Told you so!: I like being right. If not right then at least having someone say that I was right. If that isn't the case I like to hear someone express the same idea that I had so that I can say "See, they said it too!"

The Houston Chronicle did just that yesterday when they posted an article about the naming of storms and the terrible forecasting that has been happening at the National Hurricane Center. Sure, there are a lot of things that can get a guys worked up (poverty, crime, etc.), so why is it that this bugs me so much (and yes, I have talked about this a ton)? It is because these are "scientists" who are paid by our government (me) and have swallowed the Koolaid on the Global Warming myth to the point that they are willing to fabricate storms to justify their claims that global warming will cause increased hurricane activity. In fact the opposite has happened. If they had said that global warming will cause a rise in the ocean temperatures and thus a lower amount of hurricanes then I might have listened. But they have based all their science on a rise and it just hasn't happened in the last couple of years.

The chief of NASA recently announced that there might not be any human involvement in the change in temperatures, although he admits that there might be a change. He said, ""First of all, I don't think it's within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does not change, as millions of years of history have shown," he continued. "And second of all, I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."

Wow, what a bold statement. He said that it is their job to monitor climate change yet no where are they chartered to affect it. While I might disagree with the statement of "millions of years" of cyclical change, I would agree that history has shown that our weather systems have cycles. In 1970 Time magazine claimed we were heading into the ice age, now we are headed into a heat wave. No one knows (except Al Gore).

Dr. Moore has it right. This is our earth, the only one that we have. We have a responsibility to be good stewards. We should embrace the forestry industry as one of the most beneficial to our earth. We should certainly use less fossil fuel because we don't have an unlimited supply and as American's we shouldn't be dependent on a foreign government for our supply. But the sky is not falling, we aren't going to sink into the ocean and God is still in control.

Strike: The consequences of the new media. Today the WGA (Writer's Guild of America) said enough is enough and decided to walk out. This fascinates me because of the reason that they decided to strike. They are upset, and rightly so, with the big media groups posting previous episodes on the Internet and they don't get a piece. They get revenue when shows go into reruns, and they count on this residual income. But the contracts are such that the writers are cut out when it is posted on the Internet. Ironically the Daily Show with just added some 13,000 clips on Comedy Central's site, and the first interview that I heard on the strike was from one of those writers. The clips all have embedded commercials, but the writers will not reap any benefit from it.
Before anyone accuses me of being on the side of the unions, I am not. This isn't a union issue per se, at least not for me. It is an issue of each individual negotiating for the right to receive a residual income for work they have produced. I think that these individuals, represented by the union, got a bum deal because when the last contract was written they just didn't understand the explosion of the popularity of the Internet. Since the Internet is now so much more popular they probably should get about the same deal for new media.
But what I am interested to see is if this will dramatically change TV or the Internet. To me this is about as important as the hockey strike some years ago, or the professional women's bowling association. I just don't care. I don't watch TV, don't even have a TV. I have a monitor for DVDs and my kids' XBOX, but that is all. So if all of these wonderful shows disappear I won't even notice. Just like I didn't notice when hockey stopped. But it will be interesting to see what attention the new media of the Internet will get during negotiations. Who knows maybe everything will grind to a stop and people will learn to read again. Families will start having meals together and talking. Children will learn to play with their siblings instead of sitting like zombies in front of the little screens.
Then again, they will probably resolve this quickly and we can resume the dumbing down of America.