The Ghosts in Our Machine: Film Review

The Bottom Line

Atmospheric doc is a tone poem for the already-convinced.

Opens

Friday, Nov. 8

Director

Liz Marshall

Following the animal-rights mission of a photographer who hopes dramatic pictures of caged animals will help change minds about their exploitation, Liz Marshall's Ghosts in Our Machine trades didacticism for first-person atmospherics. The moodily subjective work is best suited to viewers who already share most if not all of subject Jo-Anne McArthur's values; despite its obvious aesthetic appeal, its commercial value seems limited to niche bookings and special-event screenings for the activist community.

"I feel like a war photographer," McArthur says, carrying her camera into places she certainly isn't welcome and hoping what she finds will shock viewers back home out of their complacency. She sneaks into vast farms where thousands of animals are raised for their fur, stealing images of cramped quarters and infected wounds before employees arrive for the morning shift. "I'm not here to liberate them, she says," though she doesn't explain why; presumably, she'd be too easy to prosecute if she and her local guides opened hundreds of cages and then published photos from the site.

As the scene changes, visiting sanctuaries for abandoned farm animals, marine theme parks, and other settings, voiceovers elaborate on McArthur's conviction that her subjects are sentient creatures with as many rights as humans. She clearly identifies with the vegan protesters seen here, but the thesis gets muddy late in the film, where footage of slaughterhouses is accompanied by quotes from Temple Grandin, whose work is widely viewed as a way of making humanity's killing of cows more palatable to animal advocates.

Scenes where McArthur meets with editors and photo agents suggest the challenges she has getting work in front of non-activist newspaper and magazine readers. Make the work moving but not disturbing, she's told -- a big request for a woman who is so deeply pained by what she has seen.

Production Company: Ghosts Media

Director: Liz Marshall

Producers: Nina Beveridge, Liz Marshall

Executive producer: Mila Aung-Thwin

Directors of photography: John Price, Iris Ng, Nick De Pencier, Liz Marshall

Music: Bob Wiseman

Editors: Roland Schlimme, Roderick Deogrades

No rating, 92 minutes

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/reviews/film/~3/FOe_eiH3rRI/ghosts-machine-film-review-648469
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Fiscal Uncertainty Chips Away at U.S. Prestige (WSJ)

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This Woz-Approved 4-in-1 Lens Turns iPhones into DSLRs

There's only so much that Instagram filters can do. For everything else, there's the Olloclip 4-in-1 iPhone lens. This slick little clip-on accessory—the next iteration of Steve Wozniak's daily carry—adds four powerful lens effects to your iPhone's camera.

Debuting tonight at the Pepcom's event in San Francisco, the Olloclip 4-in-1 offers a fishbowl, a wide-angle, and two macro (10x and 15x magnification) lenses in a single slip on accessory. The entire assembly weighs less than an ounce and easily slips into a fifth pocket when not in use.

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Additionally, Olloclip also rolled out a mini-telephoto lens that offers an additional 2x magnification ability, as well as an iPhone 5c/s case with a flip-out corner allowing the lens to slip directly onto the phone without requiring the user to pull then entire case off first. The case also offers a tripod and microphone ports as well. It fits 4/4s/5 series iPhones as well as 5th Gen iPod Touches.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-woz-approved-4-in-1-lens-turns-iphones-into-dslrs-1446881561
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Here's A Reason To Love Disco Again: Stopping Food Waste

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Wednesday is World Food Day, an occasion food activists like to use to call attention to world hunger. With 842 million chronically undernourished people on Earth, it's a problem that hasn't gone away.

This year, activists are trying to make the day a little spicier with pots full of disco soup to highlight the absurd amount of food thrown away that could feed people: one-third of all the food produced every year.

What is disco soup, you ask? It's the tasty outcome of a party designed to bring strangers together to cook food that would otherwise end up in the trash. Oftentimes, the soup is donated to the hungry. Oh, and as the name suggests, there's music involved, too.

The first disco soup party was held in Germany in early 2012 by some folks affiliated with the Slow Food Youth Network Deutschland. The organizers collected discarded fruits and vegetables from a market, blasted some disco music and made a huge pot of soup.

Two months later, a group in France threw a disco soup party and attracted 100 people. More parties followed, in Australia, South Korea, Ireland and beyond. You can check out an earnest little video of another French disco food event here:

The idea eventually caught the attention of Tristram Stuart, a British food waste activist and writer who started Feeding the 5000, a campaign named for an event held in London in 2009 and 2011, where 5,000 members of the public were given a free lunch made with perfectly edible ingredients bound for the rubbish bin.

Stuart is adamant that consumers and businesses in the developed world have a moral obligation to reverse "the global scandal" of food waste. In addition to throwing events to cook up blemished but edible produce, his campaign is working to change European Union legislation on feeding food waste to pigs through the Pig Idea project.

For World Food Day, Feeding the 5000 is hosting a "flagship" disco soup party in Brussels. And the group says more pots full of disco soup will be bubbling away today in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece and Macedonia. The event hub is the Disco Anti Food Waste Day Facebook page.

And what if you don't like disco? Can you still have a disco soup event?

"We play anything that gets people dancing as they peel and chop the vegetables and fruit," Dominika Jarosz, event coordinator for Feeding the 5000, tells The Salt in an email.

While there are no disco soup events scheduled for Oct. 16 in the U.S., Feeding the 5000 says disco soup is starting to get traction here. The first U.S. disco soup event was held on Sept. 20 in New York, with the support of Slow Food NYC, the Natural Gourmet Institute, chef Paul Gerard of the East Village restaurant Exchange Alley and the United Nations Environment Program.

In advance of the soup blitz, Stuart visited local farms in New York and New Jersey and gleaned blemished tomatoes, oversized watermelons, squash, eggplants and other fresh produce that the farmers were unable to sell. A rotating crew of DJs provided a soundtrack at the soup-making party at the Chelsea Super Pier, and most of the food was donated to the Bowery Mission. Such events, he says, help raise awareness among food donors like grocery stores and farmers and help them forge long-term relationships with organizations that feed the hungry.

Americans may be getting more motivated to address food waste, but we have to hand it to the Europeans, who do seem to be out in front on the issue. It was a group of Austrians, after all, who started a reality cooking show centered around Dumpster diving.

Food waste was also a talking point for world leaders who spoke up on World Food Day. "Reducing food waste is not, in fact, only a strategy for times of crisis, but a way of life we should adopt if we want a sustainable future for our planet," Nunzia De Girolamo, Italy's minister for agriculture, food and forestry policy, said at a ceremony Wednesday at the Food and Agriculture Organization's headquarters in Rome.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/16/235355021/turning-food-waste-into-disco-soup?ft=1&f=1004
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US top court examines higher-ed affirmative action

Washington (AFP) - The US Supreme Court considered whether state referendums can ban race and sex as factors in university admissions.

In 2006, the US state of Michigan voted on a measure to disallow so-called affirmative action in college admissions.

The high court heard arguments Tuesday on whether the ban is constitutional, considering the US constitution's equal protection guarantees.

Outside, on the Supreme Court steps, some 200 mostly minority protesters gathered to defend affirmative action.

Inside the court Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative appointed by former US president George W. Bush, said the point of the constitution's Equal Protection Clause was specifically designed "to take race off the table."

Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia weighed in similarly.

"We've held that the 14th Amendment protects all races," he said.

"You say now that we have to proceed as though its purpose is not to protect whites, only to protect minorities?"

Of the nine justices, progressive Sonia Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent and was appointed by US President Barack Obama, defended affirmative action the most vehemently.

"Affirmative action favors diversity as opposed to discrimination," she said.

"You can't take away a tool of diversity, simply because you change plans," the justice said.

Justice Elena Kagan, a progressive and former solicitor general, has recused herself from the case due to a conflict of interest linked to her previous professional functions.

This means the remaining eight justices -- three progressives and five conservatives -- will decide on the matter, although their ruling is not expected before next year.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette asked the justices to uphold "Proposition 2," adopted in Michigan in 2006 but struck down by an appeals court.

The proposition prohibited Michigan's public universities, colleges, and school districts from "discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment for any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin."

But a coalition of groups backing affirmative action along with 17 former students argued the reform violates the US Constitution -- specifically its provision on equal rights.

The Michigan case comes on the heels of a high-court decision just over three months ago concerning affirmative action at the University of Texas.

In that case, the justices elected not to rule on the constitutionality of using race and ethnicity in admission, instructing a lower court to take another look at the matter.

The decision left unchanged the principle of affirmative action, an enduring legacy of the 1960s civil rights movement originally meant to give African-Americans a leg up in applying for jobs and education to counter decades of racism.

Brian Soucek, acting professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, said repercussions from the court's upcoming decision will be felt well beyond Michigan's universities.

Apart from Michigan, seven other states -- California, Arizona Florida, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington state -- have banned affirmative action.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-top-court-examines-states-higher-ed-affirmative-155857071.html
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Vikings turn to Josh Freeman at QB for this week

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) — Josh Freeman will be the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night against the New York Giants.

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier made the announcement after practice Wednesday. Frazier said Christian Ponder will be the backup, not Matt Cassel.

Freeman will be the third starter in the last four games for Minnesota, assuming he makes it through the week without problems.

Freeman was cut by Tampa Bay on Oct. 3 and signed by Minnesota five days later. The 25-year-old started 59 games over four-plus seasons with the Buccaneers. The former first-round draft pick got a one-year contract with the Vikings (1-4).

Running back Adrian Peterson was missing from practice because of a personal matter. Frazier said he expected him back on Thursday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vikings-turn-josh-freeman-qb-week-174650415--spt.html
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Around the Web…

It’s Tuesday! Kick off the short week with these links: Josh Duhamel takes son Axl Jack to the vineyards — E! News Why to keep kids away from high fructose corn syrup — Breezy Mama Family of six welcomes quintuplets sans fertility treatments — TODAY Hollywood’s most unusual (and ridiculous) onscreen pregnancies — io9 Fitness guru […]Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/s-3R_N9HFBA/
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