I started watching Breakfast At Tiffany’s the other night for no reason than upon flicking over I was astonished at the extraordinary visual quality. This is an old film. We’re talking 1961 here. That’s three years before Mary Poppins and four years before The Sound of Music; those two films being the only benchmark I have, as I’ve seen them on DVD. But watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s on standard def digital TV you’d be forgiven for thinking they filmed in digital back then! None of those artefacts like fibers or dust that you normally get with old films. I continued to watch in sheer amazement, just hoping, praying that I’d see that little speck of something pop up for a couple of frames. But nothing. Then I grinned at Audrey Hepburn’s character as she was chatting away at a million miles an hour. I couldn’t help thinking of my sister, bless her :-) And after that I forgot all about the specks of dust and just started watching it. I had no preconceived notions of what to expect, apart from a niggling curiosity to see whether or not I would be annoyed by yet another “old movie”.
I’m normally really not a fan of old films. But after watching this, I’m starting to reconsider that point of view. The film wasn’t great but it was really watchable. For some reason, old films usually just irritate me or bore me to tears. An unfair generalisation? Perhaps. I’d define an “old film” as anything made before 1980 and experience just tells me, if it’s that old I probably won’t like it. Now I loved Mary Poppins when I was a kid, but got over it. With Breakfast At Tiffany’s the characters were pretty non-offensive, and some of them were even quite hilarious, Hepburn’s character included. The Japanese neighbour Mr. Yunioshi was also a crack up. It turns out he was played by Mickey Rooney would you believe it!? I did wonder at one point that Yunioshi was so shamefully stereotyped (let’s face it, just plain racist) that they’d have a hard time finding a Japanese actor willing to play the part. And I guess they did! For me the amusement comes not from laughing at “funny Japanese man” but from looking back with disbelief that such blatant racism was given a platform back then.
…that for the first nine months of his life, he lived inside the pouch of a Kangaroo… and that until now, he’s been hibernating beneath Ayres Rock. All we know is, he’s called Aussie Stig.
With Top Gear Australia just around the corner (late 2008 they are saying), one question remains to be asked: Who is Aussie Stig? We’ve seen the audition videos of the three human hosts, Charlie Cox, Warren Brown and Steve Pizzati. But what of the infamous yet unidentifiable fourth presenter? The SBS Top Gear website mentions “The Stig’s Aussie cousin”, implying that living among us, there exists yet another of these mysterious creatures. But who is he? I mean, really?
Odds are that our Stig is a Formula 1 driver. But you know what? After reading the Wikipedia article discussing The Stig’s identity, I don’t want to know. Well, to be more accurate, I want to spend my time wanting to know, but I don’t actually want to find out. And while I realise he can’t be referred to as “The Stig” - there is only one original, I just hope they choose something tasteful and don’t call him “The Stig’s Aussie cousin” in every episode.
So I’m gonna spoil the fun right here and say that this is one of four viral videos created by “Cardo Systems” to advertise a boring headset or something. These were watched by over 16 million viewers on YouTube and probably more; mine was via a forwarded email. At first glance this seems pretty plausible, but there’s a couple of obvious clues that it’s a total fake. Firstly, the corn doesn’t move. Anyone who’s popped a kernel or two in their life will know that it’s a pretty explosive occurence. Yet in the video, once the popping starts, the unpopped kernels, even when placed snugly together, remain undisturbed. I would expect at least some movement. The other dead giveaway is that the camera pans away from the popcorn for several seconds. This happens in every video.
Now that’s not to say that this kind of advertising shouldn’t be applauded. I think it’s brilliant. And way more original than something like the Air Force One gag. There’s a few reasons the cellphone popcorn concept in particular makes for successful viral marketing. Firstly, there were four separate videos seeded to YouTube, each apparently from different countries. This adds to the authenticity, creating the illusion that it’s a worldwide phenomenon. Secondly, the videos appear to contain real people who seem genuinely astonished at the result; the Japanese one especially. You believe it because they believe it. The third reason unfortunately alludes to gross scientific ignorance. The majority of people have little or no understanding of how cellphones work or radio waves for that matter. So they believe it because they can’t easily explain it. One physicist summed it up nicely by pointing out that if cellphones emit enough energy to cook popcorn, they would cook our fingers (not to mention ears and faces) every time we used them. Actually I think it’s a combination of ignorance and the media hype around cellphones and the dreaded “R” word in general. This leads to widespread but relatively mild distrust, which spawns the little voice whispering “Hey… that might actually work”. The final reason I can think of is that while it looks simple enough to do, you’d have to actually make the effort to go get some popcorn, then get eight phones set up to try it out for yourself. Now there are plenty of people who have actually gone to the effort, as a simple YouTube search proves. But most people will just watch it and forward it on to their friends who will just watch it and forward it on, etc.
Alas the Mythbuster in me can’t just let it rest there. We’ve disproven the myth, now we have to reproduce the result. And you’re not allowed to use CGI like Cardo did. That’s CHEATING dammit! One theory involves a hidden heating element, but that’s busted because it would burn right through the table. Or if it was under the table, you wouldn’t get enough conduction through a wooden table, for example. You might be able to use Kari’s microwave gun… Anyway it’s gonna annoy the bugger out of me until I solve it. Or at least until I lose interest.
… maybe the whole thing was staged inside a giant microwave… or maybe the phone’s infrared was just on a really high setting…
Our favourite Baywatch Babe is rumoured to have been paid $500 000 to appear on Ten’s reality series Big Brother, a show whose emotional exploits could easily be considered cruelty to shallow twenty-somethings for the purposes of entertainment.
So she’s fine with cruelty to people, but the animals, man. We have to save the animals.
Then the ultimate irony is that KFC have managed to indirectly fund her appearance on the show. Oh the irony! My head a-splode.
Josh posted about Deepak Chopra the other day. For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, here is an interview with Richard Dawkins. And a warning to our Quantum Physicist viewers, you will probably find this video highly annoying or even offensive.
If you consider yourself a scientist, or have even a vague interest in things scientific, then you should watch Steamboy. It’s not one of the best animes I’ve seen; actually, I’m just not sure I like the English dub - a bit too literal. But its overt theme of “Is Science Evil?” had me glued to the couch with joyful anticipation. Some may cringe at the comparison, but I couldn’t help but draw numerous parallels with the recent Iron Man movie. Both deal with the arms industries and both question the morals of profiting from what is essentially, the business of killing.
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