As California goes, so goes the country, they used to say. Well, yikes.
Golden State, an
n+1 piece by Nikil Saval, presents a bleak picture of paralysis and conflicted interests that has rendered "The Bellwether State" all but inoperable. (via Arts & Letters Daily)
posted by Trochanter
on Feb 13, 2011 -
97 comments
South Dakota Rep. Hal Wick (R-Sioux Falls),
is sponsoring a bill [
text] which would require all citizens to buy a firearm “sufficient to provide for their ordinary self-defense” within six months of turning age 21. Rep. Wick said he is introducing the bill to prove a point that the federal health care reform mandate passed last year is
unconstitutional. [
previously]
[more inside]
posted by T.D. Strange
on Feb 1, 2011 -
146 comments
Online communities to become more 'all-encompassing.' If you join the SHC community on Sears.com, all web traffic to and from your computer thereafter will be copied and sent to a third party marketing research firm - including, for example, your secure sessions with your bank! The Sears.com proxy will send your logins and passwords along with a cleartext copy of all the supposedly secure data.
But wait, it gets better: you can only view the true TOS once the proxy has already been installed.
[more inside]
posted by ikkyu2
on Jan 3, 2008 -
70 comments
Depending on who you believe, either Guy Pearce or
Viggo Mortensen will be cast in the lead role of the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's utterly brilliant dystopia,
The Road. To my mind, the adaptation marks Hollywood's rekindling of the almost forgotten genre of the
post-apocalyptical movie. With Mad Max, The Postman, Threads and The Day After, nuclear annihilation loomed large in the imaginations of filmmakers in the 70s and 80s. Since then cinematic dystopia has been projected in the realm of the fantastic (think 12 Monkey's, The Matrix and 28 Days Later). If dystopia is really just a satire of the present, what does the film adaptation of The Road tell us about the our times?
posted by MrMerlot
on Dec 5, 2007 -
75 comments
Little Citadels. "Dine, shop, live, work, and be entertained in a unique and alluring environment," says the
Time Warner Center website - all without ever stepping outside your gleaming Manhattan skyscraper. San Jose's
Santana Row, which at first glance seemed no more than a
Beverly Center you can live in, is now being compared favorably to urban European living. And
MGM-Mirage's new,
mysterious and costly ($7 billion!)
Project CityCenter brings the trend to Las Vegas - with gambling, of course. They're not
Arcosantis - and they don't, as yet, require an
Oath of Fealty - but by all accounts they're
thriving. What do they have in common? Wealthy tenants, megacorporate sponsors, and a shared desire to integrate efficient, conspicuous consumption into every aspect of civic life.
Paolo Soleri may have been right after all - maybe he just forgot to
account for the effects of capitalism.
posted by ikkyu2
on Aug 28, 2006 -
24 comments
At last, "THX-1138" with green-glowing, computer-generated robot factories! George Lucas's first movie, the namesake of his
sound system, is coming to a theater near you, with a new 3D effects facelift, and a chilly, incomprehensible
Flash site. Will his
"original vision" of this 1971 dystopia be realized at last, or will his additions clash with the
stark San Francisco subway tunnels, like so much Yes music in a "Metropolis"
re-release?
posted by inksyndicate
on May 22, 2004 -
27 comments
Exploring Dystopia
Do you want to explore that place of terror and wonder called Dystopia? Do you want to probe the dark depths of Metropolis, Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-four, Blade Runner, Neuromancer and their likes?
A large site that verges on being one man's Magnificent Obsession with Dystopia. Don't let the awkward site navigation deter you from exploration.
posted by ashbury
on Dec 15, 2003 -
14 comments
