Keurig K-Cups Star In Bizarre Action-Horror Movie

From the video: A K-Cup monster destroys
Halifax, Nova Scotia and kills much of the populace
in a strange but fun video from K-Cup opponents.  

Keurig Green Mountain K-Cups are convenient as hell. It seems everybody uses them, including my husband, for their nice single serve fresh coffee all the time.  

The K-Cups, however, are not the most environmentally friendly contraption.

They're made of plastic and foil, and they're full of wet coffee grounds after you use them. They're next to impossible to recycle, so they add to the trash piling up in our landfills and such.

Not a nice PR thing for a company based in oh-so-environmentally friendly Vermont.

It's one thing to criticize these K-cups, but a production company in Canada has made a whole, short, nearly two-and-a-half minute long horror/action movie about K-cups, reports Vermont Public Radio. 

You can watch this way, way over the top, but strangely compelling and funny video at the bottom of this post.

Here's VPR to set the scene up for you:

"To anyone who has seen Cloverfield, the 2008 film depicting a monster attack on Manhattan through the lends of a home video camera recovered by the government, the style of the new video is familiar.

"An aircraft appears in the sky shooting the beverage packs into the streets at a high velocity, killing some onlookers. The person holding the camera runs away and records, in order: a car being blown up by K-Cups, a massive Godzilla-like monster made entirely of K-Cups belching a high volume of K-Cups down onto an unnamed city; a photographer bing crushed by a car-sized K-cup, a woman being stomped on by the aforementioned K-cup monster; soldiers shooting at an unseen enemy; and finally, the recorder's own death by an aerial assault of K-Cup shooting K-Cup trays."

Yeah, way, way, WAYYY over the top.

I just hope my husband's K-Cups don't decided to attack him one early groggy morning in the future.

The movie was made by Egg Studios in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was shot over the course of a day in Halifax. It was done by Egg Studio staffers over six months during down time when they weren't working for paying clients, says VPR.

Egg Studios partnered with a group called Kill The K-Cup to make the video. The set area was provided by Social Bean Gourmet Coffee Co.

Kill the K-Cup has launch a change.org petitition to get Keurig Green Mountain to change the K-Cup into something recyclable now if not sooner, not Keurig's 2020 target date.

For its part Keurig Green Mountain says finding an environmentally better alternative to a K-Cup is a priority for them, that they appreciate the humor, creativity and message in the video.

In any event, here's the most unusual, but strangely entertaining video:

Kleenex Alert! Wonderful, Touching Video By People With Down Syndrome To Soon-To-Be Mom

World Down Syndrome Day is tomorrow, March 21, and the people at Down Syndrome International put out this very sweet video that is one of the better advocacy PSA's I've seen.

A still from the World Down Syndrome Day video.  

In the video, the organizers say they got an email from  young woman who is pregnant and learned her baby has Down Syndrome.

The woman wrote: "I'm scared. What kind of life will my child have?"

Then the video goes on to have people with Down Syndrome from all over the world answer the young mother's question. Spoiler alert:  The answers are very reassuring.

I don't like to generalize about any particular group, but the people I've met in my life who have Down Syndrome tend to be the most interesting and fun individuals I've come across.  So the PSA definitely seems to meet Truth In Advertising standards.

Here's the video:  (Like I said, Kleenex alert!)

Update: Xena The Warrior Puppy Wins Top ASPCA Award

A big shout out and congratulations to Xena the Warrior Puppy for winning this year's ASPCA dog of the year award.

Xena the Warrior Puppy and BFF Jonny
hang out together recently. 

I wrote about Xena in early May in this here blog thingy, several months after she'd been rescued, at death's door, having been horribly abused and starved. When she was found, nobody thought she'd survive overnight.

But she miraculously rallied, and eventually her rescuers were ready to have Xena go to a good home. Xena went to a fundraiser where the young dog bonded immediately with a kid name Jonny Hickey who was 8 at the time.

Jonny has autism and rarely communicated with anyone. But Xena brought Jonny out of his shell and the boy is now an outgoing, friendly young man, thanks to Xena's love and companionship.

When I wrote about the situation in early May, I mused about who rescues whom when a dog is pulled from a situation of neglect or need and put into a loving home.  As in the case of Xena, the rescued one becomes the rescuer.

About a week after I wrote that column, our Bailey the Wonder Dog, who we had taken into our home a year earlier,  got sick.  By the end of the month, Bailey had passed away.

Xena the Warrior Puppy looking
happy at the ASPCA Dog Of The
Year ceremony earlier this month.  

I deeply mourned the loss of Bailey, of course. But even in death, he taught me a lesson. Love what's in your life now, because it won't last forever. And embrace everything you can.

Which seems to be what Xena the Warrior Puppy has been up to. She's been damn busy.

In addition to being Jonny's partner in crime, Xena has been visiting a 12-year old girl with cancer in an Atlanta area hospital to cheer her up and cheer her on, according to the Today Show.

Xena has also been visiting a prison where inmates train homeless dogs in a program called Canine CellMates.   Xena has been helping make sure that program runs smoothly.

Xena The Warrior Puppy has also been helping Jonny's mom, Linda, call attention to the importance of rescuing dogs in need and promoting autism awareness.

Xena has been keeping the world up to date on her work through her Facebook page and at her web site, www.xenathewarriorpuppy.com 

A shout out should also go to Koshka, the ASPCA's Cat of the Year. Staff Sgt. Jesse Knott rescued Koshka while serving in Afghanistan, and Koshka returned the favor by helping Knott get through his darkest days after two of his closest friends were killed in a suicide attack.

Koshka now lives happily with Knott and the rest of his family in Oregon.

Do We Need Roadside Memorials for Dead Fish?

We've all seen those sad makeshift memorials on the side of the road, where a fatal car crash has claimed a life and somebody wants the victim remembered.

Our friends over at the animal rights group PETA takes this one step forward: In California, they want a roadside memorial erected at the site of a truck crash that spilled 1,600 pounds of saltwater bass, according to the Redding, (Calif.) Searchlight.   The fish, which had been bound for a market to be, um, killed for human consumption, died in the crash.

Does this victim deserve a roadside memorial?

So PETA wants a roadside memorial for the unfortunate fish who died so tragically in the truck crash

The city of Irvine, where the crash happened, has cruelly turned down PETA volunteer Dina Kourda's request for the roadside memorial.   PETA says they'll try again.

PETA's point is fish value their lives and feel pain, so if they die, it's a worth a roadside memorial. Somehow, it's worse than being killed at the fish market.

"They are on their way to slaughter, which is, of course, pretty hellish. To suffer an accident on the way and be left in the middle of the street is unthinkable," the Searchlight article quoted  PETA spokeswoman Asheley Byrne.

But this idea could get out of control, no? I mean, how many other trucks actually make it to the market without incident? How many memorials would we need at the fish market? And wouldn't that get in the way of shoppers trying to obtain fish? Or is that PETA's point?

What about all the road kill on the road to the fish market, or any road? I have seen so many squirrels, skunks and raccoons who met a premature end on some roadway. You'd need a memorial every three feet on the road's shoulder. Who would put them there? Who would maintain them? How would you find room for road signs that tell motorists to slow down so they don't run over other poor animals trying to cross the street?

I can see how the city of Irvine would turn down the idea of a memorial for the dead fish in the truck crash.  Lots of politicians and city leaders like to avoid setting precedents.   According to the Redding Searchlight article, PETA has tried to put up memorials for  pigs killed in Virginia and cows killed in crashes in Illinois, Kansas, and Manitoba, Canada.. None won approval.

Irvine, I guess, went the way of the other cities.  Which makes sense. I don't think you can even buy fish memorials anywhere.  Though I suppose that could become a brand new, job-creating industry. As long as the trucks shipping the roadside fish memorials don't run over any animals on the way to the places that ordered the memorials.

IRVINE (AP) — Animal activists want a California roadside memorial sign to honor fish killed during a container truck crash.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals volunteer Dina Kourda told Irvine's street maintenance chief the sign would remind drivers that fish value their lives and feel pain.
About 1,600 pounds of saltwater bass died on Oct. 11 when the truck hauling them to market got into a three-way crash.
Kourda's letter acknowledges roadside memorials traditionally honor humans, but she hopes an exception will be made.
Irvine spokesman Craig Reem says there won't be a fish memorial.
But PETA spokeswoman Asheley Byrne said they will go back and ask again.
It's not the first time PETA has asked to post a memorial for animals killed on their way to slaughter.

It's their first fish effort. They will continue trying for memorials when trucks carrying animals to slaughter are involved in crashes and there is a heavy death toll.
"They are on their way to slaughter, which is, of course, pretty hellish. To suffer an accident on the way and be left in the middle of the street is unthinkable," Byrne said.