Climate Rap: Monckton Vs. Gore

This is just too good.



I was a little worried this was going to be one of those bullshit "both opinions have merit" things, especially since it was pretty obvious the writers of this brilliant video were going to rip Al Gore. But actually, it's more than reasonable: they portray Gore as kind of a dick connected to the wealthy and powerful who wrecked the climate, and Monckton as a raving and manipulative upper-class twit. And climate change? Of course it's happening. Sounds about right to me. The short is the work of The Juice Media. Here's the Guardian's story on this video, and here's the creator's Yootube page.

Six In The Morning

1 HOCKEY PLAYER WITH FAMOUS DAD LEAVES CLOSET No idea how an editor who follows the NHL like a maniac missed this story from Tuesday about Toronto Maple Leaf Brian Burke's now-openly gay son, but shit happens I guess. (ESPN) Anyway, good news for civilization and people having the freedom to be who they are. Now let's see some honesty from NHL players. When even Don Cherry says he doesn't care if hockey players are gay, it's time. Oh, you can read more on this here. (Globe And Mail)

2 CONVICTED MASS MURDERER ROBERT PICKTON GETS APPEAL ON LAME TECHNICALITY Story here. Sometimes it's a real drag living in a country that respects the rule of law. (The Province)

3 SEX WORKER DEFENDS JOHNS Interesting read on a controversial topic--the decriminalization or legalization of prostitution. Maybe legal, paid sex would've protected women somewhat from monsters like Pickton? (The Georgia Straight)

4 ANOTHER THREAT FROM CLIMATE CHANGE Northern communities are literally not built to cope with it, says a federal advisory board. (CBC)

5 THE RED CROSS WAS WORRIED ABOUT TORTURE. WHY NOT THE FOREIGN MINISTER'S OFFICE? News like this makes it really embarrassing to decent Canadians that the resurgent Conservatives are leading in polls. (Toronto Star)

6 GREY CUP SEX: YES OR NO? The Leader-Post prints a stupid, purile story that I only read to the end because I was so disgusted with how far journalism has fallen. And also because the word "sex" was in the headline. (Leader-Post)

Pick of the Day: Physics Lecture

This month, the University of Regina Physics Department has presented three lectures that might well be sub-titled Physics for Dummies. Nov. 19, Dinesh Singh presented Albert Einstein's Legacy and the Future: The Search for Signs of Quantum Gravity in which he reviewed the impact of Einstein's 1915 publication of his General Theory of Relativity and ongoing efforts by physicists to discover the force that binds particles together on the subatomic level.

The week previous George Lolos had discussed the search physicists are currently engaged in to identify the hundreds of subatomic particles like quarks, leptons, gluons, photons and the like that, along with protons, neutrons, electrons, are the building blocks of matter.

Tonight at 7 p.m. in RIC 119 the series concludes with this talk by Edward Mathie titled Saskatchewan Uranium Issues: Nuclear Physics for the Public. According to his bio, Mathie was one of the 12 men appointed by the Wall government to the Uranium Development Partnership -- the group that produced the by now largely discredited report recommending that Saskatchewan move aggressively to deepen its involvement in the uranium and nuclear industry to the extent of building two big-ass reactors for power generation and even supporting the establishment of a nuclear waste disposal site up north.

When Dan Perrins was conducting his review of the UDP report in May-June I sat in on two sessions. Not for one second would I characterize the people who opposed the recommendations as Luddites intent on returning Saskatchewan to some imagined pre-industrial utopia. Rather, they were highly intelligent and committed people who offered cogent critiques of virtually every aspect of what, by any objective standard, was a deeply flawed process where a panel composed almost exclusively of uranium and nuclear advocates purported to lay out a roadmap for the province's energy future via a biased report that exaggerated potential problems and costs associated renewables and downplayed nuclear's sorry track record related to cost overruns and technological breakdowns.

Now, of course, the government is engaged in a broader review of energy policy that at least opens the door to the possibility of renewables being part of the mix. It'll be interesting to see what Mathie will say in his lecture. From where I sit, nuclear is a dying industry and if the province really wants to get ahead of the curve and secure for itself a truly sustainable energy supply then investment in renewables is the way to go. But we shall see.

Being generally pro-science, I'm reluctant to engage in scare-mongering. So for your bemusement only I offer up this trailer for the classic 1955 Sci-Fi flick Them. It's not as alarmist as the cover story Paul did on our dystopian nuclear future back in August, but for now it will have to do.