I guess these guys forgot to check their company name for cross cultural issues to make sure the name of their food company didn’t have unintended meanings…….
Jun 282010
Jun 132010
Went to see The A-Team on opening day. This movie turned out to be a helluva lot better than anyone had any right to expect it to be. And I’m not say they’re weren’t more than a few physics-defying, plot muddying, credulity straining moments. But the characters likable if shallow, the plot has definite bad guys you can relax and enjoy hating. There is traitorous bad guys. And great action scenes from front to back include a future classic scene involving flying a tank
If you are looking for nothing more than a fun summer action flick, this is exactly the movie for you and it won’t disappoint and I felt like it was worth every penny of the ticket price.
The good folks at Wired.com have an article “Don’t Buy That New Prius! Test-Drive a Used Car Instead” that discusses how to evaluate the eco-friendlieness of cars. And surprise! That Prius people are so sanctimonious about turns out to be not as green as many cars out there.
I’d heard on The Dave Ramsey show that new cars are not necessarily a good deal from an economics point of view based on gas mileage, cost of gas, and the premium people pay for hybrids. But this is the first time I’d seen comparisons done strictly on energy consumed in manufacturing and operating the car.
According to the Wired article:
” Making a Prius consumes 113 million BTUs, according to sustainability engineer Pablo Päster. A single gallon of gas contains about 113,000 Btus, so Toyota’s green wonder guzzles the equivalent of 1,000 gallons before it clocks its first mile. A used car, on the other hand, starts with a significant advantage: The first owner has already paid off its carbon debt. Buy a decade-old Toyota Tercel, which gets a respectable 35 mpg, and the Prius will have to drive 100,000 miles to catch up.”
I can’t help but note the apples-to-oranges comparison they are making. On the Prius side, they include both the energy in manufacturing and the energy consumerd. On the Tercel side, they say that the original owner has already paid for the energy so they claim that you don’t have to include it on the Tercel side of the sreadsheet, when you are buying the car used.. So it’s not quite a fair comparison.
But if you buy a used Tercel, you are eliminating the need to manufacture a new car. And from this point of view, the calculations are entirely correct. By far the greenest approach to cars is to reuse an existing car. In other words, the greenest way to get a set of wheels is to buy a used car to prevent the manufacturing of a new one. I can’t wait for eco-friendly signs to start popping up at used car lots all over the country.
Your mileage may vary of course. But I find it difficult to argue with the basic logic. The good folks at The Dumb Agent blog have created a spreadsheet you can use to do your own comparisons.
photo credit File:Toyota Prius III 20090710 front.JPG
Jun 012010
*** Very Minor Spoliers Ahead ***
Today I wet to see the latest incarnation of Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
I went into the movie with exceedingly low expectations because the trailer put me off. The trailer I saw on TV, at least the one I think I remember seeing, had some cheesy rock music playing for the sound track. That’s always a red flag for me. If it’s a movie set in the medieval times but it’s playing rock music for the sound track, it’s probably a crappy movie aimed a junior high kids.
Well, either the music score was not done when they needed to ship the trailer or I’m having a false recovered memory. At my age, either explanation is equally likely.
In any case, I’m happy to say that Robin Hood thoroughly surprised me as being a pretty darn good summer action movie. And while they played fast and loose with the broad outlines of history, the day-to-day detail felt very gritty and very dirty and very true. And no, not a single guitar riff in the whole show.
Cate Blanchett’s portrayal of Marion was probably the highlight in the acting department. As a woman in 1199AD, her life was perilous and at the mercy of other men from start to finish. Love never was an option. And her day to day life, despite having “a thimblefull of royal blood” was terribly hard. I particularly liked one scnee where she and Russel Crowe perform a slow folk dance that’s full of emotional sparks between her and Robin Longstride. (Russell Crowe).
I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to reveal that the movie is actually an origination tale about how Robin Hood became who he is and how his motley crew became loyal to him and his quest. And I really liked how they changed the plot (at the expense of huge historical accuracy perhaps) of the traditional Robin Hood tale so that Robin Hood is outlawed because he was fighting political injustice and was part of the broader fight for a “charter of rights” that included things like not being incarcerated without cause etc etc. So it wasn’t just a “steal from the rich, give to the poor vibe,” which always puts me off. It was more about justice and the rights of man, which I can get behind.
The action sequences were excellent. There’s a siege of a castle early in the film which was amazingly detailed and gave you a terrific sense of just how gruesome battle in the 12th century could be.
So yeah, good, fun summer action movie. Definitely worth the price.