Lots of Hollywood movies like to dress themselves in fancy, vaguely cryptic titles that are designed to convey said film’s profundity and deep symbolism.  Think 21 Grams.  Think House of Sand and Fog .  But some movie titles exhibit sheer brilliance in their elegant simplicity.  Witness:

 

 

It’s about snakes.  On a plane.  What more do you need to know?  Since it stars Samuel L. Jackson, it might more appropriately be titled:

 

Snakes on a Motherfuckin’ Plane

 

If you are so incredibly dense as to require an overview of the plot, here’s a trailer.  I didn’t go to midnight showings of any of the Star Wars or Lord of the Rings films, but I totally want to see this movie at midnight with a large group of irony-gifted friends.  The sheer levels of absurdity implicit in film’s title leave me feeling giddy and lightheaded.  I’m also beginning work on plot treatments for the slew of shamelessly derivative movies that are sure to cash in on the original’s success.  Tell me what you think of these titles:

 

 

This one’s a little more highbrow:

 

Escaped Penguins from a Secret Military Weapons Program in a Motherfuckin’ Art Gallery

I may be meeting with a City of Minneapolis official in the next few weeks to discuss plans for making the city’s forthcoming WiFi network accessible and affordable to people with disabilities.  Here’s the idea I’m currently toying with.  The city will be contracting with one or more private providers to operate the network.  I’d like to see the contract include a provision that requires the provider(s) to set aside a certain amount of money for an “assistive technology fund.”  People with disabilities who live in Minneapolis and meet certain income guidelines could access the fund to purchase a computer and/or assistive technology to use with that computer.  In addition, the monthly subscription fee for accessing the network would be discounted for qualifying people with disabilities.  I’d love to see a computer distribution system for all low-income residents, but people with disabilities face additional challenges because they may not be able to easily get to a public terminal in a library or community center.  Furthermore, those computers may not be equipped with the appropriate assistive technology specific to a person’s disability. 

 

My first task is to research any existing best practices in terms of making municipal WiFi accessible and affordable to people with disabilities; I’m not expecting to find much since municipal WiFi is still a nascent concept.  But anyone with ideas or leads on best practices should definitely send them my way. 

A big shoutout to my brother Scott, who was just offered a faculty position with the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.  It’s a bit weird to imagine my uber-liberal brother teaching a classroom full of uniformed cadets, but perhaps some of his progressivism will rub off on them.  Let’s hope there are no hazing rituals involved.  And, holy crap, you would not believe the sweet salary and benefits package they’re giving him.  I need to score myself a job with the federal government at some point.

 

I’m proud of you, little brother.  But I do expect you to buy me a nice dinner when I come out to Monterey.  And if you do rent a place in San Francisco for the weekends, make sure it’s accessible. 

The New York Times recently ran a story about the ethics of piggybacking on a neighbor’s wireless hotspot.  Most residential wireless hotspots are unencrypted because the owner never bothers to activate the router’s security features, which makes the hotspot available to anyone who is within range of the signal.  A few people purposely leave their networks unencrypted as a sort of public service to the neighborhood, but most open networks are the result of neglect, not civic virtue.  I’ve debated leaving my network open to my neighbors, but the potential risks of a slower internet connection and unauthorized access to my personal files are significant enough for me to dismiss the idea.  Besides, a quick scan of the available hotspots in the immediate vicinity reveals that there are plenty of other options for any freeloaders in my building. 

I had lunch today with a friend from law school.  We were talking about how few of our classmates we keep in touch with.  The conversation turned to our law student days and my friend said, “It [law school] was full of Republicans.  I thought there would be more people like me, people who wanted to change the world, but most of them only seemed concerned with how much their paychecks would be.”  And she kind of had a point.  When I got to law school, I quickly realized I had no interest in any sort of private practice and I never really felt like I had much in common with most of my classmates.  The few lasting friends I have from my law student days are all people who chose public interest or nontraditional career paths.  I’m not implying that law school primarily attracts greedy, self-centered people (although there were times when I was ready to drop out and go to grad school), but I think the culture of law school is unavoidably geared towards preparing students for private practice.  Unfortunately, those of us who were interested in other options sometimes felt a little marginalized.