Here are the stars of the 1986 film Top Gun (which you can probably see playing somewhere on TV right now), as they appeared in 1986 and as they appear today:
Somewhere in Tom Cruise’s cellar, there’s a portrait of him aging and bearing the mark of every act he performed in the service of the Church of Scientology.
Ah, Top Gun…
I’m a little tied up doing some Mother’s Day stuff, so this is going to be a quick post. To all of you who are moms, whether it’s biologically or because you played that role in someone’s life, Happy Mother’s Day! The world’s a better place because of you.
I hate it when my fellow techies say “so simple your mom could use it”. My mom is the chief of cardiology at a major metropolitan hospital and can tell the difference between a healthy heart and one with a blockage just by listening. To me, it all sounds like fluid rushing through pipes. She could kill you and make it look like natural causes. And she was the one who suggested that I do my science fair project on computers, a path from which I’ve never strayed since. So I never use “mom” to refer to a naive, technophobic user, and really , neither should you. Moms have more going on than you might think, and Alexandra Samuel explains this in Thank Your Mom — She Taught You How to Tech.
In closing, here’s a graphic courtesy of George “That’s Captain Sulu to you!” Takei for all you fans of Mother’s Day and Alien:
Here’s an interesting idea for a film: newspaper reporters try to find out what’s going on with a guy who places a classified ad that reads:
WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
Funny thing: the movie’s plot traces its origins to an actual classified ad placed in Backwoods Home Magazine back in 1997:
I think I’ll have to catch this movie when it comes out.
“The economy may be in recession,” writes the site for FHM, the companion to the men’s magazine, “but there’s plenty of growth out there in the UK at the moment. The bad news is that it’s all under girls’ arms.”
This in reference to a recent appearance by research student Emer O’Toole, who came to the conclusion 18 months ago that shaving conforms to artificial gender norms. I’ve posted the appearance below:
While it’s not my preferred style, hairy armpits on a woman has never been a dealbreaker for me — but then again, I’ve made out with my share of hippie-chick types. What do you think?
He should also have a smoking jacket.
Here’s the cover of the current US edition of Time. I think the kid’s old enough to have been weaned, but it would seem that Hot Mom doesn’t think so:
Here’s the cover of the current European edition, which as usual, features a weightier topic.
And here’s a great parody of the US edition:
Cathay Pacific is one of my favourite airlines. They live, eat and breathe service, from having great planes with reasonable layouts (as compared to say, United Airlines’ “Economy Minus”) and amenities (they’ve had individual seat-back entertainment units since the late ’90s) to niceties I haven’t seen any other airline provide (such as a HK$50 coupon for food at the Hong Kong airport if you’re going to stay there for over an hour).
Unfortunately, I don’t fly on Cathay Pacific either frequently or expensively enough to merit a pass to their amazing first class/business/elite traveller lounge, featured in the video below:
That changed as of yesterday. Cathay Pacific signed a deal with Klout, the web service that assigns people a score based on their influence across social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and so on. If you have a Klout score greater than 40, you can use their lounge at San Francisco’s airport as if you were a first class passenger. Next to me, The World’s Greatest Accordion-Playing Tech Evangelist and the Thrilla from Manila, I qualify by a decent margin:
All you need to do is walk up to the lounge’s front desk, call up your Klout score on your phone, show off your score and if you’ve got the juice, you’re in!
This isn’t the first of a few perks that I’ve qualified for with my Klout score. The best one was still the free flight to San Francisco on Virgin Airlines.
I’m now waiting for perks based on your Klouchebag score, the rating based on your Klout douchebaggery:
I have no clear idea why Klouchebag thinks I have English problems. I’m told that it considers the use of exclamation marks to be “misuse”.