The Ghost­busters remake is a light­weight but enjoyable summer comedy and a lot of fun. Four women, mostly dis­cred­it­ed scientists, fight an increasing number of paranormal incursions and kick some as­s—with­out wearing skintight clothing or being adjuncts to male leads. Internet trolls may be outraged but the non-tra­di­tion­al casting works. Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones are funny and jell together. And Chris Hemsworth as the hunky but dim re­cep­tion­ist is an amusing bit of reverse casting, while Kate McKinnon seems to have become a queer icon overnight.

I dislike Hollywood’s lazy …continue.

History was made tonight as Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated by a major party to run for President of the US. It’s a watershed moment for women’s equality and it was long overdue.

I was a Bernie Sanders supporter in the earlier stages of the campaign, as his message resonated more with me. But I was always ready and willing to support Clinton. I can’t think of a nominee with a more impressive résumé who’s run for President: first lady of Arkansas for more than a decade, First Lady of the US for two terms, US Senator for New York state for eight years, and Secretary of State for …continue.

1018AD. King Cnut of Denmark (aka Canute) has recently conquered England, and now must broker peace between the Saxons and the Danes at Oxford. Also in Oxford are Winston, a talented il­lu­mi­na­tor of man­u­scripts, and Halfdan, a roguish half-Danish half-Saxon landless noble. A prominent Saxon has been murdered and Cnut commands Winston and Halfdan to in­ves­ti­gate.

While the mystery was reasonably while done, I found the anachro­nis­tic speech patterns quite jarring. The book is translated from Danish; I presume this is also true in the original.

Star Trek Beyond is the best of the Kelvin timeline Trek movies, easily surpassing the two previous episodes in the reboot.

The Enterprise is lured into an ambush where the ship is destroyed by Krall, a mega­lo­ma­ni­ac who has a grudge against the Federation. Most of the crew are captured, leaving only a few of the officers at large to run around fre­net­i­cal­ly. They find an ancient Federation ship, free the crew, and stop Krall before he can destroy a giant starbase.

I thought that this was the best of the three Kelvin movies and the …continue.

We’re in Los Angeles for the weekend to attend a wedding and it’s scorch­ing­ly hot. I took this photo of the car’s dashboard while we were at a stop light in Topanga Canyon. It reads 109°F (43°C). I actually saw the tem­per­a­ture briefly reach 111°F. I’ve ex­pe­ri­enced the low hundreds before, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt 109°F.

June was the 14th con­sec­u­tive month of record-breaking global tem­per­a­tures. Even Ireland is getting in on the act, with tem­per­a­tures soaring to 30°C (86°F) the other day.

Via carrots are orange and ReadyMade, here’s how to fold a t-shirt:

1. Lay shirt face-up on a smooth surface, long side facing you, with the neck on your left. With the edge of your hand, draw an imaginary line from shoulder to hem on the far side. Along this line, pinch the shirt with your left hand at the shoulder and with your right at the middle of the chest.
2. Fold the shoulder over, crossing left hand over right, to meet the hem along this line. Now pinch the hem and shoulder together with your left fingers.
3. Lift the shirt and uncross your hands, pulling the shirt taut. Give it a shake.
4. Lay the shirt down …continue.

I ac­ci­den­tal­ly deleted a note that I shouldn’t have in Evernote. It wasn’t obvious how to undelete it. I had to resort to the help:

• Open Notebooks
• Scroll all the way to the bottom
• Open the Trash notebook, which is unlabeled in the Mac desktop version of Evernote
• Restore the deleted Note

Abigail has gone missing from creepy Blackwater Farm days before her tenth birthday. Her twin Olivia has been mute ever since. Their strange mother is not helping matters and the father is acting oddly too. DC Jennifer Knight, who belongs to a secret psychic police task force, is the family liaison officer. She must convince Olivia to break her silence and reveal what she knows before time runs out for Abigail.

This was a reasonably good thriller that I think would have been better without the su­per­nat­ur­al elements.

Millenia ago, the Dark Elves almost destroyed the Nine Realms with their ultimate weapon known as the Aether. Now the Con­ver­gence, when the Nine Realms briefly align, is imminent and the surviving Dark Elves have returned to reclaim the Aether. Meanwhile on Midgard (Earth), as­tro­physi­cist Jane Foster discovers portals linking the realms, whereupon she in­ad­ver­tent­ly becomes the host of the Aether. Thor rescues his lover and brings her to Asgard. Many battles ensue across the Nine Realms as Thor prevents the Elves from invoking the Aether at the Con­ver­gence.

I preferred the first Thor film to …continue.

By 2154, the rich have moved off-planet to a utopic habitat, while the teeming billions languish in slums below. Elysium has Med-Bays which can cure anything; Earth scrapes by. Max (Matt Damon), an ex-con des­per­ate­ly in need of a cure, agrees to shoot down the shuttle of an Elysian CEO and hijack his brain. This lethal variety of industrial espionage leaves him holding the keys of the kingdom and makes him Los Angeles’ most wanted.

Blomkamp has taken the ever-growing gap that exists between rich and poor today, and ex­ag­ger­at­ed it into an un­scaleable cliff with the have-nots …continue.