Article: Daylight Robbery, Meet Nighttime Robbery

Original Article written by Naomi Klein for the the Nation - August 16, 2011

I keep hearing comparisons between the London riots and riots in other European cities—window smashing in Athens or car bonfires in Paris. And there are parallels, to be sure: a spark set by police violence, a generation that feels forgotten.

But those events were marked by mass destruction; the looting was minor. There have, however, been other mass lootings in recent years, and perhaps we should talk about them too. There was Baghdad in the aftermath of the US invasion—a frenzy of arson and looting that emptied libraries and museums. The factories got hit too. In 2004 I visited one that used to make refrigerators. Its workers had stripped it of everything valuable, then torched it so thoroughly that the warehouse was a sculpture of buckled sheet metal.

Back then the people on cable news thought looting was highly political.

Article: How to make an intelligent blockbuster and not alienate people

Cinema and films are not a usual subject in this blog, however this article speaks through me and is . It perfectly describes how blockbuster movies are produced and the mentality of the big hollywood producers.
Mark Kermode goes on to challenge producers into making blockbusters smarter, since being smart or not is not one of the factors that determine a film's success. I'm afraid though, that "dumb" blockbasters are just another part of the distracting media and trash pop culture which overwelms the Western world.  /od

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In this highly charged polemic, the Observer film writer and 5 Live critic tackles the big-budget producers for their cynical rejection of intelligent movies – and contempt for the ordinary cinemagoers who fill their pockets

Here are three absolute truths:

1. The world is round.

2. We are all going to die.

3. No one enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Oh, I know loads of people paid to see POTC3 (as I believe it is known in the industry). And some of them may claim to have enjoyed it. But they didn't. Not really. They just think they did. As a film critic, an important part of my job is explaining to people why they haven't actually enjoyed a movie even if they think they have. In the case of POTC3, the explanation is very simple.

It's called "diminished expectations".

Let me give you an example.