Category Archives: Entertainment

Losing it over Lost!

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I love Lost. The TV series.

It is currently my favorite series on TV. And I look forward to the next season as much as anyone.

But the producers of the show seem on a mission to destroy it with product tie-in overkill.

The latest example are the Lost jigsaw puzzles.

“What’s wrong with this?” you may ask. What’s wrong is what is stated on the box covers: “Spoiler warning: Secrets are revealed.”

This can only mean one of two things, both of them bad:

• No secrets (at least none of any consequence) are really revealed. So, even if you don’t get the puzzles, you won’t be missing anything. In other words, the box cover is essentially a lie.

• Secrets of consequence do get revealed. This is the greater of the two evils! This means you now need to buy games, and possibly DVDs, books, and other paraphernalia, just to keep up with what is happening on the show itself (which is already a bit difficult to follow and which I am already a bit miffed over how long it takes them to reveal any significant secrets). If this is the case, I am about ready to give up on the show. I don’t have enough time nor enough interest in spending my money to reward this crass commercialism and exploitation of the show’s fans.

Yes, others have done it before. Recall the Matrix movies, where the animated Animatrix filled in plot details not covered in the movies. And, of course, Star Wars has turned this concept into a full-fledged industry.

But it seems particularly annoying in the case of Lost, where a big appeal of the show depends precisely on its secrets. To require spending money on a bunch of tie-in merchandise, in order to discover what these secrets are, is just an insult perpetrated by the producers of the show. Shame on them.

On the death of the electric car

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Recently, I saw the documentary movie Who Killed the Electric Car?. I recommend it as a sobering look at how a successful and innovative technology was strangled by forces that feared it would hurt their profits.

When my mind wanders to recollections of the film, the scene that sticks with me the most (well second most; the most memorable scene is all those cars taken away for destruction over the protests of their owners and supporters) is one whose significance is largely glossed over by the filmmakers.

It is at the point where the film is describing how, instead of battery technology, the car and energy industries are pushing for the development of hydrogen fuel cells as a clean alternative to conventional engines.

There is a specific scene, with President Bush, that takes place at a Shell station outfitted with a tank for “refilling” a hydrogen cell. The narrator’s criticism focuses on the fact that hydrogen technology is still at least 20 years away from being a practical alternative (if it ever gets there at all), while the electric car is practical today.

But to me, the most telling point was the Shell station itself. With electric cars, owners “refuel” their vehicles in their own garages at night, with a battery charger. With hydrogen, you still need to go to a Shell station (or equivalent) to refuel.

No wonder oil companies are aghast at the idea of a successful electric car. How many Shell stations would wind up going out of business if people never needed to use them again, because they could get all the fuel they needed from a wall outlet?

If the oil companies get their way (and they seem to be doing so), that future will never happen. At least not as long as their is oil in the ground and money to be made from selling it.