Movie Review: Terminator

Loud. Action. Intense. Confusing. VFX-overload.

I was not as blown away as everything in the film was, but it is a great film for video game types who love to see things blow up, and love to shoot at everything.

I have only seen one Terminator movie (a very long time ago) and I think the presented a problem for me in understanding what was going on in this film. The story didn’t really come together or make a whole lot of sense to me.

While over 50% of the film is like an exploration in blending outdoor explosions with digital special effects, the human acting parts seem pushed to back. To me it seems as if the director McG did not focus enough on these parts, maybe a little to much emphasis on explosions, noise and digital. I know a lot of people are really into that, but for me it only works if you can blend it with your actors well. For me, I’m not sure that came across on screen. Christian Bale was way over done in every scene, most of the other people were fine for me.

The movie was not bad, but it wasn’t great either.

Movie Review: Star Trek

Another old franchise successfully revived. Good job JJ Abrams and Paramount.

I was never a huge Star Trek fan, I never got into the old stuff, but this film I truly enjoyed. Great casting, fun, mind bending effects, good story… it had all I could really ask for in blockbuster Hollywood film.

I thought it was very clever how they get out of the old franchise parameters by using a change in the “space-time-continuum” to change the whole future of the people so the shows and movies you saw before… they are now a parallel world that technically will never happen. This is perfect so the writers of the future films have total creative freedom. I can just see the pitch to the studio executives; it’s a win-win!

I love these type of films, fast, technical, set in the future… so much fun. They bring out the nerd in me.

Movie Review: Angeles & Demons

Review: Angeles & Demons

Beautiful. Graphic. Moving [Fast]. Intriguing. Catholic.

I really enjoyed it. I never read the book so I went into it fresh. Usually when you read the book you are disappointed because it wasn’t as good, but this didn’t play into it for me. I love these kind of stories, I think this exactly the kind of fare that people are interested in these days –esoteric, science, religion, secrets.

A classic Hollywood film, it had great production value, beautiful scenery and stunning visual/special effects. I thoroughly enjoyed the visual spectacle and was surprised (sort of) to learn they did not film at all in Vatican city (why would the Vatican allow it though, right?); the point is, you can hardly tell.

This film is much more sympathetic and kind to Catholicism than “Da Vinci Code”. The inner workings of the church are fascinating to me. The history of the church is also so connected to the history of Western Civilization and the world at large that it makes for great subject matter. The clash of religion and science seemed oddly forced, in the film though it is the central theme of the movie. Chunks of dialogue eluding to it come off as blatant exposition and didn’t really feel real. The whole ‘Illuminati’ thing also didn’t really fit together for me…

Some say the “Illuminati” actually control the church today, but good luck proving that, and you didn’t hear it from me!

Ewan McGregor did good. Tom Hanks was Tom Hanks. And everyone else was pretty good for me.

All in all I liked it.

Healthcare

Healthcare

America needs national healthcare. There is no getting around this fact.

It’s difficult to understand why the worlds most rich and powerful country by a huge margin has such horrible healthcare and so many sick people. It doesn’t seem to make sense.

The truth is America has the best healthcare in the world. The problem is that most people don’t have access to it; they can’t afford it. Healthcare is expensive.

Healthcare is expensive to research, study and practice. Innovations come from years of study and work, which more often than not produce no results, or short lived euphoria followed by a flood of lawsuits.

Capitalism corrupts health:
>> Eat processed crap that cost more, feel gross then take pills (you don’t need) to feel better. Sleep and repeat.

Capitalism makes healthcare better:
>> Bio-tech, medicines, painkillers, and pills take tons of money to create, test and prove reliable. This takes billions and capitalism demands a profit for it’s efforts, i.e. patent.

Capitalism keeps healthcare out of reach:
>> Hospitals are business that need profit to function. They can’t turn people away by law and so they over charge (sometimes even defraud) the government. This drives up the cost. People can’t pay so they don’t, then the hospital overcharges the government, and cycle repeats until healthcare is so over inflated it takes over the whole economy.

Capitalism cannot be taken out of healthcare.

So how do we fix healthcare in capitalist America?

We have no choice but to completely overhaul the system.

Step 1: Personal Accountability
Every person needs to take full responsibility for their own health. We need to understand what it means to be healthy, how to get healthy and how to stay healthy. We should do our part, because if we don’t, no amount of treatment/healthcare will be able to help you and it will waste tons of money, $1 of prevention is worth $10,000 of intervention/treatment.
Solution: Health education, exercise, & health accountability

Step 2: Health Taxes
Foods that have no health or nutritional value (i.e. health detriments) should be taxed. Soda, candy, fast food, junk snacks… anything without a nutrients (except water of course) or a positive impact on a persons health should taxed according to it’s lack. The taxes collected from this should go into the healthcare fund. This has dual positive reinforcing action: discouraging bad health habits (by showing their true cost) and funding the treatments for the use thereof. People that consume large quantities of junk food undeniably are a greater health cost/risk and thus should pay more into the system they will be relying on. It is fair no matter how you slice it. The only people that can disagree with this are the people selling the junk food to you and your kids. You can’t legislate good choices, but you can encourage them by bringing them (their cost) to light.

Step 3: Emergency Care
Emergency care needs to be there when we need it; and fast. We need to rid our emergency rooms of things that are not true emergencies. The issue is people without healthcare coverage go to the emergency room to get help, even if it is not a true emergency. Since this is a place that cannot turn you away, and must see or help you by law this makes sense. The problem is this is also extremely (the most?) expensive for the government and corruptive/hurtful to the healthcare system. This problem lowers the quality, slows the service speed and ‘cries wolf’ (fake issues cause real issues to be ignored). This problem must be addressed and corrected.
Solution: Government run clinics. We need to set up more free clinics and places for people to go for help with their non-critical health needs. Emergency rooms need to be able to deflect people to the clinics and visa versa. Keeping people out of the emergency rooms is beneficial to everyone. It will speed the service, cut the cost and even save lives.

Step 4: Universal Catastrophic* Healthcare Coverage
>> If you are injured, or have an unexpected health crisis that comes out of no where, through no fault of your own, that must be addressed you will be covered.
This coverage will come in two forms with two guidelines.
1) Catastrophic injury. For instance if you get in a major car accident, or fall down the stairs, you will be given the help you need. Your recovery is very much in the financial interest of the country and the people of the country want you to get better. Your surgery, stitches, reasonable (generic/cheap) pain relief medication, and to a certain extent physical rehabilitation will be covered.
2) Catastrophic Illness gets slightly more tricky. If you need an operation to save your life you should get it. But if you need tons of insulin injections because you refuse to change your eating habits you should not get it (for free). Here’s how it breaks down: Those that are truly looking to get better need to be separated from those that are not truly looking to get better. How can you tell the difference? Simple: Give them a personal plan to follow –group meetings, classes, eating guidelines, weight loss requirements/help. If they follow the plan, they obviously really do want to get better. If they don’t follow their plan, they are not demonstrating they do want to get better and thus will not be allowed to waste precious resources. The plans and classes would be free and would be facilitated, designed and improved on by past participants and success. There would be volunteer requirements and pay would be awarded to those that show great skill and prowess in helping others. It is well known and proven that a healthy eating regimen, group meeting and/or classes in conjunction with initial treatment will cure a disease. People that follow their plans but need more treatment will be given more treatments and intervention as necessary. Those that do not follow their plan will not be offered additional resources, or will accrue additional volunteer work. Pain medication will be made available for those that require it.

Step 5: Suffering Prevention
What about older people that are not able to participate in plans or volunteer work? This again is difficult. Because the state is of limited resources, state resources must be rationed. If this seems cruel, remember that in the current system these same people are getting nothing except long lines at the emergency room. No one will be allowed to suffer. Treatment and pain relief are cheap and should be made available, but there is such thing as misplaced treatment, and too much treatment. On this note assisted suicide is an option that should be available (but closely checked and monitored).


*Catastrophic would have to be outlined and defined by the congress with an ability for appeal

The Lessons of Success.

The Lessons of Success.

If you want to be truly successful in America it does not matter what you look like.

It doesn’t matter what your religion, sexual orientation, or social background is. People that work hard, rise above there circumstance and do things right deserve to rise the ranks. That is why America was created; right? One thing that is common among all of America’s most successful people is their grasp of the English language. They know the right words to say, and that gives them power. Knowing how to speak and how to express yourself is paramount for success in the world today.

Whether it’s Barack Obama, ABC anchor John Quinones, or the recent supreme court pick, they all knew that in order to get the respect they deserve they would need to be able to speak and represent themselves on paper eloquently. If you can do that, then you will be respected.

Why is this?

English is the language of law, business, travel, aviation, computers, science, medicine and more. If you want to be successful in this world you are going to need to know it, because you are certainly going to run into it.

With that in mind, it seems a disservice to students in America to give them a pass for not learning to write and speak English correctly. Why would you not encourage children to learn and understand a tool that will serve them so well? A skill that will allow them to rise out of any social strata or economic situation? I don’t think anyone should turn their back on their heritage, but I do think that everyone should know how to understand the most powerful/influential/wide-spread language in the world.

Bilingual education should only be used to quickly bridge students into full English. Anything less is a total disservice to them. It will only hold them back. But don’t take my word for it, just ask the new supreme court justice what she says about it.

The Problem with California

The Problem with California

Ask not what your State can do for you, but what you can do for your state!

California is the edge of Western civilization and one of the worlds largest economies, 5th or 6th in the world. It is thus one of the wealthiest states (not per capita), but in terms of revenue. It is the center of three of the USA’s major and most promising fields of enterprise, movie making (USA’s greatest export products), Silicon Valley, and Stem cell research. California is also home to the world best public higher education system. Many of the worlds top research universities call the Golden State home.

California is the land of Hollywood dreams that come true. California is the American Dream, the land of innovation, the center of the tech, bio tech, and communication, image/media driven future of the global economy. It is bursting with potential and ideas, arguably generating more innovations these days than any other state by a sizable margin.

With so much going for it, and so much money coming in, where is it all going? Why all the problems…

We’ll get to that.

California has some of the most conservative and most extreme liberal people in the nation. It is a huge state that is hard to bring together. It is also one of the most racially diverse states, a true blending of all the worlds colors, creeds, religions and ideals. It has the largest minority population (57% in 2005) of any state.

California is interesting in that the bulk of the people live in the south, but the center of government is in the north. The people that run the government (minus Arnold) are mostly people who have never worked in or been a product of it’s business sectors (long enough to show it at least). If they were they would see that California has become extremely business unfriendly. This means that it is no longer able to support the entitlement programs in loves so much.

California’s are very empathetic people, they have so much, and they see so much money floating around that they want to help everyone. They want to house, educate, feed, provide medical care, childcare, and even drivers licenses to everyone who asks for it. No questions asked, nothing required in return. This is not a bad thing, per say... What’s bad is what happens when that helping hand cannot afford to give because it has nothing for itself. What is happening is that because they state was so generous, people took advantage (Octo-mom, illegal immigrants, unions, Medi-Cal fraudsters, ect.) and now those that are actually paying taxes are seeing what they have paid into disappear, or not be there for them. A sick mother cannot care for her kids as the saying goes.

So how can the state heal itself?

The simple version is this:
1) In the short term, clean house, cut spending and eliminate waste
2) Follow the laws it has on the books, and the will of the people

California needs to deal with it’s problems. It cannot afford to turn a blind eye to it’s woes. Whether they are financial, immigrant, business, climate, political, economic, educational…

The painful truth that no one in California politics wants to say (it’s pretty much political suicide in this state) is that California has a MAJOR illegal immigration problem.

Illegal immigration is a major Problem!

I said it. Go ahead and hate me. Call me names. That won’t help anything.

Truth creates money.

In Wilson’s administration, a study prepared by Philip J. Romero for the Governor’s office found that illegal immigrants and their U.S.-born children received about $3.6 billion more in state services than they paid in taxes. The 1994 study was followed up in 1997 with the Jordan Commission’s study of California conducted by the National Research Council. In looking at California’s budget, the study found that there was “a net fiscal transfer to the average immigrant-headed household of $3,463” and that the “net fiscal burden on native households in California is families from Latin America.”

In 2007, Romero updated his earlier work and estimated that illegal aliens in California now receive somewhere between $9.6 and $38.2 billion more in state services than they pay in state taxes.
(“COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION EQUALS COST OF CALIFORNIA BUDGET DEFICIT, By Diana Hull, Ph.D., April 7, 2008 @ http://www.capsweb.org/)

"California is melting down with an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, 257,400
jobs lost in 2008, median home values plummeting 50% since spring of 2007, and
the lowest S&P bond rating of all fifty states," said Dan Stein, President of
FAIR. "While Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing draconian cuts in spending,
ordering furloughs for state employees, and delaying expected taxpayer
refunds, he continues to ignore the budget-busting cost of illegal
immigration. With the highest concentration of illegal aliens of any state -
nearly one in eight residents is illegal - it's no wonder California is in the
mess it is." (FAIR, California Budget Meltdown Would be Lessened by Combating Increases in Illegal Immigration, Feb 6, 2009)

California will not be able to financially recover until it addresses the illegal immigration problem. California is sick with Lung Cancer and illegal immigration is it’s cigarettes. There will be no healing until the cigarettes are dealt with.
If California cannot afford to pay for it’s legal citizens and their state parks, libraries, hospitals, social services, or workers, then it certainly cannot afford to pay for illegal citizens. This is a given and must be corrected immediately.

It seems harsh, and some say it’s not fair, but what is not fair is bankrupting the state of California to support/house/treat/support people who broke (and show no respect for) state and federal laws and should not be here. What kind of message does that send to those who follow the laws? Once we fix the illegal problem we can have a normal functioning immigration and temp worker system.

Prop 187 must be re-enacted.

The state cannot afford to educate, heal, and support every person that enters its boarders, it’s actually quite simple. It is a recipe for collapse and collapse hurts everyone. The collapse of California, the back bone of the US economy is not good. As goes California, so goes the USA.

California (politician) needs to understand that it must obey the will of the people. To ignore the will of the people is what is called: A Failed State.

Please don’t let California fail.

Social Networking

Social networking is the future. There is no getting around this. You may as well get aboard before you are hopelessly behind.

In the future our social networks will merge with our phones (as they have begun to already) and will be the center piece of our communication functioning. Through them we will email, call, video chat, watch TV, text and dare I say virtually live?

Myspace was the first to really catch fire. Myspace is the place for Entertainment types, people who want to showcase themselves, their music, ect and count profile views. It’s a simple format that is open the flexibility, you can keep it simple or make it horribly complex and convoluted, it’s up to you.

Facebook is for the everyday person. It’s not about putting yourself out there, it’s about networking with your friends, family and colleages. Facebook has brilliantly shown us the power and possibility of social networking; playing scrabble with your friends, posting and tagging photo’s viewable only by your family, Fan pages, groups contact info. Facebook is setting itself up very well in the social network driven future of communinication. Facebook offers something a little different than Myspace, it has built on Myspace but there is very much room for both.

People are talking a lot about Twitter these days… what is Twitter you might be wondering?

Twitter is a social networking site on which people ‘Tweet’ what they are doing. While it seems to be stealing all the social networking thunder these days, it is not really a competition to myspace or facebook (except for use time of course). Twitter is great for Politicians, entertainers, news outlets and blogs because it’s not about friends --friends are needy. Twitter is about ‘Followers’. If you like someone/something you follow it. They don’t have to follow you. This is exactly what newspapers/entertainers/Politicians want! They don’t have to be your ‘friend’ (this can be controversial for them) they just want you to follow them.

Twitter is unique though, it is bringing the true postmodern media interaction up to levels that Facebook and Myspace just were not able to. Twitter allows people to throw there media size thoughts (140 characters) to the media as things are happening. Because you can use a plethora of confusing tags you don’t even have to ‘follow’ someone to target a message to them… it truly is genius. It brings people access to TV shows, Celebrities and Politicians like never before. It also allows them to ‘feel out’ their base. Because of it’s practicality and ability to connect it shows great potential.

While I don’t think Twitter is for everyone, and there are a ton of ‘fakes’, ‘follower hungry psychos’ and sales pitchers on Twitter) there is a definite place for it, and I look forward to the future of it. What next? One minute video clips?

In conclusion: Social networking is the future. The sooner you get on the bandwagon the better your seat will be!