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Yes, I stole this from Maggies farm, a blog which Fark identified for carrying an interesting quote from Al Gore regarding his film "An Inconvenient Truth"

"...I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis."

He put the word truth in the title, and then publicly uses political doublespeak to say that he exaggerates his claims. It's a travesty for the environmental movement and continues its supporters long trend about putting the hearts before their heads when pleading their case.

Nobody wants to screw up the earth. No one is arguing that we should wreck teh hotel room and skip out on the bill. The questions plaguing our generation are more procedural. What are the most rational ways to mitigate our risks of irreversible damage to our planet?

Fear mongering by overstating risks does nothing to help the cause. Gore should have used this film as a plat form to encourage a rational, fact based debate instead of perpetuating the stereotype of environmentalists as bleeding hearts on soft footing.
posted by Ben at (1) comments 4:27 PM

 
Back from Indianapolis, I'm settling into life in a very wet Boston. This has been a weird month for Kate and I. She spent a little over a week at home helping her family during her father's surgery. She came back in time for an Umphrey's show, and 2 days together before I grabbed a flight to Indy. Business called me away, and will do the same in a week.

Our trials supporting filtration in the insulin business went well. The results could be very interesting. It's shocking, as I figured the technology was rather lousy. Maybe we found the one special case where it worked.

The most interesting portion of the trek was our lunch time discussions with our host. He had a very practical perspective on the biotech industry, health care, and life in general. He very articulately, placed issues and developments in an economic space and had no qualms about asking tough questions about justification of technology, social programs and social criticisms.

A great example came in discussion of our nation's rising health care costs. The pharmaceutical industry is responsible for roughly 10% of the cost of health care. Our host didn't feel it was fair that 80-90% of the press coverage blamed manufacturers and drug prices for the astronomical health care bill. He wanted some criticism to be levied against Siemens for selling multi-million dollar MRIs to hospitals every 2-3 years just to get the latest technology into the hospitals. The capital expense of course causes hospitals to charge more than $1000 for a 15-20 minute exam. He would like to see some justification for the increased price? Do MRI's improve that much in two years? How many more lives will a new MRI save over a 3 year old, fully working model? Poignant, simple questions strengthened his case.

I'm definitely in his camp... and can just see myself having a pointed argument with my future sister-in-law and infuriating her with such simple, reasoned questions.

Thinking of infuriating arguments. Kate and I saw "Thank You for Smoking" last weekend. It was delightful. There was plenty of dark humor, admirable characters, and plenty of frank discussion about argument and debate. It seems that our society needs a refresher on the fundamentals of discussion. Too many expository writing courses, and impassioned professors have convinced my generation that success is conversion. There's no room for dissenting opinion.

We don't appreciate and respect a well constructed argument. We're much more comfortable vilifying those who disagree. We don't agree with the cause of the tobacco lobbyist. He must be evil. People who support the unpopular war in Iraq, must be heartless and evil. There's no debate. People fling vitriol like disgruntled monkeys in an unclean cage. "Thank You For Smoking" packages an important discussion about debate in a very entertaining shell.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 4:27 PM

 
"...this is about exchanging ideas... it's about getting a message out. It's about empowering people by giving them a voice. I know not everyone believes what I say is what they think. But like I said before.. ya know.. red and blue is not black and white. We're all together. It's a record about unification." -Neil Young (4/18/06)

Stream Neil Young's Living With War.

Or check out my review on Mound O' Sound
posted by Ben at (0) comments 9:31 AM

 

I've followed one red paper clip quite intently for some time.  The idea of bartering up to a house, while hemorrhaging all sorts of money traveling to make ridiculous trades is brilliant.  It's a spirited internet fad.  

Unfortunately, Kyle's pursuit of awesomeness and attention has gotten the better of him, and his noble goal.  He traded a year's rent in Phoenix for an afternoon with Alice Cooper.   I can't make the cash value's equate.  The afternoon with Alice cooper might be worth a trip to Yahk, or a cube van, but not a year's rent in Phoenix.  Will this set-back, or de-rail the train that was so quickly speeding towards a house?

I'm sure it'll make an interesting chapter in the inevitable book, or movie deal.  But it seems that Kyle's more interested in riding his wave of popularity, doing promo appearances on US TV, and now apparently flying to Japan.  I can't blame him.  I know I'd like to be a legitimate internet celebrity, and that I relished the attention my high school sites garner in national and international print media.  The internet was a different beast then.  It was a novelty. No one expected it to create genuine celebrity, and anyone who took the time to make a page must have been some sort of kook.

Nowadays, would be criminals spoil their plans on cook-book my space pages.    It's an open forum for incompetents and charismatics, alike.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:16 AM