‘The Most Important Film of the Year’

An Inconvenient Truth: “Team Worldchanging got a chance to see a sneak preview of An Inconvenient Truth last night. We all left stunned.

An Inconvenient Truth is mostly footage of Al Gore giving his now-famous lecture on why we know climate change is real, here and serious. It’s not flashy, but AIT is the most important film of the year. We believe that this film will change the American debate on climate change, and that will change everything.

This movie will change the American debate on climate, if people get a chance to see it. But in order for them to see it, it needs to do well its first weekend. If you are an American and read this site, it is your duty to go see this film the weekend it opens.” (Worldchanging)

New Research: K.I.S.S.

The Secret Of Impressive Writing?: “Writers who use long words needlessly and choose complicated font styles are seen as less intelligent than those who stick with basic vocabulary and plain text, according to new research from the Princeton University in New Jersey, to be published in the next edition of Applied Cognitive Psychology.” (Science Daily)

Bush family ‘janitor’ back to mop up

“When James Baker last month became co-chairman of a congressional task force known as the Iraq Study Group, the news was buried beneath an avalanche of headlines about the invasion’s third anniversary and the deepening troubles of the Administration. But slowly Washington is waking up to just how significant the re-emergence of this 75-year-old statesman may be.

…Well-placed sources told The Times that Mr Bush had lately been consulting his father more often. This has coincided with a return to a multilateral approach to foreign policy. Mr Baker was Secretary of State at the time of the Gulf War, when he argued forcefully that it would be “ridiculous from a practical standpoint” for US troops to march on to Baghdad and oust Saddam Hussein.

Such a course would “play into the hands of the mullahs of Iran” and lead to civil war, the loss of international support for the US and the fragmentation of Iraq, he said. He has told friends that he now feels vindicated.” (Times of London)

New York Times coverage of Coachella

An Indie-Rock Festival With Room for Madonna: “This was an indie-rock festival, 94 acts on five stages, and the operation was delicate: a sleek round of commerce for the taste-making class. Yet Madonna and Kanye West played here this year, and they encountered even more love than the alternative-rock groups that are at the heart of this festival.” (But, rumor has it (HuffPo ), Madonna altered the lyrics of one of her songs to tell her audience to go to Texas and “suck George Bush’s dick…”, although discreet asterisks were used in the reportage…)