Dr. Horrible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y5eBRWQerY

That dapper band in the background is “Pulp.” Shatner covered this song (Common Peoples) on his 2004 album “Has Been.”

This has been your VH1 popup video moment of the blog.

“Walking as bad as driving for global warming” was the headline on Glenn Beck’s show.  This ‘news’ was based off this article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2195538.ece

“Driving a typical UK car for 3 miles [4.8km] adds about 0.9 kg [2lb] of CO2 to the atmosphere,” a calculation based on the UK Government’s official fuel emission figures. “If you walked instead, it would use about 180 calories. You’d need about 100g of beef to replace those calories, resulting in 3.6kg of emissions, or four times as much as driving.

“The troubling fact is that taking a lot of exercise and then eating a bit more food is not good for the global atmosphere. Eating less and driving to save energy would be better.”

Ok, sure let’s not bring transport into the equation for gasoline, but just for food.  That makes sense.  Secondly, beef, milk?  Both inefficient ways to get calories.  What about the energy use of the treadmill that wouldn’t get used that day?

Point is, this article uses terrible ’science’ - an actual, thorough comparison was not done.  And Glenn Beck just reported it that way without actually doing any journalistic research.  Brilliant.  The message was “Why do anything?  Everything causes global warming.  Don’t let those liberals fool you that we can make any difference.”  Frankly, the reporting was so irresponsible I was disgusted.

Why is it that reality TV and gossip magazines are the new scapegoats for all the country’s troubles? Five years ago it was video games, before that it was rap music. This BBC article claims that people who watch reality TV or read gossip rags are either not interested in, or have no time for environmental issues.

Hmmm, I know several people whose careers are dedicated to environmental issues that also watch reality TV and/or read celeb magazines. After 40+ hours a week thinking and working on tough problems, a person just needs a break. You need some mindless entertainment to recharge. And if it’s not these things, it’s something else. I get no hangover from this guilty pleasure - which makes it easier to get right back to work. So why is celeb-watching and reality TV the new bane of existence? To me these arguments are simple-minded group-think.

Of course it is a problem when “reputable” news agencies spend hours a day reporting on celeb gossip. I haven’t watched CNN in a long time so I’ve been pretty shocked that more often than not when I flip it on lately, they’re discussing Britney Spears or some such. Whaaa? And some poor people get all their news from local newspapers and the 10 o’clock news. These outlets have always been full of fluff. That’s a problem