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Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 2090
I had to take the daughter for Christmas. A 2 hour CGI circlejerk that involved very little of the Hobbit and far too many irrelevant, inane and unnecessary details. Of course, if you're trying to pad a single children's book into a Wagnerian Trilogy, that's the way to do it. But really, really, what a load of bollocks...Tolkien would be rolling in his grave...
Gauguin and Bonnard
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 2275
A couple of interesting articles on a couple of recently recovered paintings by Gauguin and Bonnard. Following an art theft in '70, they were acquired for $30 in 1975, the paintings are currently predicted to sell for over $50 Million dollars at auction now.
Note the language used by the media to describe the "discovery" of the artwork - "Extraordinary discovery of 'Fruits on a Table' painting which hung on a factory worker's wall for decades before being found by Italy's art police" ... there are worlds to be read into "factory worker's wall" - as if it were some miracle that a factory worker should recognize or value art, esp. art of this caliber. The class hierarchy at it's worst, a far better leading line might be "Canny Factory Worker acquires Gauguin and Bonnard for $30..." or other such, but we regard the appreciation of "fine art" as a provenance exclusive to the "educated and rich".
Links: The Telegraph && CNN (the byline at the end is of interest...) && BBC. Note the fact that CNN doesn't lead with "factory worker"....a rare chance to applaud them for reporting the "relevant" news that doesn't reinforce negative class stereotypes. I would suggest shaming the BBC and The Telegraph, but it's Britain, and they are so far into 1984 that it doesn't matter.
The Wreck of the Madagascar
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Lost
- Hits: 2396
Some two tonnes of gold from the Australian Gold Fields went down with her. Reckoning at a conservative $1000 per ounce, the wreck is now worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $70,548,000 dollars.
Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_(ship) and here: http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?56749.
Abundant more sites exist for the curious.
$81 Million Teaching the CIA how to torture
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: WTF
- Hits: 2447
Apparently psychology is not bound by any sort of Hippocratic Oath. Or, as these two clowns seem to explain, they're just doing a small evil for the greater good.
Whatever, given their lack of expertise on torture, interrogation or anything even remotely related, it seems they found their own sort of treasure.
Read more at the National Post: http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/12/10/two-u-s-psychologists-made-81-million-teaching-the-cia-how-to-torture/
Or the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/senate-torture-report-shows-cia-infighting-over-interrogation-program.html?_r=0
If you made this up, nobody would believe you.
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