I might even read this one...
no dinos involved -- 'cept the intellectual type...[Michael Crichton's new book] "State of Fear," about eco-terrorists who plot a series of natural disasters -- earthquakes, underwater landslides, a tsunami -- to prove that global warming is a threat to humanity. A ragtag band of scientists and lawyers uncovers the scheme.
Wonder how fast Hollywood'll jump on this for a movie....
"If we put everything in the hands of experts and if we say that as intelligent outsider, we are not qualified to look over the shoulder of anybody, then we're in some kind of really weird world," Crichton says.
Yup. I'm not a big fan of revealed "knowledge." Be it from a teacher, a scientist, the government, whomever-- I'd rather prefer to find out for myself.
Check Crichton's take on "global warming." [which reminds me of this which I forget who said it: "It's amazing how much 'mature wisdom' resembles 'just too damn tired'..."]
ThanQ! Herr Schwantz
First comment, eh? I’m honored.
I forget who said it: “It’s amazing how much ‘mature wisdom’ resembles ‘just too damn tired.’"
That was Robert Heinlein in Time Enough For Love, but that particular quote is in the various publications of The Notebooks of Lazarus Long (I understand, parenthetically, that Don Vassalo who calligraphed the original graphic edition, is planning to come out with a new revised edition soon).
Um—yeah. While it’s pretty clear that nonlinear systems like global climate can change radically in a very short time, which particular way it might tip is a matter tht tops out at guesswork. In his recent collection Scatterbrain Larry Niven talks about a disturbing recent finding I haven’t run across on my own, that the Earth has been frozen through at least three times in the past (I don’t know just exactly what is meant by that), but that alone makes death-by-ice more likely, on the numbers, than death-by-global-warming. There isn’t any real evidence of global warming (and the only thing a hotter-than-usual climate where you live means is that you’re on the ends of the statistical curve at the moment. A curve has to have ends). So the hysteria is just that—hysteria, like the absurd junk science mumbo jumbo about salt magically (and I mean that word literally) increasing your blood pressure.
There is money in hysteria; there isn’t any money to be made in rational consideration of the facts. That’s my take on it
Posted by on 12/17/04 at 08:36 AM
Next entry: I so can't tell you...
Previous entry: The Council Has Spoken !!!
