I am not sure what management actually is or what it means. Someone "Managing" sounds like a form of slow torture. Leadership on the other hand is totally different. Throughout history people follow leaders, are inspired by leaders. I think management is implementing routine and process and ensuring that those elements are adhered to.
Leadership sets the tone for the organizations, sets its culture, its ethics and how people go about their work, with inspiration or not, with passion or not, effective leadership instills enjoyment in those working in that construct, where as, in my opinion, management tend to suppress the individual and force them into a mold.
S. Srinivasan wrote: Leadership is about getting management to do the things that need done. Management is about doing the things that leaders believe is critical to the success of the organization. In short management is about doing and leadership is about leading management to action.
Is Management a job and leadership a role?
I think the "job" refers to two things: the tasks that have to be done and employment by someone else to run their business. "Role" is used to mean job in UK, Aus and NZ these days. Correctly speaking it is a set of social relationships. So leadership is a wider set of behaviors that are fundamentally social and emotional.
2.) run to the nearest coffee place near by, buy a pot of coffee for the team. Here, she is taking "ownership" – not just being "responsible". This is leadership. In summary – "management" stops with "being responsible"; "leadership" has to do with "taking ownership".
Simply put, management is fulfilling the responsibilities and accountabilities of marshaling resources behind a plan or process (hopefully – though not always) in order to accomplish a task. Leadership emerges when unconventional challenges present themselves and when exceptional efforts will be required to achieve goals. Any person can typically manage at a certain level, but very few people can lead. Leadership requires an understanding of intrinsic motivators of people and how to trigger these motivators in order to inspire people to achieve what was thought to be impossible. Managers and leaders both have goals and expectations. The key differentiator is that leaders set their own and managers follow the goals and expectations of leaders.
Leaders are visionaries. Leaders have a dream. Leaders mesmerize. Leaders envision new world orders, leaders create or rejuvenate nations, leaders propound new philosophies, leaders create new systems, leaders conceive new products and services. Leadership is all about ideas. Leadership is vision and mission. In the corporate world, leadership has to come from the sponsors, from the Board, from the CEO. A bit from each of them. The management is the art of creating and fine tuning organizations, structures and systems to achieve the vision & mission. The management's challenge to create and run an organization that could achieve the vision and mission of leadership in the best possible manner. In an ideal scenario, leadership and management should be together and go hand in hand but most often it's not and that is the reason most organizations do not rise to a level beyond the ordinary.
There are a lot of trite little sayings about management vs. leadership. It makes for interesting and sometimes inspirational reading but in the end it's all BS. Leadership and management in business are inextricably tied to each other and should not be treated as separate issues and thus have no differentiator. They are complimentary. Really – can you think of one manager who has no, and I mean NO, leadership skills – even if those skills not a style you respond to? And how about anyone who is paid to be in a leadership position that does not also have management responsibilities? I sure can't. If they were separate don't you think companies would be hiring department leaders AND department managers?
Management is a caretaker's job, take care of this; manage that. It takes little vision or passion, although does require a lot of patience and understanding. Leadership is about vision and passion and urgency of time. Anyone can be a manager (some good some bad), but leaders lead, you following them is for better or worse. There is nothing wrong with being a leader, as long as you are leading everyone on a just and moral path.
A manager oversees an individual or group. They are strategy focused and ensure that procedures are being followed in order to accomplish tasks. A leader imparts a vision, empowering a team to act in order to accomplish goals or a particular task. A leader is able to provide guidance and coaching based on the skill assessments of those they are leading (including placing those in roles that will utilize their strengths and polish weaknesses). Not all managers are leaders, and not all leaders are good managers. In my opinion, a manager can get the job done without having the best leadership skills. The question is, how effective are they? The ultimate package, as I define the most effective manager, is one that includes strong leadership skills. From my personal experience, as someone who has been a follower (report to) and a leader (as well as a manager), I have found the most effective situations to involve the direction of someone who can put the title of "Manager" aside and realize the contributions of all those involved. If you can empower your team to take ownership and have pride in their contribution, they will be more open to taking direction. Especially if you are a manager that "leads by example".
Management is a formally appointed position, and almost everyone accepts the designated person as his or her manager. However, in the case of leadership, it is the individual (follower) who voluntarily says, "I consider him/her as my leader!" And, it happens more rarely than we would like to think!


text:
Q: Share code across TFS folders (like svn:externals)? I have multiple projects with common in-house JavaScript library dependencies. I want to share these dependencies across multiple projects.
Unfortunately we are using TFS. I'd like something like svn:externals, whereby I can link a particular folder to a different folder elsewhere in the source control tree. So I want to have
ProjectA
  app
  js
    lib [should link to SharedProject/lib]

ProjectB
  app
  js
    lib [should link to SharedProject/lib]

SharedProject
  lib
    library1.js
    library2.js

I don't want to link across workspaces...I don't want a crazy custom per-developer setup. I just want developers to check out one project, and it knows "Oh, there are shared resources in this other project. I'll get those too." I don't care about it always getting a specific version; I'm just tired of copying files across projects.
Is this remotely possible in TFS? I have Googled and found nothing conclusive.

A: Just branch the shared project from its original location to where you want it to be.
When you would switch to next revision on svn:externals, simply merge changes up to that revision to the branched copy.
(frankly I prefer this way even on SVN)

A: Using external link in source is not a good idea. It creates lot of side effects. You can package and publish your library using NuGet to a private NuGet server and then consume the published packages in all the dependent projects.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Grace School is planning an online charity auction well in advance of their actual school fundraising event in February. The Grace Auction committee members are already working with their community in procuring auction items, marketing and designing their charity auction website.
Grace School has added several auction items including objects of art and a local winery tasting and tour. Their teachers and students are offering special services and events such as a chef for a day, a coach for a day and skating parties. Step-by-step planning for an online charity auction takes time, thought, and networking…Grace School is wise to start 5 months ahead. They are offering a special viewing of the auction items for one week prior to the bidding, enticing their participants for some exciting bidding wars!
The online charity auction software for the Grace School Auction has already taken great shape with a customized banner containing their heart shaped school logo, page colors and inviting text. Their website will manage registrations and orders securely and provide them with auto generated reports, and receipts to their donors and participants. An easy auction check-out tool is included in their state-of-the-art software which allows them to print a full report of the winning bidders, including all final bids, their order status, and a tally of their auction proceeds.
Another fantastic option to consider in planning an auction are No Risk Auction Items which can bring in large bids by offering high-ticket items. The great thing about this program is that organizations can advertise and auction the packages, such as travel destinations, without having to put down any money up front. If they successfully sell the item during their online charity auction, they then buy it from the provider and the item is sent directly to the winning participant. Learn more about planning a school charity auction or find many more school fundraising ideas here.


text:
Drag queen recognized for short film
Isaac Würmann·
A film by local "bio-queen" (biologically female drag queen) Ingunn Mía Blöndal was recently chosen as the short of the week by RÚV (the national broadcasting comany) and has been selected to screen at the upcoming Stockfish Film Festival.
Ingunn Mía Blöndal has garnered attention for her film Ursula Undone, which was chosen short of the week by RÚV, the national broadcasting company in Iceland.
Ingunn, who performs as Ursula Vanity with Drag Súgur, created the film "Ursula Undone" as a final project for an acting class at the Icelandic Film School. In the film, viewers watch as Ursula removes a full face of makeup in three minutes, metamorphosing from a confident performer at the beginning of the film to a distraught, broken person at the end.
"I've always considered my drag to be somewhat of an alter ego," Ingunn explains. "It's a sort of a mask, and I was trying to see what hides behind the mask. It's also because makeup is such a huge deal in our society, and some of us feel that we're only pretty when we have makeup on. When the makeup comes off, the real me comes out."
Why did you choose to create this film for your final project in this class?
"We all did our separate projects, and this was kind of all I wanted to do. I wanted to use my face and my hands, and I wanted to see how much I can convey on such a small surface, how much I could get out of a limited frame."
"… it's a story about spousal abuse in a same-sex relationship … because I'm tired of people treating abuse as a gendered thing. I hate that they're always blaming men. Women abuse too. And men are also abused."
What does it mean for you to be a "bio-queen"?
"It is a freedom to be a little bit more myself. As Ursula comes out, I become more body positive. I'm overweight, and in August, Drag-Sugur had our extravaganza, and I had a performance where I ended up in my underwear. And I remember thinking: 'Oh my God, I can't do it, everyone's going to see my wobbly bits, and they're going to laugh at me and they're going to boo at me,' and things like that. But when I come on stage as Ursula, it was no problem! I was like, yeah, I'm queer, I'm fat, I'm proud!"
What's the story behind the name Ursula Vanity?
"I was thinking about how I kind of look like Ursula from the Little Mermaid. I like her sass, and I know she's kind of based on the drag queen Divine, and I just really like how she's big and powerful. She's big and luscious and she owns it, and she loves it. My drag personality is also inspired by a spoken word poem called Ten Honest Thoughts on Being Loved by a Skinny Boy. That poem made me cry so hard, and I showed it to my now fiancé, and he held me, and I said: 'That's what it is! That's what I am!' That poem and my drag personality inspire me to be a positive plus-sized person."
Ingunn Mía Blöndal is a member of the drag cabaret Drag-Súgur and has already made a name for herself as Ursula Vanity.
What does it mean for you to be getting this kind of recognition for your film?
"It's very surreal. It's a good feeling, because I feel, I don't know. I feel like my education is now kind of culminating. It's coming to a point where my hard work is paying off. And this short, is sort of like a way of putting my name on my final film at the Icelandic Film School, which I'm recording in November."
Can you tell me a bit about the idea behind your next film?
"The film's name is Forgive Me, or Fyrirgefðu in Icelandic, and it's a story about spousal abuse in a same-sex relationship. The reason I wanted to do that is because I'm tired of people treating abuse as a gendered thing. I hate that they're always blaming men. Women abuse too. And men are also abused. And we cannot work on this problem if we don't accept it as a whole."
"I had a performance where I ended up in my underwear. And I remember thinking: 'Oh my God, I can't do it, everyone's going to see my wobbly bits, and they're going to laugh at me …"
The inspiration for Forgive Me comes from personal experience, according to Ingunn. "As a child, I was molested by a female," she says. "And when people hear about it tend to go: 'Well, how could she molest you?' And that's something that makes me very angry."
Forgive Me is being developed with fellow Drag-Súgur performer Lovísa Lára Halldórsdóttir, who performs as the drag king Kurt Russellson. The two worked on the idea together, but Lovísa is doing the writing and directing while Ingunn acts as the lead in the film. They expect the film to be screened at Bíó Paradís in mid-December.
Ingunn says she hopes to continue making films about queer people's experiences in the future. "I would love to make queer voices heard," she says. "I'm so tired of queer people being a punchline."
To help fund Ingunn's next project, Forgive Me, you can donate money directly via Paypal.
Ingunn is currently working on Fyrirgefðu mér, a film about domestic violence in a same-sex relationship.
Isaac Würmann
Isaac Würmann is a freelance journalist who calls a number of places and publications "home." He spends most of his time thinking about culture, geography and food, and occasionally writing about any combination of those subjects. Although currently based in Ottawa, Canada, his curiosity has taken him from Dubai to Djúpivogur. You can find him more permanently at www.isaacwurmann.com.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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There were 40 participants from Geophysics student of Brawijaya University and two Geophysics lecturers as advisor. Excursion was held at Pusdiklat Migas Cepu for 1 day. This excursion has mission to completed knowledges of the participants on oil and gas field. During on excursion, the participants were shown many tools and equipment that used on oil and gas field. The participants visit three laboratories, there are drilling laboratory, oil refineries, and results laboratory. Also, the participants could ask many question about anything and especially how the tools on their laboratory can work. The visitation was started at 08:00 AM and ended at 15.00 AM on Monday, June 6th 2016. Because the excursion held on Ramadan, the participants also has agenda to breakfast together. On the next morning, entourage go back to Malang after they shopped on Bojonegoro, East Java.


text:
44 things I've learnt in however many years
Wisdom from me, to you.
Don't be a dick to children.
Despite the fact most of them are annoying brats.
Conventional wisdom will get you far, unconventional wisdom might get you further:
Judge a book by its cover.
Make assumptions, trust your judgement, learn some 'tells', save time in long run.
It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.Doesn't mean you should though.
Opinions are like arseholes; everyone's got one. And if you say you don't have one, you're full of shit!Ba Dum Tss!
Vans are easier than cars to drive.
Nobody can write. Anyone who thinks they can write is lying. I can't write. That shouldn't stop you from trying though.
Apart from Matthew Parris. He CAN write.
Don't listen to your father for Mother's Day ideas. It will only end in tears.
Mothers don't want cards with the word cunt in them.
F-R-I-E-N-D-S isn't perfect… but it's still the best sitcom ever made.Cheers! is a close second.
Move seats at large dinner tables.
Don't miss the opportunity to interact with people just because you're down the other end of the table. Always swap seats with someone in another crowd.
There will always be someone younger.
@JoshuaGarfield 😉
People who self-identify as 'so weird' are the worst.
Listening to Disney soundtracks doesn't make you interesting or your music taste 'so different' or 'varied'
It's music produced for a mass audience. Of course you listen to it.
Phil Collins must die.
A white T-shirt and faded jeans. Just, just an ordinary guy. But prisoner to his tax returns…
Eat natural foods, bathe twice daily, fill your muscles up with gravy.
Use women's shaving foam. Doesn't make you less of a man to have softer, nicer smelling skin.
Keep a diary.
Failing that, update your memoirs every other year with the important stuff.
Keep a list of mildly nice things people say about you."Annoyingly witty" ~ Poppy.
"Not a munter" ~ Robyn.
"Better than work" ~ Katherine.
"I speak English, but your accent is too earthy" ~ French ComLex employee.
It does no harm to have heroes and inspirations.
I have five. Three are called Paul.
Yorkshire brews the best beer.
Yorkshire (via India) makes the best tea.
You need eight hours sleep. Science said so.
The more talent the person has, the nicer the person is.
You shouldn't get hung up on the lies people tell themselves to get through the day.Deep, huh?
Dress like Adam Sandler.
That man never looks uncomfortable.
Paul Merton is a style icon.
Some friends are just for periods of your life. And that's ok.
It's not the friends you make at university who are your friends for life, it's the friends you still make the effort with throughout university who are.
Don't go to university because a) you want to deepen your knowledge on a subject b) because you enjoy a field of study or c) everyone else is.
It's worrying how many people don't know how to make forms and surveys.
I'm looking at you, every single student who has asked me to fill in their dissertation survey — and GSK.
Don't be fooled into ever taking English.
Only read Macbeth at 23 to truly respect the book.
I'm apparently hard to read.
Ghost writing personal statements is an art.
If you want something done, give it to a busy person.
But don't take the p.
The Rover Mate is the most important position in any Scout group.
Holly Barrigan owes me a Wispa Gold.
LA is a smelly, dirty place where you will waste most of your visit there sat in traffic.
New Year's Eve is overrated.
I've spent years celebrating it in pubs, at parties, in back alleyways, at a puppy farm and working a 16-hour shift. Never found any of them particularly fun.
If you're not happy with where you are; get the hell out of there.
Wisdom stolen from an Ilkley friend which is actually rather good.
When you have a cold as a kid; everyone's top priority is making sure you are fine. When you're an adult, the priority is ensuring you don't spread it.
You're not a hero for still heading into work.
Brass handles have antibacterial qualities.
Pah! Yeah right!
If new people you meet assume you are 43, you should start to moisturise.
Above all, be interesting.
Live a great story.
Posted on Monday, March 30, 2020
With the general election safely in our rear-view mirror, it seems only fitting to reflect on political campaigns, where overpromising from both sides on NHS funding, police numbers and infrastructure projects are staples of the daily battles that take place up and down the country. Manifestos have drawn together broad ideological ambitions into concise, neat and memorable policies: 50,000 more nurses, £1 billion for community policing, publicly owned broadband. Can any of this actually be delivered by government? 'Why not vote for us and find out.'
Perhaps surprisingly, politicians' promises often do become reality. A study from Queen Mary University of London found that, between 1987 and 2005, 88 per cent of the governing party's pledges were implemented within the life of the parliament following the election. That's quite a high strike rate.
If promises aren't followed through, governments run the risk of being regarded unfavourably by the electorate next time they go to the polls. A party being dubbed 'untrustworthy' might make Brenda from Bristol and Suki from South London (and many others) take their votes elsewhere. Additional pressure on parties in power come from the official opposition, who rigorously scrutinise poorly planned bills, and jump on failures quicker than I jump on chances to get out of daily team meetings. Point is, politicians are held to account for promises, because if they're caught lying, they can expect to be splashed on the front page of the tabloids and become a trending topic on Twitter faster than you can say 'hashtag fridgegate'. It's not a tidy nor necessarily even a consistent method of ensuring honesty from people in power, but it is a system that just about works… or it did, until recently.
We're blasted constantly by the press howling about how the rise of social media is tarnishing proper accountability. Twitter making it harder for people to differentiate between fact and fiction; WhatsApp allowing the spread of false information through undetectable and encrypted channels; Facebook lacking transparency when it comes to political ads, and Pinterest… actually, Pinterest seems pretty much okay. Due to this, candidates running for public office have been able to inflate, exaggerate, or sometimes even outright lie to voters without being held to account. See Boris Johnson promising 40 new hospitals – something that was proved to be false -– but then avoiding the brutally forensic tone of Andrew Neil in a BBC interview. Likewise, Jeremy Corbyn exclaiming nobody under £80,000 would pay more tax if he was elected, yet having a suspiciously expensive spending plan.
Politicians have learnt that, in the digital era, it is in their interest to make bold and outlandish promises because any accountability they will face has been diluted considerably compared to the politicians who were in their shoes ten – or even five – years ago. The lack of risk now associated with overpromising and under delivering is a dream come true for people who want to lead. Unsurprisingly, this trend has been spilling into the business world too.
What never was: Apple AirPower
Whereas politicians at least faced fierce scrutiny from multiple institutions, business leaders are allowed to run wild. If a politician promises you easier access to GPs and doesn't deliver, you can take your vote elsewhere. In a world dominated by powerful tech and media monopolies, it is becoming increasingly hard to take your business elsewhere. As for opposing companies holding each other to account, when Apple announced 'AirPower' (their all-in-one wireless charging port for all of their mobile devices) at one of their swanky, Fashion-Week-esque launches, but then failed to deliver, it wasn't Microsoft's job as a competitor to prioritise highlighting this failure – and rightly so: they've got better things to do. But because of this, CEOs find themselves only accountable to the media - who are increasingly distracted by bananas duck-taped to walls and dystopian exercise bike adverts.
Shareholders and stakeholders who would usually come down on a CEO who was found to be misleading the public, are realising it is in their financial interest to let their leaders make deceptive announcements or issue dubious press releases. They create media attention, drive up the stock price, and the media 'gotcha' moment is so minuscule that it is forgotten within a week, if not a day!
Think about it. When was the last time you had something delivered by drone – I'm looking at you, Amazon. Or when was the last time Tesla hit their production targets? Never. In 2018, Google CEO Sundar Pichai proudly bounded onto stage to announce Google Duplex, an AI assistant that could make calls on your behalf to small businesses. A year and a half later, Android's synthetic voice is nowhere to be heard. This isn't because Pichai lied. Rather he set expectations too high, only seeing the potential of the idea, not the logistical and ethical challenges he would face. Yet he circumvented any negative consequences.
Sometimes CEOs forgo the opportunity to loudly disappoint the public like Pichai. He made the mistake of announcing Duplex in an open-air theatre in San Francisco, broadcasting to hundreds of thousands around the world. However, CEOs are learning to be far less overt in their big promises. Tech companies are now well versed in filing patents for barmy ideas, as they know all too well that a significant proportion of the media dredge patent applications looking for scoops. Amazon's flying warehouse, Apple's vaporiser, Google's 'human flypaper' - I'm not making this stuff up! These companies know what they're doing and they also know that they're not going to be penalised for this behaviour. Tech companies especially have taken the 'big promises, small delivery' model crafted by politicians and put it on acid.
How CEOs get away with it is not just the result of a lack of media scrutiny and disinterested shareholders. You also need to ask yourself what Elon Musk and Jeremy Corbyn have in common? Leadership cults. For every Corbynite in the world of politics, there's a Musk fanboy in the world of business.
Whilst at the moment, the benefits of overpromising and under delivering seem to vastly outweigh the drawbacks, the risk lies in the fact that this is likely not a strategy that can be sustained forever. Punters aren't dumb and will come to see the reality if a company has a track record of poor expectation management. As soon as customers become fed up, stock prices falter, shareholders wise up, and the accountability CEOs have been dodging gracefully for so long, will quickly catch up with them.
Surely, it's only a matter of time before major statements with minor follow-through action ends very badly for a leader. But in the meantime, it's a risk they are willing to take.
I'm a joke: How a comedian *finally* told a story about me
Comedian Sean Collins at the comedy club in September 2019.
(He's got nothing to do with this story.)
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
I was in an Italian restaurant when a voice came through my radio. The place was dimly lit and the hum of conversation filled the warm air. I was stood behind the bar frantically attempting to book three separate tables, for three separate dates, with a bartender whose jittery fingers kept lurching to the wrong buttons on the booking app, only putting me more on edge.
"Liam, the MC is here," the voice through my radio exclaimed.
In my now-standard fashion, I rapidly departed the Italian restaurant, swaying to avoid waitresses and the backs of customers' chairs (not very well, admittedly) and power-walked across Villiers street and back Under The Arches. There was no particular hurry; there was still 30 minutes until the first comedian took to the stage, but I leapt down the stairs in the entrance of the comedy club, striding 3 steps at a time and then back up the stairs at the opposite side of the box office.
The funniest person in the Midlands
The MC that evening was a comic named James Cook. A radio DJ turned comedian, James won the Spike Milligan award for being the funniest person in the Midlands in 2003 and has since performed over 1000 gigs — some of which were at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe.
The doors of the comedy club had just opened when I leapt up the stairs and into the comedy room. Only six customers had entered so far and at the bar next to the DJ booth stood a large white man with long grey hair — the stereotypical look of a stand-up comedian.
I got to him just as he was about to buy a couple of pints.
"Are you James?" I interrupted the transaction.
"Yes" exclaimed the MC with a smile.
"Don't worry, I'll get these", I replied whilst handing the bartender a couple of drinks voucher. (It's the least you can do to treat your comedians to a free pint or two).
I introduced myself to him, explained it was a sold out show so should be a goodun, and told him: "If you need anything else, just give us a shout."
James and me then went our separate ways… bizarrely.
As I retreated to the DJ booth, James headed for the front row where a lady was sat waiting for him. As I watched him approach the seats, I muttered 'fuck' (rather to the confusion of the sound engineer) as it clicked that I'd just bought a random customer, who had coincidentally happened to be also called James, a couple of drinks; making a right old tit of myself.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage…"
An hour later, the actual MC is on stage after the first interval (it turned out he'd gone straight to the loo after entering the club and swerved me completely). He interacts with a bloke sat on the front row.
"Hello mate, what's your name?"
"That's a coincidence, my name is James too. Funnily enough, I've just been told a story about you…"
Denouncement
Tragically, I told this story to a colleague who pointed out that the middle aged bloke at the bar probably thought I was just flirting with him (after all, we were in Heaven). My radio and staff ID card were well hidden under my shirt and my ear piece wasn't in yet. What this stranger saw was a twenty-something year old approach him at the bar, buy him a couple of drinks and say, "If you need anything else, just give us a shout." The situation could have only been more suggestive if I'd winked at him and slapped his arse as I walked away.
This was originally published on Medium. Read here.
Facebook attempts to build public trust... and fails immediately.
A Biden attack ad from the Trump campaign
In audio leaked to US tech outlet The Verge earlier this month, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg riled against the suggestion of harsher government regulation of big tech, stating it would actually make election interference and hate speech more likely.
The CEO boasted about the company's superior ability to deal with these issues, slamming competitors such as Twitter: "Our investment on safety is bigger than the whole revenue of their company!"
As if by on cue, Facebook then proved how... urm... unsafe their platform was.
Only a week after Zuck's comments about safe elections and wanting to "build trust" with the public, Facebook refused to take down a Trump ad accusing former vice president Joe Biden of dodgy dealings with the Ukraine - a conspiracy theory spread by Trump that has landed him at the centre of an impeachment inquiry.
Facebook eventually took some versions of the ad down, showing they can deal with safety issues on their own platform. If only the ad hadn't been displayed over 300,000 times before they decided it violated their policies…
Amazon relaunches dark-arts PR campaign powered by 'Borgs'
Amazon's small army of Fulfilment Centre Ambassadors began tweeting again last week about how great their employer is after the company's new 'fulfilment centre' tours came under fire for appearing to be an attempt to undermine the endless accounts of ex-employees who have highlighted the poor working conditions in Amazon warehouses.
As part of Amazon's 'dark-arts PR campaign', fourteen 'FC Ambassador' accounts were launched in 2018 to join online conversations where they could fight Amazon's corner - countering criticism with monotonous talking points regurgitated with a 'nothing to see here' attitude. The accounts perk up every few months to parrot the same Amazon-approved lines on bathroom breaks, suitable wages, and competent management. And who would have guessed, they are also staunchly anti-unionisation - as they apparently make it difficult for employers to promote staff!
The accounts have been likened to zombie ambassadors, hive-minded Borgs, and have probably caused more bad PR for Amazon than they have sufficiently addressed. In January, the accounts began creepily changing ownership; an ambassador named Michelle who occasionally tweeted about her grandchildren regenerated into a twenty-something man named Rafael.
It is reported that on-the-floor workers selected to be ambassadors (of which at least four are British) receive an additional paid day off as well as a gift card in return for singing endless online praise for Amazon and its founder. For now, the propaganda accounts continue to be run by 100% real employees, however this is until they inevitably find a machine that can do it for cheaper - in true Amazon fashion!
Posted on Friday, August 30, 2019
This IS what we voted for.
May survives a no-confidence vote... just
Why the current turmoil in Westminster is perfect
Whenever Londoners discuss the people who voted for Brexit, they always talk about working class men living in places like Sunderland, Scunthorpe, Stockton and other non-metropolitan places beginning with other letters of the alphabet. There's usually a tone that denotes these people didn't know what they were voting for, they were lied to, and given the opportunity they would now vote to remain.
Although I'm sure that is true in some cases, I'm sure that it is equally as true that for many, the current mayhem is exactly what they hoped would happen after the vote in June 2016.
For some people, voting to leave the EU wasn't so much about Brexit as it was disrupting the political landscape and getting politicians to pull their weight for once. Yes, the clichés about the European commission being undemocratic and the dangers of open borders played some part in how they cast their vote, but the real goal was to give Westminster a kick up the arse. A violent reminder to the 650 MPs that the rest of the country is still here - and they're not happy.
After talking to people up and down the country, it seems there is a decent sized demographic who believe this. Many I've spoken to have a view of MPs that has not improved much since the expenses scandal almost ten years ago. MPs are perceived as money-grabbing, lazy, ignorant elites who are visible to the constituency about once every five years when another election is around the corner, but apart from that, just crop up in the local paper occasionally for a ceremonial opening of a new children's park.
Nothing seems to change. "Vote Labour, Vote Conservative, they're all the same" they echo. Then came along Europe. In the build-up to the 2016 referendum, everyone spoke about immigration figures and how much money was given to the EU, but a statistic that was thrown around just as much was the two thirds of British laws that come from the EU. This confirmed the belief that Parliament was lazy, and it was the EU doing the heavy lifting. Thankfully, the referendum provided the means for monumental political upheaval.
The Remain campaign somewhat helped fuel this backlash too, talking about the instability that Britain leaving the EU would cause. Columns inches were devoted to whether the traditional two-party system would survive Britain leaving the EU, the media buzzed about all the EU statutes integrated into British law that would be put in jeopardy, and economic forecasters were outspoken about the economic damage Brexit would do to the City. For those who wanted to see the elites feel uneasy for once, this was an opportunity too good to ignore.
So when you read the news this week and hear about Theresa May struggling to make it through another day in power, Jeremy Corbyn awkwardly trying to invent an all-pleasing position on Brexit, and the media whipped up in a frenzy of weak-predictions and endlessly pointing out how 'not normal' everything is, remember that for some this is ideal. This is bliss. For there are people who have felt for years that they have no control, are powerless, and lack a certain future… but now it's the politicians' turn.
Posted on Saturday, January 19, 2019
Two Years in London
Do you remember the snow in March? That was good.
They say time flies when you're having fun - but it feels like the second year hasn't even started yet. Due to a combination of lecturer strikes that consumed all of my uni contact hours in March, my measly three exams which we got two months off to revise for, some extremely poor lecturing, and a two day week in uni because of the way the timetable worked out, the amount of effort I've been required to put into my course has been minimal. That's not to say I haven't been busy though.
I moved back to London in early September, spent a wonderful two weeks in Stratford, moved to Bow in mid-September and began working non-stop until the middle of April. I've had a wonderful time this year jumping from meetings with university management, to talks from HuffPost editors; shooting and editing a news show over the course of a day, spending endless hours on the phone with Robyn, and enduring the necessary torture that is patronisingly dull child-safeguard training for a Scout group - and all that was just a random Tuesday last February. In 1986, a great man once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Looking like an ostentatious arsehole: presenting the
first episode of The Print's Mile End in a Minute
The Print
I can't talk about my second year at uni without talking about the newspaper. Despite finding some moments extremely difficult, I loved every second of being editor. I loved the variety of writing I read, the stories I heard, and the people I met. I'm honestly going to miss editing and I just hope I did people proud.
I love London as much as I hate London
For every positive, there is a negative. London hosts a level of blatant rudeness you'd find nowhere else in the world. Were you in this queue? I don't think so, matey. On the flip side, this does mean that random acts of kindness go a long way. It's a city where too many people take themselves too seriously, however it is one of the best places to express your eccentricities. The air quality is noticeably awful in areas, however people all around London try to save the planet and conserve fossil fuels by not using their car indicators. I love those people. They're the best.
As with London, I've had a love hate relationship with my flat. It's fantastic because it's a 10 minute walk from Queen Mary, and a 2 minute walk from the Slammersmith and Pity (what us locals call it) and the Docklands Light Railway. However, the laminate floorboards in my bedroom have a carpet of hair that doesn't belong to me; and despite cleaning the floor almost fortnightly, it's not going away. Also, the hot and cold taps in the bathroom being the wrong way round to what they should be bugs the hell out of me, the ice cream van that plays the 'Match of the Day' theme tune outside at 10 to 6 every day drives me up the wall, and the fact I only met my next door neighbours when I ran into them in the stairwell and they accused me of having friends round who nicked the front tyre of their bike doesn't make for the warmest of neighbourhoods. Jokes on them, I never have friends round.
Profound Conclusion
If there's one thing I've learnt from this year, it's to be difficult (but for the right reasons, of course). I remember talking to a friend at the end of March about the feeling of being sick of arguing with people, but looking back, I'm pleased I picked the fights I did. Hopefully some of them have resulted in making some people's bittersweet relationships with London a smidgen more sweet at times, whether they're colleagues, students, or friends.
Posted on Friday, June 08, 2018
The Cambridge Analytica scandal isn't a scandal, it's a business model
Cambridge Analytica recently closed down following a joint investigation from Channel 4 and The Observer which exposed that the company had been collecting Facebook user data without consent and targeting messages during the 2016 European Union referendum.
Since then, founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has faced questions from the US Senate; which mostly consisted of people who barely knew what they were talking about, piecing together semi-literate, broad questions which were mostly irrelevant. And, the EU Parliament; which entailed 75 minutes' worth of very specific and nuanced questions followed by Zuckerberg speaking vaguely about general themes that came up, rendering both of these sessions rather pointless. Facebook needs proper scrutiny and despite what Zuckerberg thinks, the technology industry cannot regulate itself. This is evident by the fact that the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal was not caused because Facebook enabled it - rather, it was caused because they encouraged it.
Facebook's business model is rooted in the notion that companies pay to target adverts based on user data that Facebook has collected. Despite what many might think, the customers aren't the users, the customers are the organisations and businesses willing to pay for user data. What Cambridge Analytica did was simply an extension of this; they found a loophole.
Let's be clear, targeting political adverts based on user behaviour and interests is not illegal. If it was, Facebook would not be the tech behemoth it is today. They've been reasonably transparent about this too as they state exactly what data they collect and how they use it in their Privacy Policy.
Critics enjoy pointing that this is unethical as nobody reads privacy policies because they are too long - as The Wall Street journal pointed out, revised and condensed policies from 30 of the top apps still span the length of an American football field. They could shorten these policies however realistically, unless the whole policy can be summarised in less than 100 words, it is very unlikely that the majority of users are going to read it; a task that would be virtually impossible.
Facebook collecting data and aggregating it for advertising use is how they make their money. Yes, Cambridge Analytica went above and beyond to exploit this but ultimately, it's not too different from any Facebook targeted advertising.
When news isn't news
Modern news apps aren't as ground-breaking as Google and Apple might think
At I/O 2018, Google announced they are relaunching their news app so it brings users a customised feed of stories based on their interests and what they've previously read. In short, this is Google's take on Apple News. These news apps, which are basically glorified RSS feeds, are well-intentioned however ultimately problematic. Technology promised to eliminate some of the issues associated with old media, however I fear that they've only made them worse.
The main issue is that letting an algorithm pick news for you based on interests you've told it and your reading history is not a good way to digest news. Google has proved their algorithms for generating content don't really work – as demonstrated by the YouTube Trending page where fake news, violent videos, and copyrighted material often surfaces to the top. To be fair, this isn't a problem limited to Google. Facebook makes a hash of providing news too. They spent the whole of 2016 doing nothing about the unchecked saturation of fake news circulating around their platform.
Secondly, displaying stories based on previous reads does not mean they are the pieces you should be digesting. Google says, through "reinforced learning," the app will learn what topics and publishers you like. Apparently "the more you use it, the better it gets." However most people are drawn in by clickbait and non-stories with glorified thumbnails. Fall for them three or four times and presumably this means Google will start thinking that you have an appetite for pointless listicles and trivial news, so you will be shown more.
Thankfully, there is a simple fix to these problems: editors.
Call me old fashioned but what is wrong with allowing actual human beings to decide what are the most important issues of the day and giving stories some gravitas by putting them in the public eye? This would serve readers better too as it would diversify the topics that appear in the feed.
The obvious opposition to this idea is the fact that editors have biases. Of course they do. But, as do algorithms. It has been proved numerous times over the past decade that algorithms reflect the people who write them so they're not truly impartial either. At least with a group of editors, there is someone to hold accountable if you don't think the news is neutral.
In a society where there is now a large need for views to be challenged and news not to simply reinforce a person's 'confirmation bias', Google News is doing little to address the challenges. In an ideal world, Coffee House blogs from The Spectator should be put in front of liberals and 'Comment is Free' think-pieces from The Guardian should be exposed to conservatives. Instead, it would appear that Google is keener to associate their news efforts with buzzwords like 'machine learning' and 'AI' in order to satisfy investors - rather than creating an information tool that would benefit society.
This is nothing new though. It's unlikely that someone on the political left would go out and buy The Daily Mail or someone on the right The Observer. However, technology has the ability to bring people more balanced news and to expose people to analysis that they might not agree with. Moreover, the companies which are providing platforms for news (Google, Apple and Facebook) have a duty not just to host the content but to prioritise the content which is actually factually correct. Simple as it may sound, this is something an algorithm currently struggles to do.
In Google's defence, they do try and partly address this problem. The news app has a tab called 'Headlines' which Google claims will help readers "understand the full story." On Stage at I/O, Trystan Upstill said, "Today, it takes a lot of work a lot of work to broaden your point of view and understand a story in depth. With Google News we set out to make that effortless." Cut through the waffle and fundamentally this is just a feed of top stories from a wide variety of trusted sources.
Inside of this, they've created a 'Full Coverage' feature which will allow users to see how a story is being covered from a variety of sources - including fact checking sites. Google says that everyone will see the same content in Full Coverage. "It's an unfiltered view of events from a range of trusted news sources."
So why not build the whole app with this foundation, rather than hiding it in a niche corner of the app? When you open the app, you still land on the 'For You' tab which serves you a plate of sources you like the taste of.
Although Google – and others – have the capacity to incite positive change to the media landscape and democratise information to provide the world with more balanced news, Google News has the same problems as old news media, but in a modern format and with "light, easy, fast, and fun design choices." Thanks for nothing, Google.
Posted on Saturday, May 19, 2018


Just to let all readers of this magnificent site know that the 15th Adelaide Kite Festival will be held Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th of April 2012 - the Easter weekend. At picturesque Semaphore Beach, Adelaide, in South Australia.
Carnival events, kite stall, food and other goodies will be there for the 4 days of Easter and Adelaide Kite Flyers with interstate and overseas celebrities will be lofting kites into the sky from about 11am onwards on the Saturday and Sunday.
Looking forward to it! We might feature some video this time, instead of stills, when we write up the event.


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To Purchase: F. M. Dostoevsky: Poor Folk, Crime and Punishment, The Devils, The Idiot, The Adolescent, The Brothers Karamazov, Great Short Works of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Uncle's Dream and Other Stories.
On Gorgas Reserve: J. Edie, Russian Philosophy Vol. 2; W. J. Leatherbarrow and D. C. Offord, A Documentary History of Russian Thought (L&O); Carl Proffer, From Karamzin to Bunin.
This course will cover the life and major works of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Writing proficiency is required for a passing grade in this course. All materials are read in English translation. No knowledge of Russian is required for this course. Three (3) credit hours.
This course will include substantial in-class and out-of-class writing that encourages the development of critical thinking and requires students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate knowledge.
In addition, the student will analyze and discuss literary works in a manner that consists of more than mere plot summary.
Two exams and a comprehensive final exam. The written exams will consist of questions that require the student to analyze various aspects of the assigned readings. If you have a conflict with a test date, I will allow you to take the exam at a different time, provided that you inform me beforehand. Make-ups will be allowed only in very rare circumstances.
There will also be seven (7) essays of 3-4 pages each due on the materials read for the course. The essays are not to be research papers but neither are they to be mere plot summaries. Rather the student is to analyze some aspect of Dostoevsky's work. Several possible themes for each essay will be provided by the instructor although students are free to come up with their own. Students are to keep in mind that these essays are to be specimens of formal writing and thus should use a higher literary style when writing them. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper division student in the discipline will not be given a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs on other course requirements. Late essays will be accepted but will be penalized with a loss of at least ten points. Please note that the first essay is due during the third week of the course (see schedule below for due dates).
Everything is graded on the 100-point scale. The final course grade will be based on your performance on the two exams, each worth 20% of your final grade, attendance which is worth 15%, the essays which are worth 20% and the final exam which is worth 25%. All course grades are given on a +/- basis. For an explanation of the policy, see the Undergraduate Catalog.
It is expected that all students will pay attention and participate in class. Therefore, no electronic devices are to be used in class unless an assignment specifically calls for it or unless it has been approved by ODS (see below). Recreational use of electronic devices in class is a distraction for everyone else and all cellphones, laptops, tablets, etc. are to be turned off when class starts. Persistent violations will result in a reduction of the student's class attendance grade. In instances regarding a family or medical emergency, an exception will be granted, if you inform the instructor in advance.
Attendance is required, will be recorded and will be a significant component of your grade.
The UA emergency information site: http://prepare.ua.edu/. In the event of an emergency, the instructor will give information on the course via Blackboard Learn.


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Quotes by Film Director
You are at:Home » 57 Ridley Scott Quotes: The Master of the Sci-Fi Movie
57 Ridley Scott Quotes: The Master of the Sci-Fi Movie
17 Mins Read Quotes by Film Directors Updated: December 19, 2022
Ridley Scott is regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers in recent years who have set the bar high for sci-fi filmmaking.
In his 45 years as a filmmaker, Scott directed a total of 27 films including Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), The Martian (2015) and Gladiator (2000).
Even in his early years as a filmmaker, Scott was able to showcase his exceptional creativity in the sci-fi genre with films that continue to influence filmmakers up to this day. He is also a recipient of a BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema in 1995 and was knighted for his outstanding contribution to the British film industry.
In this article, we've listed our 57 favorite Ridley Scott quotes on filmmaking. If you find this article helpful then we would be grateful if you could share it with other filmmakers.
Also don't forget to check out our other filmmaker quote articles from the masters of cinema series.
Ridley Scott Quotes on Film and Moviemaking
I'm a moviemaker, not a documentarian. I try to hit the truth.
In my view, the only way to see a film remains the way the filmmaker intended: inside a large movie theater with great sound and pristine picture.
I think moviemakers are dramatists.
[on Alien: Covenant (2017)] I wanted to really scare the shit out of people. Totally, that's the job. It's like if I'm a comedian, I want to make you laugh like hell. My day job is to be an entertainer. Some of it is art, but fundamentally I entertain–never forget that.
I try to make films, not movies. I've never liked the expression "movie", but it sounds elitist to say that.
[On directing] You prove how reliable you are. Which I am, I always have been–it's part of my thing.
Scott on the Script and Development Process
The fundamental of anything as a director is material, material, material–script, script, script–once you have the script everything else is straightforward.
Once you crack the script, everything else follows.
I learned years ago that a great script ain't gonna land on your desk. When I'm not working I'm also constantly developing material. But this [The Martian (2015)] came to me in one of those rare occurrences. I've been with Fox more than 12 years now, and there's a first-look deal. They came to me and said, "Look, we've got this script and you might want to look at it." I read it and was highly entertained and also impressed that it covered all four quadrants of emotion.
I want to make films about the human condition, what we're doing to the world or ourselves.
I get so used to working with writers that my prime occupation is development.
I think I'm blessed by the fact that I can draw. I've got an inner eye, definitely. At first I wasn't aware of it, and then after 2,000 commercials, there was a reason I was so busy. I was the most visual of all directors. That's why I was so flat-out successful, frankly. That's why I never did a film until I was 40. I didn't start filming until I was 40. I certainly appreciated what I had, and I started to acknowledge it, embrace it, and use it. I think visually. But I'm good with words, and I'm helpful with writers because I'll talk to them visually when I'm working.
I spend a lot of my time just developing material; or the company does. That material can come from a book, can come from a newspaper, can come from a discussion and sometimes it can come from a script that got passed over and is floating around.
[on Blade Runner (1982)] I've never spent so much time with a writer. That was the real evolution of the story.
The time it would take me to write a screenplay it would take me the time to make two films. I would rather make the movies and I'm a better moviemaker than I a would be writer.
Audiences are less intrigued, honestly, by battle. They're more intrigued by human relations. If you're making a film about the trappings of the period, and you're forgetting that human relationships are the most engaging part of the storytelling process, then you're in trouble.
Ridley Scott and crew on the set of the historical drama Robin Hood in 2010.
Ridley Scott on Shooting the Movie
People say I pay too much attention to the look of a movie but for God's sake, I'm not producing a Radio 4 Play for Today, I'm making a movie that people are going to look at.
The important thing for the editor is coverage. That's why I always have multiple cameras, so I can shorten the scene. Half the time it's about shortening and refining. Drew Goddard's script was very well done. But if you have a scene that's four minutes and you think it's got to be two minutes, you can't do that unless you've got cuts.
[on cinematographer Dariusz Wolski] Dariusz has a great eye and great taste. He is a great camera operator. I think any cinematographer should operate the camera occasionally; if you don't, you don't understand the frame. Dariusz likes the storyboards; he loves to know what we're doing, because he has to prep it. We always work with multiple cameras. With Dariusz, it's usually four, but if it's complicated, it's five to eight cameras. It's knowing where to place them. We shot The Martian (2015) in 72 days. Normally it would be 100 to 110. Part of that is multi-camera, part of it is knowing what you're doing. You can't walk in every morning and say, "Let's talk about this scene." Are you kidding me? You can't do that.
[on The Last Duel (2021) and shooting with multiple cameras] I'm working 4 cameras, which fundamentally will capture any scene in a space. If it gets bigger, I'll do 6. If it gets huge, I'll do 11. You've got to know where to put the cameras, but it means everything is constantly fresh, so you do it 4 times as opposed to 20. Adam [Driver] was saying he loves the freedom that the 4 cameras gave him. He'd never experienced that before. I am continually puzzled about why people don't embrace that.
I'm blessed with a great eye, and I always have been. It even got in my way because I used to be criticized for being too visual. I would say, "Well, hold on. I'm not making a bloody radio play! I'm making a movie. What I have is an advantage, and I'm constantly looking for a way of evolving and avoiding what I've done before.
I think, at the end of the day, filmmaking is a team, but eventually there's got to be a captain.
You just don't know when you get all the paint across the canvas how it will turn out. When you step back after you've finished, you say, "This one is not so good. This one is good."
I always shoot my movies with score as certainly part of the dialogue. Music is a dialogue. People don't think about it that way, but music is actually dialogue. And sometimes music is the final, finished, additional dialogue. Music can be one of the final characters in the film.
Scott's Film Business Wisdom
[On directing blockbusters] You want big films and stories to keep people going to the cinema. It's up to us to keep the bar raised. That's the trick. I've always done that. [ . . . ] It is brain surgery! It is bloody brain surgery! You're putting together a whole group of people, you're trying to budget as accurately as you can and, at the end of it, you've got to sell a lot of tickets. That's more complex than banking–but a few of us manage to pull it off. [ . . . ] I'm not kidding myself: I love the challenge. If you don't, don't do the job.
I always say to people when I'm trying to get something going, bringing on other producers or other directors, "You can think of 95 reasons why not to make a movie. You've got to address why you want to make the movie and get it done. Just do it." I tend to live by that rule.
I don't make films for other people; I make films for me.
The person that probably stopped me in my tracks as a child… because I used to love to go to the cinema was David Lean with Great Expectations (1946). I thought everything was somehow better than most of the other movies in terms of the way it looked… the way it was dramatized and the way it was photographed. In fact, he was detailed from corner to corner and that is what I picked up with John Ford and then Kurosawa [Akira Kurosawa], then Carol Reed, Michael Powell… those were all the fundamental characters at that time… and Orson Welles, of course. There are Frenchmen, too, of course, who will be remembered as well, but I wasn't open to the French cinema at that point, so it was American and English film directors. So those were the influences.
A friend of mine says, "Art's like a shark. You've got to keep swimming, or else you drown." Keep bouncing around. People always ask me, "What's the plan?" There is no plan. I go to what fascinates me next.
I like the competition. You create a competition with yourself. I'm very competitive. Very. I look around and think, "I've got to raise the bar". That's what we do. If we can all raise the bar in everything we do, isn't that better? I try and raise the bar every time I do a movie, and a part of that is not to repeat yourself. It's an internal ego, not an external ego.
There's a little thing on your shoulder called intuition and it whispers in your ear. Everyone has that, there is a voice telling you to do something. Most people ignore it – but you must listen to it. I do it every day, all day.
I love different themes, different venues, different movies. I love to jump about and tackle different subjects. I have no intellectual master plan.
I'm a yarnteller. My job is to engage you as much as I can and as often as I can. I love the process and still continue to adore the process, actually. I don't get attached to anything. I'm like a good antique dealer. I'm prepared to sell my most valuable table.
If studios don't get their money back, we don't have any movies. So it is important that films are successful, and I am fully supportive of that because I'm not just a director, I'm also not stupid. I've been in this business long enough and, to a certain extent, I'm a businessman; I know the importance of that.
I didn't want to go down the route of spending a year of my life making a movie that would never be seen. I may as well go down a route making a film that a lot of people will see, which is the whole idea behind cinema.
Over the years I've probably done 2,700 commercials. So, I'm always ticking. And in a way that was a huge advantage because I was able to take my time choosing my film subjects because I wasn't relying on the fear of not being able to work.
The whole process of making movies and writing screenplays is visceral and intuitive.
Do what you haven't done is the key, I think.
Ridley Scott on Critics
Blade Runner (1982), was a disaster. It didn't play. People didn't get it. I was way ahead, is what I think it was. I knew it was really good. I just thought, "What the hell? They just don't get it." That was when I learned to move on and not read press. Don't read press. You can't read press–it'll destroy you.
[on Blade Runner (1982) getting initially negative reviews ] I know, but I knew it was good. This goes on to what I learned from getting beaten up. Pauline Kael [ . . . ] spent three pages destroying "Blade Runner" and me. Even to the fact that I had a beard [ironic]. I couldn't believe it, it was personal. I never met her in my life and it was really distressing. But after that moment, I never, ever read press again. Even if it's glowing, best not read it, because you think you own the world. If it's killer, best not read it because you think you've failed. You have to be your own critic.
The key thing is you can be the only person, your own critic.
Sir Ridley and an animatronic tiger during the filming of Gladiator, released in 2000.
Scott Quotes on the Future of Cinema
Digital is a different world because you are sitting at home and a hi tech piece of equipment today is within reach of most people, so they are watching a pretty hi tech version of whatever you've done.
Nowadays, everything's evolved into superheroes and it's boring. If I see one more superhero movie I'm going to shoot myself.
I think movies are getting dumber, actually. Where it used to be 50/50, now it's 3% good, 97% stupid.
I'm not criticizing Hollywood because I work there, I partly live there. But I'm saying this is the way it is, commerce is taking over art. Commerce has become the most important thing in the film industry. Hollywood is an industry, it's not an art form, therefore they have to address the bottom line. But in a way it's sad when you get a remake, isn't it?
Usually, when special effects get in the way, it's because the story isn't strong enough. If you don't start with a strong screenplay, it's easy to fall back on special effects, thinking it's going to carry you. But it never works. It's just tiresome.
The 3D world allows you to engage even more with a film because you're somehow drawn into the landscape or the universe of that scene. Even when it's two people talking at a table, you feel like you're a third party.
The truth is that technology is moving so quickly that the high-end 2D [high-dynamic range] nearly makes 3D redundant. We shot and edited The Martian (2015) on 3D and it was pretty straightforward if you've got the right team, and [cinematographer] Dariusz Wolski is great. From my point of view, I can just have fun making 3D pictures. But now with 2D becoming so great, you really have to ask yourself if you need it.
We're suffering from saturation, overkill. The marketplace is flooded by demand, and there are too many films, so everything gets watered down. Demand is the boss and everything bends to that will. Bigger and not necessarily better shows seem to be the order of the day. I can't watch most of them.
The digital and theatrical markets are two different marketplaces. I think the digital marketplace–thank God for it!–is like having a book on the shelf: so you can actually go to that book and if it's four hours long, you can put it on pause, you can have a beer–no one's counting.
[in 2017] Franchise always sounds like a vaguely not-very-nice word, because it means making money. And there's nothing wrong with making money in the film industry–in fact. it's what it's all about. If there's a big film that's a disaster, it's bad for everybody. If there's a little film that's a huge success, it's good for everybody. That's the industry we're in.
Scott on the set of Alien in 1979 setting up a closeup shot on actor John Hurt and the facehugger
More Ridley Scott Filmmaking Quotes
The great film editor is not a cutter, he's a storyteller, right?
When you're in the editing room, the dangerous thing is that it becomes like telling a joke again and again and again. Eventually, the joke starts to not be funny. So you have to be careful that you're not throwing the baby out with the bath water
There's nothing really original. Alien was a B-movie. Five directors passed on it before me. Because I was into Heavy Metal, I read it, and thought, "Wow, I want to do this." I was on a plane to Hollywood in 22 hours. It was a B-movie and was elevated to an A-plus movie by sheer good taste.
I think I have less patience, mainly because I'm so experienced. Because I'm so experienced I need the very best people around me. Because people say, "Well you don't need a terribly good camera" or, "You can go and do this," and I say, "No, no, no, no, you don't understand. I want the Earth. And I want the Earth in 10 minutes.
Scaring someone's the hardest thing to do, and that's why most of scary movies are not scary. They're sick, but not scary. There's a lot of sickness out there, of people who then sit there and watch it, which I think is absolutely dismaying.
[in 2017] It all comes full circle to starting out as a painter. You walk in the room in the morning, where you spent all day yesterday by yourself. You stare at the canvas and you go, "Bloody hell, I hate it". Painting is all about what you did yesterday, how you're going to re-correct it, improve it, or go, "Holy shit, I got it". It's being your own critic, that's it. That's the most important thing.
People say a good score is when you don't notice it. I say bullshit. I'm very conscious of a good score and I'm very conscious of a bad score. And anyone who says that simply doesn't know music.
Sometimes, scenes are great without any music at all.
[on his shooting style] I'm neither film trained nor actor trained. My film school was television commercials. I did 2500 commercials, personally. But good ones like Steve Jobs' Apple Mac: 1984 (1984) commercial: I always noticed we'd rehearse, and the actor would usually nail it on take one and I wasn't turning – and that would drive me crazy. So I said, "You know what? I'm going to roll on this." And we roll and invariably it happens in take one or two.
I cast carefully. If I cast very well, the actors are going to help me on the day we shoot and I'm going to help them. It becomes a partnership. I don't do days and weeks of rehearsal. What I tend to do is when we walk on the floor, I literally shoot the first rehearsal and rehearse on camera. Because then you get the energy of coming in prepared but not rehearsed, and then you get a reality. If you over-rehearse it goes dead when you shoot, and you spend time getting back to what you found in rehearsals. I'm not unusual that way. Clint Eastwood does it, and so does Martin Scorsese . . . more actors like it than they care to admit. If it's well written, you don't have to rehearse. In this case, we had a great script from a great book.
Ridley Scott Quotes Final Words
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The central aim of the two days conference was to bridge the gap between micro/macro, local/regional, and global/transnational approaches to the history of both world wars, which came in response to the recent publication of Nico Wouters' monograph "Mayoral Collaboration under Nazi Occupation: Belgium, the Netherlands and France, 1938–46". The papers given expanded on Wouters' use of micro and macro approaches to the study of occupation by its application to a range of themed contexts.
The conference began with a keynote by SOPHIE DE SCHAEPDRIJVER (Penn State/Kent), which outlined how historians might approach the history of occupations across the first half of the twentieth-century. For De Schaepdrijver seeking 'models' of comparison between the two world wars 'distorts our view' of them. Yet it remains that a number of themes emerge which were central to the occupations of both; including issues of political legitimacy, ideas surrounding 'the front', and the place of patriotic distance. Unlike monolithic models, De Schaepdrijver argued, these themes work across different historical as well as geographical contexts. They provide a broader picture of occupation whilst remaining flexible enough to accommodate for the idiosyncrasies of its experience on the ground. The keynote sparked an interesting discussion on how historians define an 'occupation'. Can we objectively identify what an occupation is, or was; does an occupation have to be defined by both sides; and what do occupations look like in other sorts of rule during non-wartime/colonial periods? This conceptual and definitional questioning was carried through to the panel sessions which followed.
The first of four thematic sessions, 'Elites and Governance', highlighted how pragmatism was utilised by both occupiers and occupied to manipulate the experience of occupation. Adopting a biographical approach, PHILIP BOOBBYER (Kent) explored the rule of Lord Rennell in Africa and Italy between 1940–43. Boobbyer argued that Rennell (the first Head of the Allied Military Government) favoured 'indirect rule' within the newly occupied territories. The paper highlighted how an informal means of governance was adopted by the small group of British elites tasked with controlling the horn of Africa and in Italy. The second paper by JAN NAERT (Ghent) focused on the governance of Belgian and French Mayors during and after the First World War. Naert's central concern was exploring how local elites navigated points of heightened social tension, particularly in relation to food shortages. The paper illustrated differences between the two cases – Belgium featuring more localised town and country suspicion of elites compared to France – and pushed for a more diverse picture of political legitimacy between local authorities and their populations. JAN JULIA ZURNÉ (CegeSoma) also looked at the case of Belgium, but shifted time periods to explore the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office between 1940–50. Many police and magistrates were engaged in the sabotage of investigations on their own population, she indicated, but why was this? Having experienced German occupation once before, the Belgium authorities knew that the sabotage of information received by the occupying forces would not only shield the civilian population from threat but protect Belgium's legal profession. Importantly, Zurné concluded that local actors had substantial power to 'draw a line' in their collaboration. The forth paper by MARKUS WAHL (IGM, Stuttgart) mapped the shaping of 'new' Socialist Healthcare Systems in the GDR between 1945–49. Focusing on the history and memories of the Leuben workhouse, Wahl emphasised how those involved with the Nazi project quickly gained independence from their occupiers post-1945. At the local level, the Soviet regime relied on actors to keep its healthcare systems afloat, meaning that workhouses such as Leuben maintained a strong continuity of pre-1945 traditions and language. Finally, PETER ROMIJN (NIOD, Amsterdam) exposed the continuity of Dutch elites during the 'long' Second World War of 1940–49. Romijn's paper questioned how elites' governance evolved to cope with both war and its aftermath. Adopting a 'transitional' approach to occupation, the paper exposed how functional elites, collaborators, and resisters believed themselves to be fit to rule in the post-war period.
The first day ended with the launch of Nico Wouters' monograph – Mayoral Collaboration under Nazi Occupation –, which views the international and transnational history of Nazi occupation through the micro perspective of Mayoral collaboration. The launch prompted a discussion between SOPHIE DE SCHAEPDRIJVER (Penn State/Kent), MARTIN CONWAY (Oxford), and PIETER LAGROU (Libre de Bruxelles), chaired by Stefan Goebel (Kent). De Schaepdrijver questioned how local horizons might have shaped experiences of occupation, whilst Lagrou highlighted how a social-historical examination of mayoral collaboration might have strengthened Wouters' institutional focus. Conway summarised the major contributions of the book: power was pushed from formal structures to the local level through Mayors in unexpected ways, resulting in a continuity of state structures and a revival of civil society through 'local states'. As the role of Mayors worked differently across the various states compared, Wouters' monograph encourages us to recognise a more complex picture of the relationship between state power and state mentality in Nazi occupied Europe.
The second day began with a panel on 'Spaces'. The first paper by ISMEE TAMES (NIOD) offered a conceptual re-working of occupation through the prism of 'liminality'. Liminality has relevance for historians, Tames argued, as it allows us to shed light on the blurred 'in-between' areas of wartime experience. Through a case study of POW Jan van den Driesschen, Tames illustrated how 'liminality' might bring focus to the changing nature of space under occupation; often from once familiar and safe spaces to ones which were altogether more alien. NIGEL PERRIN (Kent) followed with a paper on spaces of resistance in Nazi-occupied Paris. Focusing on the 'dark side' of underground Paris, Perrin highlighted how lines of occupation were more arbitrary beneath the soil. Until at least August 1944, Perrin showed, resistance in the Paris Metro was overemphasised. The paper pointed towards a general reluctance to use the tunnels as an example of French cultural resistance to espionage. Finally, CHRISTOPH MICK (Warwick) compared the two occupations of Lviv by Russian forces (1914–15) and Soviet forces (1939–41). Mick's paper showed a mixture of continuity and difference in the two occupations. Both occupations aimed to annex the region, and both ended in defeats. Yet key differences are clear over de-nationalisation policy (present in the first occupation but not the second), the control of religion, administration, public space, and the implementation of repression.
The third panel focused on 'Social Groups and Dynamics', probing how civilian populations of varying classes engaged with and negotiated the experience of occupation. GERTJAN LEENDERS (Ghent) used the example of denunciations to the enemy across both world wars in Belgium to explore this experience. Utilising denunciation records, Leenders questioned how denunciations were expressed by historical actors. Whilst they were made for a variety of often interpersonal reasons, he stressed that the lack of hard evidence resulted in high acquittal rates for denunciations' across both wars. JOVANA KNEZEVIC (Stanford) explored the role of the Serbian intelligentsia during the Habsburg occupation of the First World War. Knezevic's paper offered an important challenge to the binary of 'occupier' and 'occupied', focusing on specific 'sites of interaction' between the two. Newspaper editors and teachers were chosen as examples of these 'sites', each helping to support Knezevic's contention that individuals on the ground had great scope to shape their choices and compromises under occupation. Pre-existing relationships between the Serbian people and the Military General Government broke down barriers between occupiers and occupied, Knezevic stressed, resulting in 'collaboration' being brought under the umbrella of 'patriotic work'.
The final panel of the conference centred on the theme of 'Experiences and Memories'. LUDIVINE BROCH (Westminster) charted the history of the 'Merci Trains' sent as gifts from France to the US in 1949. Broch's paper aimed to question why the French sent such large gifts of friendship for US aid in both world wars. Her conclusion suggested that the trains were symbolic national acts of commemoration; sincere gestures of gratitude which were entangled with layers of nationalism and loss. But at a deeper level, the trains were a deliberate attempt to silence the Vichy period in favour of French heroism of the Great War. The final paper by BARBARA DERUYTTER (Ghent) looked at the role of songs and their illustration of wartime sentiments, ideals, and experiences in Belgium between 1914–18. Why, Deruytter asked, were national songs so powerful? This was because they made abstract ideas such as nationalism 'real', turning the experience of war into a performative world of actors, stages, and scripts. Songs played an important function for both the occupied and occupiers. It allowed the occupied to practice social, and often public, moral resistance, whilst giving the occupiers a means to shape the new spaces of occupation. Songs, Deruytter concluded, became an important 'language of power'.
Where does this leave our understanding of occupations in the age of total war? Concluding remarks were made by STEFAN GOEBEL (Kent) and NICO WOUTERS (CegeSoma/Ghent). The speakers noted the fruitfulness of bringing different focal points and questions to bear on 'occupation' as a concept. The takeaway point for both Goebel and Wouters was the power of the conceptual re-working of 'occupation' across the two days. Yet important questions remain to be answered. How can we historicize the meaning of occupation across geographical and linguistic divides, and does the use of the term lead to more insight or run the risk of itself becoming a limiting 'model'? Further work is clearly needed on occupations inside and outside the age of total war in order to address these new lines of inquiry.
 Nico Wouters. Mayoral Collaboration under Nazi Occupation: Belgium, the Netherlands and France, 1938–46, Basingstoke/New York 2016.
Tagungsbericht: Occupations in the Age of Total War: Micro Perspectives and Transnational Research, 22.06.2017 – 23.06.2017 Canterbury (Kent), in: H-Soz-Kult, 11.10.2017, <www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-7353>.


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text:
Jason's Summer Movie Review
By Jason Williams
Wednesday August 16, 2006
Best Summer Movies: Over the Hedge, Cars, The Inside Man, and Thank You for Smoking.
Worst Summer Movies: The DaVinci Code, Nacho Libre, and V for Vendetta.
Honorable mentions: World Trade Center, United 93.
BAD: Justifying Terrorism? Watching the hero in V for Vendetta artfully murder security guards working in a television station struck me as terrorism. In another act of terrorism, the hero destroyed the British parliament building because it was under dictatorial control. Destroying buildings that represent democracy only make it harder for good citizens to recapture them. Destroying everything and creating chaos is what insurgents do. Genuine freedom fighters target military installations. Simply put, I felt this movie was so full of political extremism that I felt like it crossed the line into propaganda and Pravda — and I walked out.
United 93 was way too sanitary on how it treated their terrorist — making them seem like sincere adherents to jihad. In reality, the night before 9/11 some of the hijackers were at a strip club with one of them boasting how there was going to be bloodshed in America.
GOOD: Sex Done Right. Many people don't know that Denzel Washington has a contract clause where he refuses to do sex scenes — even refusing to take off his shirt. Is Denzel any less popular or his love scene in the movie Inside Man any less passionate? Of course not. This is a far cry from X-Men 3. Here the hero sees his long lost love come back to life after many years of being dead and within minutes (yes minutes) they are jumping on each other in her hospital bed. In Click, the normally sweet wife is aroused by the sight of her dog humping a stuffed duck and she pleads with her husband to treat her the same way. Give us a break!!!!! Note to Hollywood: Please review the old vintage movies to see how powerful romantic moments were created, or call Denzel's agent.
BAD: Product Placements. Big and bold hawking of consumer products in the middle of the film is a rising eyesore trend among movies. For the movie Click it was the shameless promotion of Bed, Bath & Beyond which not only too tied into the plot, but was paraded in the previews. In Talageda Nights, it was a family dinner at Applebees that was way too scripted. If that wasn't enough they threw in an Applebee's commercial. Note to Hollywood: if you want to feature products in your movies — watch how Seinfeld did it.
GOOD: Politics done right: Political humor is not funny if it is political. Political humor is funny because it makes fun of the absurdity, both liberal and conservative, that arises from politics. The movie Thank You for Smoking did just that by making fun of both the smoking and anti-smoking lobby by barbecuing their sacred cows. In Talageda Nights the movie throws in lobbyist from Halibuton that neither fit the story nor drew laughs.
BAD: Inaccuracies. Cinematic historical inaccuracies are far more serious than book inaccuracies, because viewers intrinsically believe what they see. It is awful enough that the DaVinci Code unloads a host of verifiable historical falsehoods, but it is made worse when the author claims on page one that his historical events are indeed "fact". When Passion of the Christ came out the Oregonian Editorial Board jumped in to nit-pick the smallest of possible historical infractions, yet their special report on the DaVinci Code never touched the subject. The Oregonian special report on the Chronicles of Narnia pummeled author, C.S. Lewis, but they let Dan Brown (DaVinci Code) off the hook. This is what we call double standard. The media needs to play fair — especially when it comes to historical inaccuracies.
Biological inaccuracies are blatant in the animated movie Barnyard. There are four male cow characters and one baby cow all with udders. Also odd is that they drink milk. Such things really distract and creep out the audience. Note to Hollywood: When a cow drinks her own milk the farmer has to put that cow down.
GOOD: Family films blossom! All of the big money makers this year have been family films, from the animated blockbusters to Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Pirates has already landed in the top 10 grossing films of all time. Family films dominate the top 50 money making films, despite Hollywood's low selection they offer.
BAD: Church bashing. The DaVinci Code portrayed the Catholic church as a conspiracy of maniacal monks and Mafia hitmen. This made me think where have I seen this outlandish church bashing before? Oh yes, it was four weeks earlier when I saw V for Vendetta where the bishop is a child molesting pill popper and the popular evangelist was a drug user (both help poison 80,000 people to help forward their master plan). Then it was two weeks earlier when I saw Mission Impossible 3 and the Vatican hosted a party with the world's most notorious terrorist. Then it was a few weeks earlier when I saw Inside Man and a Jewish community leader was guilty of working with the Nazi's. That church bashing all happened before I saw Nacho Libre (Yikes)!. Why can't we villainize terrorists like we villianize people of faith? What fiction-based movie since 9/11 has featured a terrorist as a villain? I can't name a single one!!!
GOOD: Noble endings: Too many movies recycle ad nauseam the same endings (1) winning money (2) winning the prom, talent show or some other contest. The movie Cars (spoiler alert) brought one of the most noble and inventive endings. The lead racecar was cheated out of front place by being knocked out in a terrible crash. The hero car decides to slow down just before the finish line and forgo victory. He then decides to go back and push from behind the crashed car so it gets second place and the hero car in third. Such strong acts of benevolence and self-sacrafice are the type of scenes that will impact kids. We need more of them.
Disclaimer: Sorry for my lack of independent movies viewed as they are often the better movies, as most of them are featured at the Fox Towers in Downtown Portland where I dread going because of long traffic and no parking. Oops, am I being political?
D'oh! Americans Don't Know Their Rights


Connected vehicles are rapidly becoming a reality in Europe and multiple benefits are expected to arise from their deployment: increased road safety and traffic efficiency as well as reduced CO2 emissions.
The market will evolve fast: we expect global revenues from connected vehicle services to grow from €100 billion in 2015 to nearly €350 billion in 2020.
The gradual moves towards highly automated vehicles will only accelerate this trend. Expected to be launched commercially in Europe in 2023, highly autonomous vehicles could reach a global base of 14 million by 2030.
These two evolutions could bring about a new industrial revolution and immense social progress. However, it is still unclear how this transition will take place and how the different players will be impacted.
The discussion on automated driving and connected cars, both at a technical and at an institutional level, has already started. The automotive and the telecommunication sectors, which are well established and leading European industries, have already been vocal in the debate. However these discussions have hardly spread much beyond vertical silos and/or at national level.
A European horizontal platform for interaction to define the challenges is missing.
This is why PTOLEMUS and LYSIOS are creating The Autonomous Club (TAC).
Automotive OEMs and their suppliers, insurance and rental companies, private and public transport operators together with infrastructure builders, city councils and of course the European institutions.
How will the stakeholders connect?
The Autonomous Club, is a European forum for discussion, brainstorming and exchange, which will gather participants from various horizons.
Openness to all stakeholders in the connected and automated vehicle ecosystems.
The forum organises bi-monthly events that will take different forms; breakfast meetings, half-day workshops or networking dinners. At each event, at least one institutional and one industry representative speak on the chosen issue.
These events will be opened to all stakeholders by invitation only. Club members will benefit from additional services.
Connected cars are already a reality in Europe and the market is expected to reach nearly €350 billion in 2020, but the revolution of transport will come from the deployment of automated vehicles. Although the first vehicles are not expected to be launched at the commercial stage before 2023, they could reach a global base of 14 million by 2030.
Despite this very quick uptake and its disruptive potential for multiple industries, very few businesses are aware of how the automated vehicles revolution will impact their future. Many are already on the move on these issues but the rest of the automotive ecosystem (OEMs and automotive suppliers, rental companies, private and public transport operators, infrastructure builders to name a few) needs to get in motion.
The topicality and the lack of awareness on this major development prompted The Autonomous Club (TAC) to organise a flexible programme of key topics based on the bi-monthly cycle of meetings.
While most of the meetings are planned in Brussels, if the needs is shared, TAC will be able to accommodate some of the meetings in other European capitals.
1- To identify the key strategic and business issues facing the sector.
A robust analysis of the economic, technical, social and strategic aspects of the development of connected and automated vehicles is crucial to detect the issues.
Some of them may already have been discussed but the complexity of connected and automated vehicles and the fast-paced environment they evolve in, requires stakeholders to constantly anticipate the emergence of new challenges.
2- To identify potential regulatory needs. Once current and upcoming issues have been spelled out, stakeholders will have a clearer picture of the gaps legislation should, or should not fill. Hence an open and inclusive discussion involving all stakeholders and issues, could be even more fruitful.
3- To foster discussion on European R&D needs. In order to help the sector develop and ensure the EU has a leading position on connected and autonomous driving, TAC will foster discussion on R&D priorities and necessary funding with the European Commission's representatives.
4- To build upon this analysis to take action and make their voice heard at the European institutional level.
The impact of automated vehicles on urban mobility. How will these vehicles interact with each other? How will they affect traffic, roads building, road maintenance, public transport and parking lots?
What are the benefits to The Autonomous Club members?
The spirit of The Autonomous Club is an open association of corporate members to inform and brainstorm on strategic issues around the vehicle automation and connectivity.
We expect to work together with and have an impact on key decision makers in the regulatory and business domains (European Commission, European Parliament, Brussels-based trade associations such as ACEA, CLEPA, FIGIEFA, etc.).
Typically the possibility to speak at one of the events during the year.