By fnord12 | October 27, 2015, 6:45 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link

No Surprise - Exxon Always Knew

Not unlike the tobacco companies, Exxon had done its own research and knew burning fossil fuels would contribute to climate change and what that would mean for the planet, so they actively worked to keep it from the public.

Link

In their eight-month-long investigation, reporters at InsideClimate News interviewed former Exxon employees, scientists and federal officials and analyzed hundreds of pages of internal documents. They found that the company's knowledge of climate change dates back to July 1977, when its senior scientist James Black delivered a sobering message on the topic. "In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels," Black told Exxon's management committee. A year later he warned Exxon that doubling CO2 gases in the atmosphere would increase average global temperatures by two or three degrees--a number that is consistent with the scientific consensus today. He continued to warn that "present thinking holds that man has a time window of five to 10 years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical." In other words, Exxon needed to act.

...

[I]n June 1988, when NASA scientist James Hansen told a congressional hearing that the planet was already warming, Exxon remained publicly convinced that the science was still controversial. Furthermore, experts agree that Exxon became a leader in campaigns of confusion. By 1989 the company had helped create the Global Climate Coalition (disbanded in 2002) to question the scientific basis for concern about climate change. It also helped to prevent the U.S. from signing the international treaty on climate known as the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 to control greenhouse gases. Exxon's tactic not only worked on the U.S. but also stopped other countries, such as China and India, from signing the treaty. At that point, "a lot of things unraveled," Oreskes says.

Our governments went along with their corporate buddies instead of doing what was best for the people they should be representing. And the general public is once again the chump.

By min | October 27, 2015, 8:48 AM | Liberal Outrage & Science | Comments (1) | Link

---

October 26, 2015

SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Ms. Marvel #19 - This may be my last Speed Review. We'll definitely be getting Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther in some format, and we may very well pick up some other Marvel comics in trade form, but as i mentioned a while ago, we're using Secret Wars as a jumping off point at least in terms of buying books in realtime. And that will probably be the case for my project as well (if i even make it that far). Although i'm still not 100% clear if the post-Secret Wars situation counts as a reboot or not. In any event, it seems like these Last Days issues work really well as an end to the Marvel universe, with the fade to white. As for this issue in particular, i don't have a lot to say that i haven't been saying all along, which is that i like this series a lot, to the point where it's the book that lasted the longest with me. This issue gives us some nice closure with Bruno and with Kamala's mom. A downtime issue, with the end of the world as a backdrop. I'm glad that the book will continue in some way even after my personal break with the Marvel universe, and it's one that i'll probably keep up with in trade form.

By fnord12 | October 26, 2015, 4:17 PM | Comics | Comments (5) | Link

---

October 20, 2015

Who are you talking to?

I've seen multiple articles with political commentators wondering if Larry David's impression of Bernie Sanders will help him win votes. This is so strange to me. It feels like a conversation between political analysts, discussing how this or that action will play with the voters. But presumably CNN and the Christian Science Monitor (which is a real mainstream news source, despite its weird name) have a few actual voters in their audiences. Or maybe that's not the case. Maybe everyone who reads the news already has fully formed opinions of the candidates, and we're all only interested in how people who don't read the news but do watch Saturday Night Live will react. We're all insiders now.

By fnord12 | October 20, 2015, 8:23 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2) | Link

---

October 16, 2015

I Guess the CIA Doesn't Watch FOX News

How else do you explain a guy being able to claim since 2002, ON TV, that he was a former CIA agent and has only now been arrested for it?

Link

Wayne Simmons, a 62-year-old who lives in Annapolis, Maryland, was arrested by federal authorities following his indictment by a federal grand jury for allegedly committing major fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government. Simmons claims to have worked for the CIA from 1973 to 2000, and "used that false claim in an attempt to obtain government security clearances and work as a defense contractor, including at one point successfully getting deployed overseas as an intelligence advisor to senior military personnel," according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Good job, CIA. Way to prove your competence.

Fox wants you to know he was only a "guest" and was never paid, so it's totally ok that they didn't do any sort of vetting before trotting him out as a former CIA operative.

By min | October 16, 2015, 9:43 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link

---

North and South: a Summary of the Bullet Points

The mini-series is terrible and the book is worse because there's more Margaret Hale time. In the mini-series, she's like a fish. Other characters try to converse with her, and she just stares at them with her mouth slightly open. In the book, she's better at the whole talking thing, but there's more time to show her in all her snobby and selfish glory. So annoying.

This, however, is fantastic, and sums up the novel rather accurately.

MR. THORNTON: hello

MARGARET: ugh
UGH
you smell of new money and PAVED STREETS
you look as if you have sold something to a shop recently
you look as if your father had a JOB
get out of here at once, you disgusting lump of coal

BESSY: halloo thar miss

MARGARET: ah that's much better
you're just poor, I'm perfectly comfortable around regular old poor people

BESSY: ai'm also dyin', miss

MARGARET: better and better
that's very proper, that you should be poor and dying
not like SOME people
not like some people who go to an OFFICE and then try to talk to LADIES with their OFFICE MOUTHS and their NEWSPAPER HANDS and their FACTORY EYELIDS
we are going to be best friends, Bessy

BESSY: [coughs]

MARGARET: I love you too, Bess

***

MRS. THORNTON: and how did you find Miss Hale

MR. THORNTON: I do not think she likes me very much, Mother

MRS. THORNTON: then I will set her on fire

MR. THORNTON: please do not set her on fire

MRS. THORNTON: I KNEW you were in love with her

MR. THORNTON: I don't want you to set anyone on fire
that doesn't mean I'm in love with everyone

MRS. THORNTON: but she is in love with you

MR. THORNTON: what makes you say that?

MRS. THORNTON: she didn't let all those strikers murder you
what stronger proof do you need of her sluttery

MR. THORNTON: I don't think that means she loves m-

MRS. THORNTON: I watch people get murdered in front of me every day
and I never do a damn thing about it

By min | October 16, 2015, 9:25 AM | Boooooks & TeeVee| Link

---

October 14, 2015

Best and worst of the debate

Worst
"I went to Wall Street in 2007 and told them, 'Hey guys, cut that out!'." - Hillary Clinton

Best
"Congress doesn't regulate Wall Street. Wall Street regulates Congress." - Bernie Sanders

(The quotes above are paraphrased, but not by much.)

By fnord12 | October 14, 2015, 12:22 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1) | Link

---

October 9, 2015

The Face of Galactus

From issue #4 of the first Hercules miniseries, in 1982, by Bob Layton (story, pencils, and inks).

This story took place in an alternate future, so it wasn't necessarily canon, but Ron Marz and Ron Lim used this depiction of Galactus without his helmet in 1991's Silver Surfer #51.

By fnord12 | October 9, 2015, 7:33 AM | Comics | Comments (3) | Link

---

October 5, 2015

Vinegar Juice

My friend wnkr mentioned how her daughter had noticed all these "vinegar drinks" at the Asian supermarket over the weekend. Immediately, my attention was caught. Vinegar drinks? Tell me more. You see, i love (LOVE) drinking Chinese red vinegar. My mouth literally starts salivating at the thought of drinking some. So, clearly, i am going to be interested in vinegar drinks.

Fnord12 tried to convince me to get the grape flavored ones, but blech. I hate grape drinks.

There doesn't seem to be any attempt on the packaging to justify the addition of vinegar to fruit juice. Fnord12 says they didn't need to justify it. After hearing about it, i packed him up into a car and drove through rush hour traffic to get some. There's clearly a market.

I was pretty apprehensive with the first sip. I imagined it would be similar to apple cider vinegar (which smells like feet and is not something i would want to drink straight up), which would be terrible and then what would i do with the other 11 pouches? To my surprise, all i really tasted was fruit juice with a slight tang that i only detected if i tried really hard. Fnord12 refused to even take a sip. He said it stunk like vinegar and that was enough of a taste for him. My olfactory system seems to have a vinegar filter because i can't smell it at all.

Next time, i'm going to try pineapple. And i think i'm going to ask my aunt to get me some red vinegar for Christmas!

By min | October 5, 2015, 8:15 PM | My stupid life| Link

---

October 2, 2015

Marvel Sales

August.

By fnord12 | October 2, 2015, 2:15 PM | Comics| Link

---

« September 2015 | Main | November 2015 »