Dear Al Gore:

We still haven't shown people that global warming matters to them in a real, present way. And they're not going to take action until it gets bumped a little higher on their subconscious priority list.

Let's make a cartoon short, showing the changing of the seasons in 100 or 200 years. Maybe there are some trees that stay fixed throughout the cartoon, and we start with fall when they drop their leaves quickly. Then there's a wet, sloppy winter with occasional deep freeze spells. Spring rolls around and there's some chirping of birds and little green sprouts sprouting. And then summer arrives, with the distorted optics of heat from the oven, and burning, screaming children running by.

It's a little grotesque, but you can do that in cartoons - Southpark has demonstrated that.

Irony

Look for a blog post about this
Originally uploaded by AlexEagle

I was opening this DVD late one night, and as you might expect, I was very excited to see Owen Wilson in a war movie. Turned out to be an awesome movie.

The packaging, on the other hand, was un-awesome. I don't open a lot of DVDs, since the movie fairy drops things in my computer from time to time. The amount of work I am forced to do, just to open something I purchased, is insane. The cellophane is shrunk-wrapped in such a way that there's no handhold to get the tearing process started. Then, these serious stickers are on THREE sides of the case before it can be opened.

So, the irony is that the security device is "enclosed". Is stealing DVD's really such a giant problem? It's hard to imagine that I could open all this packaging in less than 3 minutes and steal the disc out of it. Maybe the enclosed security device is an RFID that can get picked up at the front door.

But, just like the classic joke about the best contraception for trumpet players*, what this DVD packaging really does is make me less likely to buy something so unpleasant to own. Even once I get this disc in the player, I'll have to wait for whatever junk at the beginning that's flagged as "non-fast-forward-or-jump-to-menu-able". When you compare this experience to my alternative, it's just silly that someone would pay more for something of significantly less value.

* (their personalities)