One of the most interesting books I've read in the last few years was called Guns, Germs and Steel. Under this diminutive title, the author narrates the 'Old and New' worlds first contact, and how those stories have, and continue to shape the world we know. After winning the Pulitzer prize, lo and behold, there's a show on it(and not the networks) starting tonight.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0706_050706_diamond.html
Just yesterday I was yapping with a coworker about the author's new book, called Collapse. I have it on my desk, waiting to begin. My fellow worker (a philosopher-shelver?!) had the 25 disc audio version, which he was listening to as he did his job. Interestingly, he derided it as "pulp", and quickly moved on to more esoteric subjects. But I look forward to reading it still, and no less to Geographics treatment of Guns... I found that it tied many of the 'strains' of my undergrad study in history, anthropology, and geography into a quite unpreposterous view of the last 600 years hereabouts.
I highly encourage everyone to check them out...
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/23413/
Press Release, The Sustainable Energy Forum
Roads to nowhere leading us astray
"Peak Oil - An Urgent Issue for New Zealand". Available at http://www.sef.org.nz/papers.html, the SEF document proposes a nine-point action plan which the incoming Government needs to adopt to help mitigate the effects of the potential crisis. The Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) predicts that the peak will occur in 2007, and even a world-wide industry body like the International Energy Agency predicts that it could occur as early as 2013.”"World oil production and refinery capacity is barely keeping pace with demand, and prices are steadily rising. Once demand consistently exceeds supply, prices will rise even more sharply, and oil will become increasingly scarce. That's bad news for a country like New Zealand at the end of a long supply chain” said Mr Jones. SEF wants the incoming Government to focus on Peak Oil as an urgent priority. All sectors of our society, from agriculture to industry and transport, will be affected. We need to develop strategies to help these sectors reduce their dependence on oil. We need a major expansion of public transport and rail freight options. We need to stop wasting money on new roads. We need to put in place effective vehicle fuel efficiency standards, and stop importing inefficient gas-guzzling vehicles."All New Zealanders need to think about this issue, because it will affect them, and their children. The longer we put this issue in the too-hard basket, the harder will be the transition to an era when oil is no longer cheap or plentiful. It's time to take action” concluded Mr Blakeley.
Or, by peril, Your attention span may be shrinking already: Nearly Two-thirds of U.S. Adults Believe Human Beings Were Created by God
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050706/nyw130.html?.v=17
A majority of U.S. adults (54%) do not think human beings developed from earlier species, up from 46 percent in 1994
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