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There’s been ongoing discussion/controversy about whether Battle Royale inspired The Hunger Games. I finally got around to watching the the movie and reading the book*, and I’m really glad I did.
I don’t really like gory movies (as you can see from the Gif Set above, the movie is pretty fucking violent) but the violence in Battle Royale is tinged with a comforting over-the-topness that Japanese cinema does so well. It’s just unreal enough that it’s not as unsettling as it should be. I can’t wait to watch it again.
Watching the movie a couple weeks ago had me really hungry to read the book, and I spent pretty much all of Saturday devouring the last 61% of it on my iPad. It’s even better than the movie. Having spent age 15 and 16 in Japan as an exchange student, it was especially delightful to re-immerse myself in the Japanese high school experience, which Koushun Takami absolutely nails in the book. The translation is a little cheesy in spots, but the characters are totally recognizable to me and the storytelling is wonderfully nuanced in a way that I can only describe as spectacularly Japanese.
There are definitely some eyebrow-raising parallels between Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, but at the end of the day, they’re both great stories told from very different perspectives.
Bottom Line- Battle Royale is a really great movie, an even better book, and an excellent companion piece to the Hunger Games. Highly recommended!
*Sorry it took me so long, John Bunting!!! We were both right!!!
Thanks to Spiraphobia for the illustrative GifSet. It looks like this post has been reblogged over and over for this very same purpose, which I <3<3<3.
Interview Russia very sweetly announced my spankin new Tumblr job with a gif!
So excited to have Valentine join us at Tumblr.
<3
I was so happy to see Tommy in the Office today after he finished his busy day of recruiting. He is the best dog in the whole wide world ever.
We hear quite a bit about BIG DATA and REAL-TIME stuff. But I’m never sure exactly how BIG the data is or how REAL the time is. Seems like these are often just cool words that the cool kids like to throw around. The Tumblr engineering staff is too busy to worry about being cool, but we do have BIG data and we are making it available in REAL time — starting today. We’re happy to announce that the Tumblr fire hose is open, thanks to our partnership with GNIP.
As Tumblr has grown (more than 50 million blogs and more than 20 billion posts), so has interest in the underlying data. Our API has been a great way to pull small slices of it, but now enterprise customers can get a complete real-time feed of all public data.
Handling all of this has been a significant, but worthwhile engineering effort; it will give insight into the BIG and REAL creative community that powers Tumblr and produces a lot of fascinating data.
In a future post, we’ll talk about the underlying technical bits that make all this magic happen (hint: Kafka, Finagle). For now, go take a drink from the fire hose.
TUMBLR FIRE HOSE!!!
Lots of folks have been working long and hard on getting this done— HUGE thanks to Blake, Derek, Katherine, and Ari for the team effort.
It’s been absolutely awesome working with the fine folks at GNIP and we are super stoked about the future.
:D
Pretty stoked about this slanket for kids I just bought myself in preparation for the brutally cold summertime AC.
Reblogging Myself over how good this mixtape is in my ears right now.
Mixtape Master DJ Neil Armstrong is finally out out with a new one, and it looks REALLY GOOD.
“Music For When Nobody’s Looking” is a mixtape full of songs you’re embarrassed to admit you love. Check out the sample track and liner notes here and pre-order the CD.
EDIT: OMG I just got the Pre-Order Digital Copy and it is like dancing-down-the-streets-singing-out-loud-good!!!
Step into the Smarter Planet Time Machine!
For a little Friday Fun, try one of these three settings:
Or for quintessential quantum experience, try the Random button to sample one of the more than 4000 posts about All Things Smarter since we started three years ago in November, 2008.
You are welcome to like or reblog your favorites to feed our collective intelligence on those posts that best reflect how the world’s systems can become more sentient and senseable.
Of course, you can always browse through the misty mountains of Smarter Time via the Archive. Or for a real time warp, scroll through all the Time Machine posts.
Want to hold Smarter Planet in your hand? Get the mobile apps for iOS and Android.
The IBM SmarterPlanet team does a great job. Their blogs are definitely worth a browse + a follow if you’re into the future.
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Tumblr by Josue Plaza on Spotify (and Tumblr!)0 plays
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