Turn out. Take action.

Turn out. Take action. For World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour!

On March 31, 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney's energy consumption
by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for a year.

Now the movement is global...

Be part of this historic event. Tomorrow, Saturday March 28, 2009, 8:30 pm local time

World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour – to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions.

In Indianapolis:

Green Piece Indy is hosting an Earth Hour celebration at South Bend Chocolate Cafe on Monument Circle from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Watch an Earth Hour countdown to 8:30 in front of the Indianapolis Power & Light building. Other businesses and individuals throughout Indianapolis are challenged to join IPL and South Bend Chocolate Cafe in going dark in support of this event

Source: earthhourus.org & Nuvo.net

Some Awesome Nerd-Tastic Music For Your Friday

A short medley of (mostly) '80s hits arranged and performed on his stylophone.

Via: John Scalzi's Whatever Blog

Road to the Final Four® heads Downtown Indianapolis

The NCAA^® Division I Men's Basketball Championship - Midwest Regional will take place March 27 & 29 at Lucas Oil Stadium.  Top-seeded Louisville squares off against No. 12 Arizona at 7:07 p.m. Friday and No. 2 Michigan State takes on No. 3 Kansas following.  The winners play Sunday. All-session , lower-level seats are still available here. Single-session tickets can be purchased at the Lucas Oil Stadium box office beginning March 26.

Everyone can watch the teams for FREE at Open Practice Day Thursday, March 26 at Lucas Oil Stadium. Each of the teams will take the court for 50 minutes, beginning with Arizona at noon, Kansas  at 1 p.m., Louisville at 2:10 p.m. and Michigan State at 3:10 p.m. See firsthand how the coaches are preparing their teams for the upcoming games!

Via: Indianapolis Downtown Inc., Issue #278 - March 25, 2009

Spike Jonze's Amazing Looking Trailer for 'Where the Wild Things Are'

Director: Spike Jonze
Writer: Spike Jonze
Studio: Warner Bros Pictures
Cast: Catherine Keener, Max Records, Mark Ruffalo
Release: October 16, 2009
Music in the trailer: Wake Up - Arcade Fire

"Vandreka is One of Europe's Few Undiscovered Corners."

I had a bought of insomnia tonight. So I watched an old movie just like I used to when, in the days before cable, my local channels had a Late, Late Late Movie feature. Generally it was some 60's B-movie, but occasionally they would dive into the B&W films from the 30s and 40s. That's the last time I'd had the opportunity to watch Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.

Made in 1938, it was one of the last of his movies made in England. It was very successful in England and in the States which helped him seal his very lucrative American film contract in 1939.

It's a good movie, but best known as being a transition film for Hitchcock. There were camera angles, musical motifs, and plot points he'd more successfully pick up and carry into later films. If you've seen the Jodi Foster movie from a few years ago, Flight Plan, then you've basically seen this movie. It was a loose remake. Just substitute an old English Governess for Foster's daughter and a Central European steam locomotive puffing and clacking through the fictional country of Vandreka for a plane.

For me, I think I fell in love a bit with Margaret Lockwood. She was gorgeous! The male lead was Michael Redgrave. Father to Lynn and Vanessa and grandfather to the recently deceased Natasha Richardson. There was an eerie scene where Redgrave's character was talking to a doctor. They were discussing a recent operation. The victim had fallen and died of bleeding between the skull and the brain!! "What an awful death." Redgrave's character muttered. It sent shivers down my spine.

Oh yeah, near the end of the movie at Victoria Station wearing a black coat and smoking a cigarette is where you'll find Hitchcock. Now go spend a sleepless night or a rainy afternoon over at Hulu.com and watch it.

One of My Favorite Places in Indy!

The Rathskeller

We Seem To Be in Good Hands With New EPA Chief Lisa Jackson

Lisa Jackson has no small job ahead of her. As the new EPA administrator, she's charged with protecting public health and safeguarding the environment. One of her first initiatives is to follow up on a USA Today series that found hundreds of America's schools located dangerously close to toxic hot spots. Administrator Jackson talks with PRI's Living on Earth host Bruce Gellerman about testing the air that schoolchildren breathe, regulating carbon dioxide, and what she'd like to do with the EPA's proposed budget increase.

"(There is) more about the importance of restoring the American public's trust that EPA is first and foremost a science based organization. That we need to be a place where American's look to get answers and American's need to believe that those answers are based on the soundest science that we can possibly muster and without regard to politics, if you will. That the environment is clearly a nonpartisan, nonpolitical issue at its heart. People care about the places where they live and work. So we've talked a lot about making sure that agency scientists are – and their science – are respected and conversely, that they live up to awesome responsibility of being a voice for the environment and public health in this country.

Second, we talked about restoring the rule of law at this agency. I wouldn't call it lawless, but we've had some – a number of cases where our major regulatory actions, especially on air, have been overturned by the courts. And what's really disturbing there is that, in the mean time, a framework for protection of human health is undermined.

Finally, we've talked a lot about transparency and the importance of people being able to see inside this agency and feel assured that no individual stakeholder or special interest is making the agenda, that our agenda is governed by an open dialogue with all stake holders, environmental groups, industry advocates of all types, and then we move on based on science and the law. You know, this EPA, the Obama EPA is on the job, and all we can ask of the American people is that we be given an opportunity to earn their trust and to have them see us as a steward of the issues that they care about. That is our fundamental job here at EPA."