Saturday Morning 'Toon: Climate Change Edition

A little animation on how the climate tipping point works.

Pick of the Day: Bright Star

Directed by Jane Campion (The Piano), this biopic details a brief love affair between British poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his neighbour Fanny Brawne (Abby Cornish). Considering Keats, a leading figure along with Byron and Shelley of the Romantic period who was born in central London in 1795, died at age 25 (likely from tuberculosis in Rome) pretty much everything about his life would qualify as brief. In Campion's film, we see him through the eyes of the pragmatic Fanny -- a dressmaker who defied convention to fall in love with the penniless poet. Author of such classic works as Ode to a Nightengale and Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats, in his short life, epitomized the romantic ideal of the impoverished artist. That ideal still operates, of course. Pretty much the only reason we have art in our money-grubbing society is because a small segment of the population, similar to Keats in his day, is willing to sacrifice virtually everything -- their financial well-being, their social standing, even their health, in order to create. If you see this film, please keep that in mind. Here's the trailer. (YouTube)

Toronto Mayor Accepts Fossil Award

Canada took home two Fossil of the Day awards in Copenhagen today, taking the first and second prize for promoting inaction on climate change. This means we've six in total now, more than any other nation -- we're even decisively out ahead of the Ukraine. (Er... yay?)

We scored our twofer first thanks to a declaration from our cheif negotiator that Canada's carbon emission reduction target of minus 3% over 1990 level is "science based" (real scientists say developed countries should be shooting for minus 25 to 40% over 1990 levels), and second for our environment minister saying that the Kyoto Protocol should not be extended and something new put in place.

Toronto mayor, David Miller was on hand to collect our "prize", saying that, like most Canadians, he's ashamed of our government's appalling record on climate change.

Rally for Climate Justice

With negotiations for a new climate treaty ongoing in Copenhagen, some local environmental activists are holding a rally at the Cenotaph in Victoria Park on Saturday to express solidarity with millions of other people across the planet and press world-leaders, including Canuck bad-boy Stephen Harper, to forge an agreement that results in substantial cuts to greenhouse gas emissions now. The rally begins at 12:18 p.m. and will last until 1 p.m.

Monckton Calls Protesters Crazed Hitler Youth

This bit of coverage of the Copenhagen Climate Conference is a couple days old, but here's some video of protesters who crashed an event put on by the Americans For Prosperity -- that'd be one of those groups of climate cranks and deniers in Copenhagen trying to sabotage any constructive work being done. Speaker Christopher Monckton -- who visited Regina earlier this year -- is shown on tape calling the protesters "crazed Hitler Youth."



Notice how poorly attended this denier event is by actual deniers. The vast majority of the audience is protesters. Goes to show how out in the cold this gang's ideas really are.

Anyway, as Kevin Grandia points out over at DeSmogBlog, apparently the potty peer hasn't heard of Godwin's Law as he spends the next day wandering about Copenhagen ambushing young delegates, spouting nonsense at them and again accusing them of being Nazis. (The Jews among them aren't too pleased by the comparison.)



He even goes so far as to calmly explain to one delegate (who's posing as a climate denier) how climate scientists should be rounded up and jailed for fraud.



Don't forget this is the same guy who, back in the 80s, calmly and rationally explained how AIDS patients should also be rounded up and jailed. (He sort of recanted this in one publication by saying, essentially, that there are now too many AIDS sufferers to jail them all.)

I'm happy to see his lunacy exposed so clearly but have to say it's like shooting at bug-eyed mutant fish-creatures in a barrel. Monckton clearly adores the attention. More than any of the A-list climate liars, Monckton's arguments are completely indefensible. It'd be kind of nice if he quit getting so much attention. That'd really hurt the bastard. Talking to him only seems to be making him stronger.

Friday Afternoon Kitty!

Simon's cat is the creation of British animator and cat lover Simon Tofield. Tofield's unbelievably funny shorts show a real understanding of how cats act like total jerks. But we all adore them anyway. Right?

You can see more Simon's Cat films here, at the Simon's Cat website. There appear to be products available as well. Buy stuff, support an animator!

Six In The Morning

1 GOVERNMENT BANS GREENPEACE T-SHIRTS So much for freedom of speech. Stephen Harper's Canada fucking sucks. (CBC)

2 WE REALLY DO SUCK Canada faces scorn as it bumbles along in Copehagen summit (Winnipeg Free Press)

3 PROTESTORS PROTEST FUR IN REGINA By being cold, nearly naked and sexy. (CBC)

4 TAX THE BANKS, SAVE THE CLIMATE? Gee, I can't imagine this anti-global warming proposal would be popular with ordinary people... (Guardian)

5 SAFETY INSPECTOR FIRED BY PROVINCE Claims all she wanted was safer prisons. (Leader-Post)

6 OTTAWA LETS FURRINNERS--FURRINNERS!--INTO CANADA'S PRIVATE CELL PHONE PARTY Not an expert but I bet this is one of those stories where absolutely everyone is the bad guy. (Toronto Star)

What, No "Oops ... I Did It Again!"?

The top 100 albums of the first decade of the third millenium, again courtesy of Rolling Stone Magazine.

Pick of the Day: The September Issue

Regular readers of this blog will recall that in late November I saw the Coco Chanel biopic (starring Audrey Tautou) that ran at the RPL Theatre. Does that make me a fashion expert? Hardly.

At this time of the year, I'm pretty much a jeans and hoodie kind of guy. It qualifies as a style, I guess. Just not very sophisticated (or expensive). I appreciate the value of fashion, though. At least when it comes to people injecting a bit of colour and quirkiness into every day life through their fashion choices.

I draw the line, though, at people who embrace fashion as religion. With the various cycles that fashion goes through, it seems to me like it's a bit of a shell game, with people who aspire to be in style in perpetual catch-up mode, spending tons of coin to keep au courrant. If fashion, for some people, is a religion, then Vogue undoubtedly qualifies at their Bible.

With this documentary, which screens at the RPL tonight at 7 p.m., director R.J. Cutler scrutinizes the inner workings of the New York-based mag as staff, under iconic editor Anna Wintour, race to put out their annual fall showcase which, as you can see from the above poster, is freaking huge, and reaches an estimated 13 million readers world-wide.

If you can't see The September Issue tonight, it runs at the RPL Saturday at 9 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. Here's the trailer. (YouTube) And as an added bonus, here's video of Madonna performing her hit "Vogue" at the 1990 MTV music awards. (YouTube)

And if you're looking for something to do after the movie, a pair of local indie bands This Machine is a Fountain and The Czar, the Kaiser & the King are rocking O'Hanlon's Pub.

What, No Taylor Swift?

Top 100 songs of the first decade of the third millenium, courtesy Rolling Stone Magazine.