Category: Various and Sundry

Various and Sundry

The “Efficiency Gap” and Gerrymandering

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

As mentioned in a post last month, I’m very interested in addressing gerrymandering, the political practice of dividing up voting districts in a way that would befuddle the designers of Tetris. Last month, I highlighted Brian Olson’s algorithm to make voting districts more compact. However, in this article by Erica Klarreich, she suggests that a district’s compactness is not the sole criterion for gerrymandering and talks more about ways to address the problem. Hopefully, this…

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Producing Various and Sundry

Harsh Truths about that Collective Hunch that is Reality

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Although I’ll frequently list articles worth reading on the blog –such as the changing dynamics of film financing or the automation of work— I rarely do “listicles” not only because they’re usually slick, quick pieces designed as clickbait, but also because they don’t give me too much upon which to reflect. Perhaps it’s the timing, but this Forbes(!) listicle by Jessica Hagy made me reflect about what I know now that I don’t think I understood…

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Various and Sundry

Crisis of Infinite Star Treks: The Naked Greed Time

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

This is the 29th entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. Frankly, I though we’d all be done with all things Axanar by now, but since certain Star Trek “fans” continue to try and fleece other fans, I needed to weigh in again. I’ll cut the chase: Axanar Productions (Alec Peters, et al), the folks who crowdfunded about $1.4 million to make a…

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Rants Various and Sundry

Getting Rid of Gerrymandering

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I have friends and colleagues all over the political spectrum, so their reactions to last Fall’s election was quite varied, though perhaps all of them might agree that our country, post-election, feels more fractured and partisan than ever. In wanting to be more politically engaged, I also wanted to find something that all (or, I guess, most) of said friends and colleagues could rally around as Americans. Surely we can all unite in eliminating gerrymandering. What…

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Various and Sundry

The Continually Evolving Appetites of Worldwide Filmgoers

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Following the film industry is something I do frequently enough to merit a tag. One article in Wired, by K. M. McFarland, that particularly caught my notice last July noted how the expensive fantasy epic Warcraft did miserably in the United States, yet comfortably in the rest of the world. So now we have an article by Todd VanDerWerff in Vox that also explores that divide between the U.S. and global box office. Look at those lists…

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Various and Sundry

RIP, Robert Osbourne

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Growing up in the DC area, my dad made full use of all the free film series places like the National Archives, Library of Congress, and East Gallery would provide. And, of course, he’d take us along. It was at these places that I first saw such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Fort Apache, and Gone with the Wind. “It was TCM before TCM,” I explained. Earlier this week, the man who epitomized Turner…

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Various and Sundry

Get your ass to Mars! (But first, lawyer up)

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I could say I was always interested in space law, but honestly, I didn’t think about it too much until my Dad decided to do his law school thesis on the laws relating to geosynchronous satellites. It made me appreciate how complex space law can be. However, much like Burkina Faso‘s strident claims to the geostationary space above it, many of the issues seemed the epitome of academic. When would there be the possibility of any case? So it was…

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Various and Sundry

Recommended Reading: Netflix and Martin Scorsese’s Next Film

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

David Sims has a longer piece in The Atlantic about how Martin Scorsese’s next film, which sounds very much in the tradition of his gangster epics Casino and Goodfellas, will be coming from… Netflix? I’ve read several pieces about this news over the past few days and all of them mark how this seems to herald a change — but this piece goes a bit more in-depth in terms of what this might mean or…

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Various and Sundry

The Worst of Both Worlds: Axanar Edition

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

This is the 28th entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. Very far-reaching world events you may have heard of –and good ol’ work duties– have been dominating my attention for the past two weeks. However, for a small subset of Star Trek fans like myself, there has also been big Star Trek news of late: First, Star Trek: Discovery is apparently delayed further.…

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Producing Various and Sundry

Time Management is a Lie

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Writer, and fellow GTD fan, Terri Huck passed along this thoughtful piece by Oliver Burkeman about the modern obsession with “time management.” It’s a great read, as it goes back into some of the origins of what is now something of a cottage industry on making us ever-more productive. The article delves into the origins of time management — which goes back way more centuries than you might, at first, imagine, and moves forward to today. It…

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