Google does movie reviewsInstant access to movie reviews is yet another great feature you can now access directly from the google interface.

Just type the query movie:filmname, and google will retrieve all the move reviews it can find (presumably from an existing database of pre-approved review sites, a la google news). eg...

movie: once were warriors

Cool.
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Breakfast with WillI spotted part of the following interview in a discussion over at MetaFilter today. (I made my first Metafilter FPP today, very exciting, anyway...).

Will Wright is the inventor of the SimCity and the Sims games. And, if this interview from GameSpy is anything to go by, either someone with a good imagination, or someone with enough money to try and make the things he wants to make happen (and most probably both).

Having just told the interviewer about his uncollecting hobby (whereby he buys up other people's collections on ebay, and then disseminates the collections back out into the community, thereby 'uncollecting' them), he then reveals he spends his 'real money' on soviet-era space hardware.

Wright: It started in the last 10 months or so. I got really interested in the Russian space program and the way they design things, so I started collecting this stuff like big control panels.

GameSpy: What is the biggest thing that you've bought?

Wright: The biggest thing I have right now is the external hatch off a Russian space shuttle. It's about four feet in diameter and about 100 pounds.


GameSpy: And you have it leaning against a wall?

Wright: Yeah, in our stairwell.

And I have a seat from the Soyuz. That's also pretty big. Some of the Mir control panels get pretty large. And I have a Soyuz hatch, which is a little smaller. It's about that big. (Wright holds his hand about three feet off the ground.)

GameSpy: Are you still roboting?

Wright: Not robot fighting stuff, but we are still building robots and attacking people with them.

GameSpy: Attacking people?

Wright: Yes, at Berkeley. We build these robots and we take them down to Berkeley and study the interactions that people have with the robots.

We built this newer one that has a rapid-fire ping pong cannon. And they really hurt. They come out really fast. It will fire about 10 per second. It has this big bin on it that is full of ping pong balls.

So we give people this plastic bag and we say, "It's set up to play baseball. Do you want to play baseball?" So we stand them up in front of the robot and we give them a face shield. We tell them, "It's going to shoot a little ball and you try to hit it." And all of a sudden it's like da-da-da-da, and it's belting them with balls.

We take it out to laundry mats, restaurants, drive-ins. People turn around and there is this robot and it's trying to interact with them.

Interact. By shooting ping pong balls at them. Ahhh, geeks. The rest of the interview is both random and interesting (for someone who enjoys games, maybe).
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Who Could Win a Rabbit video download | Phoenix Foundation videoThe video for my favourite song of the last few months - Animal Collective's 'Who Could Win a Rabbit' - is now available for download over at the Paw Tracks Label website. It really is a great song, and the video adds a certain je nais se pas. The end of the song, in particular, which, to my ears, initially just sounded like some random sucking and squelching noises, now takes on a whole new meaning.

Also spotted in world of online music video is the recent single - 'Hitchcock' - from the soon-to-be-released second album from Wellington's The Phoenix Foundation. And it is absolutely amazing. Some clapped out old rust heaps dance out an automotive ballet around the streets of ... somewhere ... trying to rid the streets of the evil SUV. It looks a lot better than how I just wrote it up. View it online over at amplifier.
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Sting - next inspiration to be clubfoot sufferers...From both the who-bloody-cares and crap-headlines departments...

Tsunami May Inspire Sting Song
Pop icon Sting has been deeply moved by the suffering of Sri Lankan children who lost parents to Asia's tsunami and may pen a song about the island's worst natural disaster, his wife said this week.

Jeeeesus. As if we're all sitting around pondering just what cause Sting is going to write his next song about. As Peter over at dubdotdash points out, the headline writers got their priorities a little backwards on this one; it should read: 'Tsunami suffering continues - Sting writing song about Asian disaster'.

Perhaps we should send Sting some hints on other disasters that he can use to raise his profile.

UPDATE: I see Metafilter is now on the case...
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For the loveThe idea of churning out a couple of pulp romance novels that might potentially sell millions of copies to the seemingly neverending throngs of women who devour these things at the rate of about two-a-day (well, that was my experience when issuing the things at the public library I used to work at), has always had a vague appeal.

Problem is, of course, is that millions of other people, many of them serious romance readers in the first place, have had the same idea, and the market is flooded with the things. I assume a few of them are big sellers, but that, in reality, only a few people (as with any creative enterprise), make any real dosh out of the exercise.

Anyway, what might be more interesting would be writing the romance novels that could accompany the cover mock-ups that Longmire has created over on his website (worth the price of admission - which, admittedly, is free - just for his pic at the top of the page).

He's come up with such doozies as: Gimme Back My Shirt! Lord of the Hissy Fit, and, errr, The Toy in Daddy's Pants (okay, maybe I won't write that last one). Comedy Romance Fiction?

Or has that been done already?

{via boingboing}
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Online impersonationsPoor Conor over at Constar has become the victim of an online impersonator.

Someone purporting to be Conor (albeit a less witty and less intelligent sounding one), has been making comments on David Farrar's blog. The pseudo-conor (small 'c', as opposed to Conor's usually capitalised name - as Conor says, he's "worth it") has been inciting some of the right-wing crowd with some reasonably inane comments, much to the chagrin of the real Conor, who does actually like to think his arguments through.

Pretending to be someone else online, eh? How childish. As Conor states ... 'grow up'.
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Radio Active 89FM Bodega NZ Music ShowPlaylist for Tue 15 February 2005.

jakob - gattaca
the upbeats - go round
disasteradio - moog sunshine (christine's theme)
loudhaler - stepper safari
emerald green - the garden song
sjd - from a to b or not to be
cinematic - shrug
wadd - station repair
hell is other people - this is catch
cassette - what a relief

un-chart-ed

straitjacket fits - cast stone
hdu - lull
hlah - fish across face
shihad - get up
the bilge festival - chinese contestant #2
superette - saskatchewan
the shocking pinks - broken lens
pluto - mojar rijeka
signer - your ears across the fences
denver mccarthy - on a path of devotion
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Rick BungaWell worth reproducing.

From yesterday's Parliamentary Question Time...

DIANNE YATES (Labour—Hamilton East) to the Minister of Broadcasting: What progress has been made on the Government objective of promoting increased levels of New Zealand music on commercial radio?

Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Broadcasting): The latest figures released by the Radio Broadcasters Association show that New Zealand music accounted for 18.6 percent of music played on commercial radio in 2004. This exceeds the agreed target and is well above—in fact, it is 10 times above—the 2 percent achieved in 1995 amidst the reign of the non- patriotic, culturally bankrupt National Party, which would not know Shihad from Pacifier.

Mr SPEAKER: The member will withdraw the last comment he made and apologise.

Hon STEVE MAHAREY: I withdraw and apologise.

Dianne Yates: What effect has the voluntary code of practice had on the music industry?

Hon STEVE MAHAREY: New Zealand music is stronger than ever, recently achieving six Kiwi singles in the Top 10—a new high for New Zealand music. Today the New Zealand music industry is a $146 million industry, and is growing rapidly on the back of exports all around the world. The creative sector, of which the music industry is part, now accounts for 3 percent of New Zealand's total GDP, and we have artists such as the Datsuns, Hayley Westenra, and Steriogram that are reaching audiences all over the world. Our music is heard by Americans almost as often as we hear it in this country. We will continue to support New Zealand music in this way, and this will be one of the dividing lines between ourselves in favour of New Zealand culture, and the National Party that does not favour it.

Dianne Yates: How does this support the Labour Party objective to promote New Zealand culture?

Hon STEVE MAHAREY: The Labour-led Government has put culture at the centre of its programme. In the area of music we have supported, through New Zealand On Air, a range of initiatives such as New Zealand Music Month and Play it Strange, the music industry export development group, the funding of the New Zealand Music Industry Commission, and, of course, the highly successfully Pathways to Arts and Cultural Employment programme that has placed 2,500 people in employment. Music is going places, unlike that band 'Don Brash and the Divided Nationals' —[Interruption]

Mr SPEAKER: I am not having the member shout out at me like that. The member was talking to me in the second person. He will stand, withdraw, and apologise.

Gerry Brownlee: I withdraw and apologise. I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.

Mr SPEAKER: No, I am now going to deal with the issue. The last sentence was completely out of order. The member will withdraw and apologise.

Hon Steve Maharey: I withdraw and apologise.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: As the Minister has put into the arena the issue of cultural sensitivity and awareness, how do the Minister and his colleagues feel about Marian Hobbs calling one of our leading female singers 'Rick Bunga' at an official function?

Hon STEVE MAHAREY: Bic Runga is known to Marian Hobbs, and is a friend of hers. Bic Runga is a much better singer than the member.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I did not ask the Minister any of the questions to which he sought to give an answer. I asked him how, if he is going to talk about cultural awareness and sensitivity, he and his colleagues feel about a Minister of the Crown calling a leading New Zealand singer 'Rick Bunga' at an official function, not Bic Runga.

Hon STEVE MAHAREY: I think the member is struggling; we will leave him for now.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.

Mr SPEAKER: The member will be seated. The member raised a point of order in the first instance and I want the Minister to answer the question please.

Hon STEVE MAHAREY: I am sure the Minister had a slip of the tongue and that she knows the answer extremely well. I personally know that she likes her music.

[tip of the hat to Paul Kennedy on the nzradio list]
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Microsoft: free music downloads - but with a catch.The initial blurb looks promising - 'Microsoft to offer free music downloads'. The extended premise also sounds good: that MS will be allowing one Grammy-nominated song a day to be downloaded from their site in the lead-up to the awards ceremony. It makes you think they might potentially be pushing into mp3 blog-land with such a manouevere.

But, no, naturally, Microsoft totally miss the point when it comes to online music downloads. The catch? For starters, you have to be a 18yo+ US resident. What else? Hmmm, digital rights management downloads, as opposed to easy-to-format-shift mp3 files. Ahahaha, and it gets worse! You need to actually sign-up to their iTunes-equivalent MSN Music Store, for which you need to provide a credit card. Jaysus. All that, for a handful of tracks you could probably find in two seconds on kazaa.
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Bizgirl goes to AustraliaThe madness continues. Having been contacted by the Sydney Morning Herald last week to give a potted bio about Ms. Biz and some thoughts on the Bloggies and blogging in general, I fired off a quick reply in the guise of my off-sider, and thought no more of it. The article would be out next tuesday Rob wrote back to me, it's a piece on all the finalists in the OZ/NZ section, it'll probably end up online in the technology section.

So, this morning, when I did my traditional early morning checking of the stats, I was more than surprised to see my daily visitors total was already double the normal average. Where? What? Ahhh, the joys of referrer logs...

Turns out bizgirl is one of the top links on the Sydney Morning Herald's website. The intro blurb on reads...

Natalie is smart, sexy and cool. A librarian with a wild streak and the toast of the net. So who is she?

Who indeed? How could you resist clicking through?

And all this traffic is streaming in even before Australians have got to work for their Friday online-at-work go-slow. Can't wait to see what happens after the eastern seaboard cities fire up and start surfing...

Oh, and, a call for a favour, do any Australian readers have the print version of the article they could scan and send my way? It'd be most appreciated. Cheers.

UPDATE! Thanks to Tom for the scan! Here 'tis. Click on it for a bigger version...



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