iPhone 5, from a non-techie perspective.

Before we begin, I should clear something up. Like a lot of autistic lads around my age, I had an interest in some things until I dug deep enough or saw them change enough to recoil in horror. Information techology, or rather the way it is implemented today, is one of those things. I could go on for a while about how it came to be this way, but it is not really all that relevant here. The reason I mention it is because I want you to understand where I am coming from when I talk about the new iPhone and certain details thereof.

Predator 2, a study in how to gracefully kick oneself in the groin

In the mid-to-late 1980s, a joke was circulating around Hollywood that the only person Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone‘s first and arguably most interesting stock character, had not fought yet was E.T.. This prompted a couple of screenwriters to hammer out a “treatment” for a film in which a type more commensurate with Rambo would fight with an alien creature of similar disposition. Contracts were exchanged, money was allocated, stars were solicited, and in 1987 the result was released to theatres as Predator.

Revisiting the classics: A look at A Scanner Darkly

Okay, A Scanner Darkly (the film) is not that old that it really should be called a classic. But is one anyway. The novel on which the film is based is now thirty-five years old. The film turns six years old in July of this year, which should tell you something about the lasting dark appeal of the novel. Now, I will step up to the plate right here and admit that I have not read the novel. Unlike some assholes I can name, I did not rush out and buy an e-reader the second they were brought out because it is the hip, “noooooooow” thing to do. And unfortunately, controlling the flow of literature into a country like Arseholia is even easier than controlling the flow of unapproved films or music.