Mezzamorphis

Far, far above. A co-worker of mine is long time friends with Dan Tani, an astronaut who currently calls the International Space Station his home. The other day he snapped pictures of the D/FW area and I thought I would share them. Thanks to Dan for taking them and Brian for letting me post them.

See if you can pick out Dallas Love Field and Texas Stadium. I can actually find my office but it’s not quite far enough north to get my house.

I’m actually going to leave my opinion of global warming out of this. Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. I think it’s pathetic and here’s why.

According to Alfred Nobel’s will, which established the five Nobel prizes, the Peace Prize should be awarded “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”. The prize committee determined that Al and the IPCC were worthy of this due to “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”

Now unless one is going to make the argument that Gore and the IPCC worked for fraternity between the nations by getting out their version of global warming, this is a complete joke. Talk about climate change has nothing to do with establishing peace. Making a slideshow presentation didn’t abolish or reduce a standing army, nor hold or promote a peace congress. So, why has this prize been awarded to Gore and the IPCC?

The world has gone crazy.

Jay Tea and Kim are talking about this over at Wizbang!.

Glenn thinks he’s fitting.

PJM is talking about it too.

PowerLine says the Peace Prize has been off the rails for 20 years.

Got this from Drudge this morning. A group called the Heartland Institute wants Al Gore to debate one of their experts on global warming. Al won’t have anything to do with them. A quote from one of Al’s people.

“The debate has shifted to how to solve the climate crisis, not if there is one,” said Kalee Kreider. “It does not make sense for him to engage in a dialogue with them at this time.”

Um, no. The debate hasn’t shifted. The debate should still be going on. Face the music Al.

EthicsDaily.com writer Robert Parham tosses out this little gem of an article about how those of us who don’t feel that global warming is as big of a threat as it is being made out to be are “deniers” and should be called out for it. I’ve got problems with several parts of his article, but I’ll start at the beginning.

“Newsweek” exposed this week the axis of corporations and conservative organizations that oppose the scientific evidence that human actions are causing global warming as the “denial machine.”

So what about the alliance of corporations and liberal organizations that confirm the scientific “evidence” in the face of increasing inaccuracies? Are we to simply believe them out of hand? Just because there is a majority holding a

I finished school last week for the summer, now I’ve got all of August to look forward to getting caught up on writing and chores around the house, not to mention reading some of the new books I’ve got. We went to Mardel this weekend and they had several bargain racks I perused through. I don’t have all of these on my list over to the right, but here’s a quick sample.

Christ and Culture

This just became #1 on the list of things that I must acquire before I die. Watch the video too.

I read this article today about the growing number of people who are overweight or obese. This really ticked me off.

If people keep gaining weight at the current rate, fat will be the norm
by 2015, with 75 percent of U.S. adults overweight and 41 percent
obese, U.S. researchers predicted on Wednesday.

I’m overweight. In fact, according to the BMI calculations, I’m obese. I’m also losing weight, having dropped 20 pounds in the last three weeks. What ticks me off is that according to the BMI calculations, I was overweight when I graduated from high school, and will probably never get below their measurement for obese. Why? Because I’m naturally muscular (yes, it’s under the fat right now) and have a very large frame.

When I graduated high school I weighed 190 pounds. I’m 5′10″ tall. That puts me at the upper range of the overweight category. A year or so after graduating, I hit 210, which makes me obese. During high school, I played sports all the time and lifted weights. I was not even remotely fat. According to the BMI, I become overweight once I went over 174 pounds. The only way I can get back to “normal” would be to whither away to nothing.

So, when you see reports like this, remember that BMI is one calculator that doesn’t work. Not even remotely. Tom Cruise and The Rock are obese according to this. Do you really believe that? They aren’t fat, their fit. That doesn’t appear to be taken into account though.

I saw this image this morning and read the accompanying story and was amazed by it.

I received emails from the following people in the last week:

• Juice Longer
• Gemini D. Torments
• Sickening P. Chunky

While I'm sure that your stock tips are great and that you really can get me a good deal on Viagra, I'm really not interested. I would also like to extend an offer for my baby naming abilities to the entire Chunky family.

(Sickening P. Chunky is my favorite. Who thinks that is a good name?)

As anyone who knows me very well is quite aware, I am an unabashed skeptic when it comes to global warming. I will not say that it doesn't exist, but I will say that I don't think it's as bad as Al Gore would have you believe. So, to follow up on that thought, read some of the items in this press release by the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. It seems that there isn't the consensus among scientists that some would have you believe there is.