Channeling Crichton (from BroJudd)

Meteorologist Likens Fear of Global Warming to 'Religious Belief' -- 12/02/2004

An MIT meteorologist Wednesday dismissed alarmist fears about human induced global warming as nothing more than 'religious beliefs.'

"Do you believe in global warming? That is a religious question. So is the second part: Are you a skeptic or a believer?" said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard Lindzen, in a speech to about 100 people at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

"Essentially if whatever you are told is alleged to be supported by 'all scientists,' you don't have to understand [the issue] anymore. You simply go back to treating it as a matter of religious belief," Lindzen said. His speech was titled, "Climate Alarmism: The Misuse of 'Science'" and was sponsored by the free market George C. Marshall Institute. Lindzen is a professor at MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

From Michael Crichton's Great Speech

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.

There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.

As they say, Read the Whole Thing (then print it and carry it around with you)

Innovation Book of The Year

Somebody important calls Open Innovation as "book of the year."
Here's the blurb:

The great corporate research departments at companies like Bell Labs, IBM and Xerox were once the motor of American industry. But that may be changing, according to this probing academic study of corporate technological innovation. Chesbrough, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, argues that the old "closed innovation" model-vertically integrated research-and-development departments that develop technology in-house for the sole use of their corporate parent-is becoming obsolete in an age of mobile scientific workers, ubiquitous high-tech startups and a growing extra-corporate research establishment at university labs.

Hayek would love that

Calling Erin Brockovich

Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Organic Milk

WASHINGTON - The government has found traces of a rocket fuel chemical in organic milk in Maryland, green leaf lettuce grown in Arizona and bottled spring water from Texas and California. What's not clear is the significance of the data, collected by the Food and Drug Administration through Aug. 19.

Sufficient amounts of perchlorate can affect the thyroid, potentially causing delayed development and other problems.

Yummy

The Ignorant Enemies of Our Future

Deroy Murdock on Medicine on National Review Online:

Merck already pays huge bills, even before facing a potentially calamitous
post-Vioxx situation at the hands of brokers who are unloading its stock,
federal prosecutors who may levy huge fines, and tort lawyers who are
salivating at payouts that could rival the huge asbestos and breast-implant
jackpots. Site Facilities Director Greg Landis still calls this enormous
establishment "a self-contained city, in all respects." He estimates its
annual electricity expenses alone at $50 million.

That, and more, adds up. This is why new drugs cost what they do, and why price-controlled Canadian drugs, industry-led product discounts, and Rep. Henry Waxman's (D., Calif.) comment that "frankly, it doesn't make sense to me" that innovation and high prices are connected all will make it harder for this lab and its counterparts to cover their costs. These factors boost the odds that the lights in these miracle factories will flicker, then fade to black

Henry Waxman, meet Virgina Postrel