Creepy Animated Map Of Wal-Mart Growth
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 15, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Thursday, January 15th, 2009The creepy video featured here shows the virus-like expansion of Wal-Mart in the United States (much clearer full-size animated map here). We all know that Wal-Mart is huge, but did you know that their annual sales are greater than the GDP of Saudi Arabia? Or that they employ more people than live in Idaho? I’ve [...]
The creepy video featured here shows the virus-like expansion of Wal-Mart in the United States (much clearer full-size animated map here). We all know that Wal-Mart is huge, but did you know that their annual sales are greater than the GDP of Saudi Arabia? Or that they employ more people than live in Idaho? I’ve strangely never shopped at Wal-Mart, not because of snobbishness or political correctness, but probably more because of geography. Wal-Mart has a strategy (see When Wal-Mart Is Gone) of opening several stores in separate rural areas and later closing the stores to condense the traffic into a “super store”, leaving behind what is known in real estate as a Dark Wal-Mart. For some fairly balanced insight into Wal-Mart in general, see this How Stuff Works piece. For a more anti-Wal-Mart view see Ask Al – The Battlemart Blog at WalmartWatch.com Or check out the DVD Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Until The End of the World
[ Comments Off ]Posted on December 25, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Thursday, December 25th, 2008Wim Wenders’ Overlooked Masterpiece – Bis ans Ende der Welt (Until The End of the World)
One of my favorite films of all time is also probably one of the most overlooked: Wim Wenders’ Until The End of the World. Released in 1991, and set in 1999, it tells a multi-layered tale about a novelist (Eugene Fitzpatrick, played by Sam Neill) who follows his dreamy and spontaneous wife (Claire Tourneur, played by Solveig Dommartin) around the world as she chases a mysterious man (Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee – William Hurt) from country to country, finally ending up in Australia, where she discovers that he is the son of an American scientist who has developed a special camera that will enable the blind to see. As a backdrop to all of this, the world is wondering if America will shoot down a failing Indian nuclear satellite. All of which gives the impression that this is a Sci-Fi film. Which it is, in part, utilizing some very well-executed realistic-future sets and props. But more importantly, it’s a poetic tale of pursuing your dreams, understanding the connectedness of things, and one of the quickest tours of multi-cultural quirks ever captured on film. So why am I writing about this film now? Because a friend just gave me their 3-Disc PAL format DVD
