coordinated web attacks on the likes of the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Tea Party. Official websites for both the MPAA and the RIAA were brought down by massive DDoS attacks, and TeaParty.org was flooded with new users who spammed the photo section with images like this exceedingly NSFW photoshopped image of Sarah Palin.

The 4chan community is notorious for their online exploits, including inventing Lolcats, hacking the 2009 TIME 100 list, and bringing down stock in Apple with premature rumours of Steve Jobs' demise. The website is founded on the ideas of freedom of expression and anonymity, and as a result its users' content and actions are often unidentified and shamelessly perverse. In a recent trend 4chan users have committed acts of social-justice minded vigilantism, including tracking down animal abusers. The latest attacks on the MPAA, RIAA, and Tea Party are motivated by each organizations actions against the public and general assholery.

The actions of the 4chan board are a modern form of mob justice, but increasingly they have become a form of organized and militant protest. Their attacks are hugely powerful, fueled by internet users from across the globe united in their hostility towards heartless corporations, political hate-mongers, and common standards of decency. Is this a new form of political activism for the 21st century? A site for unrestricted international outcry against any and all forms of douchery? Or is this just meaningless trolling, plain and simple? Is there a difference? Time will tell, but either way the 4chan boards have made a name for themselves by displaying what can be achieved via the internet, both for ill and for good.

For further reading check out The Atlantic for some great recommendations on trolls, hackers, nerds, etc. Weeks ten and eleven in particular are relevant to this post.