China Heavyweight

On Friday, Jan 27th, my wife and I attended the Sundance Film Festival, arguably the most famous independent film festival in the world.

Here is a more detailed history of the festival if you're interested, courtesy of BYU"s Daily Universe: Sundance: Then and Now.

The film we saw was China Heavyweight, a documentary about boxing in mainland China directed by Yung Chang.  Before the film started Yung explained that the Chinese title, Qian Chui Bai Lian, is an old idiom that means "to be tried and tested a thousand times over" and that this film was about more than just boxing.

The film was a compelling story about a school that takes some students, mostly children of poor farmers, and trains them to box.

Enjoy the Revolution - Egypt Then & Now

"Enjoy the Revolution":  In May I had the opportunity to go to Egypt.  I took this picture of a wall adjacent to Tahrir Square in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.  

Today marks the one year anniversary of thousands of Egyptians storming Tahrir and demanding the resignation of their then dictator-president Mubarak.

Their success was shocking and it was celebrated world-wide.  It inspired the uprise of many other oppressed peoples in the area.

It was the beginning of what is now known as the Arab Spring.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

We've all heard the anecdote that a picture is worth a thousand words, well then maybe a moving picture is worth a million words.   

Reflecting on the history of the 20th Century made me think a lot about different movies I've seen.  I posted before about the movie "The Untouchables."  It has caused be to start thinking about other movies and television shows that have molded my perception of the 20th Century such as "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan," "The Godfather" series, "Mary Poppins,"  "MASH," "The Simpsons," etc.

The effect these shows have had on me caused me to think about this powerful medium that has emerged out of the 20th Century.

Cinematography can be used for good and bad.  It can be a great learning tool, a good form of entertainment, a waste of time, or a great instrument of hate.  It can be used to free the audience from ignorance, make them laugh, make them bored, or trap them in a ball of propaganda and injustice.

Untouchable

This weekend I watched a pretty classic film that I had never seen before, "The Untouchables."  It depicts the story of Eliot Ness and his "Untouchables" who during prohibition swore to take down the head of the mafia, Al Capone.  This is perfectly related to this week's class, the 19th Century and control.

Prohibition was an attempt to control alcohol manufacturing and sales.  It was ratified as the 19th Amendment in 1919 and states "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited."

The story of the Untouchables is how they battle the whole city in order to take down the head of the illegal liquor flow.  They stand up for the law, sacrificing their time, hearts, even their lives.  They eventually take down Capone on tax evasion charges and he is sentenced to 11 years in prison where he died.  The movie is inspiring and teaches how we should stand up for the right even when the challenges before us seem insurmountable.

Frederick Was Great

Something that I talked with my group in class today but was not really discussed with the whole class was adaptation some leaders made during the 18th Century.  The enlightenment was changing the way people thought.  Self-worth was being preached.  People were starting to realize that they could and should be able to obtain happiness in this life.  The leaders who were smart, started to adapt to their new surroundings.  In a way, giving a little more in order to secure control over their state.

A good example is Frederick the Great of Prussia.  He built canals, built roads, and drained swamps for crops.  He supported the intellectuals and the artists.  He was close friends with Voltaire and supported Bach in his court.

He was a very shrewd ruler who was quick to do what was necessary, whether it was go to war or control the price of grain.  He was a great leader but not very humble, self proclaimed the "first servant of the state."  Nonetheless he still did run an autocratic state.

Frederick, and other leader's like him, experienced much more enjoyable ending to their reign as opposed to France, where Louis XVI and his wife were executed during the French Revolution.

Fighting Control with Control

Congress is trying to control the internet.  Wikipedia has a lot of power itself.  So it has chosen to fight control with control.

And so is Google is showing its support as well

Can't Touch This - Control

I am in the control group and have been keeping my eye out for any current control issues.

As was discussed in class Congress has been trying to pass some shady anti-piracy bills.  I voted for the current administration and can't say that I've been completely pleased with everything they have done but some of the things I have really appreciated are an increase in college funding, allowing children to be covered under their parents health care until they're 26, trying to end the wars in the middle east, and now this can be added to the list:

White House Says It Opposes Parts of Two Antipiracy Bills

Good stuff.

I agree that the piracy issue is a problem that must be addressed and I don't know how to solve it but this was not the right way to do it.  They can't be allowed to touch, change, anything they seem fit without oversight by an informed enforcer.

What do I know about the historical period and the digital concept assigned to me?

What do I know about control?

Well, I am a math major with a computer science minor.  I have taken several control classes.  This is a little different than control as a digital concept but the idea is related.  Given some system with inputs and outputs, a controller can be built to manipulate the outputs by affecting the inputs.  For example, consider the printing press, possibly one of the most powerful tools in history.  It changed society, classes, learning, etc.  The Catholic Church tried to control this phenomenon by instituting the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of prohibited books.

What do I know about the 17th Century?

I took Music 201 last semester and we covered up through the Baroque Period.  I know that the Renaissance was coming to a close and that the Baroque period took over during the 17th Century.  The most influential and important book in the English language is published, the King James Bible.  The pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620.  Great authors and scientists were producing great works including John Donne, Cervantes, Descartes, Galileo, Hobbes, and Locke.

And that's about all I know so far.

How digitally civilized am I?

Good question.  I'd say I'm decently digitally civilized, in the way that I know what I'm doing, how to get around, and I've been around the block a few times.  I'm not a super nerd with an astounding level of digital civility, which I am proud of, but I can hold my own when I need to.

I read all my news online.  I check out a few blogs every once and a while, nothing close to "follow" though.  I mostly check the news (NY Times), email, espn, facebook, and I guess now google+.