The Dark Knight on IMAX is a BIG BIG DEAL

clipped from english.ohmynews.com The Violence Vice Unlike McCartney I don't believe directors are at fault for putting violence in movies. Our society is at fault for allowing itself to unravel to the extent that it has. The fact that more people want to watch these violent scenarios is merely a reflection of where movie realism is resonating with the real world. It is difficult not to believe that the world is tipping ever closer to a world war scenario, along with many other bleak possibilities, including pandemic flu, hunger shortages and worldwide social disorder (riots, etc.). While the average person might call these imaginations "doomsday," the truth is that subconsciously it is neither illogical nor farfetched given the rapid declines in world economics. "The Dark Knight" embodies a mythos that resonates with many: that there is a growing craziness and disorder that is threatening to break loose. We all sense now that criminal elements (or terrorism) are becoming harder to contain.

NYT: Beijing Still Belching Toxic Soup For Athletes to Inhale

BEIJING — Less than two weeks before the Olympics, Beijing’s skies are so murky and polluted that the authorities are considering emergency measures during the Games beyond the traffic restrictions and factory shutdowns that, so far, have failed to clear the air, state media reported on Monday.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Beijing Weighs Added Pollution Plans for Olympics For the past five days, Beijing has been a soupy cauldron of humid, gray skies. Local pollution ratings have exceeded the national standard for acceptable air since last Thursday, despite a temporary air pollution control plan that began on July 20.

Oil Shocks - an Excellent Series (Washington Post)

I feel like my job is done communicating on oil issues when I read intelligent reporting like this. Unfortunately, most of the media still don't understand what is going on. Ssssh. It's the speculators right? Right?

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com OIL SHOCK This Time, It's Different Global Pressures Have Converged to Forge a New Oil Reality Early this month, Valero Energy in Texas got the unwelcome news that Mexico would be cutting supplies to one of the company's Gulf Coast refineries by up to 15 percent.

BEELD: Tiener-vriende sterf saam

NVDL: If Beeld was an English newspaper, The Star would be in trouble. At least we won't have stories like these when easy motoring finally slides into oblivion. In SA 13000 die annually on our roads.

clipped from www.news24.com Drie tieners is dood en vier beseer in ’n grusame ongeluk Vrydagaand by ’n kruising op die R59-hoofweg by Sasolburg. Theo het nie toestemming gehad om met sy ouers se motor te ry nie. Die egpaar het die motor vroeër aan vriende geleen wat vir ’n ruk sonder vervoer was. Die vriende het die motor Vrydagaand teruggebring. Theo het waarskynlik toe besluit om daarmee te ry.

I haven't been to Namibia yet...

Must go...perhaps this spring...

clipped from travel.yahoo.com The World's Most Astonishing Landscapes How about beaches? Maui’s nice. So is Sydney. But Namibia’s Skeleton Coast is littered with shipwrecks from the thousands of captains that got lost in its ever-present fog. Its ochre dunes climb high into the distance, interrupted only by the footprints of hardy antelopes that can survive with less than half an inch of rain a year. You may not want to suntan there, but there’s no chance of mistaking it for somewhere else.

For one reason or another, the 2008 will be remembered

The stakes are high. It's US vs China- they are competing in sports for medals, and in the real world for reources. Who will win, and what lengths will each go to win? Meanwhile, what will terrorists achieve in this Olympics, and who would dare to bankroll them?

clipped from www.nytimes.com In Chinese newspaper profiles this year, He was listed as 14, too young for the Beijing Games. The Times found two online records of official registration lists of Chinese gymnasts that list He’s birthday as Jan. 1, 1994, which would make her 14. A 2007 national registry of Chinese gymnasts — now blocked in China but viewable through Google cache — shows He’s age as “1994.1.1.” There has been considerable talk about the ages of Chinese gymnasts on Web sites devoted to the sport. And there has been frequent editing of He’s Wikipedia entry, although it could not be determined by whom. One paragraph that discusses the controversy of her age kept disappearing and reappearing on He’s entry. As of Friday, a different version of the paragraph had been restored to the page.

Dark Knight to be biggest movie in history

I predicted after watching this flick that The Dark Knight would be historic, breaking all previous box office records. It is already halfway to eclipsing Titanic's mammoth $600 million earnings.

At our local IMAX cinema today, there was one solitary front row ticket by midday today in the 9pm show, nothing else.

Later this week I will be going to IMAX, making it my third view. And I still have a lot more to write about the movie... I believe there is a reason The Dark Knight is so popular. It is a perfect reflection of the crimes (the growing darkness) of our times. It is a welcome, in a way, to the horror of the real world.

clipped from movies.yahoo.com "Dark Knight" overshadows box office rivals again Batman buried his rivals at the North American box office for a second weekend on Sunday, racing past $300 million in a record 10 days. "The Dark Knight" now ranks as the second-biggest movie of the year, just behind the $315 million haul of "Iron Man," and the 23rd-biggest of all time. The last movie to break $400 million was the 2006 "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, which ranks No. 6 on the all-time list with $423 million. The 1997 epic "Titanic" leads the field with $601 million.