Bill Nye the Science Guy and Climate Change

Bill Nye was on Real Time on HBO last week talking about his debate with creationist Ken Ham and climate change.  I like what he said about climate change:

“What he and his people have done is used the word science in this new way; it’s very much like the people who deny that smoking causes cancer and that there’s climate change,” Nye said.
He added they “take scientific uncertainty … and turn it into doubt about the whole thing.”
“The idea that we don’t know, it scares some people and every time you said it, Ken Ham would say, ‘Well, you know Bill, there’s a book,’” Maher said, referring to the Bible and slapping his forehead.
Maher also raised the point that in addition to religion, many still deny climate change. He specifically criticized Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
“His big joke now is whenever it snows, you know, ‘Al Gore told me this wouldn’t happen,’” Maher said of the Texas senator.
Nye said that “climate is the big picture. Weather is day to day.”
Citing the recent polar vortex in the U.S. and heat wave in Australia, Nye said that extreme heat events can now be tied to climate change through statistical analysis.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/bill-maher-bill-nye-climate-change-education-103563.html#ixzz2thcUgAn1

See Also: Neil deGrasse Tyson on an earlier Bill Maher:

Comcast is B I G

To paraphrase Douglas Adams in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy",  Comcast  "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to Comcast." With the announcement last week of Comcast's proposed  merger with Time Warner Cable,  Comcast becomes even more "mind-bogglingly big".  How did we get here?

In 1983, 90% of American media was owned by 50 companies.  By 2011, that number shrunk to 6. ( The Big 6 ), Comcast, Walt Disney, Viacom, CBS, News Corp and Time Warner Inc.  6 companies that control at least 90% of our media.   Comcast's merger with NBC last year means it controls 1 of every 5 hours of television ( Article ).  In 2010, the combined income of the Big 6 was estimated to be $275 BILLION, or $36 billion more than Finland's GDP.  Last year Comcast reported $6.8 billion in profit on $64.7 billion in revenue. ( NY Times History of Comcast )  If that isn't scary enough, the new Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger  "would put more than a third of all cable-TV subscribers in Comcast’s hands and give it control over more than half of the “triple-play” services that combine TV, phone and Internet service."( freepress.net)

Is this consolidation of power good for us, the consumer?  Many say "NO".  There have already been arguments between cable systems and content providers, the largest one so far between CBS and Time Warner Cable. CBS won the battle because subscribers didn't want to lose CBS from their channel list.  Comcast has pledged to divest 3 of the 11 million subscribers it gains from Time Warner, keeping it at the 30 million subscriber level.  According to some estimates, that gives Comcast at least 1/3 of all cable subscribers, and with the decline in cable subscribers, that number may be closer to 50%.  Even with the subscriber decline, cable providers have still seen a 5% income growth thanks to the continuing increase of fees.  With a bigger Comcast, do you think there will be a reduction of fees anytime soon? Repeat after me "the rich get rich while..."  Forbes reported in an article at the end of 2013 that "Nationwide, the average pay TV bill (excluding internet and phone service) was $86 in 2011 and is expected to reach $123 by 2015, based on estimates by the NPD Group. With consumer income and spending remaining relatively flat, industry analysts agree that the current business model is not sustainable in the long term. Yet despite widespread customer complaints over price hikes and channel bundling, the cable industry still manages to hold on to a nationwide customer base of about 56 million video subscribers, more than their satellite (34 million subscribers) and telco (10 million subscribers) rivals combined, according to a recent report from SNL Kagan."  The FCC reports that customer rates have been increasing by about 6% annually – the current inflation rate, by comparison is 1.5%  And speaking of those "customer complaints",  Comcast and Time Warner are on the bottom  of the American Consumer Satisfaction Index.

Finally, how much influence does the consumer have?  The media information graphic I referenced earlier  points out that  232 media executives control the "information diet of 277 million Americans". That's 1 media executive to 850,000 subscribers.  That's a lot of power.  Is there anyone else looking out for us?  How about the FCC?  The new head of the FCC is Thomas Wheeler, a former top lobbyist for the wireless and cable industries. From 1979 to 1984, he served as president of the National Cable Television Association and before that he was CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.  Given those credentials, where would you guess his loyalties are? The only thing we consumers can do is make our voices heard.  It worked for CBS against Time Warner Cable, but not for the Weather Channel in it's fight with Direct TV. Freepress.net has an online petition to the FCC and the Justice Department. You can also contact your Congress member and let them know how you feel about the merger.  In the meantime, enjoy your cable and Netflix programming before the prices go up...again.

http://act.freepress.net/sign/consol_comcast_twc/?source=website_node_feature

OSCAR DOCUMENTARY SHORT NOMINEES

DOCUMENTARY SHORT NOMINEES

I watched these short docs at the Roxy this weekend.  Here are the Documentary Shorts for 2014 and my "winner" prediction:

“Cavedigger” (Director Jeffrey Karoff). Synopsis: New Mexico environmental sculptor Ra Paulette carves elaborately designed and painstakingly executed sandstone caves, driven by an artistic vision that often brings him into conflict with his patrons.

“Facing Fear” (Director: Jason Cohen). Synopsis: As a gay 13-year-old, Matthew Boger endured a savage beating at the hands of a group of neo-Nazis. Twenty-five years later, he meets one of them again by chance.

“Karama Has No Walls” (Director: Sara Ishaq). Synopsis: When protesters in Yemen added their voices to those of other nations during the Arab Spring, the government responded with an attack that left 53 people dead and inspired widespread sympathy throughout the country.

“The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” (Directors:  Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed). Synopsis: At 109, Alice Herz Sommer is the world’s oldest pianist…and its oldest Holocaust survivor. At the heart of her remarkable story of courage and endurance is her passion for music.

“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” (Director: Edgar Barens).  Synopsis: In a maximum security prison, the terminally ill Jack Hall faces his final days with the assistance of hospice care provided by workers drawn from the prison population.



While all 5 offer compelling stories on the human condition, my 2 top films were "The Lady in #6" and "Prison Terminal".  The weakest of the group for me was "Facing Fear", which felt more like a long advertisement for The Museum of Tolerance.  While the story of these two men is an interesting portrait of the clash of two teenagers on very different paths, it felt like there was more to the story than was included in the documentary.  I thought "Karama Has No Walls" was an intense journalistic report of the government attack on demonstrators in Yemen, and the first hand video footage is difficult to watch, but the style of the film made it hard to feel it ever was more than an on-scene report. "Cavedigger" is a very interesting portrait of a sculptor who is doggedly pursuing his art, carving amazingly sculpted caves out of soft rock.  Of the 5 films, this offers the lightest topic, but I was left feeling like there was more to tell about the artist than we learned in the film.  It did have a finished polish to it that set it apart from the rougher cut "Karama", and it may be a fan favorite, but I could not connect to the story.

That leaves the final 2 films that I think are the top two Oscar contenders.  "Prison Terminal" is a  hard to watch story about hospice care in prison.  With an increasingly elderly prison population, this end-of-life dying with dignity story is a captivating and difficult experience.  I was left with questions about the inmate's story that we never were told, but that really wasn't the focus of the film.  The access the filmmakers had to the death in prison of this World War 2 veteran sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a drug dealer is amazing as we witness his final days in a special hospice program run by other prisoners.  I couldn't help feel that his story highlights the struggles of older veterans that returned from World War 2 without the mental health support that they needed to receive to be integrated back into society. The big question is have we learned from our past mistakes?

"And the Oscar goes home with:"

"The Lady in Number 6" I predict will be the Oscar winner. It is an intimate and touching documentary on the life of the oldest Holocaust survivor.  This documentary seems to have the most current film-making techniques, taking the famous "Ken Burn's Effect" to the next level by animating the still images that tell the remarkable story of this 109 year old survivor and her encounters with history.  I think this will be the voter's favorite of the five.

I do find myself thinking about one of the films final shot that was amazing and left me with that question of "how did they do that?"  In "Cavedigger", we have a medium shot of the artist as he begins what probably will be his final cave, a 10 year project. The camera begins a long, smooth, pull out from the artist, and continues to move away until he is lost on the side of the mountain he is digging in.  It was a beautiful shot, and the one production technique from all 5 films that I am still thinking about today.

Please comment if you have seen these films.  Do you agree with my pick?

UPDATE MARCH 2014

"The Lady in Number Six" did win best documentary short.  It also became a tribute to it's star who unfortuately passed away on February 23, 2014 at the age of 110.

You can read more about her here.