…and now garlic turns out to be heart healthy. And a cancer preventative. Life is good. If everyone would eat it, few would be bothered by the aroma.

Nobel Prize winner Al Gore is also a warmonger:

The trouble is that Gore’s preferred policies will lead to a poorer, energy starved world. Far better, one might think, to tackle malaria, sea level rise, drought, hunger, and so on directly rather than by tinkering with the chemical composition of the atmosphere. As Indur Goklany has shown, we can do this for a fraction of the cost.

I’ve been skeptical about the link between dietary fat, and weight and poor health for a long time (at least since I first read Barry Sears’ analyses, over a decade ago). John Tierney (who has fortunately escaped from behind the Times Select prison) writes that the “science” behind the linkage is bogus, and that our fat aversion is probably one of the leading causes of obesity, since we switched to carbohydrates, which are much worse for us. But the reason that the bogus theory was promoted and accepted for so long is an interesting story of scientific sociology:

It may seem bizarre that a surgeon general could go so wrong. After all, wasn

I was watching television tonight, on one of my new HD channels on DirecTV (no, I didn’t get paid for that, but I wish I had). If you want to understand this concept, and unintended consequences, go no further than to watch The Producers (either version).

They deliberately picked the worst play, the worst playwright, the worst director, the worst cast, and it turned into a hit. And things like that can happen all the time.

[Morning update]

Sorry some found this post cryptic. Let me rewrite. I was watching “The Producers” (movie version of the musical) last night, on one of the new DirecTV HD channels (a fact that was incidental to the real point, which was that I was watching The Producers). The unintended, and undesired success of their musical was an emergent property of their attempts to make it a failure, by choosing the worst of everything, which somehow resulted in a hit. I was not slamming HD–I was plugging DirecTV for being the first to offer a large number of HD channels.

At least of any significance?

Join Hillary Clinton at this milestone policy speech addressing some of our Nation’s serious challenges–global warming, globalization, and the Bush Administration’s war on Science.

No, me neither. In fact, if it’s anything like Kerry’s space or science policy, it will be all about being not George Bush.

At least of any significance?

Join Hillary Clinton at this milestone policy speech addressing some of our Nation’s serious challenges–global warming, globalization, and the Bush Administration’s war on Science.

No, me neither. In fact, if it’s anything like Kerry’s space or science policy, it will be all about being not George Bush.

At least of any significance?

Join Hillary Clinton at this milestone policy speech addressing some of our Nation’s serious challenges–global warming, globalization, and the Bush Administration’s war on Science.

No, me neither. In fact, if it’s anything like Kerry’s space or science policy, it will be all about being not George Bush.

By driving a Prius.

Boy, these indulgences just aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

Bjorn Lomborg:

Why are we so singularly focused on climate change when there are many other areas where the need is also great and we could do so much more with our effort?

He explains. (Hint: it has more to do with saving our souls than with saving the planet.)

[Update a few minutes later]

Funny, Saint Al doesn’t seem willing to debate the issue.

Not surprising to me. He’s not the brightest bulb on the string, and probably wouldn’t hold up very well to people who actually understand it.

And no, contra comments, this is not an expression of “hate for Al Gore.” It’s simply a dispassionate assessment of his intelligence, particularly considering that he flunked out of divinity school. How dim do you have to be to manage that?

Tierney wrote a better article than I could Tuesday about why the legacy for the ages that can happen in our lifetimes is the first footprints on Mars. The sponsor could be remembered as the next “Prince Henry the Navigator, King Ferdinand, [or] Queen Isabella”. This is an argument I implied here in a scholarly way and in passing here in a grandiose way and a whimsical way here. In the process I attempt to refute Jeff Bell and James Van Allen who are both opposed.