Disney Returns to High School

I admit, I watched High School Musical 2. Despite the oversaturated glare from color editing, abrupt transitions to song & dance, cliched villainess and talent show plot, and a scene with poor juxtaposition of baseball with dancing, I enjoyed it. High school never came in such fake rosy (magenta) packaging and romance; but romance, spectacle, or comedy is what we expect from musicals--an escape. Here the faces are fresh, choreographs are polished, and songs are radio ready. The Village Voice has a review with spoilers.

If you missed the crazy amount of media buzz generated, it's a Disney made-for-TV movie. The last two weeks saw a sudden rush of media outlets featuring HSM. Who is this unknown on the cover of Rolling Stones? I guess he's become somebody...good business. The first movie generated $100mil in merchandise (highest selling CD in 2006) and so Disney tripled the production cost of the sequel and it shows.

OD on Caffeine

17 year old girl consumes seven double espressos, develops palpitations, hyperventilation, fever, diaphoresis.

Step Closer to Precog

Ars Technica reports on the Department on Homeland Security (DHS) exploring automated Hostile Intent detectors. As quoted, "hostile intent indicators are composed of behavioral, speech, and physiological cues that are derived from operational and laboratory experiments" which Ars notes:

these cues can identify not only those who pose immediate risks but also individuals who are likely to pose risks in the indefinite future (italics added).

It's a step closer to the Precogs in Minority Report. I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

New iMac. More svelte than ever.

Night Rain
Aching swollen heaven cries.
There, there...
Gunshots tear white hot twists
And leave slow "Timber!" in the hollows of space,
Shaking houses beneath the strobe of vapor mountains.
Frog, cicada join the applause of struck dirt.
The heavens cried and cooled the earth.

gPhone
In the wake of Apple's iPhone, rumor is Google developing a cell phone to be supported by ads (as recently reported in Wall Street Journal, then other news sources).