On the last day of the year 999 A.D., old St. Peter’s basilica in Rome was packed with panicky worshippers, convinced that the world would end on the stroke of midnight. Many had given away all their possessions to the poor. Many had spent weeks doing final penance for their sins. Many had journeyed to Rome in sackcloth and ashes in order to meet God and his angels within the holy precincts of St. Peter’s.
Category Archives: Science
Apocalypse When?
Also posted in Culture, Economy, Environment, General, International, Media, U.S. Tagged apocalypse, doomsayers, end of the world, Fiscal Cliff, global warming, William Faulkner 1 Comment
Gasland, Promised Land, Never-Never Land
First, there was Gasland, a 2010 movie documentary that purported to show how producing natural gas through fracking would contaminate drinking water to the point that you could set it on fire at the tap. This claim was subsequently debunked by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
Next, coming up in December, is a feature film starring Matt Damon called Promised Land. This movie, too, purports to show – despite all scientific evidence to the contrary – that fracking will turn America’s pleasant farm country into a chemical dump.
Why is the environmental community out to stop fracking?
Read MoreAlso posted in Environment, General, Media, U.S. Tagged Alternative energy, Fracking, Gasland, Hydraulic fracking, Matt Damon, Natural Gas, Promised Land 2 Comments
Milton Friedman at 100
Tuesday, July 31, marks the 100th birth anniversary of Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006). One of the greatest economists of the 20th Century, Friedman will be long remembered for his contributions to economic science. More than that, he will be remembered as a champion of freedom.
Read MoreAlso posted in Culture, Economy, General, International, Political Rhetoric, Politics, U.S. Tagged Capitalism and Freedom, economist, Economy, Milton Friedman, University of Chicago Leave a comment
What’s Your Universe?
Cosmology is not cosmetology and quantum mechanics isn’t a firm comprised of angels reporting to Saint Peter that keeps the Pearly Gates oiled so the blessed can rush in. It’s the study of the interaction of energy and matter on a subatomic scale. Among the supernova physicists in this rarified firmament are Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku and Neil Turok.
Read MoreAlso posted in Culture, Economy, General, Media, Political Rhetoric, Politics, U.S. Tagged Barak Obama, Bill Gates, Bill O’Reilly, cosmetology, Cosmology, David Brinkley, H.G. Wells, Hiraldo Rivera, Marty McFly, Michio Kaku, Neil Armstrong, Neil Turok, Ralph Nader, Ronald Reagan, Stephen Hawking, Tom Friedman, vietnam, Walter Cronkite Leave a comment
WENDELL BERRY’S SPEECH SHOWS WASHINGTON’S DISCONNECT
Tom Brokaw is worried that Washington is out of touch. People feel politics “is a closed game that doesn’t address what their real concerns are,” he told Howard Kurtz of the Daily Beast. “It has its own language, it has its own culture.”
Right thought, wrong target. The elder statesman of broadcasting was referring to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner held on April 28. A more telling and troubling example of this disconnect occurred earlier that week, when author Wendell E. Berry gave the 41st annual Jefferson Lecture for the Humanities.
Read MoreStolen Sandwiches
Late 2002, and we knew the Unites States would attack Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. We were instructed to prepare world opinion for the onslaught.
I probably shouldn’t have been at the table, but was, the day Undersecretary for Public Affairs (U/S) talked about a video to produce, proving that Saddam Hussein stole food from Iraqi children.
Read MoreAlso posted in Culture, General, International, National Security, Political Rhetoric Tagged Francisco Goya, Iraq, Iraq Invasion, Public Affairs, Saddam Hussein, Saturn Devouring His Son, State Department 3 Comments
Fracas Over Fracking
Not long ago, conventional wisdom held that U.S. natural gas production had peaked and would decline. But then came a new technique for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Overnight, the enormous gas shale deposits of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Pennsylvania were open to development.
Read MoreAlso posted in Culture, Economy, Environment, General, Technology, U.S. Tagged environment, Fracking, Hydraulic fracking, Natural Gas, shale rock Leave a comment
Over the Energy Cliff?
That was the grim warning conveyed yesterday afternoon by veteran energy executive John Hofmeister at a meeting of the Houston chapter of the American Petroleum Institute. Mr. Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil Company, currently heads a public advocacy group called Citizens for Affordable Energy, devoted to educating the American people and our leaders on the need for responsible energy policies.
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