Killing the Golden Goose

Having rejoined Netflix a couple of months ago, I have been enjoying hard to find films such as Ugetsu (brilliant film) as well as catching up on hits from the past five years. But I am wondering just how long they are going to be around as a company.

The first sign of problems was the change in fees shortly after I joined, with the ability to stream and have one DVD out going up considerably. I opted for the two DVD only package because most of what I want to see is not available streaming. Also, Starz contract will not be renewed and it appears other studios providing streaming content intend to follow that path.

Most people opted to keep the streaming, believing that is the future of entertainment delivery. But many threw up their hands and quit Netflix outright. Many as in millions of customers. Consequently, the stock tanked when the losses were revealed.

So when the CEO Reed Hastings announces out of the blue that it was a poorly handled change it should be a good thing. right?

Sadly, the buffoon running the show has decided to spin off the DVD operation into a different company, Qwikster. It is clear that Hastings wants the DVD side to die completely, but with the demise of the streaming service likely next year this is incredibly stupid.

I disagree with the analysis in The Atlantic Wire piece. Netflix has the Hollywood studios completely against them with some executives thinking the rental business has hurt theater box office. It has appeared to have damaged DVD sales, though I would argue that poor product has more to do with it. Which is why you don’t see new films streaming and a three month wait after DVD release on the disc side.

This is all fall out of the fanatic intellectual property rights fight which is based on greed and laziness. The sad result is less choice for consumers and no increase in sales of tickets or DVDs.

But the sheer idiocy of thinking the studios will cave on streaming video when they won’t even support their own endeavor, Hulu, is astounding. Even though DVD sales have plummeted, Red Box proves there is a market for renting them.

For rural people like me, renting movies will become nearly impossible once Netflix/Qwikster fold. With iTunes getting rid of rentals and only allowing purchases, things are going to get interesting. But this will make cable and satellite providers happy, since they have been losing people moving to Internet delivery of entertainment.

It dawns on me this is the perfect combination of events to drive up piracy. Oy.

A Lost Generation of US Naval Aviation

As I was poking around YouTube, I found this gem of a film on carrier suitability tests being carried out on the McDonnell F3H-2 Demon. Also making cameo appearances are the production prototypes of the Douglas F4D Skyray, Douglas A4D Skyhawk, and Vought F7U Cutlass.

F3H-2 Demon Carrier Tests

All but the venerable Skyhawk had short services in the fleet and those three had the same problem – underpowered engines. Westinghouse had made extravagant promises on a new generation of jet engines and the aluminum birds were specifically designed around them. When the engines turned out to be complete failures, the U.S. Navy’s equivalent of the Air Force’s Century series were hamstrung.

Only the “Gutless” Cutlass flew with Westinghouse engines while other manufacturers engines were shoehorned into redesigned versions of the Demon and Skyray. Performance of the planes never met their potential as a result. Meanwhile, A-4 Skyhawks are still flying today, over fifty years later.

That is not to say they did not have some success. The Cutlass and Demon introduced the AIM-7 Sparrow medium range radar guided missile to the fleet. Both were very maneuverable, with the Cutlass able to out dogfight even F-86 Sabres and FJ Furies. The F4D Skyray could climb to altitude faster than anything else flying at the time.

F7U Firing AIM-7 Sparrow

F4D Skyray Carrier Operations

Oh what world beaters these could have been if the Westinghouse engines had lived up to their specifications! Instead the Navy had to wait for Vought’s next design, the F-8 Crusader, to get a decent fighter. Fortunately for them, it was just around the corner and a twin engine derivative of the F3H would evolve into the F4H Phantom II…

Garr! or is it Gar! Maybe GAAARRHH?

That is the question. For some reason I was unable to sleep at all last night and my resulting mood is conveyed by the word.

I eventually did get some sleep from 7:30 AM to Noon, but am at a loss to explain why I could not sleep before.

Perhaps it was handling a C93 Sporter 5.56mm at a store last night. I do have an H&K clone fever of some kind and a sub $600 rifle that is a fixer upper is tempting. But by the time corrections would be made, it would be in the range of the PTR-91 I covet so much.

Gharrr! Garr? GAAHRR?!

However it is spelled, I need to stop saying it or the cats will think I am a pirate.

I should get that Summer Wars review written and posted before I forget what the film was about…

Oh and today is day one of H2O2 therapy since the stuff finally arrived. We will see if there is anything to it.

Productive Pain

Living with chronic pain is not pleasant, no matter how you look at it. But there is pain and then there is pain from actually doing things. The last two days I’ve hurt quite a bit because I’ve been doing some physical activity to make up for lost time.

It is all yard related, except for taking down my filthy blinds and deciding replacing them was easier than cleaning them. We bought some Colorado Blue Spruce and Black Hills Spruce pine trees to plant as a mini windbreak. Three of them went in the ground yesterday just in time for frost last night. The fourth and last one is indoors for the moment and awaits the removal of a diseased Asian Elm tree – if we can get a neighbor with a chainsaw to help out.

Speaking of sawing, a replacement pole saw and lopper finally was purchased a couple of months ago. Tuesday was my first chance to use it and I discovered to my dismay that my recent slide in health is worse than I realized. It was torture using it and one oak tree branch will take multiple days to get through.

No, it is not very thick being six inches in diameter or so. I am just that weak now. Oy.

Back to the frost. Last night set records for lows in some places around the area. We could use some global warming right about now. Pity it is junk science since humanity always prospers in warm periods.

Prosperity would be nice, but the coming storm is nearly upon us. China is going to be liquidating their U.S. treasury bond holdings. This shows that borrowing to increase our national debt is not going to work anymore. But that is not stopping the Fed from assisting in bailing out European banks. The insanity continues until everything falls down, I suppose.

At least the view from my window is nice with the blinds removed. It is amazing how plastic attracts dust that never lets go. I made the mistake of trying to dust them with a Webster extendable duster yesterday. The clouds of dust that arose could have felled a horse and drove me from the room.

I had purchased them close to twenty years ago to be able to vary sunlight since my eyes are very sensitive to light. But years of working on pain tolerance has helped a bit with that so I am ready to evict the things in favor of Asian blinds. Temporary plastic fake reed blinds (left overs from upgrading the dining room twelve years ago) will go up while I budget to get the real thing.

I’m thinking of painted bamboo ones but need to check my finances first.

Egad, the windows are dirty. Something will have to be done about that. Also have tomatoes to can today. So despite all the pain, at least it has been a productive week. That is something I have not been able to write down in some time.

That is worth the pain.

Infinite Copyrights? Let’s Kill All Innovation

The growth in intellectual property (IP) rights has gotten to be quite an issue in the service oriented economies of the world. Here in the Unites States, it is getting to the point few things will ever end up in the public domain again. Now that trend is being exported with an RIAA written law going into effect in New Zealand and the European Commission extending sound recording copyrights from 50 to 70 years.

Shane Richmond has a good OpEd at The Telegraph on this and it has sparked a debate in the comments. Some good points are made there opposing his views, but in the end I agree with him.

Ever heard of the phrase “starving artist”? I believe that the best work often comes from artists who are struggling to make ends meet, because that motivates them to reach higher and try new ideas. If there is one thing that causes mental and creative stagnation, I’d say it is laziness born of security. Risk aversion is not a creative engine economically, scientifically, creatively, or spiritually.

It is perverse that humans do not dare when they are comfortable. One would think that having a solid safety net would encourage taking risks, but that is not how we behave. Instead there is a tendency to only take action when forced to. These copyright extensions are to make the already comfortable even more so.

I do agree that copyright holding does need to exist, but my complaints are about the draconian interpretations that take fair use away and the constant extending of ownership. What is the best amount of time for a copyright to be held? I cannot say for sure, but I think anything past 25 years is ridiculous for entertainment properties.

Frankly, the idea that ideas equal “properties” bothers me greatly. We have gotten so far from the physical in what we produce that is had damaged the economic health of the country. Perhaps it is a function of growing older, but tangible things speak to me of reality far more than IP’s do. Still, there must be incentive to create, so going to the extreme of making everything open source is foolish in the long run.

So we need copyrights and royalties. But we need them to be reasonable in order to foster daring, that thing that fuels creativity. Instead we are strangling creativity in the name of profits and protecting rights.

If I were to ever get published, I would put my works in the public domain somewhere around ten to fifteen years later. That is a promise I will keep if such things come to pass.

Health 9-12-2011

That was an unpleasant couple of nights with little sleep. Too much pain to rest and too tired to resist the pain made for a vicious little cycle. At least I made it to church yesterday even if I had to leave early.

The spine repeatedly popped the entire time at church, mostly in my bad spots. Strange.

I ordered a UV wand from an Amazon sale and will be using it to try to control dust mites. Even if it works, it will probably be a futile gesture but I feel the need to do something. The food grade hydrogen peroxide is yet to arrive and I suspect it will awhile yet. Did get the glass eyedropper bottle for it though.

Not feeling ambitious. Instead I’m dizzy – at least that proves I’m awake!

Update:

According to the daily crossword puzzle and Audiosurf, today should be a much better day.

The Path to 9/11 Part 2 (2006)

With the first three hours covering events from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 to the Millennium bomb plot, the final two hours cover things from the attack on the U.S.S. Cole to the collapse of the Twin Towers. Prepare to get upset watching the mix of re-enactments and real footage in this riveting second part.

The review of Part 1 can be found here.

Part 2 picks up where the previous night left off, with the hijackings beginning. Flight attendant Betty Ong (Jean Yoon) makes a desperate cellphone call to American Airlines booking desk to report the hijacking of flight American 11. Confused controllers try to raise the plane but are surprised to hear Mohammed Atta addressing the passengers. The terrorist flipped the wrong switch in the cockpit.

This is enough to justify notifying the Air Force who ask if it is a drill. It isn’t and they scramble fighters. An aviation buff’s note here: that is a Navy F-14 Tomcat shown taking off. I know the media doesn’t like the military, but they really need to do their research. A correct F-16 is later shown as the screen capture above testifies. Ten years later we find out that the Air National Guard pilots scrambled unarmed and were to ram the airliners. The pilots were willing to die to protect innocents on the ground.

The hijackers are cut from a different cloth and want to die to kill innocents. With the terrorists at the controls, other cellphone calls come in and one is chilling saying she can see the New York City skyline and they are too low.

Back nearly a year to October, 2000. Having narrowly dodged one bullet after another thanks to luck and the stupidity of the terrorist foes, the  United States government officials start to get lax again. John O’Neill (Harvey Keitel) gets an early morning phone call that the U.S.S. Cole destroyer has been attacked in Yemen. American lives have been lost and it bears all the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda attack.

This leads to two scenes guaranteed to raise any red blooded American’s blood pressure. The first involves the autocratic and hostile ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine (Patricia Heaton). Running afoul of her is the beginning of the end of O’Neill’s FBI career. It is a great short performance – you will hate her.

The second is another meeting of the putative minds handling the defense of the United States against terrorist attacks. Richard Clarke (Stephen Root) finally mans up and wants to hit Afghanistan again. See, he has a new tool in his bag of tricks called the Predator drone. With it, Osama Bin Ladin can be hunted for and targets can be pinpointed.

But there is zero support for it other than General Hugh Shelton suggesting “boots on the ground.” Say, 50,000 or so. With three months left in the Clinton administration and it being an election year, this is viewed with disdain.

Meanwhile, the usefulness of the Predator is limited by it being unarmed, as it is tragically depicted. A lost opportunity that might have changed history goes down in flames.

Things aren’t going great elsewhere as Massoud (Mido Hamada) wants real weapons for the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, but can’t get help from the CIA thanks to an uninterested administration. At the same time, a fresh bunch of recruits arrive at an Al Qaeda training camp for a very special mission.

Before long they are in the States at flight schools learning to fly. Not taking off or landing, which raises flags with local authorities in Arizona and Minnesota. Most of which are ignored or shelved for being “racial profiling.”

A lost briefcase becomes the undoing of our main protagonist, O’Neill. Simple mistakes can be blown into scandals if the right people are there to run a person out of a job. Once again, politics trumps protecting the country.

But sometimes a local official has enough power and guts to do what needs to be done. INS Officer Jose Perez (Geoffrey Rivas) shows he has both and refuses entry to one would be hijacker, Mohammed Al-Khatani (Elie Gamael) from Saudi Arabia. Bucking political correctness, this immigrant sticks to his guns in a wonderful scene.

Al-Khatani is currently in GITMO and is a poster child to the left for alleged war crimes against prisoners. I have no sympathy whatsoever.

With the fanatic Mohammed Atta (Martin Brody) safely ensconced as leader, he shows how angry and impatient he is by demanding additional personnel for the terrorist attack. Told to be patient, he is to use Zacarias Moussaoui (Zee Sulleyman), a French citizen from Morocco to make up for the short fall. That doesn’t work out well when the idiot gets himself arrested in Minneapolis. Even the terrorists viewed him as a dim bulb.

Still, Washington won’t take it seriously and the local agents are ignored. If this sounds like a stuck record, it is because there was a serious pattern of negligence by the authorities. That is one reason watching this is infuriating. It all could have been prevented…

A warning from Massoud to the CIA that an operation on U.S. soil involving aviation and hijackers is imminent goes ignored due to lack of proof. With the Clinton and Bush administrations giving tens of millions of dollars to the Taliban as humanitarian aid, the Northern Alliance commander is very miffed. He also warns his death will be “a signal.”

Intelligence chatter goes through the roof, alarming CIA Director George Tenet (Dan Lauria) but he can’t find the details. But at least he gets Condi Rice (Penny Johnson) to finally read a report that gets her moving. The new administration had not been receptive to the worries of Clarke earlier.

Though Rice is now onboard and has brought President Bush on too, Tenet doesn’t want to arm the Predator drones. He insists it is illegal to use them against Bin Ladin despite what the State Department lawyers have concluded. Fears of legal issues still dominate and paralyze the government. It is September 4, 2001.

Five days later, Massoud is assassinated in Afghanistan. The Lion is dead and the signal has been given. Despite cramming many people and events into the miniseries, there are scenes of great emotional depth in it and this is one of them. Having built up a sympathetic portrayal of the man, his death is shown to be devastating to his followers. Their grief is believable and there is a feeling of great loss.

It is a prelude of what is to come.

 

It is a powerful ending to a powerful miniseries. Words fail me at the moment, for it has evoked feelings and memories from ten years ago.

The heroic deaths of John O’Neil, Reverend Mychal Judge, and John Burnett with his fellow men on Flight 93 are all touched upon briefly without actually showing them. To do more would have been too much, for this was aired a mere five years after.

Our government failed us miserably and 9/11 was the result. Though many precautions have been taken since then, on December 5, 2005 the 9/11 Commission Report graded the governments progress on its 41 recommendations. As the ending sequence shows, there were five “F’s”, twelve “D’s”, and one “A”.

I wonder how many of them are due to political correctness? That point is hammered home throughout The Path to 9/11. Things have only gotten worse that way since then.

I should address the film making from a more technical point of view before ending this review. $40 million was spent making it and it shows in every scene. The directing is very good and succeeds at eliciting emotions in most scenes. Cinematography is very good, though I am not a fan of the shaky cam style. It did add some feeling of “you are there”, I suppose. Filming on location with Morocco doubling for Afghanistan, Spain, and Pakistan added authenticity to the foreign scenes.

As far as acting goes, only one performance bothered me and that was the nonperformance of Dick Cheney. Not only did the actor not look like him, he could have been replaced by a cardboard photo of the real man. Since he barely appears in this, not a big deal in the slightest.

The use of Arabic with subtitles was very much a plus and I was impressed by the casting.

As you can tell from the screen captures, the copy I obtained isn’t the best quality.

I highly recommend The Path to 9/11 for teenagers on up – it is a pity it isn’t easily available.