Why watch people play soccer when you can watch robots?

Mechanical maneuvers at robot World Cup

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is taking the world by storm, and although China didn't qualify for the real tournament in South Africa, they are determined to participate in the world game- robot style.

Over the next three days, China will host the inaugural International Humanoid Robot Olympic Games. (As if hosting the Olympics two years ago wasn't enough.) In this Olympic Games- with a twist- nineteen teams from China, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany will compete their shiny, humanoid robots in a number of events including track-and-field, soccer, volleyball, boxing and weight-lifting.

While the competition may not draw the same crowds as the World Cup, the event looks to be a hallmark of the future. The organisers have even gone so far as to claim that the robot Olympics is designed to help make more intelligent robots for use at home. (My Mum always said she would invest in new technology when it could clean the house and cook dinner. Perhaps her waiting days are almost over.)

If you ask me, the robots look like an unsettling mix between evil automatons straight out of Dr Who and toy transformers.

But if robots are more your 'thing', you can have your very own soccer-playing android for the bargain price of $1,000, according to RIA Novosti. (Warning: designing a robot also involves many months of painstaking work. I'm just saying...)

Sounds like it would be easier to just go watch real people kick a ball around, even if the refs are terrible and some of the players are whingers (don't get me started on the vuvuzelas). I'd imagine the boys are easier on the eyes as well. Robots are butt ugly, don't you think?

MasterChef ratings blitz

3.7 million viewers watched the 2009 MasterChef final, and if current ratings are anything to go by, the record breaking figure is set to sky rocket even higher for the 2010 final.

On Sunday night, MasterChef drew an audience of 1.8 million viewers. The introduction of old contestants, three of which will be given a second chance to become Australia's second MasterChef, made Channel Ten a winner in the prime time slot. Seeing the contestants compete in Europe was a hit on Wednesday night when the show drew a national average audience of 2 million viewers.

MasterChef's opposition drew audiences half that size on Wednesday night. Border Security and The Force both had 1.1 million viewers, and Hey Hey It's Saturday, with only 908,000 viewers, still has audiences wondering why the show isn't actually on Saturday.

The 2009 final of the reality cooking show won every demographic. Ten's declared "target" audience of people aged 16-39 enjoyed 80.1 per cent commercial share and people aged 25-54 and 18-49 were not far behind with 76.3 per cent and 77.7 per cent respectively. Current demographic figures for the 2010 season aren't quite so high yet; on Sunday night, the 16-39 group had 51.9% of the primary 3-station commercial share. Those aged 25-54 and 18-49 had 48.5% and 48.5% share respectively.

When comparing those figures with its contenders, it is clear MasterChef is heading in the right direction. 60 Minutes on Channel Nine had 27.5%, 25.5% and 27.5% in the 18-49, 16-39 and 25-54 age groups. Seven's first episode of its new season Dancing With The Stars saw only a 24.0%, 22.6% and 24.0% share.

In the final few weeks (or months, who knows with three new/old contestants added to the mix), it will be interesting to see whether MasterChef can beat its own record.

So what do you think? Can they blitz the ratings, again? Which contestant will win? Join the discussion below.

My prediction: top three will be Marion Grasby, Adam Liaw and Callum Hann (or maybe even Jonathan Daddia).

Twitter

In between working on my 5 uni assignments, actually working to fund my education, and relieving my stress via singing/dancing/acting, I do get around to communicate to the rest of the world via twitter.

Often my comments reference news stories, strange things I heard/saw (ie. lots of train stories) and other general comments.

Twitter suits me in busy times because it means I can still get my voice out there but in a very quick and easy way.

It is only two weeks until uni is over for the semester and then I will be back to writing. This time inspired by my work at news.com.au.

You can follow me here: http://twitter.com/mmaryannwright

Update

It has been so long since I updated this blog. It is amazing how much has happened since the last post.

I am still trying to wrap my head around what exactly I want to use the blog for. Is it a cathartic outlet for my often politically incorrect opinions and updates on non-journalistic things? I don't think so, facebook works perfectly well for that. However, I often would like to rant over mostly political goings on now and then, but mixing that up with my formal news pieces would be odd. Further more, both the actress and journalist within me are always fighting for attention and much is going on within both those worlds. Do I commentate on both?

While I sort those things out, on with the sporadic update.

Firstly, I am now prioritising my 'I want to be a professional musical theatre performer' dream and accordingly am running from singing lesson to dance class to singing and dance practice week in and week out. At the end of this post, I will post a few headshots taken by the oh so talented Kurt Sneddon at Blueprint studios. This all amounts to me having little time for personal research and writing in between uni, work and singing/dancing/acting. Hence the lack of blogging!

On the other side of the spectrum, I'm now working at www.news.com.au. As my first paid job in the media while not even half way through my degree, I'm pretty happy. Who knows how long it will take me to get a byline, but I am happy to bide my time as a casual.

Most likely my last byline for the local paper is this article trying to raise awareness of the arts in Liverpool: http://liverpool-leader.whereilive.com.au/lifestyle/story/eyes-on-the-stage/. I did a play, Cosi, with the Liverpool Performing Arts Ensemble and the more people know about the fantastic work they do within the community, the better.

A few headshots:



Over and out. Hopefully the next update won't take months like the last.

Kids reptile show at Mounties video (for Liverpool Leader)

Below is a link to a video I filmed, presented and produced for the Liverpool Leader.

This was a fantastic experience as it was my first video and the reptile show itself was fun subject matter to work with.

As a first year uni student I am proud of my achievement. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrGVL4_5HEI

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Disney policy: a case of plain ethics?

Walking through her local JB Hi-Fi, Josephine Lewis was puzzled when she could not find a copy of her favourite Disney classic, Beauty and the Beast. It was only after discussion with a staff member that Mrs Lewis discovered the animated film has been off commercial shelves for six years.

From the early 1990s, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment have maintained the practice of releasing its animated features on home video for a finite amount of time before placing them on moratorium. Here, numerous discontinued movies sit in the Disney vault for up to ten years until they are re-released to the general public.

Beauty and the Beast: Special Edition, the most recent Disney release, was available for retail purchase from October 2002 to January 2003. Since then, Disney have postponed sales in the name of re-rendering footage for a digital 3-D release in October 2010.

The knowledge of Disney's policy shocked Mrs Lewis, 39, who was disappointed with the prospect of waiting another sixteen months to own a copy of the film.

"I would prefer to do without 'platinum' and 'diamond' editions with bonus features and 3D versions if it meant I could buy it whenever I wanted,” she said.

The Walt Disney Company have justified their conduct in the name of controlling their market and allowing Disney films to be 'fresh' for new generations of young children. Mrs Lewis believes this will have an aversive effect.
“Kids grow up with these movies, and to disable them from having easy access to the films, which are after all made for them, is a slap in the face,” she said.

Disney films are now prime targets for counterfeit DVD manufacturers since their collectible status has driven up prices for authentic versions of the film. On auction websites such as Ebay and Amazon, prices reach as high as US $130.

A fellow Disney fan, Michelle Miller, 28, condemns the company's practice of artificial scarcity, calling it elitist behaviour.

“Disney hold quite a lot of power in the movie-making and distributing world, and to control supply so greedily is unfair to their loyal supporters,” she said.

“No one wants to be forced to wait seven years or more until they can legally own their favourite film, and neither do they want to spend double or triple the retail price to buy it now; it's disgraceful.”

Masterchef Australia eclipses reality ratings with a good cause

3.7 million viewers tuned in to watch the final episode of Masterchef Australia on the weekend. A record breaking figure of almost one in five Australians.

Even towards the end of the Masterchef season, more people switched on their tellies to see Poh, Julie and Chris take it out instead of watching the Blues finally get it over the Marones.

I'd like to stop and question why this program has eclipsed the first season of Idol in 2004 and achieved the highest ratings for any non-sports broadcast since OzTAMs current television ratings system began in 2001.

Masterchef is no Big Brother, it hardly feeds people's voyeuristic fettishes.
Neither does the show engage viewers at a material level- people aren't lassoed into voting to keep their favourite cooks in the competition.
Nasty judges who try to make viewers laugh at contestant's misfortunes were also strategically absent.

Instead, every night families could sit back and watch a safe, 'family' show with everyday, 'real' people (or at least as real as you can get in reality TV).

We were all anxious when Poh sat in the waiting room while the judges tasted her traditional Malaysian dish and we all cried when Julie achieved her wildest dreams and won the inaugural title.

Good things happened to good people, contestants cried tears of joy- not of sorrow or distaste- and the judges garnered viewer's respect as they each proved to be knowledgeable in their field.

On the whole, Masterchef was a well produced program and I think it is healthy to see such good spirited shows flourish while the not so "nice", 'win at all cost' programs may be seeing their last days out front in the rating race.