Scriptwriting in one page

Wired has published a short article about how to write a script.  Called Turn Anything Into a Screenplay, its utter simplicity could serve to keep new writers on track.  If you feel inspired after finishing the article, be sure to check out Screenwriting Sanctuary.

G8, not Olympics, real threat

As Bush and other world leaders gather in Japan for their annual G8 conference, some reporters are asking them why they aren't boycotting the Olympic Games in China next month.

Critics have called for world leaders to boycott the ceremony to protest China's repression of dissidents and support for pariah states Burma and Sudan.

Boycotting the Olympics would hurt the Chinese not the Chinese leaders, nor would it make the government loosen its restraints on domestic freedom. As for China's support of pariah states, they have plenty of company.

If people want to protest an abominable event, they should rise in opposition to the G8 itself. Consider:

Meeting in a resort on the northern Japanese island Hokkaido, the leaders of the G-8 nations – the United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Canada and Italy — will work through a packed three-day agenda: global warming; soaring energy and food prices; economic uncertainty and financial turmoil following the collapse of the U.S. housing market; and the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.

When world governments gather to "do something" about any problem, the results are predictably bad. Governments treat problems through the force of decree or legislation -- or sometimes war. Such intervention is the common pedigree of most problems facing us today. Politicians like the phrase "all options are on the table," but that's just another lie. "All options" never means de-controlling, never means free markets and free trade, never means staying free of foreign entanglements.

"I am for free commerce with all nations, political connection with none, and little or no diplomatic establishment. And I am not for linking ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of Europe, entering that field of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in the confederacy of Kings to war against the principles of liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799. ME 10:77

The problems G8 members will discuss are largely creatures of government meddling.