Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
“The district banned sodas on campuses in 2004, starting a trend followed by the state as well as districts across the country.” From now on, kids, if you want a corn dog you’re going to have to go to the L.A. County Fair, because you won’t be able to get one at school like you’re used to. This week, you may have heard that the L.A. County School Board banned the sale of flavored milks as one way to reduce the amount of sugars school kids were getting from their little cartons of chocolate and strawberry dairy products. Well, it appears that move was just the start of a major menu overhaul the school board has planned for public school food services. Corn dogs and chicken nuggets are on their way out, and will be replaced with healthier foods like California rolls and spinach tortellini. We think this is a great idea. Because even though we love our corn dogs and chicken nuggets, there aren’t foods healthy folks should eat every day. And to grow into an adult with a sophisticated and worldly palate, it’s best to start when you’re a kid. (Los Angeles Times – Sushi for Corn Dogs)
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For most of us, traveling abroad to exotic foreign lands is not the prohibitively-expensive “once in a lifetime” dream vacation that it was for our parents. But jetting off to China, Europe or Japan for any decent length of time is still a fairly pricey prospect compared to, say, shuffling off for a weekend in Vegas or Manhattan. Yet, there are deals to be had if you want to break out your passport and go steep yourself in Asian culture for a time. And if you’ve had hopes of going to China, we found a pretty good deal for you. At the link, you’ll be able to read numerous details about a 10-day China tour offered by a company called smarTours. Depending upon how you pay for the package, you can get 10 days in Beijing and Shanghai for as little as $899, which includes airfare and lodging. Pretty cool, but you only have until July 12th to book your tour so you better move on this quickly. (smarTours – Amazing China Deal)
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The general population knows Twitter’s come and gone fully meta. Exhibit A: Arab Spring morphing into The Couch Rebellion. Exhibit B: mainstream media licensing content for #weinergate. But people following or followed in Japan might agree, Twitter in Japan has been decidedly and refreshingly un-meta since the Tohoku Earthquake on 3/11/11. So with that, some colleagues came up with this ethnographic study of Twitter in Japan. Infographics are gonna make the world turn yo.
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Yes, I was chosen to watch a battery of movies in a few days, deliberate with fellow judges, and pick the winners. You’d think it’s an easy task, just to sit and watch movies, but staying objective, realizing that a movie that might not be your style, still might be the best film, and there’s more to it. I judged at the SFIAFF, Cinevegas, and there was a couple more… I’m glad to help out. 15k for the champ is a pretty hefty prize considering the prize is usually zero at the smaller fests, but you do get to place those cute grape leaves on your movie poster. Thankfully, the films take place at night and they show 3 times each!
“The narrative jury consists of director Lynn Shelton (Humpday, My Effortless Brilliance), Head/Founder of Giant Robot Eric Nakamura, and screenwriter Daniel Waters (Heathers, BatmanReturns).” … “Unrestricted cash awards are given out in the following categories: Jury Award for Best NarrativeFeature ($15,000),…”
Very long press release after the jump.
“The stress on the Japanese people continues to compound as concerns about the radiation leaks from the Fukushima nuclear plant continue to rise.” After you look at the pictures at the link, you’ll realize that one morning in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami, someone walked into their affected neighborhood and saw a rather large boat on top of their house. In the last three months, you have likely seen long shots or aerial images of the disaster damage in Japan. But you probably have not seen a series of photos like this, which show close shots of specific spots along the Japanese coast and affected areas inland shortly after the earthquake/tsunami, and then three months after. Three things about this gallery are really striking. First, the damage and debris in the ‘before’ shots. Second, the amazing amount of cleanup and return to visual normalcy in the ‘after’ shots. And, third, the huge amount of cleanup and rebuilding work which still needs to be done. In fact, some of the spots in the after images look nearly as hopeless and woeful as they did right after the disaster. Still, hope here is the operative word, and we expect that as the months wear on, more and more images coming out of the disaster area in Japan will show us a rebuilding and reestablishment of normal, happy lives. (Bit Rebels –Before and After the Disaster)
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