Tuesday, November 14, 2006

A Few Quick Notes 15

-The construction project continued again today. As I was walking past the building today it looked as though it is being gutted, something that does not indicate that the project will end shortly. Something about the whole thing that I found rather odd was that they have covered the front lawn with gravel.

-It seemed that the world was conspiring against my attempts to nap today. After two attempts, and several interruptions I decided to give it up.

-In the past few days our discussion regarding the IMDB top 250 seems to have garnered a bit of action and attention. It has been fun to have a some comments going back and forth.

-In relation to my previous point, at least two individuals commented on their use of the IMDB top 250 list in determining which movies they watch. I suspect that they are not the only two individuals that use the ranking services provided by IMDB to help set their movie agenda. As a matter of fact, I, from time to time, have even done so.

Wide spread use of the top 250 list as well as the rating system, at least to me, would suggest that there would be a motivation for distribution companies to attempt to manipulate the ratings. Why would be believe that this would occur? A huge amount of money is riding on the success of these movies, and this rating system may be able to increase viewership. I should note that this applies to both large and small budget films.

When I have witnessed examples of high ranking officials encouraging individuals to support certain Canadian Idol officials when no cash is involved I am disinclined to believe that the movie business does not in some way attempt to make it look like their product is more popular than it may be. I might also note that VOCM NiteLine and other political call-in shows across North America have disguised partisans call and act as though they are just John Q. Public.

On the other hand, maybe the movie business is much less manipulative that I believe. Maybe they don't take advantage of free advertising opportunities, such as the IMDB top 250. So even if they don't, be sure that it would be pretty easy for them to do so.

A few thousand people voting the same way, as directed by a higher power, would certainly have the ability to sway the rating of a new movie by a fair margin.

-I still have not had a chance to read today's newspaper, nor any of the three student newspapers that I picked up.

-The free book box made its come back today. On its first day pack I was able to pick up about 5 books. I am hoping that this will continue throughout the year.

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