Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Whats after Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare? — Its Color! – Um … no.
- ‘The King’s Speech’ Leaves Theaters And Is Replaced By Asterisks – That’s … fucked. I actually was interested in seeing that scene (since it was “silenced” for the in-flight version), and had no qualms about my daughter hearing it.
- When gimmicks sound better in a focus group than in practice – HA!
- Vastly improved global standing – Not all that surprising, since Obama actually seems to pay attention to what the rest of the world thinks. Oddly enough, that makes him more of a leader.
- WPTavern: A Better Way To Link To Previous Content Via Insights – Ooh, that looks fun. Plus — need to install WP 3.1.
- 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Doctor Who [Daily 10] – Like Stan, I knew 2, 8, and 9. Number 6 is kind of fun, too (as it’s one of my favorite eps).
- Move Over, Barbie! New “Waxing, Plucking, and Shaving” Monster High Doll is Tops with Young Girls – Yeesh.
- EDUSolidarity Day After, Part 3: Why would a teacher like me hang with a union? « Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub – I can tell you any number of stories about bad workers abusing ludicrous union contracts for ridiculous ends, where sloth and greed (among other sins) trumped responsibility and loyalty and providing value for the paycheck. But I can point to any number of cruel and uncaring employers who would gladly make folks work 12 hour days, 7 days a week, for a pittance, if they could get away with it. We don’t outlaw the billionaires who gained or retained their money on the backs of their workers; why should we outlaw collective bargaining because of those cases where it, too, has been abused?
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It Britain “The King’s Speech” has been classified as a 12A
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AFF274065
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/12a12
Explain to me again why you have free speech, and I don’t.
In the US it’s been classified as PG-13: “PG-13- Parents Strongly Cautioned – Some material may be not be appropriate for children under 13” … and that’s with the naughty words taken out. Which is ludicrous.
The reality is, sadly, this is a purely a commercial decision, the thought being that it will be easier to sell an Oscar-winning PG-13 film to “families” than an R-rated film. (That it was rated R in the theaters is laughable, too, but …). It expands not only the folks likely to pick it up (“R … that sounds pretty dangerous for Junior!”) but the venues it will be sold (e.g., at the supermarket).
It’s infuriating both for the basis of the rating (solely some language, handled in a non-obscene way) and the reasoning behind it (let’s mute that language out to get a better rating).
It’s not a free speech issue, though — neither the MPAA nor the BBFC are governmental bodies, nor has either government asked the producers of the films to remove the objectionable language.
I will probably not buy a copy of the film, just on this basis.