Day: July 9, 2013

Misleading headlines: Activists to boycott Harrison Ford’s new film

I saw this on Yahoo! and felt that I wanted to comment.  The headline was:  “Activists to boycott Harrison Ford’s new film.”

This is a misleading headline because it makes the uninformed reader think that for some reason activists are taking issue with Harrison Ford and therefore boycotting his films.  Which is incorrect.  The “activists” or “sane people who read” are actually boycotting Orson Scott Card, the author whose book Ender’s Game has been adapted for screen, featuring Harrison Ford.  Harrison Ford did not direct, produce, or write this film. Continue reading “Misleading headlines: Activists to boycott Harrison Ford’s new film”

Book 84 in 2013: Proxy by Alexander London @ca_london

9781101625859.600x600-75 This is the post about Proxy.  Proxy is a recent release from Alexander London set in a dystopian cyberpunk future.  Great luxe living is available for a price.  For those who can’t afford it, there are plans and schemes to work off your debts.  The disparity between the bright and shiny people and the poor and downtrodden is striking and frighteningly a possible outcome of our current direction as a society…

Parts of this future world feels familiar.  From Feed, (or google) we have targeted advertising where everywhere we go you find ads that are tailored to you and your personal habits.  From the Whipping Boy, we get the naive hope that young people can be shamed into behaving by watching other people get punished for their misdeeds.  I’m sure numerous other stories have done this, but for some reason I was reminded of Logan’s Run when they *spoiler* flee the city.  I also suggested that I was reminded of Virtual Light but that’s mainly because of the glasses which act as a computer interface.  And all of the talk of blood sacrifice and forgiveness reminded me of the bible. Continue reading “Book 84 in 2013: Proxy by Alexander London @ca_london”