[Movies] The Interview (2014)

Would I have watched this movie had it not become a headline news story? I honestly don't know at this point. I can take James Franco in small doses, but I don't actively seek out his movies. My partner Tobie finds Seth Rogen adorable (and to be fair, he is) and he tends to collect Seth Rogen movies on the side. So I guess it was bound to happen.

But The Interview is a movie with such an over-the-top concept, it's easy to dismiss it as little more than a gimmick of sorts. It's the kind of low-brow humor that helped shows like South Park become popular, although personally it's never been something that I've been all that into.

But through an unusual accident of circumstance, this movie suddenly became the focal point for a global discussion about censorship and free speech. The decision to pull the movie's release in response to threats from hackers was a controversial move and one that had a lot of folks reacting negatively to. And thus the movie has become something for all of us to see at least once, if only to see what the fuss was all about.

[World Affairs] The Clock Nears 12

The Doomsday Clock, the more than 60-year-old representation of the risk of nuclear holocaust in the world maintained by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, has finally moved in more than four years of being at seven minutes to midnight since 2002.

Based on the news reports, the time has been adjusted due to recent developments with Iran and North Korea along with factoring in global warming concerns.

While it may not seem like much from a day-to-day living perspective, the Doomsday Clock has always acted as a benchmark of sorts of how the scientific community views global developments in the nuclear arena. Efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons haven't been at all effective in recent years and with major nations engaged in word wars and sabre rattling sessions, it's no wonder the clock has been adjusted thus.

The Doomsday Clock's closest time to midnight has been two minutes to midnight back in 1953.

Related Links:

• USATODAY.com Blogs: On Deadline - Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight
  
• CNN Video: Doomsday Clock Moves

[North Korea] Nuclear Winter

If you try a Google News search for [North Korea] right now, you're going to see a lot of buzz for the somewhat rogue state. In case you've been living under a rock for a least the past week or so, then you might not have heard that the small nation made good it's threat to push through with their nuclear testing despite strong objections from the rest of the international community.

Given the volume or articles being posted real-time across the web, it might take you some time to deterine which topics you might want to check. In terms of the actual test, you can check out this set of articles also through Google news. The test took place at about 10:30 Pyongyang local time, an event which CNet News reports was actually recorded as a 4.2-magnitude event, which is pretty keen. One man's earthquake is another man's nuclear test, perhaps?

The question now is how the international community is going to respond to this. It is definitely a bold move on North Korea's part, something that is sending very strong ripples throughout the region and the world. As much as everyone has kept all eyes on this country and put in different measures to attempt to dissuade them from advancing their tests, clearly North Korea has ignored all penalties thus far.

Does this automatically mean North Korea is a nuclear power? Not exactly. There are a number of things involved in this sort of thing. What we do know is that this proves they are capable of putting a nuclear device together. The next question is if they have the ability to mount such a warhead on a guided missile or a similar payload delivery device. They previously tested their intercontinental ballistics missile (ICBM) capability with a device that could theoretically reach Alaska or Hawaii to no avail. They also tested shorter ranged missiles that could reach as far as neighboring Japan, but this time the test proved successful.

What this leads up to is that if North Korea could theoretically weaponize their nuclear devices, then only the immediate neighbors in the region would be threatened. If you want to know more about Pyongyang's nuclear development, the New York Times has put together a timeline of North Korea's development of their nuclear program over the years which is pretty informative.

So what now? It's hard to say, really. It'll take the international community a bit longer before a formal response to all this can be released in terms actual policy statements, pronouncements and formal resolutions. It's certainly going to be a tense time for everyone. While most of the US's attention has been directed at worrying about Iran, here comes North Korea taking a very big leap by pursuing an actual nuclear test.

There goes the neighborhood.