In the movie, an alien vessel somehow breaks down and parks over Johannesburg, South Africa. After three months, the humans break into the ship and extract the aliens. Unsure what to do with them, the aliens are confined to an area called District 9 where they are put into shacks and not treated particularly well. Nigerian gang lords begin to start a drug trade in canned cat food and start trying to acquire alien weaponry (which they can’t use). After a period of time, it is decided that District 9 is too close to the city and that all of the aliens are to be evicted and moved to a new compound further from the city. This eviction process is where the problems begin.

The course of action followed in District 9, sadly, is what quite probably would happen if aliens contacted Earth. Human kind has a history of confining undesirables into small, controlled colonies to make society “safer.” This includes the Japanese internment in America during WWII, the prison colony of Australia, and terrorists in Guantanamo Bay. This would especially be true if the contacting aliens looked like those in District 9. Humans have a tendency to be Xenophobic and this feeds into our fears and prejudices.  Earth would probably react differently if the first species to contact us were Vulcans (or some species that closely resembling humans) as in Star Trek: First Contact.

If I were in charge, I am not sure how I would handle the situation. I think I would try to assimilate the aliens in to our society. In the film they made references to trying to get the aliens jobs, but it seemed that it wasn’t going well. In that case, admittedly I don’t know if I have a better answer. If we have learned anything from our history, it is that treating people with respect and care is the best way to engender friendship and peace. Hostility and anger leads to more hostility and anger, very rarely has a group been successfully contained against their will by brute force.

What I really wonder is if the United Nations or someone has a plan in place for when this happens. It seems like the kind of thing that a think tank would be good for planning. I also wonder if what happens in Star Trek: First Contact is what would happen. Not the details of how the aliens come, but more so the whole idea of the Earth coming together in harmony and peace once we realize that we are not alone in the universe. It may be the only thing that saves us as a people and creates a world where money is no longer used and our main goal as humans is just to better ourselves and Captain Picard says so many times.

We finished watching Remember Me the 2010 film starring Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame and Emilie de Ravin from LOST. The movie is substantially a normal romantic comedy focused on the two main characters falling in love and connecting over the prior tragedies in their lives. They begin dating because of a bet that is mean spirited but fall in love and then the whole thing blows up. But then they reconnect and things start to look up. This movie definitely exceeded my expectations and the love story itself would have been enough for me to call this a good movie, but the ending left me a little divided.

At the end of the movie, Pattinson is in his father’s office while the father (who was estranged from his daughter most of the movie) was taking his daughter to school. We find out that this day happens to be September 11th, 2001 and that the father’s office is actually in the World Trade Center. The screen cuts to black and then we see several post attack scenes. I hadn’t really thought about it, but the whole movie was based in 2001. This fact wasn’t thrown in your face, but there were several hints. In one dinner scene there is a Yankees/Mets debate were several 2001 Yankees are named and there is another scene where the characters are watching American Pie 2 (which was released in August 2001) in the theater.

My reaction to this ending was mixed. At first I thought the ending was kind of a neat twist on the incident. However, after that I started to wonder if the movie was just exploiting the events in order to cause a controversy and draw a crowd. This seemed to be the case, because the whole movie had nothing to do with the attacks and then all of sudden it becomes the central point of the plot. After reflecting longer, I came to realize that that is the point of the 9/11 attacks, no one was thinking about terrorism that day, it just showed up and changed everything. The end of the film has the same sense of unexpected and irrevocable change that many of us felt that day. So, all in all, the ending was very poignant. The movie treated the tragedy in a similar was as did Titanic. It took a horrific event that is so overwhelming it is difficult at times to imagine what it was like if you weren’t there and gave it a personal connection and a sense of what it might have been like to be one of the unlucky that was affected directly that day.

I was reminded of the classic Simpson’s episode Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish where Mr. Burn’s is running for governor and Marge serves him a three eyed fish, Blinky, from the run off pond by his plant. He proceeds to spit the fish across the table and promptly loses the election.

So, while I appreciate that Doug Skuttles is willing to but money where his mouth is, I hope he is ready for some smart mother to make him eat his words.

PS — Please clean up the oil and reimburse my country. Thanks.

The episode features Lt. Commander Data (played by Brent Spiner) who is an android who’s main ambition in life, according to counselor Troi’s psychological profile, is to “be more human and experience as much of that condition’s depths and shadows as his adaptive programming can approximate.” The episode ultimately is about whether or not androids should have the right to choose or if they are property.

The episode opens up with Data learning how to play poker. After studying all of the rules he determines that the game is simple because you would only ever bet if you had a good hand, so the winner should be clear. In the first hand we see that Data has three queens, but Commander Riker has an apparent flush (4 hearts showing with one card flipped over). Riker keeps matching Data’s bets until he folds and Riker wins the hand showing Data that there is more to the game or being human than just knowing the facts.

As the episode unfolds, Data is told that he must undergo an experiment that will require him to be disassembled. He refuses the experiment and when told he has no choice he, attempts to, resigns from Starfleet. He is then told that he cannot resign because he is the property of Starfleet. This is where the crux of the issue comes up. A trial is started by Captain Picard to determine if Data has the right to choose or if he is the property of Starfleet. The trial comes down to Picard (played by Patrick Stewart and we see him give a masterful performance in this episode) asking what the definition of sentience is. The officer who wishes to perform the experiment on Data lists three characteristics of sentience: intelligence, self-awareness, consciousness.

Picard goes on to show that Data is intelligent (clearly he is a huge computer), is self-aware (he indicates that he is knows he is at a trial to determine his rights), and then challenges that there is no test for consciousness.

This whole debate about what it means to be a sentient being really got me thinking about what it means to be “alive.” It seems like a silly argument to make that my computer should have the right to choose whether or not I open it to add a new hard drive, but in the future, if artificial intelligence technology progresses as science fiction would suggest, that line will start to get more fuzzy. Even now, if we use the three prong test of sentience as listed above, some of today’s technology might fit. My BlackBerry is both intelligent and self-aware (in so far as it can tell you where it is and what it is doing.) I would not argue that my BlackBerry is conscious, but I guess that depends on what that means (is Tivo conscious when it predicts programs?).

The path towards machines that can think is a topic that needs to be thought about as technology progresses. In The Matrix movie trilogy some of these same concepts are explored. Specifically in The Animatrix (which is a fantastic set of animated shorts about The Matrix world) we see two robots who are accused of a crime but then not given due process and a fair trial. This disrespect is what angers the robots and ultimately leads to the robots revolting and enslaving all of the humans (which is the whole premise of the movie.)

One my favorite lines from the episode asks about what happens when you go from having one Data in the universe to creating 2,000 of them. Haven’t you then created a new race?  And then, if you call that race property, aren’t you then denying a race their basic rights? (The undertones of slavery are rich throughout the episode highlighted by the appearance of Whoopi Goldberg as the ships bartender.)

The whole episodes raises some serious questions for me about how we should be proceeding with artificial intelligence as we go forward. Just because we can create a smarter computer, should we? And, if we do keep pressing forward, are we prepared to deal with the consequences? In the mid 2000′s several movies (The Matrix, I, Robot, Bicentennial Man) were released that dealt with some of these questions.We need to limit ourselves to stop from creating a new race of beings that become truly conscious. This is difficult to do as processor speed doubles every 18 months and we are constantly pushing the envelope, but at some point we need to start asking if we should be making the next step as opposed to can we. This restraint would be exemplary of the highest level of evolution and may be critical to the survival of mankind.

However, we were left with a problem. We decided during all of this to add a TV and blue ray player to the bedroom in the back of the house, but now the gateway that sends the TV signals is in the front of house, instead of in the next room like before. The new LG BD570 Network Blu-Ray Disc Player was going to be hooked up via WiFi, so that just left the TV. This seemed simple enough, the TV to the living room before this was running from the office to the living room via a coax cable in the basement, so I should just be able to run the TV back the opposite way to the bed room.

This was a fine idea, except what when I tried, recorded shows did not show up on the box in the bedroom. In the U-Verse system you have a DVR box where you can pause live TV and where all of your recorded shows are stored. This box can be attached to the gateway via coax with no problem since the recorded shows are stored on it. If you want to watch TV in other rooms you receive a Set Top Box (STB) from AT&T. You can watch live TV (but can’t pause) and recorded TV on the STB, but only (as I learned today) if you connecte the STB via an Ethernet cable (not the coax). This is actually pretty cool that the video signals run via Ethernet cable and not coax.

Additionally, I learned (I think) that you can only have the coax or the Ethernet cable hooked up to one of the U-Verse boxes, but not both. It seems to only be able to handle one link. I am not exactly sure if this is true, but it seems to be.

So, I had one 50′ cable I could run through the wall, across the basement, back up to the bedroom and to the STB. This was pretty easy because the coax was already in place and I just had to follow it backwards. Sadly, this cord was about 10′ short. At first I thought to try and use a router to fix the problem, but I didn’t really want to have to keep the router plugged in all the time. (Plus, when I tried it, it didn’t work.) So, I wanted to install a Cat 5 wall plate to basically just extend the cable. I headed to Home Depot to purchase said wall plate.

The front of the wall plate looks simple enough as shown below, but the back blew my mind!

This picture shows the finished product but there were eight wires on the back of the wall plate and the colors of the wall plate wires did not match the colors of the wires in the Cat 5 cable!?! And, GE didn’t supply any instructions!! So, thanks to Google, I found a tutorial at Servers Servers to explain all of the colors of the wires to connect. And even then, I had to follow a slightly different set of instructions down in the comments of that page because of my setup.

Once I had the wires connected to the wall plate, I plugged in the Ethernet cable to the new wall plate to the U-Verse STB and all was well. Hopefully this will help you find a way to fix any problem you are experiencing.

Day & Night
This short was very clever. I like the background and how it filled the shaped (which was obviously the point.) This was not my favorite of the Pixar shorts (I just watched the short before Up last month with the storks and that was much funnier), but the animation and creativity of this short was stellar. My favorite scene was when the day blob was over the waterfall and he relieved himself. I also enjoyed the Las Vegas at night and during the day scenes.

I thought the end was a little heavy handed and didn’t really have much to with the rest of the short. I didn’t really get a xenophobic feel for the film. It just seemed like the two were competing, not avoiding each other. But I guess the Pixar folks wanted to teach the kids a good lesson and they did that in their normal humorous way.

Movie
The opening train robbery sequence was very cool. I like how they incorporated all of the toys.

A lot of critics said the first 15 minutes dragged and I guess I would agree. After the opening sequence it was just a lot of necessary story setup. I wouldn’t call it bad, but it was not particularly exciting.

I’m a little surprised at this point by Woody’s attitude towards Andy going to college. I would have thought that Woody would have been all for going to a day care to give a lot of kids happiness seeing as how Andy has moved on. I can see him being loyal too, but to call Jesse “selfish” seemed out of character.

The introduction to the day care was fun, seeing all the toys and the massage was a nice touch. Woody with the tea party friends was also fun, “I’m staying in character!”

The day care being taken over by Lotso (You can see the same sort of story as Jesse had in the last film causing his bitterness. I found Lotso’s story more touching and compelling than Jesse’s though I am not sure why) is classic along with the roulette game in the top of the vending machine. Very appropriate, junk food and gambling just seem to go together. And using the demo switch on Buzz Lightyear is genius. (Why all of the Buzz’s in Al’s Toy Barn were so “confused” now makes sense.) Just when you think they’ve used up all of the gags for a character they still think of one more. And, as several reviews have suggested, one the funniest gags in the movie is when Buzz goes into Spanish mode. He starts to tango and woo the ladies as you expect of a sexy Spaniard.

The whole security of the day care center is so elaborate and funny especially with monkey alarm, I’m consistently amazed at how these people think of new toys and how to incorporate them. And the box, being a sand box with “Lincoln Logs,” the Pixar folks really think of everything.

Conclusion

I got wrapped up in this movie, so I stopped posting but this movie has everything you expect from the great Pixar movies we are used to. (Really, have they made a bad one?) The humor is fresh and relevant and the story works on multiple levels. The kids like the toy’s playing and the silly slap stick humor and teens and adults can appreciate the moving on and growing up story line. I would agree with Dan that even the jokes and themes that reused are not reused do to a lack of creativity, but feel more like intentional links than lack of creativity. One complaint I have, and I guess I would have to have the same complaint regarding Stinky Pete, is that Lotso still was bad even after Woody saved him. I was hoping they would have a little lesson about redemption. Of course, then you wouldn’t have the funny “claw” gag from the three aliens, so maybe that was a necessary trade off.

I don’t think I can say enough about the the ending is perfect. I had heard several people say that the ending is perfect, but I wasn’t sure what that was to be even until it happened. The choice to end with Andy showing his love of all of his toys and passing them on to Bonnie was inspired. When he says, “Thanks guys,” wow, great that was great writing. It said a lot without saying too much and teaches us all about how to appreciate the past but move on to the future. When Andy is going through and giving the description of each character it made me want to go find my old toys in mom’s basement and start playing.

I would not say this was the best of the three Toy Story movies because  Toy Story 2 was so good but, overall this may be the best original movie trilogy ever (which means you don’t compare it to Lord of the Rings). The only other original trilogy I can think of that would even compare would be Star Wars. I’m not sure which I would put on top of that list, but they would easily go 1 and 2. All in all, Toy Story has been a great ride. I don’t know if there is any thought of making a fourth, but I hope not. Anything else they do could only bring the series down. Having said that, Pixar has not disappointed so far, so maybe a fourth movie would be in order.

After looking at a few choices I settled on a WiiWare game called Learning with the PooYoos.

Learning with the PooYoos is a game developed in France and available via WiiWare download on the Wii for 500 points ($5.00). The game is designed with two different levels: Little PooYoos (ages 3-4) and Big PooYoos (ages 5-6). Given the age levels, the graphics and catchy theme song are perfect and will capture the young players’ attention. After you pick you level, there are two different games to play. One involves matching the shape of a PooYoo with the shape in a cloud (first picture below) and the second involved popping balloons with the water from the elephant PooYoo’s trunk.

Isaac can not yet handle the shape matching game so I can’t speak as much to that part of the game, but we have played the balloon popping game several times. In the little PooYoo level of this game the player simply shakes the remote and the elephant PooYoo shoots water at balloons until they are all gone. (As shown in the video of Isaac below.) In the Big PooYoo level, the player actually has to point the Wiimote at the screen and aim at the balloons to pop them.

After you pop the balloons the first time, the game has an intermission and asks what shape the balloons were and then goes through a second round of balloon popping followed by a question of what color the balloons were. Then the PooYoos lead you through a nice dance routine. During the dance routine, by pressing different buttons on the Wiimote various effects happen on screen like spot lights, confetti and other fun. After the dance, you take a boat ride where again, pressing buttons on the Wiimote causes different effects on the screen. Isaac especially enjoys pushing the buttons and causing lights and the sun (a fan to him) to go across the screen.

Isaac has not played the big PooYoo level, but he enjoys the little PooYoo level quite a lot. Simply shaking the remote is a nice way for him to learn about the cause and effect relationship of the Wii. As I said, he truly enjoys pushing the buttons on the Wiimote that cause various visual effects to appear on the screen.

My biggest complaint with the game is that the few questions it asks are always the same. At one point the game asks what color the bubbles are or what color an umbrella was but the answer is always the same color. I would like it better if the color would rotate to make Isaac think a little more. There is a version 2 released, but I have not looked at it yet.

Ultimately, this game did exactly what I wanted it to do, especially for only $5.oo. Isaac is able to use the Wiimote and learn how it works. He is learning more about cause and effect relationships and a little about hand-eye coordination. Another learning piece I didn’t think about was that it counts on screen and out load to help re-enforce math skills. I have a feeling I will download the second episode before the end of the summer for Isaac to play. If you have a two – six year old who you want to introduce to the world of Wii, this is the game for you.

Maybe we aren’t in as much trouble as I thought. Clearly there is an awareness of the issue out there and through that awareness hopefully the internet culture (of the few bad eggs out there) will change as we realize that we will not tolerate that kind of attitude towards each other.

Via ReadWriteWeb I read a list of the Top 10 YouTube Videos of All Time. The #2 video is called Charlie Bit My Finger — Again. In order to save you the trip, here is the video:

The video is very cute, especially when little Charlie starts cracking up at the end. Maybe you have to be a parent who has had your finger bit by a kid to truly appreciate the humor, but that is not really the point. My frustration was not with the video, but rather with the comments below. There are people that are just mean to the family that posted this cute little video.  Here is a brief example:

I think it is fine if Kanzo93 doesn’t find little Charlie funny, but does he really need to post that comment? I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I guess I hope just hope for the best in people. I know the internet provides a certain level of anonymity, but what does Kanzo93 get out of post that? Now, maybe that was just one out of context comment from him, maybe is a normal happy guy. I tend to think not, but like I to believe the best in people. Let’s check his profile:

Alas, no, this 27 year old man from the UK is just mean. People like this just make the internet less fun. Now, I certainly don’t mean to just pick on this comment, because as you can see above and below, several other people felt the need to make just unnecessary comments. But, this was the one that happened to be there when I logged in tonight. Here are a more comments in the same vain.

I think what it comes to is The Golden Rule, If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. However, we need to start adopting an addition to that: If you wouldn’t say it in person, why say it online?

If these people actually met the dad and watched the video, they would never say those things. I’m not sure exactly how we change this mentality, but maybe it just takes each of us to call out one person when they see this behavior. Perhaps all we can do is be the model of the internet user we would like to see and hope the rest of the world follows. Or, maybe it can’t be changed at all. I hope that isn’t true because that would make me sad for humanity and I know we are moving towards a world where more and more communication is going to be faceless. Hopefully each us go forward and make sure our comments and appropriate and fair and hope that everyone else falls into line.

As for the two contestants here is my impression from the show:

Lee DeWyze
In some I would agree with the judges comments from the first song, that he didn’t seem to be bringing a very high energy. Granted, his first two songs didn’t really allow for a lot of energy, but I think you could say the same for Crystal’s first song but she had some high energy. Now, I don’t think that Lee isn’t bored or uninterested or giving up, I think Simon hit the nail on the head and said the Lee just nervous. In the last song, it seemed that he got over that a little bit, but he still needs to grow a little as a performer. The three songs he sang were quality and it is clear that he is ready to a recording artist and he will have a pretty decent career.

Crystal Bowersox
Ever since my first power rankings I have had Crystal on top of the charts. She has consistently performed at a high level. Tonight the only criticism I have of her is that she didn’t seem to be able sing and walk downstairs during Black Velvet. Out side of that all three of her songs were high energy and passionate. She connected more with the audience tonight than any other night during the season. She definitely is something that we don’t have in the music world right now as Ellen said and it would be interesting to see what she does after the Idol tour is over.

Conclusion
Truly I feel that Crystal is the one that should win this competition based on her skills as a performer and her singing ability. Lee seems to have the momentum and he has the potential to be more commercial, so he may win the popular vote. In any event, which ever of these two wins they were both great contestants and will most likely have great careers going forward.

I’ve really enjoyed blogging about this show this season. I don’t know if anyone besides me really ever read these posts, but that was never the point. I just needed a place to work out my thoughts about the contestants and a blog seemed like a cathartic place. American Idol has been a show I have devoted a lot of time to over the past nine years and after this season it will irreparable change. In the near future, I plan to post about that and the man that is Simon Cowell.