Category: things getting better
Selma – a review
Selma is a 2014 American historical drama film …
It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches …
Selma has received universal acclaim from film critics. Praise has gone particularly to the film’s acting, cinematography, screenplay, and direction. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a rating of 98% …
Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.
It’s an important movie. A good history lesson.
Martin Luther King Jr. emulated my personal hero Gandhi. Non-violent resistance. The best way for an oppressed minority to challenge a privileged majority.
It worked.
But as a film I found Selma average. Too preachy. The dialogue often not believable. The good guys too good, the bad guys too evil.
It might have been better as a documentary.
Instead it’s a Hollywood fiction based on a true story. I know not all the facts are exactly right. But John Lewis, being bludgeoned in this photo March 7, 1965, feels the film gets enough right. To him the film is true to the story.
Alabama Governor George Wallace was a prototype segregationist. During his final years, Wallace recanted his racist views and asked for forgiveness from African Americans.
I visited Alabama for the first time last year. Surprised and pleased to see no outward signs of overt racism.
Sooner or later the echos of American slavery will be entirely forgotten.
In the meantime, Selma is a reminder of how far we’ve come. And how far we have not come.
related – Neil Young – Southern Man
10327×7760 pixel video of Rio
… while everyone is busy talking about 4k resolutions, the filmmakers behind this demo have made the leap to 10k.
Shot with a camera … resolution of 10327×7760 pixels. In the short film we get a glimpse of what this looks like with some fantastic timelapse images shot in and around Rio De Janeiro …
(best in full screen)
Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.
Oklahoma police release video of cop fatally shooting armed, fleeing man (Graphic video)
Oklahoma police released a video Friday from the body camera of a cop who fatally shot a suspect earlier this month.
Muskogee Officer Chansey McMillin, responding to a domestic abuse complaint, approached 21-year-old Terrance Walker outside the Old Agency Baptist Church on Jan. 17, according to local media. (Reports were that Walker had threatened his girlfriend with a weapon.)
The video shows Walker run away and McMillin give chase. The suspect then stops to bend over and pick up something he has dropped in the street.
From the video, it is not clear what he is attempting to retrieve, but police say it was a loaded semiautomatic pistol.
McMillin fires five shots at Walker, who had set off running again, which strike and kill the young man …
Google the incident if you want to see the video for yourself.
I’d say McMillin reacted appropriately. Assuming Walker was reaching down for a gun. I believe he was, though the video is not clear.
This is an example of how body cameras can be effective. I feel the trouble and expense are worth it for the police.
McMillin will be cleared because of the video footage from his point of view.
A 21yr-old man with a firearm for protection is more likely to get killed than one who has no gun. 😦
Microsoft HoloLens – this is the future
I was tempted to jump to Microsoft after seeing the Surface 3 and Windows phones. But opted to buy a new MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch) with Yosemite. I’m half way through a 5 year project editing video in iMovie 11. I want to stick with the same simple software.
Loving the Pro. Especially the Retina monitor.
But if Microsoft HoloLens is one third as cool as this promo video, my next computer will be Windows.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Washable – Microsoft’s HoloLens: Wireless virtual reality that looks ready for the masses
Wired – Our Exclusive Hands-On With Microsoft’s Unbelievable New Holographic Goggles
Utah reduced homelessness by 72%
If you’ve traveled around the States, you know that homelessness is conspicuous in the richest nation of the World.
That’s always surprised me.
But Utah’s turned that around in a surprising way.
Republican State Gives Free Houses to Moochers, Cuts Homelessness by 74 Percent
The state is giving homeless people homes. It’s a solution that might sound too simple, but it’s working. The program, called “Housing First”, has origins in New York. Utah started its own pilot of the program in 2005 with 17 people. The state took them off the street and put them into housing for twenty-two months. After the state saw that all 17 people remained housed and stable during that time, the project was expanded. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
VIDEO: Utah Gives Homes To The Homeless As Arctic Temperatures Bring Suffering
Housing First, which is distinct and separate from “rapid re-housing”, is a relatively recent innovation in human service programs and social policy regarding treatment of the homeless and is an alternative to a system of emergency shelter/transitional housing progressions.
Rather than moving homeless individuals through different “levels” of housing, known as the Continuum of Care, whereby each level moves them closer to “independent housing” (for example: from the streets to a public shelter, and from a public shelter to a transitional housing program, and from there to their own apartment in the community) Housing First moves the homeless individual or household immediately from the streets or homeless shelters into their own apartments.
Housing First approaches are based on the concept that a homeless individual or household’s first and primary need is to obtain stable housing, and that other issues that may affect the household can and should be addressed once housing is obtained. …
Thanks Dean.
the world IS getting better
More people are going to school for longer
Access to the internet is increasing
Solar power is getting cheaper
Beer consumption going up ??? 🙂
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
details on vox
(via Bill Gates)
Merry Christmas Pope Francis
Finally. A reform Pope.
I just love what he’s been doing. 🙂
David Willey – BBC Vatican correspondent:
In the course of 2014 Pope Francis consolidated his position as one of the most popular pontiffs of modern times, more popular even than the recently-sainted Pope John Paul II.
He invented a new easy style of communication at the Vatican, brought in fresh blood, and publicly lambasted power-hungry princes of the church – the cardinals and bishops who run the Catholic Church’s Rome headquarters; he also found time to play an active diplomatic role in helping the US and Cuba bring to an end 50 years of public enmity. …
Rick McCharles 