Big Brother is Watching You: from Apple to Obama

If you look at my profile, you'll see that one of my favourite authors is George Orwell. After reading Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four in high school, I was hooked! I really like his straightforward, concise yet poignant prose. He pulled no punches - wasn't afraid to "tell it like it is", to use a more modern expression. Moreover, he helped kick-start my own political "awakening" and reinforce my own fundamental beliefs/perspectives on issues like the role between state & society, the meaning of freedom, the relationship between language and thought, etc.

Indeed, it is quite clear that Orwell and his works have had a profound impact on society today. The main source of his influence - his legacy, if you will - is his most famous novel: 1984. Indeed, this is my very favourite book of all time. A scathing indictment of totalitarianism and its ramifications. A must-read for anyone who needs to be reminded of the intrinsic value of freedom and the necessity of individual rights & personal liberty, how they must be protected and preserved.

The influence of this novel on 21st-century society can be seen in popular culture today. For example, the terms "Big Brother" and "Newspeak" - which have been referenced many times in successive literature, radio, print media and television programs - were originally coined by the author in 1984. Such "Orwellianisms" have become firmly entrenched in today's vernacular vocabulary. A fitting tribute, I think...

Perhaps my most favourite homage to Orwell and his masterpiece was the famous 1984 Apple Macintosh commercial, aired during Super Bowl XVIII. In my opinion, this was one of the most clever, intelligent and innovative commercials in television history. Indeed, it has since become something of a celebrity in the advertising industry. An impressive feat, considering that it was only ever broadcast once!!

Here it is:



What's even more ironic is how this ad has, in and of itself, become as much a cultural touchstone as its inspirator! The commercial has itself been parodied many times since its initial airing.

For instance, here's a recent attack ad for Senator Barack Obama's campaign to secure the Democratic Party nomination to run for President (it's become quite popular on YouTube):



And here's another funny tribute from an episode of Futurama (one of my all-time favourite TV shows):




I guess this all just goes to show that quality endures :-)

Democracy is a dish that is best served cold...

During my recent travels on the information superhighway (does anyone else even use that term anymore..?), I came across a rather intriguing news article:

Politician seeks votes in Klingon
Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:34AM EDT

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish member of parliament is aiming for re-election by campaigning with a translation of his Web site into Klingon, used in the TV series "Star Trek."

"Some have thought it is blasphemy to mix politics and Klingon," said Jyrki Kasvi, an ardent Trekkie. "Others say it is good if politicians can laugh at themselves."

He said his politics posed some translation difficulties, since Klingon does not have words for matters such as tolerance, or for many colors, including green -- the party under whose banner he is running in the national elections on March 18.

Non-warriors can also access the site, www.kasvi.org, in English, Swedish and Finnish.

Sure enough, upon checking, this guy does indeed have a Klingon niche in cyberspace:

http://www.kasvi.org/index.php?kli

Glad to see that there are fellow Trekkies/Trekkers in high places around the world! Major props to this guy...if I lived in Finland (and had Finnish citizenship, naturally), I'd definitely vote for him :-)

Listmania! - Part VIII

Subject: my favourite songs

Presented in no particular order…

“LA Song (Out Of This Town)” – Beth Hart
“I Miss You” – Blink-182
“Feel Good Time” - P!nk feat. William Orbit
“Pure Morning” - Placebo
“Heaven Coming Down” – The Tea Party
“The Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” – The Fifth Dimension
“She Sells Sanctuary” – The Cult
“One of Us” – Joan Osborne
“Youth of the Nation” – P.O.D.
“We’re Not Gonna Take It” – Twisted Sister
“Powerless (Say What You Want)” – Nelly Furtado
“Everyday is a Winding Road” – Sheryl Crow
“Super Trouper” - ABBA
“Soak Up The Sun” – Sheryl Crow
“Take on Me” – a-ha
“Bittersweet Symphony” – The Verve
“Zombie” – The Cranberries
“Alive” - Edwin
“Desert Rose” - Sting feat. Cheb Mami
“Dare You to Move” - Switchfoot
“Cotton-Eye Joe” - Rednex
“Vertigo” - U2
“Loser” - Beck
“Jump In The Line” - Harry Belafonte
“Ordinary Girl” - Alison Moyet
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” - Green Day
“Call On Me” - Eric Prydz
“What Is Love” - Haddaway
“Innocent” - Our Lady Peace
“Baba O’Riley” - The Who
“Knocking On Heaven’s Door” - Avril Lavigne
“Right Here, Right Now” - Fatboy Slim
“Still” - Alanis Morissette
“Saturday Night” - Whigfield
“Where’s Your Head At” - Basement Jaxx
“The Boys of Summer” - Don Henley
“Tom Sawyer” - Rush
“Lullaby” - Shawn Mullins
“Gimme Some Lovin’” - Spencer Davis Group
“Little Bitty Pretty One” - Thurston Harris
“Uptight (Everything Is Alright)” - Stevie Wonder
“Fast Car” - Tracy Chapman
“Timber” - Coldcut
“Firestarter” - The Prodigy
“Hung Up” - Madonna
“Nobody’s Listening” - Linkin Park
“Spitfire” - The Prodigy
“Die Another Day” - Madonna
“Son of a Preacher Man” - Dusty Springfield
“Land of 1000 Dances” - Wilson Pickett
“The Grace” - Neverending White Lights feat. Dallas Green
“Save Your Scissors” - City and Colour
“Trip” - Hedley
“Where’d You Go” - Fort Minor
“Dragostea din Tei” - O-Zone
“Love’s Divine” - Seal
“Mad World” - Gary Jules
“Crazy” - Gnarls Barkley
“Yellow Submarine” - The Beatles
“Not Gonna Get Us” – t.A.T.u.
“All the Things She Said” - t.A.T.u.
“Everybody Wants to Rule the World” – Tears for Fears
“Shout” - Tears for Fears
“Head Over Heels” - Tears for Fears
“Pharoahs” - Tears for Fears
“Song 2” – Blur
“I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” – The Proclaimers
“Groove Is in the Heart” – Deee-Lite
“Tubthumping” – Chumbawamba
“The Devil in the Kitchen” – Ashley MacIsaac
“Closing Time” – Semisonic
“Ray of Light” – Madonna
“Frozen” – Madonna
“American Pie” – Madonna
“Runaway” – Cher
“All or Nothing” – Cher
“Believe” – Cher
“Taxi Taxi” – Cher
“Walking in Memphis” – Cher
“I Don’t Want to Wait” – Paula Cole
“Kiss the Rain” – Billie Myers
“Birmingham” – Amanda Marshall
“Who Will Save Your Soul” – Jewel
“Pure Shores” – All Saints
“Sonne” – Rammstein
“Sweet Surrender” – Sarah McLachlan
“Building a Mystery” - Sarah McLachlan
“New York Mining Disaster 1941” – The Bees Gees
“Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You” – The Bee Gees
“Jive Talkin’” – The Bee Gees
“Stayin’ Alive” – The Bee Gees
“I’m With You” – Avril Lavigne
“Bohemian Rhapsody” – Queen
“Seven Seas of Rhye” – Queen
“We Will Rock You” – Queen
“Radio Ga Ga” – Queen
“Hand In My Pocket” – Alanis Morissette
“Clubbed To Death (Kurayamino mix)” – Rob D
“Mindfields” – The Prodigy
“Wake Up” – Rage Against the Machine
“Guerrilla Radio” – Rage Against the Machine
“Renegades of Funk” – Rage Against the Machine
“Session” – Linkin Park
“Chariots of Fire” – Vangelis
“Sanvean (I Am Your Shadow)” – Lisa Gerrard
“Path Vol. 2” – Apocalyptica
“Hall of the Mountain King” – Apocalyptica
“The Private Psychedelic Reel” – The Chemical Brothers
“The Test” - The Chemical Brothers
“Children” – Robert Miles
“Separation” – Robert Miles
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” – Gordon Lightfoot

Listmania! - Part VII

Subject: my favourite episodes of Star Trek: Voyager

There are presented in chronological order, with brief descriptions alongside to help those who don’t recognize the episode by title alone.

“Eye of the Needle” - A micro-wormhole is discovered that leads to the Alpha Quadrant, and the crew make contact with a Romulan ship on the other side
“Jetrel” – The Haakonian scientist responsible for creating the weapon of mass destruction that obliterated Neelix’s home and entire family comes aboard Voyager
“The 37s” - A group of humans from the 1930s is found in stasis on an abandoned planet, including the lost Amelia Earhart
“Maneuvers” – The Kazon-Nistrim board Voyager and steal a transporter module in an attempt to unite the Kazon sects
“Dreadnought” - A highly advanced Cardassian missile that had been reprogrammed by B'Elanna Torres is found in the Delta Quadrant
“Death Wish” - The crew encounter a member of the Q Continuum seeking to end his immortal life
“Basics” – The two-parter involving the capture of Voyager by the Kazon-Nistrim, how the stranded crew struggle to survive on a primitive planet, and how Tom Paris, the Doctor and disgraced Crewman Suder regain control of the ship
“Flashback” - Tuvok experiences brain-damaging flashbacks to his first tour of duty onboard the Excelsior under Captain Sulu
“Distant Origin” – After clandestinely studying the Voyager crew, a Voth archaeologist goes on trial for espousing his controversial theory concerning the origin of his species
“Scorpion” – The two-parter where Janeway forges a temporary alliance with the Borg Collective and meets Seven of Nine as they work on developing a weapon against Species 8472 in exchange for safe passage through Borg space
“Year of Hell” – The two-parter where the crew endures a bitter and devastating conflict with the Krenim Imperium
“Message in a Bottle” - The Doctor's program is sent to an advanced Starfleet vessel via a vast ancient communications network, but he soon discovers that only he and the ship's own EMH remain to fight against a Romulan attempt to take over the ship in question
“The Killing Game” – The two-parter where the Hirogen, having captured Voyager, implant devices into the crew making them believe they are characters within the holodecks beings used for hunts
“Living Witness” - A Kyrian museum curator 700 years in the future hopes a Voyager relic containing a backup copy of the Doctor can confirm their version of history
“Night” - Voyager loses power traversing a dark, completely empty region of space containing odd radiation readings
“In The Flesh” – Chakotay secretly encounters Species 8472 masquerading as humans in a vast simulation of Starfleet Academy
“Timeless” - Fifteen years in the future, Chakotay and Harry Kim attempt to prevent Voyager from crash-landing on an ice planet
“Dark Frontier” – The two-parter involving Janeway’s plans to steal a transwarp coil from a disabled Borg ship to shorten their journey home, Seven of Nine’s re-capture by the Borg, and the crew’s efforts to rescue her
“Equinox” – the two-parter where Voyager finds another Federation starship, the Equinox, under attack from vengeful flying nucleogenic lifeforms, whom the latter ship’s crew have been killing in order to get home faster
“Pathfinder” – Lt. Barclay gets over-involved with holographic recreations of the Voyager crew in his attempts to contact them
“Blink of an Eye” - Voyager is caught in orbit of a planet with a space-time differential that causes it go through years of evolution when the ship experiences a mere few seconds
“Memorial” - Chakotay, Tom Paris, Harry Kim, and Neelix begin to experience traumatic visions of an ancient massacre after an away mission
“Tsunkatse” - Seven of Nine and Tuvok are kidnapped while on shore leave and Seven is forced to compete in a fighting contest in order to survive
“Life Line” - The Doctor's program is transferred to Jupiter Station in the Alpha Quadrant so that he can attempt to save the life of his dying creator Dr. Louis Zimmerman
“Unimatrix Zero” – The two-parter involving the infiltration of a Borg cube by Janeway, B'Elanna and Tuvok in an attempt to save rebellious Borg who are exercising their individuality
“Critical Care” - The Doctor is stolen and forced to serve on an alien hospital ship
“Flesh and Blood” – The two-parter where holograms created by the Hirogen using technology from Voyager violently rebel against their overlords, steal a ship and seek revenge against their tormentors by hunting them in turn
“Prophecy” - Voyager encounters an old Klingon battle cruiser; the Klingons aboard set out long ago on a religious crusade to find their saviour, and now believe it to be to Tom and B'Elanna's unborn child
“The Void” - Voyager is pulled into a void where ships trapped therein attack each other for resources
“Author, Author” - The Doctor writes a holo-novel to be published in the Alpha Quadrant that closely resembles the crew
“Homestead” - Voyager encounters an isolated Talaxian settlement and Neelix ultimately leaves the crew to join the colonists
“Endgame” – The series finale; Admiral Janeway comes from the future to try and shorten Voyager’s trip home