Military "Intelligence"

I like spy shows. I like them with a dash of fantasy or whimsy, portraying the secret agent as a superhero of sorts who can outwit anyone and plays a dangerous chess game with the guys on the opposite side. (see "Alias") I also like it when they focus on the process (see "Spooks" or "Burn Notice"), showing spies as people with jobs using specialized techniques and equipment just like any of us (just marginally cooler).

The truth is actually less glamorous. And while the latter examples are nearer to the truth, they're still TV shows that need to inject a hearty dose of excitement to tell a decent story. Real spy work is tedious and consists mostly of gathering information and taking pictures. Unlike journalism, though, spying needs to be more clandestine.

Which is why this news report, which I caught on yesterday's primetime news, confirmed the joke that "military intelligence" is an oxymoron (at least in the Philippines).

Why would you send people in their late 30s, who act like burly military/police types (I saw the suspects on TV) to spy on student activists? Send a young-ish looking man posing as a journalist (campus or otherwise) to take pictures. Or hack the picture folders of the campus newspaper's computer to get copies.

Whoever ran this operation needs to be sacked simply for lacking common sense. Don't these guys watch spy movies? Did they honestly think that the students they were spying on won't notice four old guys taking pictures? They're either really, really stupid or really, really arrogant.

Either way they deserve to be lynched.

There's no way...

... I came from an ape. O rly? Click on the pic to read the text properly.



Ripped from Gawker via Scienceblogs.

I'm willing to bet the editor chose that picture precisely for the irony (hoping that some guy on the intertubes gets it). The other thing that came to mind is: that gorilla is a sophomore?

Names

Pennie Azarcon-Dela Cruz writes about the downside of being a "Josefina Dela Cruz", specifically long lines at embassies and having various criminals as namesakes.

I'm tempted to say that having an uncommon surname isn't all that either.

You end up repeating yourself several times to people unfamiliar with "Salamat" as a family name (Yes, as in "thank you") and, once they get it, be forced to listen to a pun they made up on the spot. What's worse is they expect you to laugh as if it were the most clever joke ever.

Please, I'm a 31 year old who studied in all-boys schools. I've heard it all.

But then again I can do a google search and I'm pretty sure that everything that turns up pertains to me (after weeding out all the blogs thanking their friend "Patrick"). Which is the point of names: to set you apart.

Ban Comic Sans

My "hate" for Comic Sans is a running joke in all my classes. Once a student uses the damnable font in a PowerPoint slide (or worse, a written report) I end up spending the remainder of the class dissing their taste in typefaces.

Of course this dislike is not without basis. A couple of graphic designers have been running the Ban Comic Sans campaign for some time now, featuring "propaganda" such as stickers, shirts, and web graphics. Their tongue-in-cheek advocacy is to stop all use of Comic Sans not because it's a bad font per se* but because it has become the default font for anything "whimsical" or "kiddie." According to the Combs:

While we recognize that the font may be appropriate in a few instances, our position is that the only effective means of ending this epidemic of abuse is to completely ban Comic Sans.

They're right, or course. It works, as originally intended, inside comicbook balloons at 12pts or smaller. Using it to set headlines on huge tarpaulin banners on the other hand just smacks of abuse.

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* But there are a lot of better ones like Anime Ace, available at the bancomicsans site

Critic

If you check out discussion boards or comment areas of websites that feature film reviews, you will inevitably find a thread that has people lashing out at the critics. Sometimes the backlash is justified: the critic may be too harsh or biased in his review. Most of the time it's just people missing the point of criticism entirely.

There are various types of anti-critic posts but the one that irritates me the most is the variant of "well, it's just YOUR opinion." It reduces the critics' piece to the level of the fanboy posting to defend their favorite actors or franchises. Which is unfair.

When a critic posts his thoughts he isn't just "saying what's on his mind," he is actually giving an evaluation of the film based on certain criteria. It's not just an opinion, it's an informed one. It is a collection of thoughts from a mind primed to evaluate such matters. Consciously or not, the critic compares what he just saw from the hundreds he has seen before. He sets the object of criticism against certain standards and judges it as objectively as he can.

If he does appear biased -- and who doesn't? taste is subjective -- then we respect his bias as something developed out of years of evaluating books or films.

But what's more irritating is when the same line is used by those defending the critics. Saying that the critic is just "voicing his opinion" is, ironically, saying that he is no more important than the average guy who posts comments on websites.

Intimations of mortality

It has something to do with the weather. Late July / early August is when summer gives way to typhoons, giving us weird temperature changes and swings in humidity and dust. It makes someone with allergic rhinitis and a sensitive respiratory system automatically sick.

It also coincides with, or is near enough, my birthday to serve as a reminder of mortality. Nothing better to suggest a fragile biology than a raging sore throat, fits of coughing, and a weakened constitution.

But then I get better after a couple of days and I binge drink. See you on Saturday.

Painting the wrong picture

So the heat forces me to wake up early and I got to catch the news portion of ABS-CBN's morning show. Joey de Leon is again in trouble for opening his mouth and this time the offended party is the National Press Club.

De Leon currently has a problem with "Balita" entertainment editor Dindo Balares over the performance of a recent "Eat Bulaga" show abroad. Not covered in the linked article but mentioned in the news report is the fact that De Leon made a joke about his lola killing journalists. Which got the Press Club started as they're pretty sensitive* on the topic of dead journalists, the Philippines being the top spot to find one.

De Leon apologized and, in a sane place, that should've been that.

But no. The NPC (with help from ABS-CBN, I guess) is dragging this out. And I would've ignored it if not for a statement De Leon allegedly made that the NPC rep referred to.

Joey said there was a difference between journalists and press people.

I agree. The people De Leon deals with write for newspapers but have the journalistic skill and ethics of your neighborhood tsismosa. They are referred to as "journalists" only as a matter of courtesy (or convenience) and have none of the training or the dedication associated with, say, the PCIJ.

That, too, goes for some of the journalists who have been killed.

Whenever the "scores of dead journalists" factoid is mentioned in international reports we have this romanticized image of the guy in the moro hinterlands risking his life to bring us a story. The dead journalist we admire is the small-town radio commentator who goes up against the corrupt governor and is gunned down by goons.

But for every hero like this there is the columnist who asks money for positive write-ups, or the investigative journalist who gets paid to shut up, or the editor whose paper spouts pure propaganda. They don't deserve to be summarily executed, but neither do they deserve the title of "journalist" that the NPC seems too eager to confer.

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* I'm half-hoping they do take legal action against Joey. My irony meter needs calibration.

Gimmick

Everyone knows (or at least suspected) that an Eraserheads reunion concert is just a matter of time and money. A little under a decade should be enough time for wounds to heal, and a couple of million pesos enough money for Pinoy professional musicians to swallow their pride. Add to that the fact that the people calling the shots for huge companies now are people my age, who were Eraserheads fans at the height of their popularity.

Philip Morris is accused of violating a Department of Health policy prohibiting cigarette companies from sponsoring music events. The company responded by claiming that the event is a private one, hence the need for invitations through their website. Well played, big tobacco.

Most people don't care. As far as everyone is concerned, PM is just the huge corporation willing to bankroll the biggest reunion since Juan de la Cruz. I won't start smoking because of that, and neither would other Eraserheads fans who were kids 10 - 15 years ago when the band was huge. A media-savvy generation like ours would know that this is just a stunt by Marlboro to get their name out there; a stunt that all large companies regularly pull.

Of course this is being hyped like John Lennon's second coming, but it isn't. A true reunion requires a new album and regular gigs, something I'm pretty sure they're not considering seriously. Unless they'll be writing new songs, this is nothing but a gimmick.

It's huge and circular...

... and might lead to the destruction of the earth.

The large hadron collider reminds me of the Stargate. Except we know about it. And its discoveries won't have practical applications until years after. And that research on it doesn't involve scrounging around for alien technology.

Anyhoo, gorgeous pictures.

WTF!

Wow, That's Fantastic!

Kuya Dick sings with Kuya Rick.

A name made of pure win

Poor guy. His ID is floating around the intertubes. I'm pretty sure Suparman is an Indonesian name but is Batman at all common? Or were his folks screwing him over?

Photo printing? Yeah right.

Of course Kodak will say that the volume of shop-based photo printing would increase. That's the only business they have that's worth anything now. Their cameras aren't any good while film-based photography is quickly being transformed into a specialist hobby.

But the quote that shows how out of touch they are is this:

“Many people still want to keep their photos with them or have copies that they could share with friends or families. Most people don’t want to be bothered with too much technology so they’d rather entrust their pictures to their friendly neighborhood printer.”

We already have a way to keep our photos with us, we call it the cellphone. Sharing with friends and family is easier with blogs and online photo archives. I was at a college reunion yesterday and we were passing around phones and referring each other to websites for photos. And we're of the generation (perhaps the last one) that grew up on film photographs.

People don't mind being bothered with "too much technology" if that technology is cheap and easy to use. It seems the only people Kodak is targeting these days are old fogeys who can't be bothered to learn how to operate a PC.

In fact the real business opportunity is in doing the opposite.

I'm sure many people would like a service that will scan old photographs, clean them up, and upload them to a Flickr account. I want to digitize what I have to prevent them from deteriorating and be able to share them with more people than the ones I'm in physical proximity to.

Kodak missed the boat and continues to miss the point.