Month: November 2010

This was too good for me to pass up.

Here‘s the source.

With the recent news clips of airport employees patting down every inch of a flyer’s body, it seems as if the “privacy bubble” we all used to talk about in elementary school has been obliterated. Issues of molestation are also of concern over intimate pat-downs of young children.



Quickly reacting to the huge public outcry and uproar over invading privacy, Timmovations’ dynamic duo Tim Geoghegan and Matthew Ryan came up with an ingenious current-affairs-awareness-inducing-while-trendy business. 4th Amendment Wear is a collection of articles of clothing that feature the 4th Amendment in metallic-based ink, which will show up on the TSA (Transportation Security Administration of the U.S.A)’s new scanners.

Since 9/11, security techniquess have become more and more sophisticated, but also more and more intrusive. American citizens have been mostly unresponsive to the invasion of privacy until the TSA introduced state-of-the-art body scanners that “would have caught the underwear bomber”. Apart from pilots, nobody is exempt from these procedures (a scan and/or a pat-down), and flight attendants are still negotiating against this double standard between the two professions.

I think Timmovations have come up with a brilliant idea, they reacted swiftly to target growing abhorrence of the public and their entrepreneurial thinking is outstanding. As of right now, the lady intimate styles are sold out, so if you’re planning on flying to the U.S. over the break or want to buy a witty Christmas present for your American relative, put your pre-order in now!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8048720/The-Social-Network-Face-off-at-Facebook.html

Facebook, the social networking site that racked up an extremely impressive 200 million users within a year, has completely changed the face of society since its start-up in 2004. Issues of privacy, controversy over bans from certain countries, and even pedophiles have plagued Facebook’s track record. However, it seems that the history of the beginning of Facebook deserves more attention. The Social Network,

“We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.”

I’m sure everyone has, at least once in their life, tried to look for lyrics to that song on a search engine.  And about 90% of these people should have stumbled upon a lyrics site named MetroLyrics.

MetroLyrics is a subsidiary of MetroLeap Media Inc., a company started by then 15-year-old Milun Tesovic.  After already running a successful hosting company, he found that web users were constantly on the lookout for music and music videos, and lyrics just seemed to be the missing puzzle piece.  Describing how obvious a task it was for him,

“So I made a quick script with my own code and started a database of music lyrics. … It cost $9 a month to buy up the domain.”


Milun, with the help of his business partner and family friend Alan Juristovski, led the online lyrics industry and ventured on the pathway of providing free and public information through the funding of ads and sponsorship.  MetroLyrics has continued to pioneer partnerships, such as the licensing agreement with Gracenotes in 2008 (compensating songwriters and copyright holders).  The company is the world’s largest lyrics supplier and boasts 40+ million unique users every month.

At last year’s Enterprize conference, Milun was a guest speaker addressing a topic none other than Entrepreneurship.  Establishing a new business is no easy task, and this young and bright star is definitely one entrepreneur to watch.

In my opinion, one of the most ludicrous and despicable businesses in the world is the shark finning industry. It is most unethical, and I often wonder how the murderers of these sharks can sleep at night. Of course, one may blame the shark’s demise to the Chinese people, due to their excessive consumption of this “luxury food” product, but what truly is the root cause of this issue?

Watch Rob Stewart’s stunning and award-winning documentary Sharkwater and decide for yourself.

As an avid and genuinely proud James Franco fan, I like to keep myself up-to-date with all of this talented actor’s ventures. From his blockbusters (namely, the Spiderman franchise with Tobey Maguire) to his schooling (UCLA, then Columbia, and finally Yale this September for his Ph.D…with many many more in between), James Franco’s projects have never ceased to interest me.

So when I heard about his new film, 127 Hours, I immediately wiki-ed it and almost keeled over with anticipation for this dramatic biographical film. When I googled the movie today, I was pleased to find that it screened at three prominent film festivals. However, in that same article, attention was more drawn to the fact that no less than 6 people have fainted during the movie’s daring amputation scene. You see, James Franco plays Aron Ralston, the unbelievably determined mountain climber whose claim to fame is amputating his own arm to escape from death because it was trapped behind a boulder.



So would this type of extreme audience reaction be a marketing dream or nightmare? Fox can certainly use this as a strategy for building hype, but as 127 Hours isn’t a horror movie, this may affect the target audience it originally intended to reach. Regardless though, I feel that this film’s admirable approach to cinematography is most respectful, and Academy-Award winning director Danny Boyle’s team does not want to “dumb down” Ralston’s experience.

I am not a fan of bloody movies, but how can I be a James Franco fan if I don’t watch his potential Best Picture winning film? I’ll let you know how bad the scene gets, but all I’ll have to do is come home to see this face as my laptop screensaver to feel grounded and alright.




Side Note (I hope this doesn’t count for the word count…): Roger Ebert thinks that “We could do it too. Oh yes, we could.”

EDIT: Going through the list of Best Pictures before the Oscars last month, I finally watched 127 Hours! And it was amazing! I promised myself I wouldn’t close my eyes but it was honestly a reflex that I had no control over. I watched probably 95% of the amputation scene and it did not make me faint. However, I was watching this movie on a 52″ TV screen. If I was to experience this film in a theatre with stellar surround sound…boy, I might have had to go on a conveniently timed washroom break. Anyway, PLEASE WATCH THE FILM. James Franco, however disappointing his acting was as host of the Oscars, is perfectly casted as Aron Ralston. (March, 2011)