Jumat, 30 Oktober 2009

The Weather Makers

The Weather Makers

The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change (2005) is a book by Tim Flannery.

The book received critical acclaim, and won the major prize at the 2006 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.

Description

The book includes 36 short essays predicting the consequences of global warming. The book reviews evidence of historical climate change and attempts to compare this with the current era. The book argues that if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to increase at current rates, the resulting climate change will cause mass species extinctions. The book also asserts that global temperatures have already risen enough to cause the annual monsoon rains in the Sahel region of Africa to diminish, causing droughts and desertification. This in turn, according to Flannery, has caused the conflict in the Darfur region through competition for disappearing resources. Further consequences, argued in the book, include increasing hurricane intensity, and decline in the health of coral reefs.

The final third of the book discusses proposed solutions. Flannery advocates individual action as well as international and governmental actions. He argues that a few industries such as the coal industry, currently responsible for 40% of the energy consumed in the U.S., remain opponents of needed action. The book retraces the evidence that the administration, motivated by coal-industry donations to the Republican party, undermines political action by omitting mention of climate change from government documents. The book cites evidence against the argument that conservation is bad for economies.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/

Minggu, 25 Oktober 2009

Waterworld

Waterworld

Waterworld is a 1995 post-apocalyptic science fiction film. The film was directed by Kevin Reynolds, co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy based on Rader's original 1986 screenplay and stars Kevin Costner, who also produced it. It was distributed by Universal Pictures.

The film release was accompanied by a tie-in novel and video game, and also two popular themed attractions at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan based on the film, called Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular, which are both still running as of 2009.

Factions within the film

After the doomsday event of flooding caused by global warming melting the ice caps and end of civilization, the ramshackle remnants of the human race who survived the deluge now live in large floating constructs made up of various rusty junk and grimy debris found floating on the ocean; these watery settlements are called atolls after the similar type of island which no longer exist. The dwellers of atolls are a nautical society, albeit a gritty, primitive and superstitious one, with a patriarchal structure.

The atollers refer to anybody outside their atoll as "outwaters", and are very suspicious of them. On occasion, however, drifters are permitted entry in to the atolls, but only temporarily, and only if they can show the guards and/or enforcers they have something of value to trade with, such as food, plants, seeds, cigarettes, paper, dirt, and "hydro" (fresh water).

Due to the extreme limitation of living space in the settlements, and also the sparse resources, the atoll elders limit the number of citizens to a steady and constant number, thus avoiding the issue of overpopulation. Since there is no ground to bury the dead in, the dead are placed in a yellow brine pool, whereupon they are "recycled". Occasionally, drifters are asked to mate with the women of the atolls to expand on the shallow gene pool of the inhabitants, in an attempt to avoid inbreeding and also a population bottleneck situation, meaning they are an exogamous society. However, the only time women are permitted to try for a child is when a citizen of the atoll dies, thus keeping the population number steady.

Drifters

Drifters ply the water in boats, yachts, catamarans, and trimarans. They have a rule whereby whenever two drifters come across each other, something "must be traded" between them, although as seen in the film many are driven by desperation to try and steal from each other. Drifters are almost always loners. As seen in the film, some drifters are driven insane by their long and seemingly endless solitude on the waves.

As well as speaking English as a common tongue, Drifters also speak in Hindi. Another language used on Waterworld is "Portu-Greek," which is an apparent amalgamation of Portuguese and Greek used at some outlying trading posts.

Aquatic human mutants

Some humans have spent so long in aquatic environments that they developed or were genetically engineered to have genetic mutations to their environment; they have webbed feet, which enable them to swim at inhumanly high speeds, and gills located behind the ears, which enable them to breathe underwater.

Mutants are able to keep ordinary humans from drowning underwater by transferring the oxygen to them via kiss of life. In the film, Old Gregor (Michael Jeter) refers to these gills as "isotropic gills", and functional as opposed to vestigial. They also have excellent vision underwater, and in addition to their speed and stealth, they are also very strong. They also have the sense of electroreception either above or below the water, being able to tell when it is about to rain, or when a storm is approaching. Their bodies are apparently very tough, being able to resist the intense water pressure at the ocean floor, and having explored much of the previous drowned civilization.

Old Gregor refers to these genetic mutants as Ichthyus Sapiens (Latin for "wise fish"), although it is unclear as to whether this is an established term for the mutants or one that Gregor simply made up. The other less educated atollers refer to them as "mut-o".

The protagonist and antihero of the film, the nameless Mariner (portrayed by Kevin Costner), is such a mutant, although no more mutants are seen in the film. However, from certain lines of dialogue in the film, it is clear there are more of his kind. The leader of the smokers, the Deacon (portrayed by Dennis Hopper), refers to the protagonist as a "guppy freak", and, in line with his quasi-religious nature, believes that no such "abominations" could exist in nature. It is stated that Ichthyus Sapiens do not need to eat for days on end.

Smokers

Pirates are known commonly as "smokers" because of the smoke from oil-power machines, such as personal water craft and aeroplanes, which they make use of. They also apply great cultural significance to the smoking of cigarettes, even to the point of giving their children cigarettes, and trade in a brand of cigarettes referred to as "Black Death".

The smokers obtain many of their wares as marauders and by raiding the settlements of the featureless surface of Waterworld. Many smokers appear to be quite sadistic and revel in murder and carnage; often their reputation precedes them.

The base of the smokers is the rusted old carcass of an oil tanker, referred to as the Deez, which is revealed to be the Exxon Valdez in a brief shot. Although the tanker no longer has any functional engines, the smokers still have a large supply of crude oil aboard the tanker, and apparently a small oil refinery, as they are able to refine the crude oil into gasoline to power the jet skis and planes they make use of. The Deacon also mentions refining but states that they are running out of "the black stuff" and the "go-juice" rapidly, and that they only have "two lunars" (or months) left of it. The smokers have also hoarded large quantities of firearms, heavy artillery, ammunition, spam, paper, tobacco, cigarettes and whiskey aboard the tanker. The smokers move the tanker by use of dozens of oars that stick out of the foam-encrusted hull.

The captain of the tanker and also the leader of the smokers is looked up to as a messianic figure, as he has promised to lead the smokers to the mythical "dry land", and in line with this quasi-religious nature, he is referred to as "Deacon". The Deacon, or "Deac", has an intense hatred for anything of the old world, especially sails, instead preferring the mechanical machines, and believes that his aim to raid atolls is a "crusade". He teaches his men a philosophy of "take and ye shall receive." The smokers also worship a former historical captain of the tanker, Joseph Hazelwood, as "Saint Joe".

The Deacon's inner circle is well organized and includes a man with medical knowledge, and a man who follows the Deacon around with a ledger and a top hat who records everything which happens for posterity, and also informs the Deacon of various statistics he needs to know. The Deacon's lieutenant or second-in-command is a large and imposing man of Scandinavian descent, referred to as "the Nord", who is reminiscent of a viking. The Nord likes to be in the thick of the action and delights in murder, leading the raids on atolls and also posing as a spy for reconnaissance. Smokers refer to each other as "cousins".

The primary goal of the smokers in the film is to find an orphan girl named Enola (Tina Majorino), who as myth states came from the legendary "dry land", and has directions to it on a tattoo placed on her back. What the Deacon plans to do with "dry land" is unclear though. In the extended cut, the Deacon claims he wishes to create a "church of eternal growth" for the smokers.

Slavers

Although not seen in the film, slave traders are talked about and mentioned throughout. This would suggest that there is an active slave trade in Waterworld, although in the theatrical cut of the film this slave trade is little elaborated on, nor do we see what form this slave trade takes. In the extended cut of the film, it makes clear that the ruthless Mariner's initial intentions are to sell Helen and Enola to slave traders, but relents as he grows to know them.

Border outposts

Although there is no longer any land, certain areas of Waterworld are set out as clear territories for the various factions and groups who dwell on the water's surface. The borders of these territories are defined by the outposts on the outskirts of the territories. It appears they also act as trading outposts, repair shops and lighthouses. The outpost keepers speak in "Portu-Greek". Only one such outpost is seen in the film, in which the outpost keepers have been killed by the smokers who attempt to lay a trap for the Mariner at the outpost.

Plot summary

The setting of the film is the distant future, although no exact date is given. (Suggested as 2500.) The polar ice caps have completely melted, and the sea level has risen many thousands of feet, covering all the land. An antihero known only as "the Mariner" (Kevin Costner), is a drifter who sails the Earth in his trimaran. He comes into an atoll seeking to trade his dirt, which is now a precious commodity. There, it is revealed that he is a mutant with webbed feet and gills, a new step in evolution to accommodate the changes in climate. The atollers, fearful of him, vote to "recycle" him by drowning him in a yellow sludge-like brine pool. At this moment, pirates known as "smokers" arrive in a raid on the atoll, as they have been tipped off by a smoker spy posing as a trader (Gerard Murphy), known as "the Nord".

The smokers are searching for an orphan girl living there named Enola, who has what appears to be directions to dry land tattooed on her back. Her caretaker is Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn), the atoll's shopkeeper, and they plan to escape with Gregor (Michael Jeter), the atoll's expert on hydroelectric power and resident astrologer and inventor, in the hopes of finding dry land. Unfortunately, Gregor's escape method, a hot air balloon made of old rags, launches too early with him on it, leaving Helen and Enola stranded. Instead, they escape with the Mariner, who agrees to take them with him as they saved his life, but seems ill-pleased with their company as he prefers solitude. Chasing them is "the Deacon" (Dennis Hopper), who is the captain of a derelict oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez, and the leader of the smokers. He also wants to get to dry land, and has a number of skirmishes with the Mariner in his attempts to get Enola back.

Helen, convinced that dry land exists, demands to know where the Mariner finds his dirt. The Mariner, who can breathe underwater, puts her in a diving bell, and swims down to a sunken city on the ocean floor and grabs a handful of earth. While they are beneath the ocean's surface, the Deacon and his smokers board the boat. The Mariner and Helen escape as the Deacon burns it and captures Enola. Since Helen cannot breathe underwater, the Mariner breathes for the both of them, resulting in a prolonged underwater kiss of life. They are later rescued by Gregor and he takes them to a new makeshift atoll where the survivors of the first atoll attack have regrouped.

Using a jetski, the Mariner chases down the Exxon Valdez and boards it. There, the Deacon is having a great celebration, during which he tosses gifts of cigarettes and spam to the crew of the tanker, proclaiming they have found the map to dry land. After they have all gone below the ship to row, the Mariner walks out onto the deck and threatens to drop a flare into the oil reserves unless the Deacon releases Enola. The Deacon, believing that the Mariner is bluffing, refuses. The Mariner drops the flare down into the oil reserves.

The ship explodes, and the Mariner escapes with Enola rescued by climbing a rope dropped by Gregor from his balloon. The Deacon, still alive, grabs the rope and tries to pull Enola. The Deacon loses his grip and falls into the water. Still alive, he pulls out his pistol and shoots at the balloon, hitting one of the lines, causing Enola to fall back into the sea. The Deacon and two other Smokers, all on jet skis, converge on Enola. The Mariner ties a rope around his ankle and bungee jumps down to grab Enola, pulling her out of the water as the three jet skis collide and explode.

Gregor figures out the map, translating the Oriental symbols using an old and tattered China Airlines magazine, and realises they are latitude and longitude coordinates and steers his balloon in that direction. The group indeed finds dry land, which turns out to be a portion of Mt. Everest, which is still above sea level. As Gregor, Enola, Helen and the others land on the island and find past traces of civilization, including the skeletons of Enola's parents, they begin to start civilization anew on the island, but the Mariner decides to leave. Enola, saddened to hear the Mariner leaving, asks why he must go. He explains that he doesn't belong on dry land, and that the ocean, his only home, calls out to him. He finds a new boat near the beach, and sails off. Enola and Helen look out to him drifting away, back to his old life.

Cast

* Kevin Costner – The Mariner
* Jeanne Tripplehorn – Helen
* Tina Majorino – Enola
* Dennis Hopper – The Deacon
* Gerard Murphy - The Nord
* Michael Jeter – Old Gregor
* R.D. Call – Enforcer at the Atoll
* Jack Black - Smoker Plane Pilot
* John Toles-Bey - Ed, Smoker Plane Gunner
* Robert Joy - Ledger Guy
* John Fleck - Smoker Doctor
* Kim Coates – Crazed Drifter
* Sab Shimono – Elder of the Atoll
* Leonardo Cimino - Elder of the Atoll
* Jack Kehler – Banker
* Rick Aviles – Gatesman at the Atoll
* Sean Whalen – Bone
* Lee Arenberg - Djeng
* Robert LaSardo - Smitty
* William Preston - Depth Gauge
* Chris Douridas - Atoller

Kevin Costner and Dennis Hopper would co-star 13 years later in the film Swing Vote (2008 film), while Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tina Majorino would later co-star on the series Big Love.

Production

The film was the follow-up project to the last collaboration between Kevin Costner and Kevin Reynolds, who previously worked together on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991. The film was co-written by David Twohy, who went on to also write G.I. Jane, Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. Twohy cited Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior as a major inspiration, which has the same director of photography as Waterworld, Dean Semler.

Gene Hackman, James Caan and Gary Oldman all turned down the role of the Deacon. Anna Paquin was the first choice to play Enola.

During production, the film became notorious as it was plagued by a series of cost overruns and production setbacks. Universal Pictures initially authorized a budget of $100 million, but ballooning production costs eventually ran to an estimated $175 million, a record sum for a film production at the time. Filming took place in a large artificial sea water enclosure similar to that used in the film Titanic two years later; it was located in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Hawaii. The final scene was filmed in a valley on the Big Island, Waipio Valley, also referred to as The Valley of Kings. The production was hampered by the collapse of this multi-million dollar set during a hurricane. Additional filming also took place in Los Angeles, Huntington Beach, California, and Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands, California.

Kevin Costner was on the set 157 days, working 6 days a week. At one point, he nearly died when he got caught up in a squall while tied to the mast of his trimaran. Laird Hamilton, the famous big wave rider was Kevin Costner’s stunt double for many water scenes. Hamilton, who had been commuting to the set via jet-ski, was lost at sea when his jet-ski ran out of fuel between Maui and the Big Island. He drifted for many hours before being spotted by a Coast Guard plane and rescued; when the abandoned jet-ski washed up on shore on the island of Lanai, he went over to fetch it and drove it back home again. Stunt coordinator Norman Howell succumbed to decompression sickness during filming of an underwater scene and was rushed to a hospital in Honolulu by helicopter. He recovered fairly quickly from the potentially life-threatening sickness and returned to the set two days later. Tina Majorino was nicknamed "Jellyfish Candy" by Costner after she was stung three different times by jellyfish during production.

Mark Isham's score was reportedly rejected by Costner because it was "too ethnic and bleak", contrasting the film's futuristic and adventurous tone; James Newton Howard was brought in to write the new score. Joss Whedon flew out to the set to do last minute rewrites on the script and later described it as "seven weeks of hell".

There was one clear winner of the film's production: the state of Hawaii, which had more than $35 million dollars poured into its state economy as a result of the colossal film production.

Rumours abound that, after the filming ran notoriously over-budget, Kevin Costner fired Kevin Reynolds as director and shot the last few scenes himself. Other rumours suggest Reynolds was not fired, but simply walked off set with two weeks of filming left. Their previously acclaimed partnership ended with this film.

Trimaran

Inspired by racing trimarans built by Jeanneau Advanced Technologies' multi-hull division Lagoon; a custom 60 foot (18 m) yacht was designed by Marc Van Peteghem & Vincent Lauriot-Prevost, and built in France by Lagoon. Two versions were built, 1) a relatively standard racing trimaran for distance shots, and 2) a effects-laden transforming trimaran for closeup shots, and the aforementioned transformation. The first trimaran was launched on 2 April 1994, and first surpassed 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) in September of that year.

The transforming version was first seen in the film as a sort of raft with a three-bladed egg-beater windmill. When needed levers could be triggered that would flatten the windmill blades while raising a hidden mast to full racing height. This was followed by revealing a boom previously hidden in the hull, and automated unfurling of the two sails. Once the transformation was complete this version could actually sail, although not as well as the dedicated racer.

The first boat is stored in a lake at Universal Studios Florida, and the second is in private hands in San Diego, California.

Box office and reception

Problems encountered during filming led to massive budget overrun, and it held the dubious distinction of being the most expensive film ever made at the time. Some critics dubbed it "Fishtar" and "Kevin's Gate" (references to the notorious flops Ishtar and Heaven's Gate).

With a budget of $175 million, the film grossed a mere $88 million at the U.S. box office, which seemed to make it the all time box office bomb. Adjusted for inflation and expressed in 2006 dollars (USD), the budget for the movie was $231.6 million, and grossed $116.8 million at the U.S. box office.

The film, however, did much better overseas, with $176 million at the foreign box office (for a total of $264 million), and good VHS and later DVD sales.

Contemporary reviews for the film were mixed, and varied widely. Roger Ebert said of Waterworld: "The cost controversy aside, Waterworld is a decent futuristic action picture with some great sets, some intriguing ideas, and a few images that will stay with me. It could have been more, it could have been better, and it could have made me care about the characters. It's one of those marginal pictures you're not unhappy to have seen, but can't quite recommend."

After bringing some disappointing numbers in the U.S., the film was nominated for 4 Razzie Awards including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Kevin Costner) and Worst Director, with Dennis Hopper winning the award as Worst Supporting Actor.

Novelization

A tie-in novel of the film was released to coincide with the movie's opening, which was written by Max Allan Collins and published by Arrow Books Ltd. The novelization goes into much greater detail regarding the world of the film, and closes many of the apparent plot holes therein.

Comic Books

A sequel comic book four issue mini-series titled Waterworld: Children of Leviathan was released by Acclaim Comics in 1997. Kevin Costner did not permit his likeness to be used for the comics, thus the Mariner looks uniquely original. In the story we learn a little about the Mariner's back-story as he gathers clues about where he came from and why he's different from others.

Extended cut

The initial filmed script ran at over five hours. The original director's cut of the film was trimmed and submitted to the studio at a length of around three hours. But most of it was then trimmed down again by the studio and Kevin Costner against the wishes of director Kevin Reynolds to a running length of 136 minutes, and Costner re-shot or re-edited some major plot points.

It wasn't until 1998 that the ABC network premiered Waterworld as a two-night event with an additional 40 minutes of footage that was never seen during its theatrical run. These additional scenes make for a more solid cohesion of the film and fill some previous plot holes. However, despite being much longer than the theatrical cut, the ABC cut was heavily edited for language, violence, action, some nudity. Some examples of this are:

* the opening shot of the Mariner urinating;
* the shot in which the Mariner shoots the gatesman of the atoll (Rick Aviles) through the foot with a harpoon gun;
* Helen's undressing on the Mariner's triamaran;
* the shot where the gunner of the smoker airplane is speared through the chest by the harpoon gun;
* the shot where the Mariner crushes the smoker referred to as "Smitty" (Robert LaSardo) with a jet-ski.

All of these, and more, were omitted in the ABC cut, as the cut was to be shown on television whereby minors may see it. Swear words are replaced with less offensive words such as "toilet" and "slimeball." The picture quality of the ABC cut was also poorer than the theatrical cut.

Despite these heavy edits, this 177-minute version was praised by fans of the film for the previously-unseen footage it contained and was widely bootlegged, and increased in popularity over the years, as the extended cut was syndicated on stations like Bravo, USA, and AMC. However, most of these stations only included 20 to 30 minutes of the extra footage, and not the full 40 minutes or so of the extended ABC cut. Scenes were still missing, especially excluding the Mount Everest ending in some broadcasts. It wasn't shown in its entirety until the full ABC cut, with commercials, was finally seen on SCI FI. The SCI FI cut remains the most complete cut of the film to date.

After many petitions and pleas from Waterworld fans, Universal reissued it in November 2008 on DVD in a two-disc set. Despite being void of extras, except the theatrical trailer, this contained a new anamorphic widescreen transfer and the extended cut. Fans were disappointed to find that the extended cut, despite being in a widescreen format, was actually a transfer of the ABC cut, which was itself heavily edited for profanity and violence and had a poorer quality of picture, rather than the unedited and major restoration-cut that fans had hoped for.

There remains to be released a major restoration of the film which is not subject to heavy edits.

Additional scenes

The original cut of Waterworld contained many additional character developments, and contributed less confusion to the film. Most of these are included in the first broadcast on ABC and syndicated versions of the extended cut, but some scenes are missing or dropped to fill in a three-hour block with commercials during such broadcasts. This was the version that was syndicated, until the Sci-Fi Channel picked the rights to air the full cut. Here is a detailed highlight of what was added:

* Prior to the Mariner's arrival at the atoll, an elderly drifter with long white hair and beard is shown outside the gates to the city, and wants to barter his hair for a small portion of hydro. The guards do not grant him entrance, as they say they already have enough traders, just as they do at first with the Mariner.

* After the Mariner shows the guards of the atoll his gadgets and jar of dirt and is permitted entry, shots are added of the guards blasting the other drifters at the gates with giant water hoses, or perhaps fire hoses, to prevent them from also entering as the Mariner is let in.

* A slightly longer version of the bank scene, where the Mariner grabs all the chits and leaves an amazed crowd.

* The bar scene is much longer, and it begins with an additional moment of a barfly telling Helen how impressive the Mariner's dirt is. This includes a new shot of the Mariner approaching, and more footage of him buying more hydro. Plus, the Nord has more lines (speaking some lines in Norwegian). It is clearer that the Nord suspects the Mariner of being a mutant. Enola's tattoo is seen more clearly for a few more seconds.

* When a family offers the Mariner their daughter, there is an additional line from an elder explaining that when a member of the atoll dies, they gain the social right to give birth to another family member, making the barter more clear.

* A new scene where a trial on the Mariner is held. At a night meeting, an atoller shows some of the items they confiscated from the Mariner's ship, which are in fact various gadgets from the previous civilization, and gives a negative interpretation for each one, believing the Mariner to be a murderer and a Smoker spy. The atollers believe a yo yo is garotte wire, a ThighMaster to be a torture device, and a clarinet to be spy surveillance equipment. Helen defends the Mariner, knowing that he might know where Dryland is. Helen claims that they need to find Dryland fast, if it does indeed exist, as their atoll is dying, their way of life ending, and many other similar atolls have died out. The Mariner may be the only one capable of leading them to Dryland. But, the council ignores her pleas and decide the Mariner's fate. They also bay for the blood of Enola, as they have heard the rumour that the smokers are looking for her.

* A bunch of kids menace the Mariner and tease him with a fish. However, this backfires, as he scares them off. This cuts into a scene where Gregor calculates the meaning of Enola's tattoo, but finds himself cornered again. Helen shows up, and there is more dialogue between the two, as Helen fears that the atollers may eventually set them all adrift.

* The attack on the Atoll is much longer, with more footage of the Atollers preparing for the assault (including the use of the sharp bills of swordfish as melee weapons), Gregor assembling the flying machine, a woman demanding they give Enola over to the Smokers and her death, and Gregor, trying to mount the flying machine, runs up the stairs and leaps onto it.

* The Deacon arrives at the remains of the atoll, as Smokers are raiding the water supply and cutting down trees with chain saws. His record-keeper reports to him on the spoils of the raid, much to the disappointment of the Deacon, who feels that the previous attacks were more "worthy." When told the atoll contains no cigarettes or ammunition, the Deacon states that they are savages. He also states that his "crusade" is coming to an end, as there are barely any atolls left to plunder.

* An added scene where the Deacon summarizes the origin of the world in a sermon, stating that the world was made as a ball of water by God and how mutations can't be possible as the concept of evolution is false, all whilst interrogating the two prisoners. The smokers say amen at the conclusion of the Deacon's sermon.

* A shot of the Mariner fixing the bullet holes beneath the water line is followed by additional dialogue between him and Helen, and added footage of Enola exploring the lower deck of the Trimaran.

* A scene where the Mariner makes some fresh hydro, and waters his plant. He explains that he doesn't make hydro out of seawater because it is harder on the filters. With some left, he gives it to Enola, after Helen asks for it, who in return thanks the Mariner with a hug. Enola also thanks him for not throwing her and Helen overboard to save his hydro. The Mariner responds by shoving Enola aside, and Helen warns Enola to stay away from him.

* After the airplane assault, there is a much longer version of the Deacon and the Nord plotting to capture the Mariner, which includes more lines from Jack Black's character, the smoker airplane pilot, who is upset over the death of his friend, Ed the airplane gunner. He refers to Helen as "the atoll witch". It is also made clearer that the Deacon wants to capitalize the newfound land and convert it into a resort, and we see a drawing of it. (This scene was split into two parts, with the second half ending the first part of the ABC TV cut.)

* Prior to the bizarre Drifter's arrival, a sequence is added where the Mariner is eating a tomato, with Helen and Enola watching in hunger.

* The scene where the Mariner fishes is presented as a separate scene, where Helen teases him, saying that he "can't fish."

* The scene where Helen and the Mariner talk by moonlight is much longer, with a CD player the Mariner has repaired to working order playing jazz music in the background. Helen explains that she isn't Enola's mother, and how she found Enola in a basket floating on the waves. The basket was also filled with dirt far darker and richer then any she had seen before, and so she believes Enola must have come from "Dryland", along with this dirt. The other atollers wanted to shove Enola back out to sea as they wouldn't allow for another citizen, but in her compassion Helen promised the elders that she would raise Enola as her own and forfeit the right to have her own child instead. The Mariner doesn't understand this, and says that his only ever friend is his boat, which will never lie to him, or cut his throat when he is asleep. Helen says she pities him, so the Mariner looks up the meaning of the word in an issue of National Geographic magazine, where the definition of pity is given as the name of a bushman, leaving the Mariner even more confused.

* After the scene at the border outpost where the Mariner was shot, it is made clear that the place the Mariner was heading was a slaver colony, and that his plan was to sell Helen and Enola to them. Helen realizes this, and tells the Mariner there is nothing human about him, and he should have been killed at birth. The Mariner responds by saying "they tried".

* After finding Enola, the Nord presents the Deacon with the Mariner's National Geographic issues, and they all marvel at the pictures of Dryland.

* The scene where the Deacon talks to Enola is longer, as he explains that the smokers are growing in number and that he needs more land in order to continue his development, with what he calls his "church of eternal growth", and also his desire to make roads and highways. Enola suggests "making" fewer people and limiting the population to a steady number like in the atolls. (This would have caused controversy with various religions, and is possibly why this scene got cut.) The scene also ends with the Deacon ordering Enola chained up, while she screams that the Mariner will come to save her.

* A scene is deleted and moved to a later spot, where the Mariner is looking over the remains of his ship, and finally realizes that Enola may know where Dryland is. Instead, a scene is inserted where Helen claims she can't go any further, but the Mariner won't quit. It then cuts to a shot of Gregor's ship flying in the clouds, following the smoke, and discovering the two, explaining how he found them.

* About 4–5 minutes of footage is restored, where the group joins the New Atoll, and Helen is having a hard time convincing them to save Enola. The Mariner doesn't want to save her, and returns to the Trimaran wreckage. There, he sees Enola's drawings, and compares them to a National Geographic issue. He finally realizes that she does know where Dryland is. He returns to the New Atoll to find two Smokers terrorizing the group. He dispatches them, lights one of the jet-skis on fire, which creates a fire trail leading to the Deez. This explains how he managed to get a jet-ski and locate the Deez in the theatrical cut of the film.

* In the above added footage, it is made clearer that a pole shift has occurred in the planet, turning the world upside down.

* After crashing into the smoker referred to as "Smitty" (Robert LaSardo) with a jet-ski while docking inside the Deez, two Smokers appear and menace the Mariner for a moment. They then change tune and congratulate the Mariner for killing Smitty, seeing how annoyed they were with Smitty, and not realizing the Mariner isn't a smoker like them (this may be because the Mariner is wearing goggles he took off Horse, a smoker he drowned in the water.) One of these smokers, Djeng, celebrates that, due to the fact Smitty is dead, he is now in charge of the lower decks of the Deez. Djeng is played by Lee Arenberg, who later went on to have a large part in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.

* As the Mariner is climbing up the inside of the Deez, there is an added sequence whereby the Mariner notices a loudspeaker playing the Deacon's speech, as the Deacon is talking about settling, building on and capitalizing on "Dryland". The Mariner is startled for a moment, not knowing what the speaker is, and thinking thr Deacon is in close proximity. Realizing the speaker is the source of the voice, the Mariner responds by hacking it to pieces with a machete.

* Before telling the two Smokers to drive into Enola, the Deacon yells, "If I can't have Dryland, no one will!!!"

* After rescuing Enola, Gregor reveals a map he discovered, which he uses to direct the airship to Dryland, also with the use of a sextant.

* There is much more dialogue in the final scene. Before the Mariner leaves, the enforcer shakes the Mariner's hand, saying that is all he has, and the Mariner replies "it is enough". Gregor gives the Mariner dirt, and says don't trade it all at once at another atoll, and then says maybe he should, and then come back for more dirt. Helen pleads with the Mariner to stay, but he refuses, saying he doesn't belong on land. When Helen asks what the Mariner is looking for out at sea, the Mariner says he wants to look for more of his kind, because Gregor said it is likely there are more mutants out at sea. He also says that Helen is responsible for finding Dryland, because she never gave up hope. If he finds any other humans at sea, he will tell them about Helen and her story of courage, and where to find Dryland. Helen's gift to the Mariner is not something he can trade with, which the Mariner states would be the first such free thing in Waterworld. She gives him a name, "Ulysses", because, like the legendary warrior, she hopes he will one days return to them from his wanderings out at sea. The Mariner states that it is a good name.

* In the original ending, while watching the Mariner leave from a hill, Helen and Enola uncover a worn plaque that reveals Dryland to be the summit of Mount Everest. This is the very same plaque laid down by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953, the first time the summit was reached. This ending to Waterworld was only seen once during its 1998 broadcast premiere on ABC. It was cut from other syndicated airings, until the Sci-Fi Channel restored it, when they aired the full cut.

Universal Studios Theme Parks

There is currently a show at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan based on the film. It takes place immediately after the movie, where Helen returns to the Atoll with proof of dry land, only to find herself followed by the Deacon, who survived the events of the movie. The Mariner arrives immediately after him, however, and defeats the Deacon and takes Helen back to dry land while the Atoll explodes.

Video game

The Waterworld video game based on the movie was released on Super Nintendo, Virtual Boy and PC. While the Super Nintendo and Virtual Boy version were released by Ocean Software, the PC version was released by Interplay. The game received negative reviews as well as the Virtual Boy Game being marked as the worst Virtual Boy game ever released out of the 22 games in its short life.

Gottlieb Amusements (Premier) release a pinball machine in 1995 that is based on the movie.

In an episode of The Simpsons, Milhouse is playing a Waterworld arcade game costing 40 quarters for one step, mocking the cost overruns of the movie.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/

Jumat, 23 Oktober 2009

Waste heat

Waste heat

Waste heat refers to heat produced by machines, electrical equipment and industrial processes for which no useful application is found, and is regarded as a waste by-product. When produced by humans, or by human activities, it is a component of anthropogenic heat, which additionally includes unintentional heat leakage, such as from space heating. Waste heat is thought by some to contribute to the urban heat island effect. The biggest point sources of waste heat originate from machines such as electrical generators or industrial processes, such as steel or glass production. The burning of transport fuels is a major contribution to waste heat.

Conversion of energy

Machines for conversion of energy contained in fuels to mechanical work or electric energy necessarily produce large quantities of the heat as a by-product

Sources

The largest proportions of total waste heat are from power stations and vehicle engines. The largest single sources are power stations and industrial plants such as oil refineries and steelmaking plants.

Power generation

The electrical efficiency of thermal power plants, defined as the ratio between the input and output energy, is typically only 30%.

Industrial processes

Industrial processes, such as oil refining steelmaking or glassmaking are major sources of waste heat.

Electronics

Although small in terms of power, the disposal of waste heat from microchips and other electronic components, represents a significant engineering challenge. This necessitates the use of fans, heatsinks, etc. to dispose of the heat.

Biological

Animals, including humans, create heat as a result of metabolism. In warm conditions, this heat exceeds a level required for homeostasis in warm-blooded animals, and is disposed of by various thermoregulation methods such as sweating and panting. Fiala et al. modelled human thermoregulation.

Disposal

It is often difficult to find useful applications for large quantities of low temperature heat energy, so the heat is qualified as waste heat and rejected to the environment. Economically most convenient is the rejection of such heat to water from a sea, lake or river. If sufficient cooling water is not available, the plant has to be equipped with a cooling tower to reject the waste heat into the atmosphere.

Uses

Cogeneration

Waste of the by-product heat is avoided if a cogeneration system is used, also known as combined heat and power. Limitations to the use of by-product heat arise due to difficulties in heat transport and storage. Applications for waste heat include swimming pool heating, paper mills and cold chain logistics (by the use of Absorption refrigerators).

Electrification of waste heat

The organic Rankine cycle is a electricity generation process where an organic substance is used as working medium instead of water. The benefit is that this process can utilise lower temperatures for the production of electricity than the regular water steam cycle. By help of ORC-modules it is possible to turn this previously wasted energy economically into electricity.

Anthropogenic heat

Anthropogenic heat is heat generated by humans and human activity. The American Meteorological Society defines it as "Heat released to the atmosphere as a result of human activities, often involving combustion of fuels. Sources include industrial plants, space heating and cooling, human metabolism, and vehicle exhausts. In cities this source typically contributes 15–50 W m−2 to the local heat balance, and several hundred W m−2 in the center of large cities in cold climates and industrial areas."

Estimates of anthropogenic heat generation can be made by totaling all the energy used for heating and cooling, running appliances, transportation, and industrial processes, plus that directly emitted by human metabolism.

Environmental impact

AH is a small influence on rural temperatures, and becomes more significant in dense urban areas. It is one contributor to urban heat islands. Other human-caused effects (such as changes to albedo, or loss of evaporative cooling) that might contribute to urban heat islands are not considered to be anthropogenic heat by this definition.

Anthropogenic heat is a much smaller contributor to global warming than are greenhouse gases. In 2005, although anthropogenic waste heat flux was significantly high in certain urban areas (and can be high regionally. For example, waste heat flux was +0.39 and +0.68 W/m2 for the continental United States and western Europe, respectively) globally it accounted for only 1% of the energy flux created by anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Global forcing from waste heat was 0.028 W/m2 in 2005. This statistic is predicted to rise as urban areas become more widespread.

Although waste heat has been shown to have influence on regional climates, climate forcing from waste heat is not normally calculated in state-of-the-art global climate simulations.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/

Senin, 19 Oktober 2009

WAIS Divide

WAIS Divide

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide is a deep ice core drilling project run by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The general purpose of the WAIS Divide project is to collect a deep ice core from the flow divide in central West Antarctica that can be used for scientific analysis and research. Specifically, scientists are looking to create the largest and most detailed record of greenhouse gases possible for the last 100,000 years, and also plan to look at the role climate change could have had on these amounts.

History

The WAIS Divide project began during the 2005/2006 field season when the first team of scientists established the seasonal field camp and began construction on the ice core handling and processing facility. During this first season, they also dug a few shallow ice cores to test out the site. Over the 2006/2007 season, work continued on the arch handing and processing facility, as well as set up for the eventual Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) drill. Currently, the WAIS Divide project is in its 2007/2008 field season and work is being done to finish both the arch facility and the DISC Drill. Upon completion, scientists plan on beginning the deep drilling that is central to this project. Projected plans for future field seasons can be found at the following website: http://www.waisdivide.unh.edu/about/schedule.html

Why the WAIS Divide?

In order to the get the necessary types of ice core samples for successful research, scientists sought out an area of the Antarctic Continent that would be the most beneficial. The WAIS Divide was chosen specifically due to some of the characteristics that make the site ideal for the project. Scientists chose the site because of the relative smoothness of the bed topography, the fact that the internal layers of ice are flat and undisturbed, and that the annual layers, each about 1 cm thick, will be detectable to at least 40,000 years within the ice sheet. Also significant is the fact that at the WAIS Divide, there is minimal horizontal ice flow, which guarantees more accurate data due to the ability to pin-point the specific atmospheric conditions in the same location as the ice sheet. One last important fact about the WAIS Divide location is the significance that the gas-age to ice-age difference is about 200 years for the Holocene epoch, and about 300 to 500 years for the last glacial period.

Research

The research being done at the WAIS Divide involves climate, ice sheet history, and cryobiology. With the undisturbed and ideal nature of ice at the WAIS Divide, scientists are planning to come up with some of the best and most detailed research in greenhouse gases, hemispherical climate changes and how these interrelate. These results will in turn be used to take a broader look at global warming, one of the main issues that faces mankind. While significant ice core sampling and detailed related research has been done in Greenland, the WAIS Divide project marks the first Southern Hemisphere and Antarctic venture of this kind.

Focus: Climate

The main purpose and project of the WAIS Divide is to develop the most accurate and detailed record of greenhouse gases for the last 100,000 years. Another area where the WAIS Divide project is expected to excel (more so than the Greenland projects) is in the development of an excellent CO2 record, since the Antarctic ice has less dust than the Greenland ice. The ability to compare research and environmental conditions between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and the study of greenhouse gases relative to each will allow for a more detailed analysis of global warming.

In addition to studying climate and related changes, the WAIS Divide project will be able to measure many other gases (greenhouse and non-greenhouse) and their isotopes with unprecedented precision and resolution.

WAIS Divide

Focus: Ice Sheet and Biology

In addition to climate research, scientists plan on looking at the ice sheet and seeing how it influences the environment around it: i.e. seeing how the ice sheet affects changes in sea level. Scientists also want to develop an ice sheet history/timeline that can give an idea of when it was formed and changes that the ice sheet has undergone. Along with this, cryobiologists plan on looking for and observing both signs of past life and current (if any) biological life that exists within the ice sheet.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/

Selasa, 13 Oktober 2009

Virgin Earth Challenge

The Virgin Earth Challenge is a competition offering a $25 million prize for the first person or organization to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse gases out of the Earth's atmosphere to avoid global warming. The prize was conceived and financed by Sir Richard Branson, a successful British entrepreneur, and was announced in London on 9 February 2007 by Branson and former US Vice President and 2007 Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, creator of the 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth on climate change.

The challenge

The Virgin Earth Challenge is similar in concept to other high technology competitions, such as the Orteig Prize for flying across the Atlantic, and the Ansari X Prize for spaceflight. The prize will be awarded to the first scheme that is capable of removing one billion metric tons (= 1 gigaton) of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year for 10 years (at present, fossil fuel emissions are around 6.3 gigatons per year). $5 million of the prize will be paid at the start of removal operations, with the remaining $20 million paid after the successful completion of the scheme at the end of the 10 year period.

The prize will initially only be open for five years, with ideas assessed by a panel of judges including Richard Branson, Al Gore and Crispin Tickell (British diplomat), as well as climate scientists James Hansen, James Lovelock and Tim Flannery. If the prize remains unclaimed at the end of five years the panel may elect to extend the period.

Around two hundred billion metric tons of carbon dioxide have accumulated in the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution, raising concentrations by more than 100 parts per million (ppm), from 280 to more than 380 ppm. The Virgin Earth Challenge is intended to inspire inventors to find ways of bringing that back down again to avoid the dangerous levels of global warming and sea level rise predicted by scientific organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"Entrants must submit a commercially viable design (the “Design”) to achieve the net removal of significant volumes of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least 10 years without countervailing harmful effects (the “Removal Target”). The removal achieved by the Design must have long term benefits (measured over say 1,000 years) and must contribute materially to the stability of the Earth’s climate."

Contenders

GRT Air Capture Device

According to the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Global Research Technologies, LLC has demonstrated a prototype device capable of capturing 10 tons of carbon dioxide per square meter per year; a device of 10 meters by 10 meters would be able to capture 1,000 tons per year. It is estimated that 1 million such devices would be needed to capture the 1 billion tons per year stipulated in the conditions of the prize offered by Mr. Branson. The process uses proprietary sorbents to capture carbon dioxide molecules from free-flowing air and release those molecules as a pure stream of carbon dioxide for sequestration. According to GRT, one major advantage of this new technology is that it is not necessary to site the devices in immediate proximity to a major carbon source (such as a power station); for example, the CO2 emitted by traffic in Bangkok could be sequestered in Iceland by CO2 towers running on geothermal energy. Of course, the power source for the towers must not be a net CO2 producer, as this would partially offset the beneficial effects of the device. Source: physorg.com

Plastic trees

One approach that has been put forth attempts to catch carbon dioxide with artificial trees. The plastic trees are coated with a carbon-catching agent, allowing the carbon to be safely captured and sequestered, though the approach does have its limitations.

Energy Islands through OTEC

In the article Energy Island: unlocking the potential of the ocean as a renewable power source Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion is discussed as a process that uses the temperature difference between surface and deep-sea water to generate electricity – and though it has an efficiency of just 1-3% - researchers believe an OTEC power plant could deliver up to 250MW of clean power, equivalent to one eighth of a large nuclear power plant, or one quarter of an average fossil fuel power plant. Architect and engineer Dominic Michaelis and his son Alex, along with Trevor Cooper-Chadwick of Southampton University are developing the concept with plans of putting the theory to the test on an unprecedented scale by building a floating, hexagonal Energy Island that will harness energy from OTEC, as well as from winds, sea currents, waves, and the sun. The OTEC technology is something of a green dream; not only is it clean and renewable, but so are its by-products. By subjecting the steam to electrolysis, large quantities of hydrogen can be produced, paving the way for cheaper hydrogen fuel cells. And by using an Open-cycle OTEC - where low-pressure containers boil seawater and condense the steam elsewhere after passing it through the turbo-generator – large amounts of fresh water can be created. Energy Island is also packed to the brim with other renewable energy collectors, with wind, wave, current and solar sources providing a total of 73.75 MW.

Architect and engineer Dominic Michaelis estimates it would take a chain of 4-8 Energy Islands to achieve the production levels of a nuclear power plant. To replace nuclear power entirely, Michaelis estimates a chain of 3708 modules would be required, stretched over a total length of 1928 kilometres, and consuming a total square area of roughly 30 by 30 kilometres. To shoulder the entire global energy consumption, based on 2000 figures, 52 971 Energy Islands would be needed, occupying a total area of 111 x 111 kilometres - described on the Energy Island site as “a pin point in the oceans.” (http://www.gizmag.com/energy-island-otec/8714/)

From http://en.wikipedia.org/

Kamis, 08 Oktober 2009

United States House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is a select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was established March 8, 2007 through adoption of a resolution by a 269–150 vote of the full House. As a select committee, it will cease to operate at the end of the current 110th Congress.

Controversy

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced plans to create the select committee on January 18, 2007, which immediately drew objections from many House Republicans as well as some House Democrats, particularly Chairman John Dingell of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over environmental and climate change issues and Chairman Charles Rangel of the Ways and Means Committee. Pelosi was able to reach a compromise with Chairman Dingell, wherein the committee will be advisory in nature, without the legislative authority granted to standing committees. Several Republican leaders, including Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton continue to object to the committee calling it a "platform for some members to grandstand."

The committee also is controversial because it received funding at the expense of the House Ethics Committee.

Jurisidiction

The Select committee will conduct hearings on energy independence and climate change issues. The committee lacks the authority to draft legislation, but will work with the House standing committees with jurisdiction over climate change issues and develop recommendations on legislative proposals. Speaker Pelosi has indicated she would like committees with jurisdiction over energy, environment and technology policy to report legislation on these issues to the full House by July 4, 2007.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/