(un)informed confusion
~ and other odd oddities ~

5.25.2007

A Few Good Fonts, vol. XVII.01 (boldface)

Several authors, a law prof, and an artist-in-residence wax poetic on their favourite fonts in this Slate article. A few "telling" snippets:

I talked to my therapist, and she said my love of Courier stems from my childhood.
-Elisa Zuritsky, writer and producer of Sex and the City


It exists only on Hewlett-Packard #92286P, an obsolete font cartridge that plugs into an obsolete printer. When my printer dies, my beloved font will die as well.
-Anne Fadiman, author of At Large and At Small


I also like the fact that in [my favourite font] each letter is accorded the exact same amount of space, which I think is only fair to the 'i' and the 'l'.
-Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York


I can even hear the rattle of the metal ball against the sheet of paper, I swear.
-Jonathan Lethem, author of You Don't Love Me Yet: A Novel


Out of admiration, out of superstition, out of habit, in chivalrous devotion, on too many computers (for how many thousands of words?), on three continents, at all hours of the day and in every single human mood, I have remained completely loyal to this font. Fourteen point, to be precise.
-Dushko Petrovich, artist in residence at the Royal Academy, London


My favourite font? Palatino, or, I suppose, Book Antiqua — eleven point, to be precise. Why? I don't know. I guess it just looks nice.

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5.16.2007

Empty words?

There's an excellent if brief piece in last week's Maclean's that outlines the surreptitious but very real presence of Chinese spies in Canada. This comes on the heels of Chinese-born Canadian Celil Huseyin's life sentence, handed to him by Chinese courts on the premise that Celil is a Uighur nationalist (according to mainland law, not only are Uighur nationalists a very bad thing, but dual citizenships such as Celil's don't count for much, either).

And thus off to prison he goes. In his tracks: a stupefied Canadian government that, as far as I can tell, either has no idea what it is doing, or has several contradictory ideas and doesn't understand the concept of "management". As J. Michael Cole at the Taipei Times writes,

Sadly for Celil and [Maher Arar] precedent notwithstanding, he is unlikely to receive much help from Ottawa -- or the rest of the international community, for that matter. And the reason is simple: China.

It is one thing for Canada to reprimand Syria on human rights for the very real possibility that individuals in its prison system are being badly treated, if not tortured. [...]

But hapless Celil has a tremendous handicap: China's economy and the lure it has, siren-song-like, on other countries. Statistics from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada show that Canada's total trade with China last year was close to C$42 billion (US$37.3 billion), while two-way trade with Syria for the same period was approximately C$72 million. China's GDP was estimated at US$2.225 trillion in 2005. Syria's was US$25.84 billion. [...]

It is one thing to "anger" Damascus and put bilateral trade at risk; it is quite another when it comes to China.


It seems to me that the Canada-China connection is slowly turning into one of the world's great publicly mismanaged relationships, a heap of economic and political potential that seems to lack any clear vision. Even today, breaking his usual post-Harper silence, former Prime Minister Paul Martin weighed in on the debate.

It's no secret that Canada has for eons attempted to diversify its export portfolio beyond the great consumer market to the south — take Trudeau and his failed Third Option trade initiative with the European community, for example.

Post-9/11, the reality that the Canada-U.S. border could be closed in a heartbeat has become all too real, especially if a porous border becomes a threat to American national security.

China presents Canada with a real opportunity for economic change. We have resources; China wants them. At the same time, the Chinese government and ruling communist party are very unpopular in Quebec, a key battleground in Canada's electoral landscape. Governments throughout the world have been reticent to threaten China with real consequences when faced with the CCP's human rights regime. Empty words and criticism? Sure. Real action? Absolutely not. The taste of China's economic teet is simply too sweet to dismiss, especially when the alternative is considered: human rights — hardly profitable.

Canada wants to play the China game somewhere in the middle. Criticize, embrace; become strategic partners, keep a distance. Play a human rights card; play a Canada card. Feign indignation. Our "strategy" has clearly miffed the Chinese. As with many things in Canadian foreign policy of late, "unrealized potential" is, sadly, the shoe that fits.

If our government wishes to affect change in China on matters of Canadian interest — Celil is a prime example — it needs to take a clearer position: foster a relationship, as it seems to want to, or get out. The CCP has no real stake here, and we have no real stake there. Until that changes, Chinese leaders can quite simply ignore Canada, regardless of what card we play.

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5.13.2007

11 important lessons from Spider-Man 3

1. If you kill your best friend's dad, it's OK; being best friends is more important than semantic, easy-to-ignore distractions like criminal law and premeditated homicide
2. People with emo haircuts are obviously just evil versions of their normal selves
3. New York, or at least lower Manhattan, is inexplicably full of sand
4. It's OK to walk into a jazz club and yank the singer off stage mid-song. She won't get fired or in trouble or anything, even if the rest of the bar is full of patrons who have paid cover
5. 'Physics' is a bunch of nonsense someone made up in the 1600s hoping to confuse the film industry
6. If an alien life form lands on Earth, no one but a college physics professor played by Dylan Baker will care
7. #6 only applies until the life form inhabits a rubber suit, whereupon it can be defeated through the mostly inexplicable use of either (1) ringing steel tubes or (2) church bells of an obviously different pitch. Jazz arrangements containing a variety of notes, harmonies, and wide range of vibrations won't work, however, and will instead inspire the alien to break into an embarrassing dance number
8. When a superhero gains the ability to shape-shift, he/she will always miraculously shape-shift back into the same outfit. This leads one to wonder if shape-shifting also has a dry-cleaning effect
9. Women, or at least Kirsten Dunst, have no climbing ability whatsoever... especially in those scenes where imbuing a character with realistic physical abilities would inconveniently ruin several plot points
10. The last film in a trilogy must always have at least two overwrought endings
11. Despite his unquestionable awesomeness, a Bruce Campbell cameo does not rectify Rules 1-10

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5.08.2007

Better late than never?

According to a report from BBC News, in-person Japanese PM visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine appear to have ended. PM Shinzo Abe instead made an offering to the shrine, declining to visit the Akasaka/Tokyo site in person:

Mr Abe offered a potted masakaki tree, accompanied by a card that read "the prime minister", to mark Yasukuni's spring festival on 21-23 April, a spokeswoman for the shrine said.


Although the debate over whether Japanese public officials should visit/not visit the shrine is usually limited to discussions of optics — and the visits themselves often seen as highly politicized lip service — this small gesture, IMHO, could prove to be a meaningful "first" in the necessary, but so far unrealized, establishment of a mutually accommodating East Asian security community.

And that's that.

5.07.2007

Late-Night Movie Censorship = bad

On Saturday night TBS aired a version of Gladiator so heavily edited that the fight scenes — some of which contain major plot points — became incomprehensible. When will major networks, American and otherwise, finally realize that chopping a movie into bits and then airing it amounts to artistic castration?