Tuesday - 20080226-1715 - Rain - Red Square - Moscow; Google - Panoramio; Grainery - kin-dza-dza - Krasnosilka, Odes'ka Oblast (Ukraine); Degradation of Response Time; Supermodel on Bravo TV; "Jumper" - Book and Film

Rain - Red Square - Moscow Larger Image

Grainery - kin-dza-dza - Krasnosilka, Odes'ka Oblast (Ukraine) Larger Image

I decided I'd Google for an image using the term "rain Moscow," and this post-rain shot of Red Square appeared. It's truly a panoramic view of the heart of the Kremlin. Be warned the that full image make takes awhile to load for it measures 2272 x 1704 pixels.

The photo can be found at "Panoramio - Photo of Red Square after a night rain shower". Panoramio is a new service recently purchased by Google that allows users to place and index photos geographically. (See "Google to Buy Geo-Tagging Site Panoramio".)

As I was glancing at the source of the the image, I noticed a thumbnail of the extraordinary building at the left. The source is kin-dza-dza. The structure is located 1 Km from Krasnosilka, Odes'ka Oblast (Ukraine).

Some of the comments include: "magic"; "Stupendo"; "Thats pretty Funky."; "Where is Nuton?"; "humm , reality is so abstract."; "Great! It looks a little bit like an Alien Spaceship in diguise! ;o)"; "looks like something designed by Terry Gilliam ;)"; "Like something out of Star Wars, only weirder. I bet George Lucas is kicking himself for not thinking of this one."; "WTF?! lol"; "No chance for the mice!"; "Ocsiny haraso!Nyet photoshop?" These were a few of the English comments; there are remarks in what appears to be dozens of languages.

Alas, all the glitters is not gold. (" 'Nyet photoshop?' " speaks the truth.) A little investigation brought up this observation at "Panoramio - Photos by Kyryl"

"Yes this is an old grain loading building of some sort. And no, it is not magical...Kyryl simply used photoshop to remove the rest of it's support beams. Makes a cool looking picture this way though. Victor Lotsman ID: 6930092 has taken a night shot of this building that shows the additional supports."

Some more digging led me to "Phottle blog: Kin-Dza-Dza". Here you have the ogrinal shot, plus two more views. And a fourth, which is indeed the way the structure actually looks.

Just as I thought I was finished, I noticed a reference to "Kin-dza-dza! - Wikipedia". A movie! A movie is the source of the title?

What a magical adventure this was. And this is when the true unique nature of the web glitters.

This wee inconvenience has morphed into a major pest. I tried uninstalling a batch of programs. I uninstalled and re-installed Firefox. I tried shutting off my security package. I checked the broadband connection. But none of this proved useful.

For about a week I've been carefully going through the articles in the five copies I have of "PC World." I give PCW high marks for offering practical recommendations for problems. Somewhere they had mentioned a program called CCleaner which cleans your PC of temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history; a registry cleaner; and checks for lingering and unneeded third-party files and apps. I used the regular cleaner and it came up with 150 meg of hundreds of dead files which I deleted. Then Saturday, I ran the registry cleaner, and it coughed up about 250 entries which I carefully erased one-by-one. After that, there was a significant improvement.

I still have problems with sites that are linked to many external advertisers. I have to wait for the various components to load. Also there's a problem with external YouTube offerings. Once started, they are very difficult to kill. And another irritant are pages with lots of Flash. I'm certain I could stand a RAM increase.

Saturday, I did something unusual, I gorged myself on hours of watching "Make Me A Supermodel" on Bravo. Truth be told, my initial watching had to do with the presence of the humpy guys. But then I began to discover more about the modeling business. The general perception may be of vacuous mannequins, but as the program shows there are many attributes needed. Total comfort with you body. An ability to know exactly what to do with your body. Immense stamina. A very self-assured attitude, but you can't be cocky. A willingness to relinquish control of your body and how you look to someone else. Concentration. Oh, and you need to be certain size; designers don't have time to create a special fit for one individual.

Several years ago, I watched a similar program on Bravo of all male models - "Manhunt: The Search for America’s Most Gorgeous Male Model." But they started with a much larger group, many of whom did not need to be there. And sometimes, I got the sense that the producers were making it up as they went along.

What I don't see in this program is any preparation. They don't show someone trying, for example, to improve their runway walk. Or how to position yourself a certain way.

Something I've very happy not to see is the bitchiness that too many of the "reality" programs foster.

"Jumper" by Steven Gould (An Unconvincing Narrative - SF Writer Steven Gould) is one of my favorite books for any number of reasons. The idea of a teen suddenly finding he has a superpower is always intriguing. David endurance of years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father makes plus his ability to teleport makes him a loner and almost a total outcast. (This very much reminds me of being a gay teen.) And when Davy reaches a point when he fights back, he is terrifying.

To get to him the NSA hold his girlfriend for questioning. He attempts to have a telephone conversation with an NSA official who states, "It is not our policy to negotiate with terrorist." Davy replies, "Do you mean to tell me that you consider me a terrorist?" The NSA official primly retorts, "Certainly, You've taken a hostage. '[Brian Cox, the NSA agent responsible for confining his girlfriend.] Davy becomes outraged:

"Oh, fuck it! You want want a terrorist action, so you can consider me a terrorist? There's no way you can keep me out of your nuclear arsenals. Where do you want the first one to go off? The Pentagon? The White House? The Capitol building? How about Moscow or Kiev? Wouldn't that be interesting? Do you think they'd launch?"

His voice was a lot less prim. "You wouldn't do that."

To the film. Almost nothing from the book appears in the film. Added are characters called " 'paladins' who run around trying to kill jumpers because of some vague religious belief that only God should be everywhere at once." There's also a self-indulgent arrogance to Davy's character. And at the end, we discover his mother is a paladin.

When I watched the "Star Wars" prequels, I thought that Samuel L. Jackson spoke his lines as though English was a second language for him. Although he did a better job this time around, his chracter (a paladin) and acting were flat. Rachel Bilson as the girlfriend could easily have been replaced by a gerbil.

Now to Hayden Christensen. I like Hayden. He has a certain wholesome sexual appeal. But his acting leaves a lot to be desired. I almost wonder how did he get to be an actor. And I certainly wonder how he got to be the lead in such big, splashy movies.

That leaves the character Griffin, played by Jamie Bell, who gives the proceedings a well-needed shot of adrenaline. He is the only other Jumper Hayden has met, yet Hayden seems almost disinterested.

Try Book Vs. Film: Jumper | The A.V. Club for more comparisons.

(In Tuesday - 2008-0226-1715 / Out - 2008-0226-2345) This entry was written in multiple settings.

Pax! Erin go braugh! Je accuse...