Finally, the Simpsons Movie is almost here (7/27/07).

I’ve been in a love/hate relationship with the television show “Lost” since it started. I do enjoy some of the plot twists and the character flashback that, over time, show how all the characters relate. The whole story is an interesting concept, and Ben is the perfect villain. But, since the beginning I’ve hated the countless plot twists without any answers (do the producers even know where it’s going), the number filler episodes that draw out 5 minutes of content over an entire hour — for example: Boone dieing, Lock’s obsession with the hatch and Paulo and what’s-her-name dying (they weren’t even part of the show).

Lost has been loosing much of it’s audience for exactly these reasons. Instead of the producers fixing the problem, they instead narrate a review episode, called “The Answers” where they explain all that we have learned throughout the series. The episode felt like they were trying to convince all of us that there have been answers — really — we must not have seen them. The problem is that the answers so far are either not directly part of the main plot line or open other questions.

The types of answers that don’t matter are things like how Locks’ Dad is the same person that conned Sawer’s parents. Or that Jack’s father is also Claire’s dad. Oh and Kate killed her father. Do the producers have “daddy” problems? How about how the girl Sawer conned helped Kate later on — that was really important, right? These things are interesting, but don’t give a whole lot to the story. They really aren’t answers.

Most of the other “answers” really didn’t answer anything but opened up more. For example, we thought that the others were part of the Dharma Initiative. Well, the show answered that question by…spoiler alert…telling us the “others” were rebels who murdered everyone in the Dharma Initiative with the help of Ben. Ok, then where did the rebels come from? Why are they at war the plane crash survivors? And who the f***k is Jacob?!?

This is why the audience feels like there haven’t been any answers, because the answers aren’t leading anywhere. They don’t really contribute, and I’m starting to get really pissed off. I’m considering tuning out until the last season. Because I’m reasonably sure not much will happen until then and the last few episodes will be a huge explosion of revelation.

If the producers want to keep their audience, they need to answer some big questions first: Why are the others at war with the survivors? Who is Jacob, why is he there and where did he come from? What’s with the black entity on the island? Give us real answers, then feel free to open a few more questions. We want to feel progress.

I’m not the type of guy that gets excited about new locomotives, but this is something cool that I caught while browsing through inhabitat.com.

The folks at General Electric have recently put together a series of informative, compelling, and visually stunning videos as part of their Ecomagination “commitment.” Here’s a video about their Evolution Series Locomotive, a lean mean high-performing machine which truly “defies the perception that greater efficiency means less power,” using 189,000 fewer gallons of fuel in its lifetime than its predecessors….

via inhabitat.com

The coolest thing was the numbers on the GE site (located from the video page at ‘Behind the Story’ > Facts):

• If every locomotive in North America were as clean as GE’s Evolution…[it] would be like removing 48 million cars from the road each year.
• If the largest railroad in North America switch half its locomotive fleet to the GE Evolution, annual carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by an amount equal to planting more than 31,000 acres of trees.
• Compared to locomotives built in 2004, a single Evolution locomotive will consume 315,000 fewer gallons of fuel in its lifetime…

I always love seeing innovations like these. We wont stop, or reverse, global warming with a single solution but many smaller steps until we reach the tipping point.