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2.     A Not-So-Divine Comedy, Part 16

3.     Announcements

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5.     The Flashback Quarterback:  There’s Al's Frog Again

6.     Be Aware and Share:  Do We Know Who Amory Lovins Is?  We Must.

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Is There a Major Conspiracy at Play? 

“Networks Ignore, Newspapers Mock N.Y. Climate Change Conference”

Networks continue trend of ignoring scientists who challenge 'consensus,' while newspapers find plenty of environmentalists to mock them.  

by Nathan Burchfiel and Amy Menefee
Genevieve Ebel also contributed to this report.
Business & Media Institute, March 5, 2008

All three networks’ evening news broadcasts utterly ignored a gathering of hundreds of people – scientists, economists, other experts and interested lay people – aimed at dispelling the media myth that there is “consensus” on climate change’s causes, potential effects, and suggested solutions.  

Two major national newspapers mentioned the Heartland Institute’s conference, but relegated the story to deep within the papers and downplayed the gathering’s credibility and significance.  

In fact, none of the sources quoted in the major newspapers’ stories addressed substantive points made during the first day and a half of the conference – which ranged from the sun’s effects on the Earth to oceanic cooling cycles and the effects of limiting energy use in developing countries. Instead, newspaper reporters addressed – and distorted – the Heartland Institute’s funding, labeled attendees “deniers,” “flat Earthers” and “lost” and compared the meeting to “Custer’s last stand.” But debunking actual claims made at the conference – well, that might have involved a little work. … 

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a local nonprofit organization.  

(1)  What is troubling about this report?

(a)  That anyone still insists that climate change would be caused by humans, could have devastating effects, and could be solved by humans.

(b)  That scientifically-based views are being ignored.  

(2)  To decide on whether to do anything about energy efficiency and alternative fuels, we laypeople should

(a)  Learn much science.

(b)  See whether there would be other reasons which would compel a change in lifestyle.

  No one can earn a million dollars honestly.
William Jennings Bryan, 1860 – 1925,
an American lawyer, statesman, and politician, three times the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States.

The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn't deliver the goods.
-----  
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest [sic] of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
John Maynard Keynes, 1883 – 1946,
a British economist whose ideas, called Keynesian economics, had a major impact on modern economic and political theory, as well as on many governments’ fiscal policies.  

New Jersey has the highest population density in the U.S. An average 1,030 people per square mile, which is thirteen times the national average.  [What have sociologists said about the ability of people to live in harmony while in close quarters?]

North Jersey is the car theft capital of the world, with more cars stolen in Newark than in any other city.  Even the two largest cities, NYC and LA put together.  [Did we just answer the question posed above?]

In order to meet the increasing demand for his wire rope, John Roebling opened a factory in Trenton, New Jersey in 1848.  Roebling, along with his two sons, Washington and Ferdinand, built a suspension bridge across the gorge of the Niagara River.  They then built the Brooklyn Bridge plus many other suspension bridges in the United States.

Passaic River was the site to the first submarine ride by inventor John P. Holland. 

Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Redman, Das EFX, Naughty by Nature, Sugar Hill Gang, Lords of the Underground, Jason Alexander, Queen Latifa, Shaq, Judy Blume, Aaron Burr, Whitney Houston, Eddie Money, Frank Sinatra, and Grover Cleveland are New Jersey natives.  [Here is a challenge:  put them in chronological order.]  

The light bulb, phonograph, and motion picture projector were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory.  

Atlantic City is where the street names came from for the game “Monopoly.”  

Fort Dix is named for Major General John Adams Dix, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Civil War. During his distinguished public career, he was a United States Senator, Secretary of the Treasury, Minister to France and Governor of New York.

The first Indian reservation was in New Jersey.

New Jersey has one hundred eight toxic waste dumps, which is the most in any one state in the nation.

New Jersey has a spoon museum featuring over five thousand four hundred spoons from every state and almost every country.  

Origin of New Jersey’s name:  from the Channel Isle of Jersey.  [In Europe.] 

Modern paleontology, the science of studying dinosaur fossils, began in 1858 with the discovery of the first nearly complete skeleton of a dinosaur in Haddonfield, New Jersey. The Hadrosaurus is the official New Jersey state dinosaur.  

Fair Haven is believed to have been seasonally inhabited by native Indians prior to the coming of European settlers in the 1660s. 

Software and software-related companies account for nearly two thousand seven hundred companies in New Jersey.  [That is a large number.] 

General Philip Kearny had a New Jersey town and two military decorations named after him.  [How many of us know who he was?]