It turns out that Michael Moore has footage of Nick Berg at an Iraqi business conference in the U.S. 6 months before before he was killed, stating concerns over security in his upcoming trip, which eventually led to his death. Moore, however, decided that it would not be responsible or considerate to Berg’s family to use the footage; instead, he sent the footage to the Bergs for them to view as they wished, and made the decision not to use the interview–which could have been a sensational and dramatic addition to the film.

David Berg, Nick’s father said Moore handled the situation with “dignity, respect and discipline”; “Michael Moore has really been a total class act with this whole thing. He could have sold this to the media or stuck it in his movie.”

In the meantime, the Weinsteins have bought “Fahrenheit 9/11” from Disney and talks are ongoing between them and several distributors, Lion’s Gate and Focus Features being among the forefront. At this, I am ending my own personal boycott of Disney goods, but my opinion about the company has taken a palpable hit even so.

The hostage event at Khobar Towers (that place really seems to draw attacks, you gotta wonder if people have the choice of moving to another place or not) has ended, and the Saudis say that “most” of the 50 foreign hostages are now safe, suggesting that some died in the dramatic storming of the towers. The group has not yet been identified as al Qaeda, though that is what most suspect. The hostage-taking is seen as an act of desperation, as it involved the killing of Saudi security guards, and while killing Westerners is not seen as being critical, many people in the Middle East see the killing of other Arabs as crossing the line.

This crisis is yet another development in the ongoing disruption in the Middle East. As Bush tries to worm his way out without giving up anything, he is missing chance after chance of any hope of return to even the days of regular Middle East instability.

While the dramatically sudden climate shift and drastic temperature drops illustrated in the film The Day After Tomorrow are more fiction than science, it has been observed that some gradual and yet dramatic trends are taking place and could remake the world climate into something significantly different for our descendants. This story shows that “global dimming” is responsible for less and less sunlight hitting the ground, that the skies have darkened by 10% over the last 50 years, and it may be a natural phenomena, though some contend it is a result of pollution.

And then there is the Earth’s magnetic field shift, which many scientists believe is now underway–though it may not be complete for thousands of years. Our magnetic field is dropping in strength by about 5% every century, and has been waning for perhaps 2,000 years now, and the decline is accelerating. The north magnetic pole is also not static even now–it has moved 1,100 km in the past 200 years, and most of the movement has happened in the past century. The north magnetic pole now travels at the rate of 40km per year.

The previous magnetic pole flip was 730,000 to 790,000 years ago, and scientists say that a flip every 200,000 or 300,000 years is average–so we seem to be due for one. Reversals can last between 1,000 and 28,000 years. During that time, it has been believed that the Earth would be open to solar and galactic radiation, and we would get a higher dose, increasing the incidence of cancer–though not by so much as to be cataclysmic. One positive side effect thought to be possible is the occurrence of the Aurora Borealis just about every where on Earth, most of the time, fantastic light displays on a regular basis.

A new study, however, indicates that there may be a backup system: the solar wind, which would wrap itself around the Earth and create a new magnetic field which would do about as good a job in protecting us from radiation as the Earth’s present magnetic field accomplishes.

Smoking, it seems, is even more dangerous than we’ve thought. The Surgeon General released a report that says smoking “significantly harms almost every major organ of the body and has been directly linked to a new series of diseases including leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia and cancers of the kidney, cervix, pancreas and stomach.”

Me, I just hat the smell. It gives me headaches, a sore throat, and makes me nauseous–and more than that, it gets into your clothes and hair after a short time and you have to shower and change just to get rid of it. So if they find that it is more dangerous and that dissuades more people from smoking, it is not a result I would mind at all.