JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

via io9

If everything in the book made it onscreen, the movie would be 5 hours long.

Fourteen-year-old Kimmy is abducted in front of her house by a cult leader. She spends the next 15 years in an underground bunker with the Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne and three other women, believing that the world has ended and they’re the only survivors. One day the “Mole Women” are rescued, and Kimmy has to start her life over in a world where “phones look like cameras and even policemen have tattoos.”

It’s a good premise for a drama about how much America has changed in the last decade and a half, about shifting social norms, sexual mores and racial identity. Its protagonist could be a woman who must confront her emotional trauma, make up for lost time, and come to terms with a society that views her as a victim and a freak. Writers could really do something with that material. Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, creators of the now-classic 30 Rock, have covered all these themes, but gone even farther. They have written and produced what may be the funniest sitcom of the year.

Read our TV column The Binge at BusinessWorld.

Badil, the political thriller directed by Chito Rono from a screenplay by Rody Vera, was screened at the Film Development Council of the Philippines’s (FDCP) Sineng Pambansa festival in 2013. One of the finest Filipino movies of the decade, it tells us why elections in this country are so screwed up.

After the sparsely-attended festival, Badil seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Election season has begun, and the audience needs to see Badil in order to understand what we’re up against. But there are no plans to show the movie.

The director is amenable to screening it. The writer is amenable to screening it. The independent producer is amenable. Sine Pop-Up, which screens rarely-seen indie films, is eager to organize screenings. Even the movie theatres would be amenable to showing the film. What is holding it up?

The FDCP needs to get on board. Apparently showing a movie that already exists, that was partly funded by the FDCP and is just gathering dust (virtually), involves lots and lots of red tape. Even if a screening wouldn’t cost the FDCP anything. Why was the movie even made if we cannot get to watch it now, when it could not be more relevant?

Let’s get Badil shown. Spread the word on social media. Ask the FDCP to let the people see Badil.

Here’s our review of Badil from 2013.
Badil: Democracy for Sale

Elections are the pinnacle of Philippine political life – so emotional and all-encompassing, everything that follows is practically negligible. Every effort is exerted and no resource spared in order to win the vote; by the time the winner is proclaimed, there is nothing left.
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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, hardcover, illustrated, Php1199 at National Bookstores

Another quarter, another Westeros book from George R.R. Martin. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a collection of the Dunk and Egg stories which have appeared in previous anthologies. Therefore we cannot say that this book is extending the wait for Winds of Winter.

This could be a category in itself: Westeros Books To Tide Us Over Until The Winds of Winter is published. It includes The World of Ice and Fire, The Lands of Ice and Fire (maps), Dangerous Women and other multi-author anthologies featuring stories by GRRM.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a prequel to A Song of Ice and Fire. A century before the War of the Five Kings, the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall wanders across Westeros with his little squire Egg, joining jousts, getting embroiled in royal intrigues, and having rollicking adventures.

Featuring beautiful illustrations by Gary Gianni, A Knight reminds us of the illustrated King Arthur stories we loved as a kid. Of course if you’re looking for Game of Thrones before there was Game of Thrones, look up T.H. White, Malory, Mary Stewart, and the many retellings of the Arthurian myths. Battles, quests, wizards, incest, the works.
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Imagine that you are imprisoned in a tunnel that opens out onto a precipice two paces to your left, and a pit of vipers two paces to your right. To torment you, your evil captor forces you to take a series of steps to the left and right. You need to devise a series that will allow you to avoid the hazards — if you take a step to the right, for example, you’ll want your second step to be to the left, to avoid falling off the cliff. You might try alternating right and left steps, but here’s the catch: You have to list your planned steps ahead of time, and your captor might have you take every second step on your list (starting at the second step), or every third step (starting at the third), or some other skip-counting sequence. Is there a list of steps that will keep you alive, no matter what sequence your captor chooses?

Read the solution in Quanta. via 3QD.

Saffy had dental surgery two weeks ago. We noticed that she’d been swatting her face and snarling, and figured she had a toothache. The excellent vets at Makati Dog and Cat Hospital extracted five rotten teeth (Saffy is 15 and has never brushed her teeth in her life, being a cat). Saffy has recovered completely and is slightly nicer than she was when she was in pain, though she could still be the reincarnation of Josef Stalin. She’s even started eating hard kibble again, after having demanded paté-type cat food for the last year or so.

If we had a “normal” work schedule and went to the office everyday, we might not have noticed that our feline overlord needed medical attention. The great advantage of being freelance, i.e. living by our wits, is that we can decide how we’re going to spend our time. In the 21st century, time is a luxury that even the rich and powerful can barely afford. They’re over-scheduled and have to hoard their holidays. As long as we finish our assignments, we can go to the movies in the middle of the afternoon.

In our observation, people who live by their wits are less stressed than people with high-paying jobs or successful businesses. We don’t have real financial security, and we’re always aware that periods of liquidity can suddenly give way to penury. We’re accustomed to uncertainty and chaos, so we’ve learned to ride out the lean periods. This does not mean we’re lazy. Freelancers who are lazy cannot pay the rent or buy cat food. We toil, but we get to decide when to toil, usually in intense bursts.

Living by your wits isn’t for everybody, but if you know how to improvise and you don’t have ten children to buy braces for, we recommend it.