Thursday, December 21, 2006

Simon the Cat's latest film

Climbing for Kitty Treats

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Guilty about warm weather

Although I like snow, and cold weather doesn't usually bother me, I am enjoying the spring-like weather these days.

Except I'm not, because I recently watched An Inconvenient Truth, and I know that the reason it's so warm is because of global warming. And I'm contributing to the destruction of the Earth's atmosphere by driving a gasoline-powered car to work, and burning natural gas to heat my house, and getting most of my electricity from coal-fired plants in Indiana.

I want snow!

(Angi, don't say a word!)

Monday, December 18, 2006

Who killed the electric car?


Electric cars have been around as long as gasoline powered cars. One hundred years ago, there were more electric cars on the road than there were gasoline powered cars.

Electric cars make less pollution than gasoline powered cars, even if coal is burned to produce the electricity.

GM produced and leased fast, well-built electric cars (the EV1) over 5 years ago. Consumers loved them, and there was a waiting list of over 4000 people.

Through pressure from the car companies, the oil industry and the federal government, California repealed the clean air mandate that had led to these cars being made.

GM recalled and destroyed every one of their perfectly good EV1s, over the protests of the car owners, who would have loved to buy the cars. Other companies followed suit, recalling and destroying their electric vehicles.

The Bush administration is now pushing the hydrogen fuel cell, an expensive and dubious technology, while ignoring the fact that we already have the technology available to mass-market clean, safe, efficient electric cars.

Find out more

Read GM's rebuttal

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Sunday, December 17, 2006

Eragon


Eragon is a knock-off amalgamation of Star Wars, LOTR and other sci-fi/fantasy epics; it's mildly interesting because it's chock full of classic story ideas and characters, but the writing is second-rate. I was hoping the movie would be better than the book; that it would have been re-molded by the screenwriter and director into a more engaging package. It wasn't.

The film looks good: the costumes and armor are beautiful, and the make-up is stellar. The digital dragon works well enough not to be distracting, and the rest of the visual effects are fine. The filmmakers assembled an amazing group of actors; veterans (Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich) and newer faces alike, they all turn in amazing performances. (I would love to see Eragon and Arya in a different story.) But a film is a whole, and individual great performances don't count for much when they're not well-directed in a strong screenplay.

If you liked the novel, you will like the movie. I enjoyed the movie because I like the fantasy genre, and because I am a student of filmmaking and appreciated the numerous positive elements. If you're new to the world of Eragon, and are looking for great fantasy entertainment, watch Lord of the Rings.

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Thursday, December 14, 2006

Heroes: a model of efficiency


I was late getting into the tv show Heroes, but better late than never! This is my favorite show since Joan of Arcadia. It combines the supernatural with everyday people, giving them lots of action, but lots of real-life stuff too. It could be described as a mash-up of Lost and X-Men, but without the endless mysteries and without the tight suits.

How does this excellent show manage to pack so much interesting stuff into just one hour a week when it has to follow over 10 main characters, all with seperate storylines? My original theory is that it does it by recognizing that the average TV viewer has watched thousands of hours of modern television. Therefore, when we get to a familiar sort of scene, for example, one in which a police officer interrogates a suspect, we don't have to spend a lot of time cutting back and forth between the two characters, question answer, question answer, yawn! Everyone's watched an interrogation scene before, we know the drill, so Heroes skips ahead to the important part. Often the show doesn't even bother to finish scenes. It sets up scene A, then cuts to scene B, never to return, leaving the rest of scene A to be filled in by our experience, and our imagination.

This trick is brilliantly efficient, and let's us busy viewers get more story and action out of each viewing minute!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Photos Nov-Dec 2006

A few pics from around the Martin household:

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