93% Room 237

All Critics (107) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (101) | Rotten (7) | DVD (1)

There's enough real evidence supporting the theory that Kubrick was a genius, and that's pretty entertaining all by itself.

It's about the human need for stuff to make sense - especially overpowering emotional experiences - and the tendency for some people to take that sense-making to extremes.

The results can range from enlightening - Kubrick did like to mess with things - to embarrassing. But it's never dull. "Room 237" shines.

You don't have to buy any of the nutty theories in Room 237 to appreciate what director Rodney Ascher has accomplished.

It's nuts, in the best possible way.

Their imaginings are not far removed from the deconstuctionist gobbledygook that has hammerlocked academic film and literary scholarship. But here at least the gobbledygook is entertaining.

You know when "Room 237? starts getting really scary? When the people in the film start making sense.

Kubrick fans and movie geeks will want to check this film out as soon as possible

Kubrick fans will take 'Shining' to 'Room 237.'

The credibility of these theories ranges from faintly plausible to frankly ridiculous, but Ascher isn't interested in judging them; his movie is more about the joys of deconstruction and the special kind of obsession that movies can inspire.

Some of the interpretations seem more of a stretch than others but all are entertainingly presented by director Rodney Ascher. (The movie) serves as a testament to Stanley Kubrick's cinematic mastery.

As fascinating as it is frustrating

It is nice to see a doc that makes you smile instead of making you angry. Anyone who is a fan of Stanley Kubrick will eat this up.

Powered by a deep and abiding affection for both The Shining and Kubrick in general, Room 237 is an amuse-bouche of remix culture.

Room 237 is an extended riff of the "Paul is dead" variety. But, you know what? Sometimes a guy moving a table in the background is just a guy moving a table in the background.

A diverting excursion for lovers of Kubrick's films...even if, at over a hundred minutes, it does go on a bit long.

A fascinating doc that will get both film geeks and conspiracy theorists alike drooling, it all but guarantees you'll never watch The Shining quite the same way again.

Confounding, eye-opening, and often hilarious.

I suspect that Ascher's intention was to dynamize an academic exercise, but these constant, sundry inserts render the tone as corny and glib as a VH1 special.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/room_237_2012/

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WikiLeaks suspect won't be SF Pride parade marshal

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Racing to stanch a flow of criticism, the president of San Francisco's annual gay pride celebration said Friday that the U.S. Army private charged in a massive leak of U.S. secrets to the WikiLeaks website will not be an honorary grand marshal after all.

SF Pride Board President Lisa Williams said in a statement that an employee of the organization had prematurely notified imprisoned intelligence specialist Bradley Manning this week that he had been selected for the distinction, which recognizes about a dozen celebrities, politicians and community organizations each year for their contributions to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

"That was an error, and that person has been disciplined. He does not now, nor did he at that time, speak for SF Pride," Williams said.

A committee of former San Francisco Pride grand marshals did select the 25-year-old Manning, who is openly gay, for the honor, but the Pride Board decided his nomination would be a mistake, Williams said.

Manning's lawyers have argued that his experience as a soldier before the repeal of the U.S. military's ban on gay service played an important role in his decision to pass hundreds of thousands of sensitive items to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

"In point of fact, less than 15 people actually cast votes for Bradley Manning," Williams said. "However, as an organization with a responsibility to serve the broader community, SF Pride repudiates this vote."

While the event's grand marshals are typically celebrated as they wave from convertibles during a downtown San Francisco parade, naming Manning as one was destined to be a symbolic gesture. He is in custody at a military prison in Kansas while he awaits court-martial and would have been unable to attend the June 30 parade.

Earlier Friday, Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who in 1971 leaked the classified information about the Vietnam War that became known as the Pentagon Papers, had agreed to participate in the San Francisco parade on Manning's behalf, said Rainey Reitman, a member of the Bradley Manning Support Network who had cheered the short-lived recognition.

"I and many other LGBT Manning supporters are deeply disappointed by this sudden change in position on the part of the committee," Reitman said. "Bradley is a gay American hero who sacrificed a great deal so we could learn the truth about our government, and he was fairly elected to serve as grand marshal in the parade."

Contingents of Manning supporters have marched in past pride parades, and will do so again this year in San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego and other cities, she said.

But other gay rights activists were less enthusiastic about celebrating Manning, arguing that he should not be honored either as an individual or as a representative of the gay rights movement.

"Manning's blatant disregard for the safety of our service members and the security of our nation should not be praised," said Stephen Peters, president of American Military Partners Association. The group, which advocates for same-sex military families, had called on the Pride Committee to rescind the invitation.

"No community of such a strong and resilient people should be represented by the treacherous acts that define Bradley Manning," Peters said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wikileaks-suspect-wont-sf-pride-parade-marshal-025956668.html

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Did an Earthquake Destroy Ancient Greece?

The grand Mycenaens, the first Greeks, inspired the legends of the Trojan Wars, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." Their culture abruptly declined around 1200 B.C., marking the start of a Dark Ages in Greece.

The disappearance of the Mycenaens is a Mediterranean mystery. Leading explanations include warfare with invaders or uprising by lower classes. Some scientists also think one of the country's frequent earthquakes could have contributed to the culture's collapse. At the ruins of Tiryns, a fortified palace, geologists hope to find evidence to confirm whether an earthquake was a likely culprit.

Tiryns was one of the great Mycenaean cities. Atop a limestone hill, the city-state's king built a palace with walls so thick they were called Cyclopean, because only the one-eyed monster could have carried the massive limestone blocks. The walls were about 30 feet (10 meters) high and 26 feet (8 m) wide, with blocks weighing 13 tons, said Klaus-G. Hinzen, a seismologist at the University of Cologne in Germany and project leader. He presented his team's preliminary results April 19 at the Seismological Society of America's annual meeting in Salt Lake City. [History's Most Overlooked Mysteries]

Hinzen and his colleagues have created a 3D model of Tiryns based on laser scans of the remaining structures. Their goal is to determine if the walls' collapse could only have been caused by an earthquake. Geophysical scanning of the sediment and rock layers beneath the surface will provide information for engineering studies on how the ground would shake in a temblor.

The work is complex, because many blocks were moved by amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1884 and later 20th-century restorations, Hinzen said. By combing through historic photos, the team found unaltered wall sections to test. They also hope to use a technique called optical luminescence dating on soil under the blocks, which could reveal whether the walls toppled all at the same time, as during an earthquake.

"This is really a challenge because of the alterations. We want to take a careful look at the original conditions," Hinzen told OurAmazingPlanet.

Another hurdle: finding the killer quake. There are no written records from the Mycenaean decline that describe a major earthquake, nor oral folklore. Hinzen also said compared with other areas of Greece, the region has relatively few active faults nearby. "There is no evidence for an earthquake at this time, but there was strong activity at the subduction zone nearby," he said.

The Mycenaean preference to place their fortresses atop limestone hills surrounded by sediment would concentrate shaking, even from distant earthquakes, Hinzen said. "The [seismic] waves get trapped in the outcrop and this can do a lot of damage. They are on very vulnerable sites," he said.

The researchers also plan to study the ancient Mycenaean city of Midea. The group has done similar work investigating ancient earthquakes in Turkey, Germany and Rome.

Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/did-earthquake-destroy-ancient-greece-173454478.html

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PICT Gets $1.4M From Lowercase Capital, Forerunner Ventures And Others For ?Shoppable' Photo Tech

PICT, a San Francisco-based startup that has built a "shoppable photo" technology platform for brands and retailers that embeds smart watermarks into images, is emerging a bit out of stealth mode today with the beta launch of the newest version of its mobile and web app. The company, which we first met as "Dropt" when it graduated out of the AngelPad accelerator last year, is also announcing today that it has raised $1.4 million in seed funding. PICT's investors include some big names in the tech and retail worlds: Christ Sacca's Lowercase Capital, Kirsten Green's Forerunner Ventures, New York fashion designer and businessman Steven Alan, Opus Capital, Angelpad, 500 Startups, Gary Vaynerchuk, Scott Belsky, and Seth Berman, among others.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/fZXMJ9DS-Zs/

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Factbox: What is the chemical weapon sarin?

(Reuters) - Charges that Syria has used the chemical weapon sarin have raised questions about the nerve agent, how it kills and what level of evidence it will take to prove it was used on the Syrian people.

WHAT IS SARIN?

Sarin is a man-made nerve gas that was originally developed as a pesticide in Germany in 1938. It is chemically similar to a class of pesticides known as organophosphates.

Sarin, also known as GB, is part of a class of chemical weapons called G-series nerve agents that were developed during World War Two and were named for the German scientists who synthesized them. Other agents in the class include tabun, soman and cyclosarin.

At room temperature, G-series nerve agents are volatile liquids, with sarin being the most volatile.

Sarin is a clear, colorless and tasteless liquid that has no odor in its pure form. It is made up of four common chemical compounds: dimethyl methylphosphonate, phosphorus trichloride, sodium fluoride and alcohol.

Exposure usually occurs when the liquid form comes in contact with the skin or the agent is released as a vapor.

WHEN HAS IT BEEN USED?

Sarin and other nerve agents may have been used in chemical warfare during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo used sarin in two attacks in Japan. In 1994, the group released sarin gas in Matsumoto in central Japan, in a failed attempt to kill three judges. In that attack, the group used a refrigerator truck to release the nerve agent and a wind dispersed the gas in a residential neighborhood. Eight people were killed and hundreds were hospitalized. The next year, the same group carried six newspaper-wrapped packages on to five subway trains, poked them with umbrella tips, releasing sarin. In that attack, 12 commuters were killed and more than 5,000 were injured.

HOW DOES IT KILL?

Sarin acts primarily by interfering with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which acts as an off switch for glands and muscles. Blocking that switch results in over-stimulation of muscles.

The extent of poisoning depends on how much chemical a person was exposed to and for how long. Exposure to sarin vapors can trigger symptoms within a few seconds; exposure to liquid sarin can take a few minutes to as much as 18 hours to cause symptoms.

Large doses of sarin can cause loss of consciousness, convulsions, paralysis and respiratory failure and death. Low doses can cause a range of symptoms, from a runny nose and watery eyes, to drooling, excessive sweating, nausea and vomiting.

Because sarin evaporates quickly, it presents an immediate but short-lived threat. According to biosecurity expert Sean Kaufman of Emory University's Center for Public Health Preparedness and Research, its ability to disperse quickly makes it hard to trace, but sarin does leave remnants in the area where it was used.

HIGH BAR FOR CONFIRMING SARIN USE

The use of sarin is extremely difficult to prove, said Charles Blair, a terrorism expert at the Federation of American Scientists and a columnist for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. To get good evidence that sarin was used, investigators need soil, blood or hair samples directly from the area of attack or its victims, he said.

Weapons inspectors reinforce that view. According to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which works on inspections with the United Nations, inspectors will only determine whether banned chemical agents were used if they can gain access to sites and take soil, blood, urine or tissue samples and examine them in certified laboratories.

SYRIA'S TRACK RECORD WITH CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Syria in July acknowledged for the first time that it had chemical and biological weapons, saying they could be used if the country faced foreign intervention. It said this week it would not use chemical arms against its own citizens, or even against Israel.

Since the early 1980s, Syria has made efforts to acquire and maintain an arsenal of chemical weapons following defeats in wars against Israel in 1967, 1973 and 1982 and the Jewish state's development of nuclear weapons.

According to Global Security, which collects published intelligence reports and other data, there are four suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria - one just north of Damascus; the second near the industrial city of Homs; the third in Hama, believed to be producing VX agents in addition to sarin and tabun; and a fourth near the Mediterranean port of Latakia.

SOURCES: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Center for Biosecurity at UPMC; www.medscape.com; Www.globalsecurity.org

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-chemical-weapon-sarin-235511462.html

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PFT: Jets reportedly?eye?Geno? |? He'll be there

Reuters

For months, it was assumed the Chiefs would take tackle Luke Joeckel with the first pick in the draft.? Last night, the reality become otherwise.

The Chiefs bypassed Joeckel for Eric Fisher, and Joeckel won?t forget it.

?I wanted that first pick but, you know, it didn?t happen. And that definitely puts a chip on my shoulder,? Joeckel told PFT on Thursday night, after he was picked.? ?I?m ready to go work, I?m ready to go prove myself.? It kind of hurts even more that another offensive tackle was taken before me, so I?m ready to go. . . .

?I?ll probably wake up every single day thinking that and when I?m in the weight room . . . when I?m lifting, when I?m out in the field working, you know, that?s my entire goal.? I grew up in a very competitive family, always wanted to be the best.? And you know, going behind another guy in my same position is definitely going to push me.?

It also puts pressure on Fisher.

?Obviously the first pick gets a lot of expectations, a lot of pressure, but I think I perform very well under pressure,? Fisher told PFT on Thursday night.? ?I am somebody to take advantage of pressure situations and make the most of them.? A lot of people will break under their pressure, I?m not that kind of person.? I think any time in my life I?ve had that kind of expectation that I needed to meet, I think I?ve performed very well.?

There?s a chance both will perform well.? There?s also a chance, in theory, of a Peyton Manning/Ryan Leaf dichotomy.

After spending time last night with each guy, our money?s on the former.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/26/report-jets-want-to-move-up-from-39-eying-geno-smith/related/

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Calif. bill would let non-citizens serve on juries

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) ? The California Assembly passed a bill on Thursday that would make the state the first in the nation to allow non-citizens who are in the country legally to serve on jury duty.

Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, said his bill, AB1401, would help California widen the pool of prospective jurors and help integrate immigrants into the community.

It does not change other criteria for being eligible to serve on a jury, such as being at least 18, living in the county that is making the summons, and being proficient in English.

The bill passed 45-25 largely on a party-line vote in the Democratic-controlled Assembly and will move on to the Senate. One Democrat ? Assemblyman Adam Gray, of Merced ? voted no, while some other Democrats did not vote.

Democratic lawmakers who voted for the bill said there is no correlation between being a citizen and a juror, and they noted that there is no citizenship requirement to be an attorney or a judge. Republican lawmakers who opposed Wieckowski's bill called it misguided and premature.

Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, said there is no shortage of jurors.

"Jury selection is not the problem. The problem is trial court funding," Harkey said before the vote. "I hope we can focus on that. Let's not break something; it's not broken now. Let's not whittle away at what is reserved for U.S. citizens. There's a reason for it."

Wieckowski's office said the bill is the first of its kind in the nation and suggested that courts regularly struggle to find enough prospective jurors because jury duty is often seen as an inconvenience, if not a burden. His office did not cite any statistics but pointed to a 2003 legislative report that said numerous articles have noted high rates of non-participation.

A 2007 survey by the Center for Jury Studies said 20 percent of courts across the country reported a failure to respond or failure to appear rate of 15 percent or higher. The center is run by the National Center for State Courts, a Virginia-based nonprofit dedicated to improving court systems.

It's not clear, however, if that rate translates to a shortage of jurors in California.

Noting that women were once kept off juries, Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, said the judicial system should be changed to allow a person to be judged by their peers.

"This isn't about affording someone who would come in as a juror something," Perez said. "But rather understanding that the importance of the jury selection process of affording justice to the person in that courtroom."

An estimated 10 million Californians are summoned for jury duty each year and about 4 million are eligible and available to serve, according to the Judicial Council, which administers the state's court system. About 3.2 million complete the service, meaning they waited in a courthouse assembly room or were placed on call.

In 2010-2011, the most recent year available, only about 165,000 people were sworn in as jurors.

The judicial branch has not taken a position on AB 1401.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/calif-bill-let-non-citizens-serve-juries-231314163.html

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