Omnium-gatherum
Matt Hanson’s Brain Archive
June 29, 2005
Batman Begins
I was never a comic book fiend, never watched the original Batman show, but fell in love with Batman due to Batman: The Animated Series. Batman became my favorite superhero and I realized what made Batman one of the most popular superhero’s - it’s not just Batman itself, it’s the villians. Batman has always had the most interesting and unique villians and Batman: TAS brought new depth to them. The Joker is not only one of the greatest villians invented, he is also the most widely known today in American pop culture.
The first Batman movie came out a few years before The Animated Series and it was a solid movie that I enjoy more now then I did in the theatre. But the movie offers a different type of Batman, a less agile one complete with body armor and less knowledge of the martial arts. The movies then declined, until the most recent movie. Batman Begins starts by examining the origins of Batman and focuses less on showcasing gadgets and vehicles for toy sales like the terrible Batman & Robin sequel did.
Batman has become a mythology unto it’s own, with every telling showing a different version of events. Batman Begins takes it’s own liberties and invents some of it’s own stories about the origins of Batman. While the story of Ra’s Al Ghul and the Society (or League) of Shadows is an old Batman story, the relationship between it and Bruce Wayne is new. It is a good version of the transformation of Bruce Wayne into Batman, has great back story of his training, and Michael Caine does a great Alfred. On the downside however the editing of the fight scenes was not so good, being too close and difficult to watch.
On the whole, Batman Begins is a great telling of a part of the Batman legend and one that most Batman fans are certain to enjoy.
We are the Cyberpunks
In 1984 William Gibson wrote about a world in which microchip implants were common, robotic prosthetics were used to replace lost limbs, and the people projected their consciousness into a cyberspace called the matrix. Neuromancer invented the cyberpunk genre and is a dark and fantastic look at a super high-tech future.
This year, Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc, has completed a 1 year clinical year trial where a microchip was implanted in a quadraplegic boy who was then able to move a cursor to use a computer and draw circles and control a robotic arm using thoughts. By implanting the chip in the primary motor cortex (M1), the impulses normally used for motor control were used to send electrical signals to computerized devices. Brain waves were detected and decoded while the user moved a cursor. These decoded brain waves were then used to calibrate other devices, allowing for potentially more complicated movement. The clinical trials are expanding this year.
I can imagine semi-intelligent learning devices such as a robotic limb that uses a neural network to learn a users brain wave patterns. I am more optimistic about a high-tech future then Gibson’s drug infused crime ridden Sprawl and welcome the next big technological advances in the brain-computer interface.
It’s my birthday today. I am 32. What technological wonders will I live to see?
June 15, 2005
The girls
It’s been a few weeks now with Maizy having breathing “issues”. Her previous hospital stay confirmed that she’s getting enough oxygen. She eats well, she sleeps through the night now (11+ hours), and she’s happy and active. Friday we’ll bring her to a pulminary specialist and hopefully he’ll have some additional thoughts about it. Right now the docter’s opinion is that she’s suffered from a couple of long term colds (and ear infections) and is one of those babies that gets wheezy from colds, and it’s taking her a long time to get over it. Hopefully she’ll get over it and never look back.
Kaley was standing on me yesterday and as I looked up at her giggling face it struck me how tall she is. Everyone always says that they grow up fast and it’s true. She’s talking like a pro now and we’re going through potty training which is going ok, not great, but ok.
I have hundreds of photos of them both and once I get my new gallery code working I can make the new website format live.
June 3, 2005
The Aviator
A very interesting film about a piece of Howard Hughes‘ life, The Aviator is a very good film that shows us a great piece of history that while not forgotten goes unknown to a large portion of the populace. However true films like this always make me wonder. They are not just entertaining films, they replace historical accounts for many people who do not know the story of Howard Hughes outside this film. As such they become the most widely known account of history….do the writers and producers have an obligation to stay true to the real facts?
Leonardo DiCaprio, outside of Titanic, has had an impressive career and has been in several true story based films including Catch me if you Can and This Boy’s Life which are both great films. Some of DiCaprio’s best work remains his 1993 role of Arnie Grape in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. He’s really come a long way since Growing Pains.
June 1, 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
If Episodes I and II were as good as as Episode III most people would be praising the genius of George Lucas for captivating us all with another trilogy nearly as good as the original 25 year old trilogy. But they weren’t and instead they were terrible. Focusing as much on the childhood of Anakin Skywalker was mistake as he tried to pack in all the interesting bits into Revenge of the Sith. The process of Anakin becoming Darth Vader and the take over the Empire is what we all wanted. That and more wookiees. Could have used more wookiees. Come on, we were all scammed in Return of the Jedi with Ewoks instead of wookiees. Between singing the Ewok song in 6th grade chorus and the cartoon and tv movies, well let’s just say I’m not a big fan. I’m also amazed that Yoda turned out to look so cool instead of looking like a funny flying muppet (due to the fact he was all digitally animated in these new movies)
In fact, the events in Episode III could have spanned three movies on their own and covered Anakin’s childhood only briefly. The love story of Anakin and Padme tops the charts for goofy and awkward dialog, but is still behind Darth Vader’s “NOOOOO” scream at the end. But if you recall Mark Hamill’s whiny voice as Luke Skywalker, dialog was never the strong point of Episodes I-III either but we loved them all the same. Let’s just be glad that Mark Hamill transformed into one of the best voice actors today.
Here’s my breakdown…
What’s yours?
