GI Bill was passed into law this morning by the President/ Our very dear friends at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) have lead the fight for the new GI Bill.  Over 20,000 people called representatives in Congress, spread the word to friends and signed the petition at www.GIBill2008.org

We were honored to work with the IAVA throughout our Charlie Wilson’s War social action campaign. They are a remarkable organization and played a tremendous role in today’s victory.

Paul Rieckhoff, the Executive Director of the IAVA, sent this message earlier today:

Generations of veterans to come will benefit from this bill. Your support in this fight has been overwhelming- very few bills in recent history have received such an outpouring of public support. Together, we can be extremely proud of this victory.

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A new California law, set to go into effect tomorrow July 1, mandates that all drivers use a handsfree device while talking on their cellphones (’cellphone’ or ‘cell phone’? you decide).  The state of Washington has a similar handsfree cellphone law also going into effect tomorrow. In addition to benefiting public safety, the new laws are providing a sales boost to cellphone accessories retailers, like Santa Cruz California based Plantronics (feel free to leave any conspiracy theories in the comments).  In addition to keeping you focused on the road, recent research suggests using your cellphone may give you brain cancer, so it’s probably best to keep the phone away from your head anyway.  Check out our socially responsible ways to transition to a handsfree cellphone existence after the jump…

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Hypermiling is kind of, what’s the word…crazy? Yeah. Crazy. That’s the word. The dedication to getting as much distance out of one gallon of gas possible seems kind of strange, but when you can get results like Jack Martin, the adjective that comes to mind is merely “impressive.” In this year’s Tour to the Shore hypermiling contest, which is a real event, Martin managed to get 124 miles out of one gallon of gas in an unmodified Honda Insight. Seriously.

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A group of political satirists/activists who call themselves the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco are planning to ask voters to rename their water treatment plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

Hmmm, let’s see…there’s the John F. Kennedy School of Government, the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, the Ronald Reagan Freeway – I guess it’s pretty common for things to be named after Presidents in memorial of their service to the country. But as the NY Times noted last week, our current President may be the first have something named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.

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A Florida biologist saved the life of an enormous 375 black bear yesterday, preventing it from drowning by pulling it out of the Gulf of Mexico. The bear had wandered into a residential development in the Florida panhandle 40 miles south of Tallahassee when state officials were called in to capture it. After the bear was hit by a tranquilizer dart, it bolted straight into the water of the Gulf of Mexico before the drugs could take effect, running the risk of losing consciousness and drowning in the water. Saving the day though, Adam Warwick, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commision, jumped in after the bear to keep it from going under and losing its life. Warwick pulled the wild animal back onto land from about 75 feet offshore and it was safely transported to the Osceola National Forest near Lake City, FL.

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So some of us hadn’t been too bent out of shape with the skyrocketing fuel prices because 1) Some of us are selling our cars anyway, and 2) Some of us kind of hoped this would necessitate a rise in renewable energies. However, there are some predictions floating around out there which state that may not be the case. The International Herald Tribune tells us,

According to Climate Strategies, an international climate policy network based at the University of Cambridge, one of the likeliest consequences [of high fuel costs] could be a rush to highly polluting technologies to extract more fossil fuels from different sources, including technologies pioneered during the last century to extract liquid fuels from coal.

The thought is that, instead of spending on innovation to combat fuel prices, governments and companies might instead revert back to tried and true, yet dirtier, practices to meet energy demand.

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Are you a Bond fan? What do you think of how the next chapter in the series looks?

I am personally excited to see Mathieu Amalric play the bad guy - he’s good in everything he does!

Be sure to takepart and read up on one of his more issue based films, Heartbeat Detector

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I was at the Nantucket Film Festival about a week ago to screen Meerkat Media’s film Every Third Bite. While there I only caught one film at the actual festival (it seemed a better use of my time to enjoy the outdoors). The film I saw was Brad Anderson’s Transsiberian. I’ve always been a fan of Anderson and usually enjoy his intelligent and uncommon approach to commonplace genres. Perhaps it’s been a while since I saw one of his films and in that time my viewing preferences have changed, but I found Transsiberian to be somewhat disappointing in a few ways.

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Going into Wall-E on Sunday I knew a few things.

1) It was a Pixar film, meaning beautiful animation and cute characters

2) It was an eco-parable. On purpose I didn’t read much about the film, but I knew that is was somehow supposed to bring up the earth.

3) I would probably like it because I like things about robots.

When I left Wall-E all my thoughts (while true) had been turned upside down as I realized I had just seen a politically radical Disney film! And more than that it was chock full of cinematic references!

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Social Action + Cinema Videos of the Day:

Cystic Fibrosis and The Thin Red Line

1) Current TV presents ‘Dying Young’

For the Cinema YouTube Video of the Day, Click here >>>

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