Monday, February 25, 2013

‘Argo’ won Best Picture at the The Oscars.Really? I just heard of the dang movie–what–a few weeks ago? The film is based on writer, Joshuah Bearman’s 2007 article in Wired: “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran”, written after the records were declassified. Seems intriguing enough, but I haven’t seen it. In fact, out of the 9 nominees for best pictures, I’ve only seen 1, wanted to see 4 others, never heard of 2, and was totally uninterested in 2…so I’m not even trying to do a review lol. Over the years my interest in Oscar winners has narrowed down to what producer(s) won Best Movie (Who are the guys that have big money or get big money to make big films?), who wins Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jennifer Lawrence ‘Silver Linings Playbook’.  Didn’t see it but liked her in ‘ The Hunger Games’) and who gets Best Actor in a Leading Role, (Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘Lincoln”— the one movie I did see and enjoyed btw.)  After that, I’m bored stupid. So…thats it! ♦

Turkish police are now looking for the man they suspect killed 33 y.o. New Yorker, Sarai Sierra. She was a tourist visiting alone in Turkey and was found dead on February 2, her body found near some ancient stone walls in Istanbul. Identified only as “Ziya T” police are  looking for the suspect in his hometown in the southern province of Hatay where he has some family. May justice be swift and merciless!  I see that her family is selling her photographs online on a website called Instacanvas to help support her two sons, ages 9 and 11.  According to a family friend, Marjorie Ryan, the money was originally intended to pay for Sierra’s funeral services, but “the funeral home has now agreed to take on the costs.”  she said. Turkish Airlines is also transporting her body home for free. That should ease Sarai’s soul just a bit. ♦

Linor Abargil is an Israeli national, who was crowned Miss World in 1998 just two months after she was kidnapped and raped in Italy at 18 y.o. Her story is documented in a film called, “Brave Miss World”, director by the daughter of the great  actor Gregory Peck‘s (Remember ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’?),  Cecilia Peck. Now as a global advocate in the fight against sexual violence, Abargil is on a mission to reach out to fellow survivors spending the last three years traveling the world talking about what happened to her, and urging others to speak. On her blog page Linor Speaks Out, Abargil explains,

“The only way we can help each other and make a change in our society is by telling our stories.”  

The amazing survival stories are as horrifying as any war torn hero’s experience you may have heard and are hard to listen to. However, once you get through them, you feel strengthened and comforted by these women and young girl’s strength and will to survive. And there will be crying. ♦

‘scroo-gle verb: 1. The process of Google going through every Gmail that’s sent or received by you and to you, looking for keywords in which to target you with paid ads’

And there’s no way to opt out of this invasion of your privacy, other than to not use Google as your search engine, of course.

“There is what I call the creepy line. The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”  says Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Admitting to it only makes it even more creepier, Mr. Schmidt.

See, what Google Gmail apparently does is use the system it has to scan your email in order to identify spam or viruses, to also pickup on keywords in your mail to show ads that may or may not be relevant to you. Umm–anyone the least bit surprised by this, please raise your hand. Did your Mama not tell you that there ain’t nothing free in this world chile’? Microsoft’s Outlook.com’s advertising attempts to differentiate itself from Google with ads claiming they’d never go through your email to sell ads. No word yet on exactly how they plan to get around that statement. ♦

Later pilgrims…