"Syriana" *** (out of four): Director Stephen Gaghan's flawed but important ensemble film wears its complexity on its sleeve but still manages to get its point across.

Writer Stephen Gaghan ("Traffic", "The Alamo") created the fictional script for "Syriana" based on the non-fiction book "See No Evil" by Robert Baer. The interesting thing about Mr. Gaghan's script, though, isn't that its labyrinthine plot of conspiring Emirs, lawyers and CIA agents plotting to control the world's oil supply is so unbelievable. The most troublesome part of "Syriana" is that the movie is, in fact, so easy to believe.

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Just getting back in the swing here after a Thanksgiving break. I have a mountain of RSS feeds to look through, and the first thing I find is a good one. You may remember our story about the Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry complaining about Borat. Now Borat responds, declaring “I Innocent”.

Is your city worried about Katrina-like destruction? Now you can hire the guy responsible for much of it, former FEMA director Michael Brown.

Brown is starting his own disaster preparedness consulting firm

Brown said officials need to "take inventory" of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.

A brazen city planner should invite Brown in for a consultation, then greet him wearing this shirt.

In other news, George Wendt is working on a diet book, and Nick & Jessica's guide to marriage should be in stores for Valentine's Day.