Bollywood on SABC 3

While recovering from the flu last weekend, I caught the second half of a Bollywood movie on SABC3, called Lajja. It explored the oppression of women in India, and it didn't pull any punches.

Despite having a contrived plot, sometimes-sloppy subtitles, and awful music, it was entertaining, and I watched it to the end.

If you are stuck at home on a Saturday night, check out the Bollywood movies on SABC3, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Bush supporters on Bush

This woman seems to think that being critical of George W. Bush is "... a slap in the face, not only to George Bush, but if we truly believe what the Bible says . . . our Heavenly Father just got a whack in the face, too..." [via LRC]

Also check out this...interesting.... Flash animation that glorifies Bush (large download).

Links 15/10/2004

• How Valium comes in handy during a war
• Does Al-Qaeda really exist?
  
• The "bullwhip effect" - the magnification of demand fluctuations as one moves up the supply chain
• Google launches a service to help you find files on your own computer. The download is small, but it seems to need 1GB of free space to install.
  
• Soweto turned 100
• The history of containerized shipping, using a networking analogy
• Swarm-semiotics - weird, but interesting
• Some links to linguistics articles and a link to this essay on sentence diagramming
• Is the MP3 format losing ground?
• A "battleground state" that no one really cares about
• Broadband over power lines gets boost from US government
  
• Wavelet tutorial links. I haven't checked any out yet though.
• A free online book on digital signal processing. I don't know how good it is, since I just started reading it today.
• A Muslim examination of Islamist suicide terrorism

I have the temporary use of a digital camera. I'll probably spend the weekend fiddling around with it.

Links - 12/10/2004

• Eating in the Middle Ages
• Salon.com's Pilot gets an imitator
• How the pioneer of nanotechnology fell from grace
• Scientists vote for their favourite equations
• Google starts searching inside books
• Microsoft and campaign contributions [via Anil Dash]

Links - 3 October 2004

• Why Google News is not making money
• Optical illusions websites:
  • One
  • Two
• Hulking buildings making a comeback? Check out today's Sunday Times Lifestyle section for more on modernist architecture.
• Wikipedia Links:
• Commonwealth of Independent States
• Shaped charges
• Camouflage
• Reactive armour
• Infosys
• Aeroplane cellphone ban ending soon?
• A series of articles from an American holidaying in India
• How to evade capture

Fahrenheit 9/11

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11, and I wasn't particularly impressed, since it didn't cover much new ground.

It's propaganda, and it has strong anti-capitalist, populist themes.

The last part, which covers the war on Iraq is probably the most effective. The visit to the White House of the grieving mother who lost her son in Iraq was gut-wrenching.

Ironically, despite the film's attack on the PATRIOT act, the movie's very existence indicates that the culture of dissent is alive and well in America. I got a fairly good impression of the American system, and it was reassuring to see that some of America's flag-waving patriots are quite unlike the cretins who inhabit parts of the internet.

Daily Links - 25/09/2004

I wanted to use Blogger's spellchecker, so I clicked on the icon to "temporarily enable popups" in IE. Clicking it wiped my post from the editor...so here's what I could salvage from memory:

• The difficulties of learning Cantonese
• The wheel in the Middle East - lost and found [via Foreign Dispatches]
• Detroit considers "reverse racism" to help majority black population [via Plastic]
• "Blood doping" in athletes
• How deadly are scorpions?
• The Ali G guest recruitment technique
• I did visit the airshow as planned, but, unlike Laurence, we saw the size of the crowd, and didn't go in, watching from a nearby hilltop instead
• Wind forecasting becomes big business
• The end of US welfare capitalism
• Treachery in Britain during World War 2
• This is quite old, but still funny: Things you would never know without the movies
• A feature on an Indian website, 40 years after the anniversary of the 1962 India-China war

Airshow

If the traffic over the last few days is any indication, the airshow this long weekend at Waterkloof Air Force Base will be very well attended.

Some friends phoned this evening, and asked if I wanted to go with, and I am seriously considering their offer. I've seen some of the rehearsals, and the SAAB Gripen will probably put on an amazing display.

Daily Links - 17/09/2004

• Zero-gravity commercial plane rides
  
• Food restrictions for pregnant women
• Some American cities roll out free wireless internet
  
• Is 150 the ideal size for a group of people? [via Gene Expression]
• When I was young, I remember watching people eating sand

I'm swotting for a test, so blogging will be light for a week or so.

Daily Links - 12/09/2004

• History of Buddhism
• Greco-Buddhism