Our Country’s Growing Income Disparity Will Come To Haunt the Rich

Leave it to the genius Joseph Stiglitz to put into plain language what we’ve all been thinking about the widening income disparity in American society:

Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1 percent, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important. America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe. The cards are stacked against them. It is this sense of an unjust system without opportunity that has given rise to the conflagrations in the Middle East: rising food prices and growing and persistent youth unemployment simply served as kindling. With youth unemployment in America at around 20 percent (and in some locations, and among some socio-demographic groups, at twice that); with one out of six Americans desiring a full-time job not able to get one; with one out of seven Americans on food stamps (and about the same number suffering from “food insecurity”)—given all this, there is ample evidence that something has blocked the vaunted “trickling down” from the top 1 percent to everyone else. All of this is having the predictable effect of creating alienation—voter turnout among those in their 20s in the last election stood at 21 percent, comparable to the unemployment rate.

As we gaze out at the popular fervor in the streets, one question to ask ourselves is this: When will it come to America? In important ways, our own country has become like one of these distant, troubled places.

The Future of Computing

Jesus Diaz has written an interesting essay on the future of computing:

The fact is that computers and digital photography empowered us to create amazing things that weren’t possible in the analog world. Buy by doing so, they took away the natural connection with the medium. It added a necessary-but-completely-alien layer of complexity to the creative process. They democratized access, but at the same time created new elites. And that’s the key to understand the success of touch computers. They are giving back the tools to the masses because the masses no longer feel alienated by the tools. The touch interface is making things natural and is making developers to simplify the access to their tools. And, by doing that, everyone will have more power than ever.

Amazon’s Locker Is Getting Music Companies Riled Up

I’m not crazy about Amazon’s new cloud drive digital locker service (Sarah Perez articulates many of the problems with it here) but I also think it’s in poor taste to look a gift horse in the mouth. If Amazon wants to give you 5 GB of free storage, why should consumers complain about it?

Turns out that the music industry has complaints of a more litigious nature. From Reuters:

A new Amazon.com Inc service that lets customers store songs and play them on a variety of phones and computers is facing a backlash from the music industry that could ignite a legal battle. Amazon’s Cloud Drive, announced on Tuesday, allows customers to store about 1,000 songs on the company’s Web servers for free instead of their own hard drives and play them over an Internet connection directly from Web browsers and on phones running Google Inc’s Android software. Sony Music, home to artists such as Shakira and Kings of Leon, was upset by Amazon’s decision to launch the service without new licenses for music streaming, said spokeswoman Liz Young.

Because what the music industry really needs right now is a costly legal battle with one of the largest online retailers in the world (who, by the way, are trying to make it more convenient for you to listen to your music). Oh, music industry! When will you ever learn?

Update: Billboard has an interview with Amazon’s director of music explaining why they don’t believe they need music licenses for the service.

The Whole Bloody Affair

Mr. Beaks at AICN reviews Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, which recently screened at the New Beverly:

Shorn of commerce-conceding baggage, turns out KILL BILL is a masterpiece after all. KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR is not be the value-added orgy of cinema it was rumored to be; it is instead the definitive cut of the film, the one Miramax would’ve released had there been $120 million worth of admissions out there for a four-hour-plus paean to martial arts and motherhood. This is not a surprise: Tarantino screened this cut for critics at Cannes in 2004, and would later show it at the Alamo Drafthouse and the American Cinematheque. It’s a known quantity. Those pining for an extended anime sequence or a House of Blue Leaves showdown with grislier deaths will have to settle for the latter finally unfolding sans MPAA-friendly switch to black-and-white. Perhaps there will be gore-soaked outtakes whenever this cut makes its way to Blu-ray (don’t ask when, ‘cuz no one seems to know at the moment). Considering how Tarantino typically holds back deleted scenes (e.g. the missing Maggie Cheung footage from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS), I wouldn’t count on it. And, really, who needs to see it?

The whole thing sounds incredible, and I hope I get a chance to check it out some day….

The Extra Hot Great Podcast Is Extra Hot and Great

When I first heard of the concept of the TV episode recap years ago, back during the internet’s earlier days, I was pretty baffled. “How could a summary of an episode possibly be anywhere near as enjoyable as the episode itself?” I thought. But browsing through televisionwithoutpity — a pioneer of the form — I got my answer. The summaries were full of wit, insight, and trenchant commentary. Occasionally the humor reminded me of the format of the sitcom itself, an endless series of setups and satisfying payoffs. 
There’s a certain art form to summarizing TV, film, or any other cultural element, and former TWoP staff members like Tara Ariano, Joe Reid, and David T. Cole have totally mastered it. But is it possible to transfer this hybrid of humor and pop culture appreciation into an audio format? After listening to their podcast, Extra Hot Great, my answer is a resounding “Yes!”
I’d listened to these guys’ previous podcast experiments before, and while the content was good, I found the audio quality sorely lacking. Thus, when I heard they’d be starting up a new project, I was fairly intrigued. After listening to a few episodes this past week, not only did the Extra Hot Great podcast blow away my expectations, but it has become my new podcast love. I am tearing through older episodes in a way I haven’t for any podcast I’ve ever listened to, and I’m deeply sad that I will soon run out. (Note: While the sound quality isn’t perfect, it’s vastly improved from their earlier efforts and definitely listen-able).
So what makes this show compulsive listening? To start with, each of the guests is insanely knowledgeable about pop culture, to an extent that deeply intimidates me. And while I often find myself violently disagreeing with them (especially Tara), they’re able to communicate their love for TV and film in a way that I find insightful, and that sometimes makes me think, “Hm, I never thought about that episode/moment/series that way before…but that’s definitely the way I’m going to think about it from now on!” We should long for these “Aha!” moments in general, but to get them from a podcast is a special sort of gift.
In addition to discussing recent TV shows and films, there are also some great segments such as “The Canon” where one of the hosts tries to present the case to “canonize” a specific episode of a beloved show, as well as “Game Time,” an ultra-nerdy game show segment that will make any TV junkie feel right at home. A plethora of (what I assume are) painstakingly collected sound clips from all the TV shows discussed are interspersed throughout each episode to spice up the proceedings. At its best, the Extra Hot Great podcast is a celebration of the love of pop culture. It’s a wonderful reminder that these TV shows we spend hours watching each week can illustrate truths about ourselves and, hopefully, bring us together in some small way. 
If you have any appreciation of pop culture, I’d urge you to give it a listen. I can’t wait to hear more!
[P.S. Tara, if you end up reading this, I’d love to get you on my own podcast at some point. Let me know if you’re interested.]

Their Eyes Were Watching You

According to the NYTimes, you may be under surveillance RIGHT NOW:

[W]e are already continually being tracked whether we volunteer to be or not. Cellphone companies do not typically divulge how much information they collect, so Mr. Spitz went to court to find out exactly what his cellphone company, Deutsche Telekom, knew about his whereabouts.

The results were astounding. In a six-month period — from Aug 31, 2009, to Feb. 28, 2010, Deutsche Telekom had recorded and saved his longitude and latitude coordinates more than 35,000 times. It traced him from a train on the way to Erlangen at the start through to that last night, when he was home in Berlin.