Lost and then buried alive!

Last night's episode of Lost had one good point - it introduced a mystery and the solved it by the end of the episode?

THIS IS A SPOILER WARNING. I'm about to reveal the ending.

The episode was the whole back story of two Losties, but they were minor characters who weren't even introduced until this season. I'd like to watch the first episode again and see if Nikki was really there running around the crash site or if they refilmed those scenes. She was probably just an extra who was written in this season.

The only tie-in to the rest of the story was showing why Paulo used the bathroom at the Perl station, which I don't really care about. It did show Ben and Juliet in the Perl station hatching their plan to kidnap Jack, Kate and Sawyer. But we already knew all that.

The episode reveals that Nikki and Paulo discovered a few of the islands secrets before the rest, but they never shared the info, so what's the point?

This episode gives the back story for a couple unknowns and how they stole some diamonds, but by the end of the episode they're buried alive! With the diamonds!

The episode starts off with them dead (paralyzed). Why get us involved with these characters and then kill them off?!? Is there hope that they will dig their way out before suffocating?

Tune in to next week's episode for the exciting conclusion. Or not.

Ban on plastic grocery bags

Many foreign cities and nations have already implemented legislation to ban one-time, non-recyclable plastic bags, and now SF is the first U.S. city to enact the legislation.

San Francisco stats:

• 200 million - number of plastic bags used each year
  
• 740,000 - population
  
• 1000 - estimated time it takes a traditional plastic bag to dissolve
• 413 million - number of gallons of oil saved by eliminating use of 100 million bags
• 9.2 million - number of pounds of carbon dioxide not produced

Leaf Rapids in northwestern Manitoba is the first Canadian community to ban plastic bags.

And the B.C. mountain town of Rossland is considering a voluntary ban on single-use plastic bags.

816 million gallons of oil saved each year in SF! That's huge.

One barrel of crude oil, when refined, produces about 20 gallons of finished motor gasoline. On average, a car will consume 750 gallons of gas per year.

So, the elimination of bags in SF is the equivalent of 1,088,000 million cars off the road for a year!

The Cybertron knights

The Transformers movie opens July 4, the date reserved for the summer blockbusters. I know I am anxiously awaiting it.

The writers of the screenplay liken the transformers to shape-shifting mechanical knights and modeled Optimus Prime after King Arthur. Cool.

Can't wait. And they're keeping quiet on what Megatron will shape-shift into.

POTC: Can you wait until May 25?

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End opens May 25.

Check out the trailer in this blog entry on film.com

Plasma Pong

This is classic pong on steroids... that is, hyped-up, new-tech, acid trip, steroids. Totally cool.

R2-D2's new carrier as a postal worker

On March 28, two powerful forces will unite... no not the dark side and the light side.

The Star Wars universe and ... the U.S. Postal Service?

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, a new commemorative stamp will be announced March 28.

And to lead up to the announcement 400 mailboxes in 200 U.S. cities will be converted to look like R2-D2. How cool is that?

Second-world country

I wrote a post awhile ago about government interference with tariffs and red tape hindering growth.

Here's some more interesting facts that make you wonder what these people are thinking:

• In Lima, Peru, to legally establish a one-person garment workshop takes 289 days of bureaucratic toil, costing $1,231, 31 times the monthly minimum wage.
  
• In the Philippines, purchasing land can involve up to 168 steps, interacting with 53 public and private agencies, and take from 13 to 25 years.
  
• In Egypt, buying land can involve more than 77 procedures at 31 public and private agencies, and can take from 5 to 14 years.
  
• In Haiti, to buy land you need to jump over 111 bureaucratic hurdles, and
  wait for at least 12 years.
  

These governments are hindering growth and I'm sure their people and economy would be a lot better if some all of the red tape were cut.

"The more sophisticated a society and its economy becomes, the easier it is for its citizens to do what they need to do." - Gerry McGovern

(The above are just a few examples from Hernando De Soto's groundbreaking book,
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else.)

300: The movie

Great action movie! And great fight scenes - almost like a dance the way the Spartan soldiers spun around hacking the Persians. (He says with an evil glint in his eyes.)

You can see Frank Miller's influences with the rich colours and almost comic look to the scenes, as he did for Sin City.

Though I'm sure there was a lot of creative license taken from the original story, there is some historic truth to the story. And King Leonidas's defeat spurred the rest of Greece to battle the Persians and eventually defeat Xerxes and his army.

A classic rallying tale of losing the battle, yet winning the war. There are faint resemblances to Lord of the Rings, even with a bit of the fanatical, although more of a historical fiction.

And if you were in doubt, this is definitely a guy movie and not for the faint of heart.

Today's the day

I mentioned in an earlier post about number portability for phones.

Well today is the day. You can keep your current cell or land line phone number when you switch to a different carrier - cell to cell, cell to land line, land line to cell, etc.

So, if you're not happy with your current service provider, you can just say sianara. However, if you're on a contract you're still on the hook until that's up.

And you need to sign up with the new company first before canceling your old service. So, it won't be easy, but it can be done.

How long will the war last?

British Prime Minister Tony Blair plans to spend up to 20 billion pounds (US$38.60 billion) on three or four nuclear-armed submarines to replace the aging Trident system.

His rational:

• Britain must retain nuclear weapons because new threats from Iran, North Korea or nuclear terrorists make it dangerous to abandon them.
• Design and construction of new submarines will take so long that it must act quickly to have a replacement ready when the existing nuclear submarines go out of service in about 2024.

2024! That's over 15 years from now! How long will tensions in the Middle East last? And does the military really use submarines anymore let alone 15 years from now?

Tony Blair is due to step down in a few months and critics are saying that he's trying to rush the decision through to leave a legacy. He's been in power for 10 years, I think he needs to seriously consider this.

I wouldn't want my final act in power to be spending $38 billion dollars on nuclear weapons.

I'm sure there are lots of better uses for $38 billion dollars. Perhaps using it to help people in the Middle East rebuild and set up a government that will end the conflicts (hopefully a lot sooner than 2024).

Stikfas

These are kind of neat action figure that are fully articulated and featureless. Without being associated with the latest fad, or movie they are a good concept. And would make a neat toy to add to my desk.

Specifically the Omega male armoured knight.


There was a fencer created in 2004 for Fencing Singapore, but only 1000 were created and only available in Singapore. So, even though it would be way cool to find one of those, I think the chances are pretty slim. And even if I did I imagine whoever's selling it would be asking a fortune for it. It even came with all three weapons: sabre, foil and epee.

Famous last words

• Are you sure the power is off?
• don't be superstitious.
• Double dare me.
• Help!
• He's probably just hibernating.
• Hey, watch this!
• I'll get a world record for this.
• I'm making a citizen's arrest.
• I've seen this done on TV.
• I wonder where the mother bear is.
• That's odd.
• That stuff only happens in the movies.
• The odds of that happening have to be a million to one.
• These are the good kind of mushrooms.
• This doesn't taste right.
• Well, we've made it this far.
• what does this button do?
• What duck?
• I think it's dead.
• It's only a little one.
• Does this go any faster?
• No, Tony, I don't have any money.
• I built it myself.
• I don't need a helmet.

You may laugh at some of these, but it's lack of common sense that can kill.

I took a wilderness first aid course a couple weeks ago, and when you're in an emergency situation and you're in a remote area with no way to get immediate help there's three levels of a situation.

1. Bad
2. Very bad
3. Too bad

There's only so much someone can do in the wilderness to help if you get injured or suffer a medical emergency. So, you better hope that your injury or condition doesn't fall into the last category.

An example is if you get bit in the but by a poisonous snake. You're last words are going to be, "I've been bit in the ass; you've got to suck the poison out." If it was me out there with you, my response is going to be, "That's just too bad." ;)

(To be socially conscious, I just want to point out that sucking out the poison isn't actually how you treat a snake bite.)