The Blue Brain project is now at a crucial juncture. The first phase of the project—"the feasibility phase"—is coming to a close. The skeptics, for the most part, have been proven wrong. It took less than two years for the Blue Brain supercomputer to accurately simulate a neocortical column, which is a tiny slice of brain containing approximately 10,000 neurons, with about 30 million synaptic connections between them. "The column has been built and it runs," Markram says. "Now we just have to scale it up." Blue Brain scientists are confident that, at some point in the next few years, they will be able to start simulating an entire brain. "If we build this brain right, it will do everything," Markram says. I ask him if that includes selfconsciousness: Is it really possible to put a ghost into a machine? "When I say everything, I mean everything," he says, and a mischievous smile spreads across his face.
hillary is on the daily show tonight.
dont read kos as assiduously as i did but this special election for hasterts open seat in illinois caught my eye because its apparently winnable and because the democrat is a physicist. we need more diversity than just lawyers representing us.
pre-code night on tcm tonight including a new documentary, Thou Shalt Not Sin . will tivo if not watch norma shearers oscar winning turn in The Divorcee.
eastwoods Unforgiven last night. that is all.
things to do when you cant sleep.
afi updated its top 100 american films last year. interesting to see what rises and falls in their esteem. spielberg is a little overrepresented in my estimation. hard to see shindlers list cracking my top 100 much less the top 10. cant believe The Third Man, Giant and A Place in the Sun gets short shrift for the likes of The Shawshank Redemption Titanic The Sixth Sense and Toy Story. conversely nice to see Nashville, Sunrise The Last Picture Show and Swing Time crack the list.
just to maintain fealty to the log i will note that i watched Stage Door directed by gregory la cava starring kate hepburn and ginger rogers and Singin in the Rain with gene kelly, debbie reynolds and donald o'çonnor directed by stanley donen. also the previous day i absorbed the better part of two epics Fiddler on the Roof directed by norman (im not a jew) jewison and david leans Dr Zhivago with julie cristie omar sharif and alec guiness among others.
Her abrupt and public exit from “Gilmore Girls” in the spring of 2006 over a contract dispute could have left her stigmatized as unmanageable, but her abilities proved too much of a draw. Weeks after her departure was announced, she was working on “Jezebel James,” which Fox has scheduled for a March 14 debut.
For Ms. Sherman-Palladino, the show represents more than the opportunity to put the contentious history of “Gilmore Girls” behind her, to prove that she was right to butt heads, bruise egos and burn bridges to gain the creative latitude she required. Now that she has sold Fox on herself and her methodology, she can demonstrate that she still makes the kind of emotionally engaging television that is worth fighting over.
As Ms. Sherman-Palladino put it, “I don’t want to sit there and go, ‘Ucch, if I had just gone with my instinct, if I had just cast this person, or fought them on this.’ You don’t want to fail not having really put up a fight.”
These sides of Ms. Sherman-Palladino were already in evidence in 1999 when she began developing the series that became “Gilmore Girls.” At the time she was an Emmy Award-nominated former writer from “Roseanne” — one who had both struggled and thrived under that show’s notoriously temperamental star — with an idea for a series about the kinship between a young mother and her precocious teenage daughter.
“CRIME AND PUNISHMENT” on skateboards — that was one of the early tag lines floating around the production of “Paranoid Park,” the new film by Gus Van Sant. Based on a novel by Blake Nelson, the story follows a teenage skateboarder in Portland, Ore., who accidentally kills a security guard and is then left to ponder his guilt in a void of suburban amorality.
anbar angie?
this op-ed must make a dittoheads explode with contradiction. notorious hollywood liberal in league with the UN and is concerned with displaced brown people thinks we should be cautious about our withdrawl from iraq for humanitarian reasons. wouldnt it just be simpler if we bombed them back to the stone ages?
this op-ed must make a dittoheads explode with contradiction. notorious hollywood liberal in league with the UN and is concerned with displaced brown people thinks we should be cautious about our withdrawl from iraq for humanitarian reasons. wouldnt it just be simpler if we bombed them back to the stone ages?
watched The Philadelphia Story which for me was the equivalent of a gateway drug in terms of my interest in classic film. and after numerous viewings it still retains its intoxicating allure. in rock the question is often posed "do you prefer the stone or the beatles?" similarly one might ask the same of jimmy stewart or cary grant. ive always leaned towards the image of cosmopolitan sheen of grant versus the stuttering boyish cornfed all-american stewart. but its hard not to be charmed by stewarts oscar winning performance even if his character loses out in the end (a little to readily to my taste) to the more inwardly cynical grant. meanwhile hepburn is at her best here in a part she brought with her from broadway to save her flagging film career. watching grace kelly attempt to fill hepburns shoes in the musical adaptation, High Society, fifteen years later makes clear the excellence she brought to the role, to say nothing of the pallid performances of bing crosby and frank sinatra as the stand-ins for grant and stewart.
Went to 15 East for lunch recently.
My main had butter it seemed, otherwise it was a well-cooked cod, fresh with tons of flavor. App was 10 seaweeds, tasty till one diner said ''dude I dont eat them anymore once I found out how processed they are as a food group'' I said ''why not tell before I ordered''. co-diners loved the sushi, not the soup.
The three of us would gladly go back but we all have more "traditional" spots we like more....
My main had butter it seemed, otherwise it was a well-cooked cod, fresh with tons of flavor. App was 10 seaweeds, tasty till one diner said ''dude I dont eat them anymore once I found out how processed they are as a food group'' I said ''why not tell before I ordered''. co-diners loved the sushi, not the soup.
The three of us would gladly go back but we all have more "traditional" spots we like more....
who thought this was a good image for sherwin williams - toxic red paint spilling over the planet? it reads cover the earth.
obamas typography is brand news.
didnt watch any movies yesterday except for the first half hour of lubitschs version of To Be or Not To Be starring carole lombard jack benny and a remarkably youthful robert stack. im much more familiar with the mel brooks remake which is pretty faithful to the original but is more campy as most brooks films tend to be. that this film is made during world war ii gives it more bite than the remake. also lombard dies in a plane crash while out collecting money for war bonds three weeks after filming ended the knowledge of which adds an elegiac air to the political satirical.
then this afternoon i watched parts of two versions of Mutiny on The Bounty, the 1935 academy award winner for best picture starring clark gable (lombards husband) as the dashing mutinous mr christian and charles laughton as the excerable capt bligh. that was followed by the 1962 three hour epic starring marlon brando as a foppish christian and trevor howard as a colder, martinet bligh. this version fared less well critically and at the box office. supposedly mgm almost went down with the ship because of it. and brandos reputation as more trouble than he was worth was cemented with this effort. but i think over time this film has risen slightly in esteem as its judged on its merits. some sharp dialogue and sparkling technicolor although at times seemed like a tahitian travelogue.
then this afternoon i watched parts of two versions of Mutiny on The Bounty, the 1935 academy award winner for best picture starring clark gable (lombards husband) as the dashing mutinous mr christian and charles laughton as the excerable capt bligh. that was followed by the 1962 three hour epic starring marlon brando as a foppish christian and trevor howard as a colder, martinet bligh. this version fared less well critically and at the box office. supposedly mgm almost went down with the ship because of it. and brandos reputation as more trouble than he was worth was cemented with this effort. but i think over time this film has risen slightly in esteem as its judged on its merits. some sharp dialogue and sparkling technicolor although at times seemed like a tahitian travelogue.
"Shipwrecks, ghost forests of tree stumps thousands of years old and brilliant red formations have all been uncovered this winter along the Oregon coast after severe storms led to massive erosion."
Hey Steve have you seen any?
Hey Steve have you seen any?
nice to hear, and ballsy to boot which is why it hurts so much to brand him an antisemite. but we all know the rules, say anything sensible about americas policy towards israel and you get the star of david tattoed on your ass.i dont make the rules, im just following orders.
while i still have the time i thought id try to chronicle the movies that i watch. many opportunities for embarassment but when has that ever stopped me. oh right, most of the time. dont know if ill rate them or have much to say but...ill add a turner classic synposis if available
Contact
Contact
one thing that unifies these three films is the lack of overacting and schmaltz. thats saying alot for this movie as it costars matthew mcconaughey and is directed by forrest gumpmeister robert zemekis. the first contact was somewhat anticlimactic but the tension between science and faith was well considered. bonus points for jena malones first major role as a young jody foster.
Stagecoach (1939)
A group of disparate passengers battle personal demons and each other while racing through Indian country.
Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, George Bancroft. Dir: John Ford. BW-96 mins, TV-G
usually when i see john ford and john wayne on the schedule i surf on. in fact i rarely brake for westerns but i thought id give it a whirl if only to scratch them off of my mental checklist. as usual the injuns get short shrift and the characters are caricatures but at least it was well acted, and like mcconaughey john waynes worst characteristics were muted. according to robert osborne this was waynes first starring gig and what vaulted him to the a-list so its not a big surprise that his performance lacked the excess swagger. standout performance was from thomas mitchell as doc boone who won the best supporting actor oscar for this role.
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
A team of flyers risks their lives to deliver the mail in a mountainous South American country.
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Rita Hayworth. Dir: Howard Hawks. BW-121 mins, TV-PG
thomas mitchell was in this film as well. really great character actor. 1939 was a banner year for him as he appeared in:
# The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) .... Clopin
# Gone with the Wind (1939) .... Gerald O'Hara
# Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) .... Diz Moore
... aka Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (USA: complete title)
# Only Angels Have Wings (1939) .... Kid Dabb
# Stagecoach (1939) .... Doc Boone
heres a richer point of view gleaned from imdb. from what i understand the critique of hawks holds true for ford the director of stagecoach. bonus points for a 20yo rita hayworth in a supporting role.
This film is relentlessly male and relentlessly American. It functions brilliantly within the Hawksian "system" where male bonding is key, and where Woman is an outsider. Where romance is a minor part of life and where love is expressed through symbols and not through language. The group of professionals and their easy, jocular interaction is the beating heart of this film and all the group scenes are brilliantly directed. I also like the element of screwball comedy (a genre in which Hawks is one of the few masters) which presents itself in Grant and Arthur's "coffee" scene. It shows how much Hawks trusts his actors and his material in that he knows that such changes of tone can strengthen, rather than weaken, the key drama. I love this film even though its presentation of the world is not the one I'm the most sympathetic to. The film is not incredibly strong in psychological nuances - not when compared to directors like Sirk, Fuller, Welles, N. Ray, etc...and the basic tone is that of a stoicism which occasionally cracks (slightly) under pressure, but which almost immediately reestablishes itself. It's an attractive world view, but not one I'm incredibly comfortable with. There is no place here for ambiguity - not on any deep, non - localized level. I've been reading some Hawks interviews, and I now understand why Hawks was uncomfortable with being labeled an "artist". His attitude towards films and film-making is clearly the same as the attitude of the men in this film towards their work and their lives (and deaths). It's simple: you're either good enough or you're not, and you're only as good as your last flight. This identification between the man (Hawks) and his production (Only Angels Have Wings) helps to illuminate the greatness of the film, but it also explains its emotional and aesthetic limitations.
lol nutria anyone?
dooooo doo .......................... dooooo doo
dooooo doo .......................... dooooo doo
