I've been meaning to get to this for a while now

You should all know by now that shit is going down in Iran. It looks like the government rigged the presidential election and didn't even bother making it convincing and a lot of people are having none of it. The police had shot a few dozen people and beaten lots more, but it's difficult to get a handle on what's going on because of a communications blackout. Here's the problem: Iran isn't some jerkwater. They can't keep the lid on things forever because the economy will collapse. It looks like the resistance is way past putting down. I think the government will have no choice but to give concessions, hopefully very soon before anybody else gets killed.

I just watched Short Circuit. When I was a wee lad, there were three movies I watched all the time until my mom got sick of them: Spaceballs, The Goonies and Short Circuit (Bill &Ted's Excellent Adventure might be in this category if my mom didn't like it almost as much as I do). It is every bit as good as I remembered. I like movies that pair up nerdy guys with attractive hippie women who like animals and dislike nuclear weapons. Since it was the 80s, there's a lot of sexual humor for a kid's movie and the villains and perfectly cardboard: a jerk ex-boyfriend who wants to kidnap pets and sell them for experimentation and military types who want to solve all problem by blowing shit up. The robotics effects hold up very well, as do most of the jokes. I even liked the vaguely racist parts. As with The Goonies, I loved nerdy Indian comic reliefs when I was a kid and still do now. They are way better than boring, straight-laced whiteys.