Global foolishness

I'll admit right up front . . . I'm a skeptic on the issue of global warming. I've read many editorials on the subject, visited many websites, and heard a few reports. On both sides. I don't doubt there is global warming. I just question whether we truly know the cause, how bad it will become, and what to do about it. First, I believe the Earth has a keen ability of self balance. Two, we haven't been here that long. Three, science is often wrong. Two new articles of note have just come out. One deals with the IPCC and it's claims about global warming. The organization has revised it's earlier report to less devastating conclusions. One, that the temperature of the earth won't climg to earlier predictions, and two, the oceans won't rise as much as earlier believed. To me, this is quite a turn around as part of the doom and gloom was that Nevada and Pennsylvania would become ocean front property. One has to ask, why won't they rise as much? Because the polar caps aren't melting? So far articles haven't said. It will be interesting to see the full report next year.

The second bit of news regarding climate is that of farting cows. Turns out, so they say, gas from cows (and other animal life I would assume) produces a significant amount of green house gas in the form opf methane. While I didn't see the movie, I don't think this was covered in Algores An Inconvenient Truth. Well, this goes to my first point . . . we just don't know. Part of the change in the IPCC report is better equipment. Well, what about next year? Some of the other things regarding global warming you don't hear much about are vulcanoes, space dust, and the sun cycles. All which some scientiest play a role.

Don't get me wrong, I think we should do what we can to preserve the environment as it not only affects our quality of life, but our health as well. But in the grand scheme of things, Mother Earth rules and will do more to our survival or demise than we ever will.

NFL Thursday games

So, last week I was home sick for a couple of days. Thursday evening I thought, "Great, a good evening of TV starting with the football game". Well, I clicked and clicked and scrolled and scrolled, but couldn't find any sign of a game on the cable menu. Come to find out, of course, that the Thursday game is on the NFL channel. What the . . . ?!?! It's not even an option on Time Warner! Someone warned me this is the way it could go . . . all subscription based. I doubt that. Football gets a lot of money from TV revenue which comes from advertising. I can't imagine that same kind of money would be available from a subscription service. Could I be wrong, though? I hope this fails. I know there are a lot of sport fans out there. Particularly football. But I can't believe there are that many that would pay extra to watch other games.

Internet shopping

You gotta love the internet. I had been sick for a while and unable to get out and do any real shopping of any sort. Hence, I fell short with St. Nick's for my wife and daughter. I had my daughter covered with a book she wanted . . . and I knew my wife would have the candy and fruit covered. But, nothing from me for the wife. Enter internet. I had been contemplating a couple of concerts coming and chose one to go to. A few clicks later and I had e-tickets in hand. Slip them in to the stocking and . . . Ta Da! Instant gift. It was a nice surprise. Well, not to get cuahgt short again, I immediately logged on to Amazon and did a good bunch of Christmas shopping. I've already received shipment notifications. A couple more sites for the family in Arizona and I'll be done. Early. Ya just gotta love the internet!

Pop Culture

I know that this will come off as "showing my age", but today's pop culture sucks. It has for a while. Music continues to be dominated by no-talent skanks and thugs. Movies have become retreads and formula pieces produced primarily to enhance the bank accounts of egomaniacs. Areas of sports and sport advertising is simply one's spotlight and a chance to speak of themselves in the third person. TV is one area that has finally gotten better . . . but not completely. Here again, reality shows rule, and most just suck. Even cable has it's problems. For every Six Feet Under, there's a Huff. In the modeling world, skinny coke heads seem to garner the most attention. What is it these days? Why is Steve-O a celebrity? Why are we forced to endure Paris? And just when I thought Britany had a brain for dumping Kevin . . . she goes and shows not only how wrong I am, but everything else as well. While I'm no fan of Madonna, she never skanked herself quite like Lindsay, or Britany . . . or others. It's too bad. Particularly since, in the end, it's the fault of the public. People buy into this stuff. I don't get it. There are some truly talented people in this world.