Jericho, Snake Eyes, Dirty Harry, Kamen's Distiller, and Obama Bashing

Jericho Cancelled - It looks like the fan induced renewal wasn't enough to save the show despite a much improved second season. Thanks to anemic ratings (I think average was 7 million), CBS has decided to forgo a season 3. However, the show did plan for possibility of cancellation by shooting two versions of the end. Clearly the series finale end will be the one that airs this Tuesday. Lesson to all future show runners, holding your cards too long thinking you will need them for season 3 or later doesn't do you much good if there never is a season 3. The reason Jericho went from early season 1 success to late season 1 failure is because they played out their central mystery to slow to maintain viewer interest. Take the Heroes rode, throw out your best early on, once you have people hooked, you can slow down as needed.

Snake Eyes Image - A sneak peek of Snake Eyes (Ray Park) has been released to the web for the GI Joe movie that is in production. It should help fans know that it appears that Snake Eyes will maintain his bad ass looks.

Dirty Harry Returns? - Rumors are swirling that Clint Eastwood's next project is another Dirty Harry film called "Gran Turino." However, there are also rumors that he isn't and the film is about a racist that changes his ways after an immigrant family moves in next door. Frankly, considering Clint's career for the last 15 years, the second plot is more likely (smells of Oscar).

Vista SP1 Reviews - Click the link for reviews of the new service pack for Vista. The consensus seems to be the improvements will probably not be noticed by the average user.

Kamen's Vapor Compression Distiller - Dean Kamen appeared on the Colbert Report to discuss his newest invention which is a chemical, membrane, and filter free water purifier that can be used on any type of water be it dirty, salt, poisoned, even urine. The idea is that it can be used in third world countries to provide access to clean water and possibly "wipe out 50% of human disease". Based on my basic science memory and the name, it sounds like the device uses pressure so that contaminated water is turned to vapor leaving behind the impurities. This vapor is then collected, cooled back to water, and released for use. If true, it’s actually an elegant solution. The problem remains maintenance and upkeep which is probably why it took five years to develop as would need to reduce the points of failure to as few and cheap as possible if plan to deploy in poor nations. Click the link above for the demo.

Fox Hosts Tired of Obama Bashing - A day that few thought would come, two Fox hosts actually got sick and tired of a Democrat being bashed ad nausuem. Fox and Friends is a morning show that pretty much spends the entire time kissing Republican rear while trashing Democrats. Basically it’s Rush Limbaugh with three hosts. Well apparently after two hours of harping on "typical white woman" phrase from Obama, Brian Kilmeade left and later Chris Wallace voiced his own disapproval. From what I can tell the problem is the use of the phrase "typical", the usual dislike of stereotypes because people like to pretend they are unique even when they are not and trust me, that female Fox host is a typical female Fox News host in every way whether she wants to believe it or not. I didn't even vote for Obama and found the whole discussion silly.