Thursday, December 29, 2011

And the war drum beat again!


In the past, military conflicts have been preceded by acts of aggression involving the occupation of land or resources, ethnic violence or stealing Helen away from her domineering husband. But today, the precursor of an armed invasion is often a concerted campaign of mis-information and a body of evidence that substantiates the eventual decision to take action against “the evil ones”.

Past experiences have included testimony to a US congressional committee that Kuwaiti children were tipped out of their incubators by Iraqi soldiers and left to die on the floor. It was this testimony, of a 15 year old Kuwaiti girl that tugged at the heartstrings of the American public and was the public relations coup that effectively sanctioned the US led 1990-1991 invasion of Iraq ( click here for a full account of this story). It was subsequently discovered that the girl was actually the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to Washington and had never been to Kuwait during the period in question.

Friday, December 23, 2011

The Dark Knight Rises



The web has been buzzing this week with the launch of the teaser trailer for next years blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises". The final chapter in Christopher Nolan's trilogy promises to be as epic as the initial two installments and what I loved most about the trailer was that it gave nothing substantial about the movie away. The trailer has just broken an all time iTunes download record, 12,5 million views to the iTunes Movie Trailers site in just 24 hours! This is notwithstanding the fact that the trailer, initially an iTunes exclusive is now available on youtube and other sharing sites. Refreshing (actually more reassuring), to see that I am not alone in my excitement. Ironically, the previous record was held by Marvel's The Avengers trailer (10.5 million views in a 24 hour period), my second most anticipated movie for 2012. Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" would have to settle for third spot in this list.