Bits and Bobs

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. I went rock climbing earlier today and I'm now in a whole world of pain. I have never been so grateful that I live in a ground floor flat before - my thighs do not enjoy staircases right now.

I'm afraid I'm a bit sparse on reading suggestions this week.

- Here's an interesting article looking at Downton Abbey and how it punishes the female characters any time they attempt to do something that subverts gender expectations.

- 3D printed cake?! My mind has been thoroughly blown.

- All my friends seem to be either getting married or attending a lot of weddings/ wedding-related gatherings. This all sounds like a lot of effort and is proving ridiculously expensive. Here's a very witty article talking about what it's like attending 18 weddings in one year.

- If I watch a tv programme or a film in which some computer genius must hack a computer system or otherwise do something clever with computers, I always wonder whether the text on the screen actually means anything or whether it's just been made up. My brother is a huge computer nerd and he always mutters grumpily under his breath when computers are depicted inaccurately on screen. I therefore found this article, deciphering the computer code shown in popular films, really interesting. 

Bits and Bobs

I've spent most of my Saturday napping. Hopefully you've been far more productive! Here's some interesting and have a wonderful week.

- The controversial Heidelberg Project turns a decaying community in Detroit into a colourful, surrealist, work of art.

- Anders Ramsell painted nearly 13,000 watercolours to make this 34-minute paraphrased version of Blade Runner. It's amazing and beautiful.

- The Beckham recently donated some designer apparel to a charity shop to raise money for the victims of the recent Philippines typhoon. Here's a list of the best charity shops to frequent when looking for designer gear.

- The Atlantic has a really interesting article about massive data mining and how it's changing employment. There's a section about names and CV bias that reminds me of a chapter from Freakonomics. I don't know if I find this sort of large-scale data analysis interesting or scary.

- While we're on the theme of large-scale data analysis - here's an interesting article looking at how anthropologists use twitter to study movement patterns.

- Do you want to read about the kinky sex lives of spies? Of course you do!

- Film special effects these days are pretty spectacular but here are some things that still don't look right. For me, I always think that flying looks odd in a film - no matter how great the other special effects are.

Bits and Bobs

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. Did anyone see any big fireworks displays for Guy Fawkes night? I live on the third floor of a house on top of a hill so I've had a pretty splendid view of dozens of fireworks displays all week.

- Photoshop can do some pretty terrifying things. But as long as photos have been around, there has been photo-manipulation. Here's an interesting article about the con-men who sold photos of ghosts.

- I love a good natural disaster film. This article discussing what would happen if ocean water was replaced with heavy water sounds like a Roland Emmerich film waiting to happen (although, with far more scientific accuracy).

- Can you guess which countries these Miss Universe contestants come from based on the always hilarious national costume round of the competition? I did freakishly well at this quiz and I'm not quite sure what that means about me.

- Here's an absolutely fascinating article looking at Nazis and medical science (not for the faint of heart).

- Every year everyone complains that Christmas is getting earlier and earlier. But apparently the Victorians campaigned about starting Christmas earlier as a worker's rights issue - starting your Christmas preparations earlier meant there wasn't a last-minute rush at the shops which ensured better working conditions for shop assistants.

- I love film score composer Hans Zimmer. Here's a really interesting interview where he talks about his favourite scores and the people he's worked with. I think it's great to have an insight into film-making from the composer's perspective since most interviews tend to focus on the director and actors.

- If you've recently seen the film Captain Philips but don't really know much about Somali pirates, you should give this article a read. For many people, partaking of piracy seems illogical considering the harsh penalties upon capture. But piracy is a multi-million dollar industry and money is a pretty strong incentive for young men in a country with a very young government and very poor economy.

- My home-town of Cambridge has apparently installed intelligent, glowing bike paths. Cool.

Bits and Bobs

Happy weekend! I hope you enjoyed your respective Halloween celebrations. This time between Halloween and Christmas is my favourite time of the year - primarily because it's now seasonally appropriate to watch this film over and over.

- Last Sunday I went to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum. It was awesome and you should definitely go! But first, check out these beautiful glacier photographs.

- Here's a really, really interesting article about racism in films and how celluloid film technology has contributed to keeping black skin off our screens.

- This bbc article explains why we're afraid of near-human faces.

- Check out this slideshow of incredible film costumes designed by Hollywood legend Edith Head.

- This is a fascinating article analysing the epic advertising campaign devised for the latest Hunger Games film. I've never really thought much about the creativity and planning that goes into marketing a huge franchise film.

- Apparently the Russians gave assorted world leaders gift bags containing surveillance equipment. The Atlantic has chosen a particularly hilarious picture of Putin to accompany their article.

- There is nothing more obnoxious than someone who incessantly posts selfies online (even the word 'selfy' is kind of obnoxious). This article defends the selfy as just another form of self-portrait.

- Anyone who knows me knows that I love both Musicals and Disney with a ferocity that is, at times, bordering on the obsessive. So here's an incredible version of Chicago's Cell Block Tango featuring assorted Disney villains.

Women as Reward

Last month I saw the Puccini opera, Turandot. The staging was incredible and the costumes were stunning but as the story unfolded, I found it increasingly difficult to sympathise with the plight of the story’s hero. Puccini’s opera is based on a story from the book ‘Seven Beauties’ by the 12^th century Persian poet, Nizami. In the opera, a Prince falls in love with Princess Turandot but in order to marry her he needs to solve three riddles. After solving the riddles, Turandot tries to renege on the deal, claiming that she has vowed never to be possessed by a man. Fair play, Turandot. However the chorus insists that the Prince has been successful in his challenge and therefore deserves to be rewarded with the princess’s hand in marriage.

While watching Puccini’s opera I couldn’t help but think of this article on Cracked.com (is a sentence no one has ever said before). The article argues that men are trained from a young age to believe that if they are successful, brave or cunning, they, like the prince in Puccini’s opera, will be rewarded with a beautiful princess.

This trope of the man being given a woman as a reward for some achievement is very commonplace in fairytales. The 12 Dancing Princesses, Sleeping Beauty and Hans Christian Anderson’s The Tinderbox all follow this general story.

Now the idea that men should be rewarded for their actions with women is perpetuated not by fairytales but by films. The Karate Kid, Back to the Future, Speed and Avatar are among the numerous examples given by Cracked of films where men are rewarded with beautiful women. Some films are obviously worse for this than others. The Cracked article mentions Transformers but I don’t actually think that Transformers deserves all the criticism it gets (is a sentence no one has ever said before). Shia LaBeouf’s character may be completely devoid of charm or talent but at least he and Megan Fox’s character, Mikaela, actually have conversations and vaguely get to know each other before getting together at the film’s close.

I actually think one of the worst offenders for this clichéd trope is The Matrix. Neo spends the entire film looking bewildered and underwhelming people and yet, when he’s getting a serious ass-kicking by Agent Smith in the third act, Trinity declares her love for him. Really? I don’t think they actually have a conversation that is a) longer than a few minutes or b) not about how awesome Morpheus is. Essentially, just by virtue of being The One, Neo gets a hot woman and a badass coat.

So from where has this trope originated? One theory suggests we have the ancient Greeks to blame. In Greek mythology, inheritance is often passed down the female line so the man who marries the king’s daughter inherits the throne and the wealth. In The Iliad, Menelaus becomes king of Sparta through marrying Helen; Oedipus becomes King of Thebes by marrying the recently widowed queen. And there are similar examples in Celtic and Breton myths. In a system of matrilineal inheritance, it seems reasonable for young men to be awarded marriage only after proving themselves through some sort of challenge because it ensures that the throne and the kingdom’s wealth isn’t going to some incompetent moron.

The ‘woman as reward’ trope as seen in films is different from the trope as seen in fairytales. Usually films show the couple getting to know each other and falling in love over a period of time to make it more palatable to modern audiences. The women are seen to choose the men rather than just being presented to them. And there are films that subvert this trope such as Casablanca, Hancock and, of course, Harry Potter where it’s the ginger-haired sidekick that gets the girl rather than the titular hero. The ‘woman as reward’ trope probably isn’t going anywhere any time soon but at least films have to try and show that the woman has some agency in the matter.

Bits and Bobs

It's been a long time since my last bits and bobs post. Here are some interesting things I've read recently...

- Here's a really interesting article looking at hysteria in the facebook age. While hysteria used to only affect small communities (usually focusing around fear of witches), facebook now allows hysteria to spread across a far wider geographical area.

- Check out this article comparing modern and classic film posters. I love the old illustrated posters.

- What do happy people do differently? Read here to find out.

- I loved this article about imaginary friends. As someone who had an overactive imagination as a child, it's interesting to read about other people's experiences of the fantastical and fanciful.

- Here are some amazing pictures of LEGO used to show urban density taken to horrific extremes. Makes the LEGO town my brother built when we were little looking kind of pathetic in comparison.

Bits and Bobs

It's been a while since I did a bits and bobs post (thanks to some pretty busy weekends) so I have loads of bits and bobs to share today. There's been lots of really interesting things about too - yay for high-quality journalism!

- A fascinating look at the woeful dirth of films about women. And speaking of women in films, here's an article looking at the newest incarnation of the Superman franchise and whether or not Lois Lane is a modern woman.

- The Atlantic tries to explain a mysterious mass extinction event.

- A woman shares her story about living with an adopted murderer in the family.

- Have you all seen the hilarious parody PSA about 'bitchy resting face'? If not, check it out immediately. And then read this great article about why women are expected to smile more. As someone who is frequently told by complete strangers to smile more when walking about minding my own business, this article resonated with me a lot.

- It has been pretty well established thus far that I am really into maps. Here's an awesome, hand-drawn map of the world depicting the adventures you can undertake in each country - it's like a cartographic bucket list.

- Here are some mind-blowing photos of space. I really want to check out this exhibition!

- The Guardian sheds some light on the atrocious ways that some ministers have been manipulating statistics recently.