Daily Archives: September 6, 2013

Thoughts on the movie Closed Circuit

September 6, 2013 By in movies Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

* The movie, though still ridiculous, is less ridiculous than it would’ve been even a year or two ago. Yet it is less stupid than most movies of its type while still living up to its “thriller” designation. Most movies feel like a waste of time and this one did not.

* The language abuses Orwell described in 1946 are still alive in 2013, although in movies it’s easy to let those moments slide right by.

* I confirmed that I was not the only person disappointed by the lack of a sex scene, which was set up and then sadly unconsummated.

* Many if not most of us have secrets, and I wonder what the world will look like when the secrets of the watchers get revealed.

Links: Patents, spies, dubious wage gaps, novelists, and, most importantly, The Turpentine Effect

September 6, 2013 By in Links Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

* “The U.S. patent system inhibits cancer vaccine development.”

“‘It’s a circle of hell there’s just no way out of,’ Schochet said. ‘I paid it as long as I could.’”

* “Spy Kids,” and the fate of spy apparatuses that depend on cultural concepts long dead in most of American and Western life.

* “The Gender Wage Gap Lie: You know that “women make 77 cents to every man’s dollar” line you’ve heard a hundred times? It’s not true.” Is anyone surprised?

* “If it were cheaper to build apartments the rent would be lower.” This is obvious but bears repeating.

* “DJ Taylor: ‘I set out with every intention of just being a novelist. But then I got diverted …’”

* “The Jong and the Restless: Fear of Flying, forty years on.”

* The Turpentine Effect, a brilliant post with an unfortunate title that makes it less likely you’ll read.

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