Oscar Predictions

Wanted to get these posted before the show gets started.  As always, these represent who I think will win, not always who I personally would have voted for.  No one cares about that.

Also, I'm only making predictions in categories that I feel like I have a real read on.  If I'm 100% guessing, there's no point.

Best Picture

 "Argo"

Best Actress

Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"

Oscar always likes at least one surprise, and Academy voters skew old.  This is my upset of the night.

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables"

Best Supporting Actor

Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"

"Silver Linings" spent a lot of money campaigning, and I think it pays off here (and one other spot, which I'll get to shortly)

Best Director

David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"

See?  Told you it'd be a short wait.  I think the absence of Ben Affleck (and Tarantino.  And Kathryn Bigelow) leaves this wide open.

Best Original Screenplay

Mark Boal, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Seriously, though: how is this not in the Adapted category?  It's not like this isn't based on real events. Can someone explain this to me?

Best Adapted Screenplay

Tony Kushner, "Lincoln"

Best Animated Feature

"Frankenweenie"

Best Foreign Feature

"Amour" (France)

Best Original Song

"Skyfall" from "Skyfall"

One other note: "Searching for Sugar Man" is the only documentary feature I've heard much about this year...which means it likely won't win.   Call it the Banksy Rule.

Happy New Year...Watch These Videos

The Drive-Thru Invisible Driver Prank  (h/t Gawker)



Darth Vader Voiced By Schwarzenegger (h/t Geek Tyrant)

Der Vadermaus

Of COURSE I have some thoughts on yesterday's bombshell announcement that Disney has purchased Lucasfilm and will be making new "Star Wars" movies to be released as early as 2015.

Come see me after the jump...

Classic YouTube Comedy

An oldie but a goodie...

My "Reichenbach Fall" Theory

I was extremely late to the party for BBC’s “Sherlock.”  I’d heard nothing but good things about series one, and even better things about series two by the time “A Scandal in Belgravia” debuted here in the U.S.  But for months it just sat there in my Netflix Instant queue, lost among the dozen other shows that I kept meaning to watch, but never got around to.

Once I got started, though, I basically didn’t stop.  I blew through series one, then immediately pulled series two on iTunes and powered through those, as well. The end of “The Reichenbach Fall” sucked me in completely and I spent a ridiculous amount of time (like the rest of the world had been for months) asking myself: how did he do it?

I pored through the online theories.  Watched the episode several times through.  Even did some Google Maps sleuthing of my own…and I think I have the answer.

(WARNING: Nothing but SPOILERS after the jump)

Ouroboros: Meme Will Eat Itself

So apparently there's a new Olympics-based photo meme taking the country by storm, based on the Tumblr blog "McKayla Is Not Impressed."

Couple things to note here:  one, Sara loves this one for some reason.  Finds it hilarious and is even creating her own.  Not for public consumption, but regardless, I'm pleased as punch to see her jumping into the whole "Fun With Photoshop" thing.

Two, the Gawker story linked above references a couple other photo memes that I had never heard of, but that have apparently been around a while (Spock Is Not Impressed and Kim Jong-Il Looking At Things).  Reading that story was like meme overload, so I decided "why not make a single image that is ALL the memes at once?*"

Thus I present my latest work, "McKayla is not impressed by Spock not being impressed by Kim Jong-Il looking at #DangleBoris (feat. The Star Wars Kid for some reason)."  I thought about making it Nic Cage As #DangleBoris, but you cant' really see it so why spend the extra time?  If it makes you feel better, though, you can imagine it's Nic Cage stuck on the zip line...

* Apparently, I'm not alone in this.  The two most recent posts to SINI are depictions of Spock not being impressed by MINI or McKayla herself.  It's all so meta!

UPDATE:

 

"Free Markets" beat "National Security"

Theese people are idiots:

Despite warnings from intelligence officials that the U.S. is ill-prepared to stop a growing wave of cyber attacks against its crucial national infrastructure, the Senate on Thursday failed to pass a watered-down bill that would have set voluntary standards to harden the network defenses of electric utilities, chemical plants and other privately owned facilities.

[CUT}

Analysts say the Senate measure ran into a wall of anti-regulatory sentiment among Republicans that has proved resistant even to dire warnings from top security officials that the nation's crucial infrastructure is woefully under-defended against the cyber threat. The voluntary standards were condemned by Republicans as too much government interference in the free market.

It's okay, though, according to the industry spokesholes who are pushing back against requiring minimum security standards, because concerns about cyberattacks are only "speculative."

You know, like somebody "might" use airplanes as missles or try and blow up a passenger jet with their tennis shoes...

After a full decade in which Republicans have used "threats against national security" to justivy anything and everything, it's telling that even the "MY GOD, THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US ALL" faction doesn't have the muscle to stand up to the Deregulation In All Things caucus.

(Naturally, Democrats will fail to make any political hay from this whatsoever, but that's a whole other story...)

UPDATE (8/3/12):  Oh, look...unregulated computer systems never break down (accidentally or as the result of malicious attack). And even if they do, there are never consequences.  So don't sweat it.  Go, Invisible Hand!

#DangleBoris

C'mon, you knew I was gonna get in on this action...

This blog seems to be collecting some good ones, as well.