Calling all scaredy-cats! (Those who are not fearful, or who do not want to participate in mass hyteria, need not apply)

Are we in a state of fear? If you are unsure of the answer, simply turn on your television. Fear mongering is the new media buisness plan.To hear the media tell it we're all going to die in a horrible 21st century black death that will sweep the world. They have moved away from informing the people and have moved toward finding the things that frighten people to the deepest places of their subconscious. Let's take a walk down recent media hysteria lane.


Ohh look at that house on Swine Flu Avenue, right next to the pretty one on Bird Flu Avenue. But wait! Did you see the one on Weapons of mass destruction road, or global warming place? How about the one on SARS dr? What you survived the supposed wold ending in Y2K? Oops sorry that was a minor mistake, the world is really ending in 2012.


Please be careful seeing as how everything causes cancer, cellphones, chocolate, household chemicals, microwaving your food in a plastic container and so on. Don't forget that you need to be scared that the government is spying on you through your cellphone. You must be afraid, (very afraid) of anything to do with airports and flying. It is in your best interest to be terrified of the recession.


 After all it is guarenteed that the government is spying on you, foreclosure will claim your house, and while you are living under a bridge you will contract bird flu, that you won't be able to go to the doctor for because you have no health insurance (thanks to the government), your bird flu will morph into swine flu, you will have taken so many sick days that your job will have fired you. Since you are homeless, you will have to eat the food that you can find out of cans, and therefore will catch cancer from the metal, you will grow a beard so long that the FBI will add you to their terrorist watch and Do not fly list and your body odor alone will kill all the polar bears in Antartica and speed up global warming. Global warming will then cause it to snow in August, which then will cause you to slowly freeze to death under your bridge. The lastest family to have misfortune hump their leg, and lost their home and job will occupy your cardboard box under the bridge. Due to them having no income and therefore no food, plus several years prior they caught cancer from using toilet tissue that mutated them into flesh loving zombies, they will roast your now lifeless body over an open fire and consume it with a side of A-1 steak sauce, that they randomly found. But wait! The bottle of A-1 sauce was planted there by a terrorist government and really had a bomb in it. The whole world has now blown up. 
Are you in a state of fear yet?

If not, turn on the TV or read the paper, the media can do a better job of it. They practice everyday.

Too much talking, not enough Jack Bauer-ness....

Michael Crichton authored a book aptly titled State of Fear. If consipiracy theories wrapped up in attempted mass murders, undercover agents who are highly skilled in martial arts and weapons training, with a side of double crossing, some psuedo-scientific data and a pinch of  global warming theory is for you, read it. Sound like an episode of 24? It would be except at times you may feel as if there is not enough action. The premise of the novel is eco-terrorists who attempt mass murder to support their views. The debate of global warming serves as the backdrop for the book. In the book which is fiction with a peppering of susposed scientific data in it, if you read between the lines you can make out the beliefs of its author. A question that has been posed is to what extent is Kenner the mouthpiece of Crichton?

Though various differing veiwpoints are given in the book, the author uses different major characters as proxies for those viewpoints. It is my belief that the author uses the character of Kenner as a stand in for himself. Through Kenner he includes his views on global warming. He uses Kenner as a mouthpiece to state that the cause, extent and threat of global warming is largely unknown. The book is heavily indoctrinated with the opinon of the author. He does not buy into the theory of global warming and is out to discredit the whole theory. Though the book is a work of fiction, you are made to feel like at the end of it, you should have crossed the line drawn in the sand and joined forces with Michael Crichton against the absolute absurd idea that is global warming. I think that the author thought that if he packaged  up his idealogy neatly in some fast paced action with eco-terroism, with the fast and sexy trappings of a thriller, noone would realize that he sometimes went south on long winded rants to convince you that the threat of global warming is just a drill. 

My view on global warming does not matter in this case. I actually do somewhat share similar views with the author. I do agree that the issue of global warming is often over-hyped. I think that the issue lies within how well the author reached his intended audience. The book was a good read, very thought-provoking if not at times longwinded. However, a little more action can never hurt. Everyone loves Jack Bauer.

Effects of Global Warming

A Polar Bear losing his home to foreclosure global warming.....

It's getting hot in here (Please keep on all your clothes)

Global Warming

*Frightened Oohs and Aahs please*

You may not be able to spell out the definition of just what global warming is, but more than likely you have heard of the term, and you may enough to know that Former Vice President Al Gore is a big name crusader for the cause. So just what is global warming? Global warming in dummy terms is the increase in the average temperature of the earth. Ok and? What it so bad about that, no more cold winters! Except that the projected continued increase of the earth's temperature comes with some dire predictions of impending doom, (dramatic, I know.) Here are the proposed 5 deadliest effects of global warming...

5. Spread of disease
As northern countries warm, disease carrying insects migrate north, bringing plague and disease with them.

4.Warmer waters and more hurricanes.
As the temperature of rises, so will the probability of more frequent and stronger hurricanes.

3.Increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves.
Get ready to sweat to death.

2.Economic consequences.
Umm, hurricanes can cause billions of dollars in damages, and it takes money to recover, repair and rebuild after one. Diseases cost money to treat. Expect us to be in an even bigger recession than we are now.

1.Polar ice caps melting.
Which will result in rising sea levels, the global ecosystem being thrown out of balance, and alot of homeless polar bears.

Ok so now that we know of our impending doom, what is the cause of it? In a nutshell, while there are several causes of global warming it is said that human pollution is one of the biggest contributing factors. Pollution comes in different forms. Mining coal and oil along with burning fossil fuels that give off a greenhouse gas called CO2 is one form of pollution. Other man-made causes have been connected to global warming such as the increase of population which means more people breathing out CO2, more animals to feed the increasing population such as cows whose manure give off methane, and more cars which mean more pollution. While some would call global warming a theory, others call it a proven set of facts. So is global warming really happening or not? Which side of the debate are you on? I by no means am a scientist, (unless you count the awesome science experiment I did in the fourth grade demonstrating how oil and water do not mix), yet nonetheless would like to propose a theory to be considered:

Global warming is not caused by man, but is natural.

I believe that it is supposed to happen. Believe it or not, very little research has ever been funded to search for natural mechanisms of warming..it has simply been assumed that global warming is manmade.Research the Medieval warm period. It was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic Region that lasted from AD 800-1300. It was possibly related to other warm and cool anomalies around the world during that time. It was then followed by a cooler period termed the Little Ice Age. That is evidence that indicates our climate has gone through climate changes and warming periods before. Shall we attribute that warming period to the CO2 emissions from the knights chariots? (A joke,calm down!) Also did you know that a 1997 Gallop Poll of prominent North American climatologists showed that 83 percent of them disagreed with the man-made global warming theory? Some may discredit that citing that the poll occured over 10 years ago and now beliefs have shifted as we have come to learn more about global warmng. Yet, as recent as 2008 there is satellite and model evidence against substantial manmade climate change. Additionally, a Ohio State University researcher that extensively researched global warming predicts that global warming is a natural geological process that could begin to reverse itself within 10 to 20 years.-Science Daily. Richard Lindzen, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes the current warming trend is the result of natural variability, where a planet goes through phases of warming and cooling and the human contribution to it is minimal. -CNN.com. Interesting stuff.  Do you agree or disagree? What do you think about my proposal?