I guess its time for me to throw in a few random updates. It was my mom's b-day yesterday so we caught a movie with some of her friends. We wound up watching "The Day After Tomorrow". As far as cataclysmic disaster movies go, there are some better and some worse, but I think it held it's own.

Aside from the stunning special effects I think what really drove the story home for me was the very real threat of global warming combined with the theory that the melting of the polar ice caps would eventually trigger a change in the oceanic currents which would paradoxically trigger another ice age. Yeah OK I'm a science geek too. =p

Hollywood of course takes it's artistic license and conveniently speeds up a process that would probably take hundreds of years and condenses it into the span of weeks in terms of plot and conveniently focuses the natural disasters onto the major US cities like LA and Manhattan, like how does the storm know to focus it's "eye" right on top of Manhattan? *Pffft*

Still threat of global warming is a real one. According to the NRDC, although the US makes up only 3% of the world's population we produce 25% of the world's carbon-dioxide through fossil-fuel burning, by far the largest of any other country, more than China, India and Japan combined. Clearly the US should take a leadership role with the problem and one of the major first steps is getting the US to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

According to Greenpeace:

Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, the climate treaty finally agreed at Marrakech in November 2001, is a crucial first step in this process. However, the greenhouse gas reduction targets agreed at Marrakech are only a fraction of what is needed to stop dangerous climate change and the Kyoto Protocol is under fierce attack.

The US refuses to sign the climate treaty and take action to reduce emissions. With less than 5 percent of the world's population, the US is the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases and is responsible for 25 percent of global emissions. Also, governments continue to subsidise the fossil fuel industries, keeping dirty energy cheap while clean energy solutions remain under-funded.

Greenpeace is campaigning globally on a variety of fronts to stop climate change - from the campaign to pressure the Exxon Mobil and George W Bush to work with the rest of the world to halt climate change, to researching and promoting clean energy solutions.

Greenpeace.org

Now I try not to get political in this diary, but when it comes to fucking with the planet's ecosystem and potentially screwing things up for future generations, I kind of get pissed off. Anyway it's an election year and before I cast my vote I'll make sure that any candidate that would cock-block the Kyoto Protocol does not get my vote *cough*Bush*cough* and any candidate that does support the Kyoto Protocol *cough*Kerry*cough* does get my vote.

Anyway, enough of the political rant. Oh, I totally saw a movie poster that almost made me cream in my pants. Apparently they are making a director's cut to Donnie Darko that will be released in the theaters. This is a good thing because the original producers made the director cut so much of the story and plot in the original theatrical release that the beauty of an otherwise spectacular movie was watered down to near mediocrity and for what, to keep it under 2 hours? Damn fuckers. Anyway I consider this redemption for all the DD fans, to watch the movie in the way the writer/director wanted you to see it.

Anyway, I had more to say but I gotta get ready to get to IHOP to get my breakfast on. Can you dig it?