Archive for May, 2010
Dennis Hopper Passes Away at 74 – via @Cinematical
by jaredwestfall on May.29, 2010, under Randomness
Dennis Hopper Passes Away at 74
by Jenni Miller May 29th 2010 // 1:43PM
The prolific and legendary actor Dennis Hopper passed away this morning at his home in California at the age of 74, after a battle with prostate cancer. According to Reuters, Hopper died at his home in California early this morning. This is a very sad day, indeed, for film fans, as Hopper made his mark on countless iconic films, from the searing Apocalypse Now to the surreal Blue Velvet, and, of course, Easy Rider, which he co-wrote and directed.
Hopper was part of a generation of actors and directors who rejuvenated filmmaking in the ’70s in most unlikely ways, as detailed in the fascinating book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind.
Please add to Monika’s wonderful post about your favorite Dennis Hopper roles, and stay tuned as the Cinematical team add their own thoughts to this article.
Obvious: Survey says nearly one-in-five motorists “unfit” to drive — via @Autoblog
by jaredwestfall on May.28, 2010, under Randomness
Obvious: Survey says nearly one-in-five motorists “unfit” to drive
How many bad drivers can you spot every day on your drive to work? Five? Ten? All of them? We feel your pain, and apparently the alarming truth is that one-in-five motorists – which, for those interesting in the gory details, equals roughly 38 million Americans – are unfit to drive on our nation’s highways.
This data is according to a test administered by GMAC Insurance that asked motorists 20 questions taken straight from your local DMV’s written driving test. About 20 percent of currently licensed drivers would have failed the test, and the average score of 76.2 percent is down slightly from that of 2009.
Some interesting factoids: Male drivers scored better than females on both average scores (78.1 percent male versus 74.4 percent female) and failure rates (24 percent female versus 18.1 percent male). New Yorkers ranked dead last (70 percent average score) and Kansas drivers ranked highest (82.3 percent average score). Want to know more? (Perhaps not…). If so, click here for a further breakdown from our friends at TheDetroitBureau.com.
[Source: TheDetroitBureau.com | Image: timsamoff C.C. 2.0]
Breaking: Gary Coleman Dead At 42 via @slashfilm
by jaredwestfall on May.28, 2010, under Randomness
Breaking: Gary Coleman Dead At 42
Posted on Friday, May 28th, 2010 by Peter Sciretta
has died at age 42. According to Radar, Coleman had been hospitalized in Utah since Wednesday, May 26th, after suffering what his family has been calling “a serious medical problem.” Coleman suffered an intracranial hemorrhage, and slipped into a coma. He was pulled of life support on Friday morning.
Coleman is probably best known for the television show Diff’rent Strokes, but has appeared in a few movies, including On The Right Track, Jimmy The Kid, Fox Hunt, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Church Ball, An American Carol, and most recently Midgets vs. Mascots.
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Blend a Cigar in Five (Not So) Simple Steps via Luxist
by jaredwestfall on May.28, 2010, under Randomness
Blend a Cigar in Five (Not So) Simple Steps
by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) May 27th 2010 at 2:01PM
You cut your cigar, put a flame to the other end and experience a collection of tastes that is unique and fulfilling. But, have you ever thought about what makes it all possible? I’m not talking about the broad strokes. Sure, there’s a guy who picks the leaves, another who roles them and so on. It doesn’t take much to figure that out. Rather, I’m talking about the real details … such as knowing to look for a leaf that may not be as long as the others, which can alter the flavor at the foot (or lead to intensity toward the end).
Blending and rolling is both art and science – we all know that – but the detail and care required likely exceeds your imagination. I’ve sat at a rolling table (briefly, on two occasions) and have a new appreciation for what goes into this task. When I sat in a conference room at the La Aurora factory in Santiago, Dominican Republic, though, I got a feel for the role of choice in constructing a cigar. And, to be honest, I was terrified. Making a great cigar doesn’t start with the rollers: it begins with the arbiters of taste.
How do they do it? Here are five steps that may look easy on your screen, but they are terribly difficult in practice (especially with my palate).
1. Cleanse your palate
Other cigars, coffee and even a bottle of the local Presidente beer can influence the decision you make early in the cigar blending process. For me, this wasn’t a huge deal. After all, I was only rolling 10 cigars. They guys creating entire lines, however, have a completely different situation. Imagine what a single cup of coffee can do! Tens of thousands of cigars could wind up tasting funky. Drink some club soda to make sure your mouth is free and clear of previous tastes.2. Spend some time with the grays
There’s nothing fun about smoking “pure grays.” They look like cigars, and they feel like cigars. The hidden secret only becomes known when you light up and puff. A pure gray is comprised entirely of one type of tobacco. You smoke it to get a clear and distinct sense of what that particular cigar has to offer. All the style and complexity you enjoy in your daily stick … well, you won’t find it in the pure grays. Use these “cigars” to take notes on specific strengths and flavors.3. Make your choices
Based on what you’ve tasted with the pure grays, you’ll pick the tobaccos to include in your cigar (and the proportions. If you’re developing a major line, you may have to go through this a few times, as the combinations might not meet your expectations. Remember: it can take three years or longer for a cigar to go from seed to ash. If you aren’t patient, you’re in the wrong line of business.
4. Bunch and roll
The “limited line” I blended at La Aurora consists of the following: 50 percent Dominican corolla, 30 percent Nicaraguan ligero and 20 percent of some Brazilian leaf I can’t remember (to be honest, I was quickly in over my head). Once you pick your leaves from the table, it’s time to sit at a rolling station and get to work.5. Wait a month, then two, then three
Jose Blanco, who ran 150 tasting seminars last year for La Aurora and plays a major role in the company’s operation, suggested that those of us going through the rolling class smoke a cigar a month from now, another a month after that and then a third at the 90-day mark to note the changes. Having tasted cigars with him at these milestones (from a line that La Aurora was working on), I’m inclined to wait the 90 days – or more. Going too soon can send your hard work up in smoke!Disclosure: I was a guest of La Aurora and Miami Cigar in the Dominican Republic for CigarReader.com, my cigar blog. They picked up the tab. They only influence my coverage by making this story available to me. If I had paid for this trip myself, the story wouldn’t have been any different.
Tags: cigar, cigar manufacturing, cigars, dominican republic, dominican-republic, tobacco, tobacco industry, TobaccoCompanies
Filed under: Cigars
How Lost should have ended.
by jaredwestfall on May.28, 2010, under Randomness
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25 Horribly Sexist Vintage Ads, er I mean hilariously Sexist.
by jaredwestfall on May.28, 2010, under Randomness
25 Horribly Sexist Vintage Ads
May 27, 2010
Collected by Oral Adams
Since the 50’s, a lot has changed in way of women’s rights and their duties in and out of the house. I highly doubt any company could get away with phrases like “The Chef [mixer] does everything but cook – that’s what wives are for!” nowadays. Or how about an ad agency pitching a company an idea of a wife bent over her husband’s knee as he prepares to spank her.
I must admit, although these are sexist and not very appropriate (but still funny nonetheless), which would you prefer…these or the horribly racy ads that are prevalent currently?
Bonus: How LOST should’ve ended
@Revision3 Turns 5 Years Old via Revision3 blog.
by jaredwestfall on May.27, 2010, under Randomness
Five years is a long time to do anything. It’s a long time to drink the same beer, it’s a long time to attend the same school, and in Internet years (like dog years), it would put you squarely in that awkward period between still thinking you’re cool, and senile dotage. Sort of like Ben Roethlisberger.
But I’m proud to announce that as of May 23rd, 2010, Revision3 is officially five years old. Now the official “present” for a 5 year anniversary is wood. But, er, I guess we’ll just forgo the puerile jokes and get right to it.
Five years ago, a handful of frustrated technology and video professionals surveyed the TV landscape, and were not happy with what they saw. A promising and much-loved network, TechTV, had just been emasculated by the cable equivalent of Dunder-Mifflin. Hope, however, was on the horizon, as Apple had just announced a photo-iPod, and video was on the way. New encoding techniques, coupled with broadband advances finally made it possible to actually deliver compelling video through the World Wide Web. And so these intrepid pioneers decided to start making shows the way they wanted, covering the stuff they wanted to cover. And five years ago, the first episode of SYSTM was released to the world.
From iTunes to Youtube to full-on HDTV, we’ve come a long way since then. Our roster of 20+ shows have been enjoyed by hundreds of millions of viewers, we’ve given birth to an entire industry of content that lives apart from – and is now rivaling – the same lowest-common-denomiator pablum served up by almost all traditional TV.
Even more impressive, we’ve actually changed traditional TV – and the Internet – along the way. More than one traditional show now incorporates our signature host-sponsorships, we’ve spotted shows that incorporate drinking in their narrative, and our hosts have become frequent guests on traditional TV.
Back in 2005, the idea that anyone would watch a half hour show via the Internet was ridiculed and dismissed. Snackisodes were the future, claimed the pundits, and we were simply wrong-headed and ill informed. Our audience knew better, and now everyone else does too. Hulu certainly brought legitimacy to the model, but we’ve known all along that it’s not about short form online and long form on TV, but a “best screen available” model. When the urge strikes viewers want to watch what they want, where then want, when they want, on the best screen at hand.
Oh, and don’t forget our innovative ways to make real money on web video. Our sponsorship model has proven to be, hands down, the best performing, most useful, and most acceptable format for video advertising ever. Survey after survey continue to show that if you want to reach an Internet-savvy audience in a meaningful way, nothing is better than an authentic message delivered in context by a loved and trusted host. And that’s all we do.
It’s been a great five years. But we’re not resting on our tremendous success. We continue to innovate, continue to break new ground, and continue to bring you great new hosts, shows and web experiences. Our recent launch of Food Mob shows that cooking shows don’t have to be just Food Porn and vapid chatter – there’s a place for a fun show that helps the rest of us learn how to make our favorite foods.
And speaking of porn, we’ve re-invented that as well, by bringing the stylistic conventions of “Boogie Nights” to the drab and boring world of unboxing videos. The iPad never looked so sexy, and chances are you’ll see more of this show as the months unfold.
One guy you’re already seeing a lot of is Penn Jillette, our newest star and host of Penn Point. It’s a perfect mix of the authentic host, engaged audience and controversial content. Fun, entertaining and revealing, it’s what reality TV really should be!
On the web, we’ve got great things planned as well. Later this week we have the biggest update to our site since, well, the site launched, with tons of new features to help you engage not only with our shows and hosts, but with each other too!
We’ve got a lot more coming up too! But I’ve got one more thing to announce – it’s our gala 5th anniversary party, and you’re all invited! That’s right, we’re going to celebrate our amazing progress, five years of awesome content, and our tremendous lineup of new shows with a bash you will not want to miss. It’s right here in San Francisco, on June 25th, and I hope you can join our founders – Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson, David Prager and the crew for a live Diggnation, Scam School, and tons of special guests – and a few surprises along the way. (Feel free to RSVP over on Facebook)
So thanks to everyone who made Revision3 such a raging success over the past five years, and for all of our great viewers who have been such great supporters over the years. Oh, and one last thing. You ain’t seen nuthin yet. The next five years are going to rock your world, so stay tuned!
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Announcements, Live Events, Shows, Website. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
I can’t believe I have been watching for 5 years. Congrats!
Going “Green” via John Stossel, a great read that explains how hard it actually will be.
by jaredwestfall on May.27, 2010, under Randomness
Going “Green”05/26/2010I ride my bike to work. It seems so pure.
We’re constantly urged to “go green” – use less energy, shrink our carbon footprint, save the Earth. How? We should drive less, use ethanol, recycle plastic and buy things with the government’s Energy Star label.
But what if much of going green is just bunk? Al Gore’s group, Repower America, claims we can replace all our dirty energy with clean, carbon-free renewables. Gore says we can do it within 10 years.
“It’s simply not possible,” says Robert Bryce, author of “Power Hungry: The Myths of ‘Green’ Energy.” “Nine out of 10 units of power that we consume are produced by hydrocarbons – coal, oil and natural gas. Any transition away from those sources is going to be a decades-long, maybe even a century-long process. … The world consumes 200 billion barrels of hydrocarbons per day. We would have to find the energy equivalent of 23 Saudi Arabias.”
Bryce used to be a left-liberal, but then: “I educated myself about math and physics. I’m a liberal who was mugged by the laws of thermodynamics.”
Bryce mocked the “green” value of my riding my bike to work:
“Let’s assume you saved a gallon of oil in your commute (a generous assumption!).Global daily energy consumption is 9.5 billion gallons. … So by biking to work, you save the equivalent of one drop in 10 gasoline tanker trucks. Put another way, it’s one pinch of salt in a 100-pound bag of potato chips.”
How about wind power?
“Wind does not replace oil. This is one of the great fallacies, and it’s one that the wind energy business continues to promote,” Bryce said.
The problem is that windmills cannot provide a constant source of electricity. Wind turbines only achieve 10 percent to 20 percent of their maximum capacity because sometimes the wind doesn’t blow.
“That means you have to keep conventional power plants up and running. You have to ramp them up to replace the power that disappears from wind turbines and ramp them down when power reappears.”Yet the media rave about Denmark, which gets some power from wind. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman says, “If only we could be as energy smart as Denmark.”
“Friedman doesn’t fundamentally understand what he’s talking about,” Bryce said.
Bryce’s book shows that Denmark uses eight times more coal and 25 times more oil than wind.
If wind and solar power were practical, entrepreneurs would invest in it. There would be no need for government to take money from taxpayers and give it to people pushing green products.
Even with subsidies, “renewable” energy today barely makes a dent on our energy needs.
Bryce points out that energy production from every solar panel and windmill in America is less than the production from one coal mine and much less than natural gas production from Oklahoma alone.
But what if we build more windmills?
“One nuclear power plant in Texas covers about 19 square miles, an area slightly smaller than Manhattan. To produce the same amount of power from wind turbines would require an area the size of Rhode Island. This is energy sprawl.” To produce the same amount of energy with ethanol, another “green” fuel, it would take 24 Rhode Islands to grow enough corn.
Maybe the electric car is the next big thing?
“Electric cars are the next big thing, and they always will be.”
There have been impressive headlines about electric cars from my brilliant colleagues in the media. The Washington Post said, “Prices on electric cars will continue to drop until they’re within reach of the average family.”
That was in 1915.In 1959, The New York Times said, “Electric is the car of the tomorrow.”
In 1979, The Washington Post said, “GM has an electric car breakthrough in batteries, now makes them commercially practical.”
I’m still waiting.
“The problem is very simple,” Bryce said. “It’s not political will. It’s simple physics. Gasoline has 80 times the energy density of the best lithium ion batteries. There’s no conspiracy here of big oil or big auto. It’s a conspiracy of physics.”
Poor People Spend 9% Of Income On Lottery Tickets – via @TheConsumerist
by jaredwestfall on May.26, 2010, under Randomness
A recent study found that poor folks – households earning under $13,000 per year – spend about 9% of all their income on lottery tickets.
“The study neatly illuminates the sad positive feedback loop of lotteries. The games naturally appeal to poor people, which causes them to spend disproportionate amounts of their income on lotteries, which helps keep them poor, which keeps them buying tickets.
”I wonder what would happen if on a certain number of the losing scratch-off cards, scratching off the latex ink won you free in-person credit counseling services.
Lotteries [The Frontal Cortex] (Thanks to Jim!)
The impact of narrow decision bracketing on lottery play [Journal of Risk and Uncertainty]From ConsumerReports.org:
Why Paying More For Brand Name Drugs Is Folly – The Consumerist
by jaredwestfall on May.26, 2010, under Randomness
(Mint)
There are some people out there who just don’t get how much crazy money you can save with buying generic drugs. For those folks, this infographic was crafted by Mint.com. To illustrate the cost-savings possible, they took a look at Advil. For the same 200 mg of isobutylpropanoicphenolic acid, people are willing to pay over $8 more per box. Those pretty graphics aren’t going to chase away your headache any faster, honey. Let’s take a look:
Crazy, right? If this is the kind of thing that gets you riled up, Consumer Reports also has a great service for an unbiased comparison of the cost-efficacy of different kinds of drugs called Best Buy Drugs that you should check out.
The RIP: Brand vs Generic Drugs [Mint]
More About:From ConsumerReports.org:
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