Category: Quickhit

[The most pirated movies of 2007](http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2007/12/YE_best_of_p2p). The list suggests pretty strongly that people tend to pirate the kinds of things they aren’t willing to pay for, because *Resident Evil: Extinction* topped the list.

[If (US) whites are surveyed in a way that suggests that black people are more likely to suffer from the death penalty, support for the death penalty increases](http://crookedtimber.org/2007/12/04/guilty-as-framed/). Scary but depressing.

[Cloverfield, the mysteriously marketed movie from JJ Abrams](http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/cloverfield/). I’ve mentioned my feelings on JJ before. But, on the other hand: **monster movie**!!!

[Brian de Palma goes very experimental](http://www.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/redacted/trailer/). The film is supposedly “a variety of created source material-video diaries, produced documentary, surveillance footage, online testimonials, [and] news pieces”. Sounds like a really interesting idea, a variation on the kind of thing that’s been done in written fiction a lot more.

[How Yale Economics Professors lose weight](http://www.nysun.com/article/66874). Here’s the [website for the StickK program](http://stickk.com/), which isn’t quite live yet. A pity, it would’ve been nice to get this up for all the new year resolutions.

[Guillermo Del Toro tells a dark tale set in an abandoned orphanage](http://www.apple.com/trailers/picturehouse/theorphanage/trailer/). Del Toro has a fantastic eye for these kinds of things, but the trailer actually makes it look pretty bad.

[A rap song about Supply and Demand](http://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2007/12/rapping-along-t.html). Production is pretty good, but the lyrics are not fabulous…

[How to make your password better](http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/19/secure-your-mac-strong-passwords/). The tips are designed for Mac, but apply to most passwords. Why not try something other than ‘Password1’ this year…

[An adapter to attach a flat-screen TV to the back of your pickup truck](http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/11/28/tow-hitch-tv-mount.html). I’d say ‘only in America’, but I expect to overtake one of these here in Australia in the not too distant future.

[A group of Star Wars fanboys travel the country to see the new Star Wars film](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBkA3R2Habo). Stars Kristen Bell from *Veronica Mars*, too. In case you didn’t already have enough reasons to see it.