Review of Chow Sing Chi's "Kung Fu Hustle".

"As a certain Mister Anderson might say ... Whoa."

http://www.star-ecentral.com/movies/reviews/review.asp?file=archives/movie_reviews/2004/12/22_1_KungFuHustle&title=Kung%20Fu%20Hustle&id=865&rid=906&sec=Movies

---------------------------------------------------
23,000 (and more) dead. Horrible. (Tsunami).

The best of Internet radio... or, at least, "currently listening" (and much better than the AccuRadio broadcasts, which tend to be soft and sometimes crackly):

For "holiday music" (US-ism), i.e. Christmas music:
- EZRock (Google "soft rock") (and I can't believe I'm still listening to Delilah, back here in Malaysia. Shows some kind of underlying neurosis or desperation, I guess. Or maybe, just want to hear the old "Do you hear what I hear?")
- A cappella Christmas (Google "holiday music radio"), from Live365.

Currently, saturated with holiday music, and taking a break. No "Light n Easy", so better:
- MixLatino.com, from Live365. http://www.live365.com

It's funny how last year, I remember being sick to death of all the Christmas music on air and wishing they would play something else!! And here this week, was missing it, finding next to nothing on local radio.

Google Is Adding Major Libraries to Its Database By JOHN MARKOFF and EDWARD WYATT Published: December 14, 2004

"Google, the operator of the world's most popular Internet search service, plans to announce an agreement today with some of the nation's leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web.

...collaboration of Google and research institutions that also include Harvard, the University of Michigan, Stanford and the New York Public Library...

Google - newly wealthy from its stock offering last summer - has agreed to underwrite the projects being announced today while also adding its own technical abilities to the task of scanning and digitizing tens of thousands of pages a day at each library..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/technology/14google.html?pagewanted=1&adxnnl=0&incamp=article_popular_1&adxnnlx=1103087229-2iZTxDeUbrb949TZ/RVYRw

On publishers and libraries...

"From the earliest days of the printing press, book publishers were wary of the development of libraries at all. In many instances, they opposed the idea of a central facility offering free access to books that people would otherwise be compelled to buy.

But as libraries developed and publishers became aware that they could be among their best customers, that opposition faded. Now publishers aggressively court librarians with advance copies of books, seeking positive reviews of books in library journals and otherwise trying to influence the opinion of the people who influence the reading habits of millions..."

(Same source)

Would be interesting to see what technology they use, and how the standards differ or compare with those practised in other large-scale digitization projects, such as JSTOR, and also even at the University of Michigan itself we saw a small unit with high-tech equipment.

Digitization itself is thankless work - they should automate it as much as possible. Those dark rooms... though I guess if they are not such rare books it would be ok to have some light. Though only books out of copyright will be slated for the project.

I remember the first time American movie people ceased to talk like movie people and began to talk like normal people. I was back on holiday (vacation) from the U.S. and went to watch 'The Wedding Singer' in the cinema (theatre). And then I realised that Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler and company were speaking just like regular (normal) folks.

They don't have a particular way of talking in the movies. That's just the way American people talk!

The end of an era... sorry I was not there to see it. Ken Jennings did some amazing stuff!

'Jeopardy!' Whiz Finally Meets His MatchNov 30, 4:10 PM EST
The Associated Press
http://entertainment.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=174659

The NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/01/arts/television/01jeop.html?oref=login&8hpib