![The Early Bird... [Not My Cartoon]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/412511100_49fb28acdc_m.jpg)
Here’s a long list of how people go about doing their jobs. Profiled here are artists, writers, musicians, robotics researchers, actors, cyclists, and more.
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Year: 2008
The Usborne Book of the Future was published in 1978 and envisions the world in the year 2000 “and beyond.”
Some of my favorite predictions include:
— the human-robot space exploration teams,
— military troops transported by rocket and then dispatched via armed “hovercars,”
— these crustacean-like aliens pondering high-tech crystal balls,
— (under the heading 1991-2000) sunlight-reflecting mirrors in space that provide light for the dark side of the earth,
— (under the heading 2001-2050) an “electromagnetic catapult” on the moon used to fling mining materials to “space factories.”
Fishing tackle as objets d’art? Damn straight.
Field and Stream‘s got an excellent photo gallery of the 50 Greatest Fishing Lures of All Time, many of which are simply beautiful. The Dardevle Spinnie, for example, is awfully pretty. I also love the sleek Rapala, the flamboyant Rooster Tail, the irreverent Hula Popper, and the bulbous Berkley Bat Wing Frog. (Okay, so that last one might not be so easy on the eyes, but you’ve gotta love fishing with something that resembles a miniature frog.)
My all-time favorite lure, though, is the Mepps Aglia (above), which I would argue is just as attractive as many contemporary women’s brooches I’ve seen. It is nothing less than a work of art.
Related fishing post: remember when my buddy Chad caught a deer in the Chesapeake Bay last summer? Well, his photos from the event were subsequently forwarded via email — each sender embellishing the tale a bit — to such an extent that some labeled it an urban legend. But it’s not. You can even look it up on Snopes.com.
Sepak takraw (or simply takraw in Thai), is a volleyball-like game played with the feet using a rattan ball. The sport is popular throughout Southeast Asia, but especially so here in Thailand.
The game doesn’t get much attention outside of Asia, so you can imagine my surprise when I came across this fake video report on The Onion News Network. The spot features elaborate NFL-style TV graphics, breathless analysis, and a Keyshawn Johnson reference:
“Ngyuen Thi Buch Thuy: ‘Just Give Me The Damn Sepak Takraw Ball'”
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North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel
![The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, N. Korea [not my image]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/152/428776769_1c6bf808ec_m.jpg)
The Worst Building in the History of Mankind
It’s the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea, where the world’s 22nd largest skyscraper has been vacant for two decades and is likely to stay that way … forever.
…
Even by Communist standards, the 3,000-room hotel is hideously ugly, a series of three gray 328-foot long concrete wings shaped into a steep pyramid. With 75 degree sides that rise to an apex of 1,083 feet, the Hotel of Doom (also known as the Phantom Hotel and the Phantom Pyramid) isn’t the just the worst designed building in the world — it’s the worst-built building, too. In 1987, Baikdoosan Architects and Engineers put its first shovel into the ground and more than twenty years later, after North Korea poured more than two percent of its gross domestic product to building this monster, the hotel remains unoccupied, unopened, and unfinished.
This architectural gem, you might remember, was number one on the list of Asia’s Top Five Craziest Buildings that I penned last year.
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Rambo in Thailand: The Reviews Roll In
When I heard that Sylvester Stallone’s new “Rambo” flick takes place right here in Thailand, I knew it’d be a must-see. I haven’t laid eyes on the film yet, I’m sad to say, but some early reviews have just rolled in:
Joel Stein, writing in Time, interviews Stallone and opens with this exceptional lede:
Sylvester Stallone has memorized a lot of Procol Harum lyrics, and for the next two minutes I’m going to hear them. Because if you want to know what inspires a man to write a movie in which hundreds of people are blown up and which, by his own estimate, contains only three pages of dialogue between the two main characters, apparently you have to listen to the lyrics of a psychedelic 1968 song called In Held ‘Twas in I: Glimpses of Nirvana. This is the song that made Stallone want to be a writer, which is surprising because while it contains one Zen koan and mentions the Dalai Lama three times, it does not allude to firing a rocket launcher through a helicopter window.
And then there’s this:
Sure, Stallone agreed to do the movie before Rocky Balboa was approved, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t find something to say. Like Procol Harum, Stallone is not afraid of metaphor, of being opaque, of answering some questions with questions and other questions with a hail of bullets. What he wanted to say in the new Rambo came down to one smart speech: “Old men start wars. Young men fight them. And everyone in the middle gets killed. War is natural. Peace is an accident. We’re animals.” Stallone eventually cut all that dialogue out because Rambo is a silent man, and blurting out your thesis is for college papers, not movies.
And finally:
The guy who created Rocky is a cheery pessimist who believes that despite an ugly world, you can make incredible things happen with great effort. “Rocky represents the optimistic side of life, and Rambo represents purgatory,” he says. The world, Rambo realizes, is perpetually chaotic and dangerous. “If you think people are inherently good, you get rid of the police for 24 hours—see what happens,” Stallone says. “I could start a war in 30 seconds. But some countries spend 100 years trying to find peace. Just like good manners, peace has to be learned.”
I also like A.O. Scott’s story in the NY Times:
“Rambo (2008): Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back in the Jungle”:
When we first encounter him, this weary warrior has retreated from geopolitics, passing the time at a remote river station in the Thai jungle, where he hunts poisonous snakes and dabbles in blacksmithing. Old Rambo seems kind of depressed, to tell the truth, until his wrath is stirred by the viciousness of the Burmese Army.
Burma? But why not Burma? (In this movie, no one calls it Myanmar.) As a precredit montage of actual news clips reminds us, the military government of that nation has been engaged not only in widespread authoritarian abuses but also in a brutal, long-running campaign against the Karen ethnic minority. And it is with the Karen that Rambo, once roused from his weary cynicism, throws in his lot. No longer the bloody avatar of wounded American pride, he seems more inclined toward humanitarian intervention — a one-man N.G.O. with a machete. Will he show up in Darfur next?
The review ends on this surprisingly upbeat note:
Mr. Stallone is smart enough — or maybe dumb enough, though I tend to think not — to present the mythic dimensions of the character without apology or irony. His face looks like a misshapen chunk of granite, and his acting is only slightly more expressive, but the man gets the job done. Welcome back.
Other reviews, however, aren’t as kind:
Hollywood Reporter/Reuters: “Rambo should have left sleeping dogs of war lie”
SF Chronicle: “‘Rambo’ – There will be blood. And rippled muscle.”
Kansas City Star: “GRAMPO! At 61, Rambo is in fighting form, but does America still care?”
(Emphasis mine.)
Have you seen this flick? What do you think?
The world’s flags given letter grades is a tongue-in-cheek look at national symbols that are rarely viewed from an artistic standpoint:
Some time ago, browsing through my friend’s atlas, I realised that there are significant differences in quality between the flags of different countries. Some are good, some are bad. Some countries have clearly taken care in the choice of colours, layout, and design. Others have been lazy, stolen the flags of their neighbours, or just designed flags that are clearly supposed to cause pain to those who look at them.
To my surprise, there is no international body responsible for upholding simple standards of vexillilic aesthetics. Nor do the UN or Interpol have the power to call in and punish those responsible for such atrocities as the Brazilian or Cypriot flags. I suppose there is probably a conspiracy of rich western nations (those with permanent seats on the UN security council, no doubt) to prevent such crimes from being brought to justice; however, in the meantime I am giving letter grades to the existing flags of the world.
Here’re the A grades, the failing grades, and an alphabetical listing of countries.
(Via Kottke.)
The New York Times recently ran a travel story by Joshua Kurlantzick about Bangkok street food. Austin’s phenomenal blog Real Thai gets a deserved mention, and I’m not just saying that because he gave me shout-out today due to our mutual love of all things waffle-related (i.e. the infamous Thai waffle-coated hot dog that I scarfed down in Kanchanaburi).
From the NYT piece:
…After culling through Thai food Web sites, I often arrive in Bangkok carrying a list of street dishes I must try — unripe mangoes dipped in sweet chili sauce, charcoal-grilled fish sausages, tacolike shells filled with shredded coconut. Every time I mention my list, real Thai gourmets tell me noodles, the ultimate quick snack, should be the real test of any street stall.
“Noodles are one of the great Thai secular religions,” wrote the longtime Thailand food critic Ung-aang Talay, adding that Thais think nothing of plodding across Bangkok to sample a new dish. Nearly every street in Bangkok has a vendor selling thin, slightly sweet egg noodles; wide, chewy rice noodles; pad Thai topped in gooey omelets. Even, occasionally, the northern Thailand noodle specialty known as khao soi. As the Thailand food blogger Austin Bush has suggested on his knowledgeable site — www.realthai.blogspot.com — khao soi reflects the many foreign influences on Thailand cuisine. Khao soi blends egg noodles with a mild, Indian-style broth and toppings of crispy noodles, shallots and pickled cabbage, a Burmese touch that adds an acidic flavor cutting the rich, oily curry.
There’s also a slide show of images by Josef Polleross that’s worth checking out.
Some of India’s richest people are paying $150 a night to live like peasants at a “native village” in the southern state of Karnataka.
The village, Hessargatta – just outside India’s IT capital, Bangalore – is designed to encourage the preservation of some of India’s rural traditions.
It offers visitors the chance to qualify in tasks like milking cows and looking after the other animals, such as turkeys, ducks, chickens and dogs…
Related: Virtual Airplane Rides in Delhi.
(Via my new favorite blog.)
In the most radical move from print to digital advertising by a major newspaper, the Chicago Tribune announced Monday it is eliminating help-wanted ads from the newspaper on weekdays.
Instead, there will be a listing of basic information in the business section every Tuesday. The listing, called “Careerbuilder QuickFind,” will refer readers to the full recruitment ad on chicagotribune.com/careerbuilder through a Web ID.
…
“Chicago Tribune and the rest of the newspaper industry face the same challenges with shifts in help wanted advertising, and we are taking the lead on reinventing the way we present our job listings,” Ellen Glassberg, the paper’s director of recruitment advertising, said in a statement. “We see this challenge as an opportunity for us to retool our recruitment advertising offerings and fully integrate the online and print job search experience to be hyper-focused on the needs of job seekers.”
As reported, the Tribune launched its redesign Monday with a new nameplate, narrower page width, and some changes in section head typefaces.
Emphasis mine.
(Via. blog.pmarca.com.)