Mini-review: GI Joe and the Rise of Cobra

When one is watching a movie based on a cartoon series, and that cartoon series was designed to sell toys, one should keep expectations pretty low.

In this case, those low expectations weren't disappointed. It was, rather refreshingly, exactly what it claimed to be, no less and certainly no more.

Though the "weaponizing the warheads" sequence was particularly silly, even by the low standards of the movie-of-the-cartoon-of-the-commerical genre.

Though I'll give it this: Unlike the Transformers movie, it was always possible to tell who was fighting whom in the big finale. It's not much, but it's something.

Protest In America

Thomas Schaller has a good post up at Salon about about the faux-outrage on the right, shouting down dissent, and wondering where these people were during the huge governmental power grabs, documented lies, and government intrusion into health care over the last 8 years.

Recent Reading List

The Myth of the Rational Market

The Drunkard's Walk

Rubicon

Fooled by Randomness

Foucault's Pendulum (re-read)

Fooled by Randomness, followed by Foucault's Pendulum (which is all about looking for patterns that may or may not be there) makes for an interesting combination. Though I did notice some things on the re-read that I hadn't noticed when I first read the book, years ago... a message that had remained hidden all this time.... [snicker]