At the National Conference for Media Reform in January, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps challenged the thousands of people attending to enact a new “American Media Contract.” I think he did a good job of summing up the problems with big media. He proposed replacing the “bad old bargain that past…
Mechanical engineer and kids-show host Bill Nye the Science Guy spoke to about 1,500 Columbus-area students this Monday. I attended his talk, and found that the peppy, brilliant man who preached the fun of science during my childhood had come bearing a hopeful message of the earth’s future.
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth has helped to make climate change an enormous hot-button issue, and as the “future owners of the planet”, we college students hear about it a lot. Five separate school organizations have hosted five separate on-campus showings of An Inconvenient Truth in the past three months. The intent to inform and warn has gotten a little out of control.
With the media coverage of climate change in addition to this campus onslaught, most students get it. The close-minded may stick to their guns, but those moveable students understand. Yes, climate change occurs, yes, it will have grave consequences, yes, something desperately needs to change. Now what? The constant reiteration of Gore’s warning leaves all too many jaded and bored with the message.
Bill Nye, in his classically playful-yet-educational way, reframed the issues at the heart of global warming. He dispensed no Gore-like nay saying, he made no threats of the doom to come. Instead, he said this:
“People talk about how we have to ‘Save Planet Earth!’ But the Earth will be fine. The cockroaches will keep living; life on the planet will go on. It’s the humans I worry about.”
So, no forthcoming apocalypse after …
Jerry Falwell is dead. At 73, he passed away, at his desk, apparently still working, even though doctors have (probably) been telling him to lay off for some time. He had heart problems. Whatever one's personal feelings may be, it ill-behooves us to beat up on someone so soon after…
After reading Erich’s post, I thought I’d put this up. I wrote it–most of it–some time ago, for a different venue, but I’ve added to it since, and, well, along with Erich’s it might add more flavors to the stew of memory. So.
I have friends who thought it was a great thing when Reagan became president, who now reject any such accusation, and refuse to believe it when I remind them that they said encouraging things about him when he took office. One quote, during a ceremony broadcast on television, that I’ll never forget: “He just looks like a real president!”
Time passes, policy comes to the fore, and most of those people no longer recall these initial bouts of near-patriotic enthusiasm. They have conveniently forgotten.
I didn’t like Reagan’s policies. I’m sure I would have liked him. Everybody who met him seems to say the same thing. When Donna Brazille can say she thought he was a decent man, despite the complete polarization of their politics, you have to admit something was going on with Reagan which is all too often more telling about politics and history than the facts attached to a particular era.
Reagan was presidential. He had Presence.
I listen now to the talk about putting his face on the ten dollar bill with some amusement. Reagan already has at least one airport, a couple of highways, no doubt many streets, parks, a library named in his honor. He may be the most honored president …
According to this article in Discover, less can be more when it comes to road signs. The "risk compensation effect" is a recognition that animals "tend to adjust their behavior to compensate for perceived risk." A team of urban planners has concluded that traffic signs and signals actually make the…