Showing all posts about legacy
Living in a van is inexpensive and, somehow, fulfilling
9 December 2009
Ken Ilgunas lived in a van which he parked in his university’s car park while he studied for a degree, something he classed as an act of “creative civil disobedience”.
Living in a van was my grand social experiment. I wanted to see if I could — in an age of rampant consumerism and fiscal irresponsibility — afford the unaffordable: an education. I pledged that I wouldn’t take out loans. Nor would I accept money from anybody, especially my mother, who, appalled by my experiment, offered to rent me an apartment each time I called home. My heat would be a sleeping bag; my air conditioning, an open window. I’d shower at the gym, eat the bare minimum and find a job to pay tuition. And — for fear of being caught — I wouldn’t tell anybody.
Incredibly no one, not even university security, or other car park users, realised what he was doing.
Originally published Wednesday 9 December 2009, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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The writers life, what to consider before quitting the day job
7 December 2009
The confessions of a semi-successful author by “Jane Austen Doe”…
Never an enthusiastic employee, I quit my job at age 35 to become a full-time writer, to live life on my own terms. After publishing four books — each of them critically acclaimed, several of them award-winners, none of them big enough sellers to ensure my next book contract, let alone the lifetime of book contracts I crave — I feel less in control of my finances, my schedule, my priorities and my well-being than I did when I had bosses and employees to answer to.
Originally published Monday 7 December 2009, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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books, legacy, literature, novels, writing
Book launch: Futuretainment by Mike Walsh, Sydney, 1 December 2009
2 December 2009
Last night Mike Walsh launched his new book Futuretainment – which looks at the future of media and marketing – at the Hotel CBD in Sydney. He spoke with technology journalist Brad Howarth, and offered a few of his insights into advertising and marketing, particularly in Asia, together with a couple of trend predictions for 2010.
- People born after 1994 are digital “naturals”. They have never lived in a world without web browsers.
- “Naturals” have never known a time when they cannot access decent content somewhere online.
- Content producers and creators (copy-righters) such as musicians are effectively marketers.
- Musicians, for example, encourage “content theft”… they don\’t make revenue from recorded music, that comes from sales of merchandise, live performances, etc.
- Social networks drive TV programming. People increasingly watch what is forwarded to them (videos, links to videos).
- Viewers are deciding what they will watch, not the TV networks.
- How will content producers make money? Become a celebrity… cue Ashton Kutcher and his declaration to become “the next new-media mogul“.
- Japan excels at producing content for mobile phones.
- The Chinese know how to make money with social networks. QQ, a Chinese variation of Facebook, made US$1 billion last year.
- In Korea people watch more TV shows on mobile phones than a television.
- Digital consumers in Asia are generally very tech savvy, have access to unlimited bandwidth, and have little regard for copyright.
- Ninety per cent of Chinese internet users have broadband, which is considerably faster than that available in Australia.
- Augmented reality will put consumers in control by way of real time product and service reviews and critiques.
Originally published Wednesday 2 December 2009, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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Australia, books, legacy, Mike Walsh, technology, trends
The Time Traveler’s Wife, a film by Robert Schwentke, with Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams
19 November 2009
The Time Traveler’s Wife, trailer, based on the 2003 novel of the same name, by Audrey Niffenegger.
Said by some to depict “realistic” time travel. Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) has — thanks to a rare genetic disorder — an unfortunate disposition of jaunting off to another time and place, often leaving his wife Clare (Rachel McAdams), and others, all too literally in the lurch.
Time travel is time travel, and while DeTamble’s mode may be realistic, it is probably the least convenient form I’ve seen so far.
Originally published Thursday 19 November 2009, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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Audrey Niffenegger, Eric Bana, film, legacy, Rachel McAdams, Robert Schwentke, science fiction
There was once a place called Doggerland in Europe
3 September 2009
A landmass that connected what is now Great Britain to continental Europe, once existed up until about eight and half thousand years ago, and is known as Doggerland… at least by more contemporary geologists and scientists, that is.
Map/illustration by National Geographic Magazine staff.
Originally published Tuesday 3 September 2013.
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You can travel no further back in time than 1955
18 August 2009
The Time Traveler’s Wife is the latest in a long line of time travel themed movies, and according to physicist Dave Goldberg, makes for a more realistic representation of time travel than most of the (fiction) served to date.
But this is interesting, time travel is (theoretically) only possible to points in time where a time machine already exists, according to Goldberg.
In other words, for Marty McFly to travel from 1985 to back to 1955, as he did in Back to the Future, a DeLorean like time machine would already need to have been in existence in 1955…
According to Einstein’s picture of the universe, space and time are curved and very closely related to each other. This means that traveling through time would be much like traveling through a tunnel in space — in which case you’d need both an entrance and an exit. As a time traveler, you can’t visit an era unless there’s already a time machine when you get there — an off-ramp. This helps explain why we’re not visited by time-traveling tourists from our own future. Futuristic humans don’t drop in for dinner because we haven’t yet invented time travel.
Of course the concept of time travel — in the form of the Flux Capacitor — did exist in 1955, it simply hadn’t taken physical form… does that count?
Originally published Tuesday 18 August 2009, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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film, legacy, physics, science, science fiction
You can travel no further back in time than 1955
18 August 2009
The Time Traveler’s Wife, directed by Robert Schwentke, and based on the novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger, is the latest in a long line of time travel themed movies.
According to physicist Dave Goldberg, Niffenegger’s story makes for a more realistic representation of time travel than most of the (fiction) served to date.
But this is interesting, time travel is (theoretically) only possible to points in time where a time machine already exists. In other words for Marty McFly to travel from 1985 to 1955, as he did in Back to the Future, a DeLorean like time machine would already need to have been in existence in 1955…
According to Einstein’s picture of the universe, space and time are curved and very closely related to each other. This means that traveling through time would be much like traveling through a tunnel in space — in which case you’d need both an entrance and an exit. As a time traveler, you can’t visit an era unless there’s already a time machine when you get there — an off-ramp. This helps explain why we’re not visited by time-traveling tourists from our own future. Futuristic humans don’t drop in for dinner because we haven’t yet invented time travel.
Of course the concept of time travel — in the form of the Flux Capacitor — did exist in 1955, it simply hadn’t taken physical form… does that count?
Originally published Tuesday 18 August 2009, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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Audrey Niffenegger, film, legacy, novels, Robert Schwentke, science fiction, screen adaptations
Colliding galaxies, an insight into Milkomeda’s formation?
12 July 2009
Eventually our galaxy will collide (or, if you prefer, merge) with the Andromeda galaxy forming a new body some are already calling Milkomeda.
But this photo of four galaxies colliding — by the way — at speeds of up to two million miles (or 3.2 million kilometres) an hour, may be an indication of what to expect when Milkomeda does form.
Originally published Sunday 12 July 2009
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Babies’ names are not carried far and wide by the internet
3 July 2009
Interesting premise, the rise of the internet, and even globalisation, has not quite created the global village that many people predicted it would.
At least this is the opinion of two researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, after studying names given to babies since 1995. They found naming trends tended to remain local rather global, despite the rise of email and the ability to spread ideas, and share information, quickly online.
The two researchers’ study of the spread of new names was prompted by their discovery that the relationship between the number of private e-mails sent in America and the distance between sender and recipient falls off far more steeply than they expected. People are overwhelmingly e-mailing others in the same city, rather than those far away.
Originally published Friday 3 July 2009.
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Winged Creatures movie ticket giveaway
26 June 2009
Together with Icon Film Distribution I have five double in-season passes to giveaway to Australian film maker Rowan Woods’ (director of The Boys and Little Fish) newest movie Winged Creatures.
Starring Forest Whitaker, Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning and Jennifer Hudson, Winged Creatures follows the lives of the people who were in a diner during a violent armed robbery…
A moment of random violence erupts in an ordinary Los Angeles diner. The survivors find that the meaning of their lives has changed and that they must find trust in a world that now seems unforgiving. No matter how much their families and friends attempt to understand, these individuals must follow their own paths to recovery.
To go into the draw for a double pass (valid in all Australian State capital metro areas from 9 July 2009) please leave a comment below (none will be published).
First in first served. Winners will be notified early next week. One entry per person please. Sorry, only open to people residing in Australia.
Update: thanks for your interest, the giveaway has closed, passes are on the way to the winners.
Originally published Friday 26 June 2009, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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