Waterworld Pays Off (Finally)

?Have I gone mad? Am I insane? Did I somehow drift off into some bizarro world where fantasy has become reality? Because I really can’t fathom that I’m living in a universe where Kevin Costner’s notorious flop Waterworld may be the key to saving the environment. From /Film:

While he was working on that film, Costner paid scientists millions of dollars to develop a device that could do what his fictional character’s invention could do in the film: purify ocean water. Working prototypes of the device actually exist, which Costner has dubbed “Ocean Therapy.” Now, with the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers, British Petroleum has given the go-ahead for Costner to test six of his devices to help clean up the massive oil spill in the Gulf.
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Costner’s machines use centrifuge technology to separate oil from water, rendering the water 97% pure. “It’s like a big vacuum cleaner,” explained one of Costner’s business partners. Costner, a longtime environmentalist, was glad that his invention would finally be deployed, but saddend at the occasion. “We’ve moved this to a technology that we know works, and has worked for a long time,” Costner said, “It’s prepared to go out and solve problems, not talk about them.” He added: “I just [am]really happy that the light of day has come to this, and I’m sad about why it is. But this is why it was developed, and like in anything that we face as a group, we all face it together.”

I… I want to go lie down, but I’m afraid if I do that things will be even weirder. The idea of waking up and finding out we all have gills and are legally obligated to drink our own pee is, frankly, terrifying.