Thursday, April 19, 2007

Global Warming is Hot, but Humans are Toast!


With "EARTH DAY" approaching and all the heat about Global Warming, I am reminded of the prologue I wrote for a "blast from the past" sci-fi story I have been working on for more years than I care to admit. In any event, as one take on the Global Warming controversy, here is the prologue to my Novella in progress, "Getting A Head.":

The future is the past...

Save the earth! Save the earth! Everyone is screaming save the earth. But the earth doesn't need saving. Face it; the earth is not going anywhere. How old is the earth? A billion years? Billions of years? Or, as the late Dr. Carl Sagan would have said, "billions and billions" of years? The earth does not need saving. The earth is a survivor. It survived the dinosaurs. It survived the ice age. It Survived the Romans, the Inquisition... Survived volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, the holocaust, Hiroshima... Hell, the earth even survived the sixties!

The notion that man is capable of destroying the earth is absurd. Man's entire existence, from the first cave person (or Adam and Eve, if you prefer) to today is barely a moment, barely a blink, a single breath in the lifetime of the earth. To think that we, human beings, are strong enough or significant enough to wipe out that which has survived, even thrived, for so long without us harkens back to the days when astronomers believed that man was the center of the universe. Well, we are not the center of the universe. We never were and we never will be.

The so-called "environmentalists" have it all wrong. Their passionate cries should not be to "save the earth", but rather, to "save the people!" or "save the humans!" for we are the ones at risk. In truth, there should be no "environmentalists." Instead, there should be "humanists," dedicated to the preservation of the human race. The pollution, waste, crime, hate, carcinogens, terrorism and civil unrest that plague our modern lives do not put us on a course that will destroy the planet. They do put us on the path to imminent self-destruction. The earth needs no savior. The earth will be here long after every trace of man's very existence is gone...

For all we know, it has happened before (history is doomed to repeat itself, is it not?) For all we know, our species of Homo sapiens is not the first to inhabit this planet we call Earth... Perhaps we are not the first examples of intelligent life, but rather, the second, or even third attempt. Perhaps we are only one of many creatures who, like the Jurassic aged dinosaurs before us, inhabited this planet, thrived upon it, and then faced extinction.

Perhaps...

Friday, April 13, 2007

TWITTER is the new "discovery channel"

I have mentioned how Twitter Made a Monkey of Me and Twitter Made a Comic Strip of Me but the real thing Twitter has done for me is to become my primary "discovery channel." It may be R.I.P. for my RSS reader! Why scour scores of subscriptions when I can have the latest and greatest pushed to me live and on the fly? Twitter has become my best way to discover. Discover cool websites....discover blogs, podcasts, even breaking news... It has been an amazing and inspiring resource. A fleeting glance at Twittervision told me we had lost Kurt Vonnegut. An early morning Tweet on my Treo from the Scobleizer told me of a yet to be reported earthquake in Mexico. A few minutes later, again courtesy of Mr. Scoble, I was watching a live streaming discussion with Chris Pirillo on a slick website, Ustream, that I had never visited before... Another discovery!

Why is this 24/7 "discovery channel" that follows me from my pocket to my desktop so appealing? Perhaps it is innate... perhaps Twitter is the modern way our "tribe" bangs the drum so others can hear us... I know I will continue to beat the Twitter drum (as long as Sprint continues to offer my unlimited data plan!)

Sunday, April 08, 2007

TWITTER Made a Comic Strip Of Me!

Well, I must say, I am all a-twitter. The infamous "Comic Strip Blogger," A/K/A "CSB" caught wind of my "TWITTER Made A Monkey of Me!" post and turned me into a Comic Strip! (In case you are wondering, I am the monkey on the LEFT!)

(fake) Adam Curry makes monkeys out of podcast listeners (with help of Twitter)

Friday, April 06, 2007

TWITTER Made a Monkey of Me!!!

Well, perhaps I allowed Twitter to let me make a monkey of myself... And, as you will soon learn, this is not the first time I have been a monkey! It all started when I signed up for Twitter and began following and befriending folks I knew, including podcasters I admire and have communicated with...such as the proverbial prince of podcasting, the Podfather himself, Adam Curry (adamcurry in Twitterspeak). There was no reason for me to suspect that the "Twit" adamcurry was not the "real" Adam Curry. After all, his occasional Twitter posts ("Tweets"???) seemed to coincide with his UK home base time frame, and mentioned events, people and places that were consistent with things discussed daily on the DAILY SOURCE CODE (the same information ANYONE who listens to the show would have access to... DUH!) Hell, his Twitter icon was even the same "Podfather" graphic from the DSC (the same graphic image ANYONE can download with a 2-second Google Image search... DUH!) Did I mention I have a college degree from an esteemed Ivy League institution? DUH!

So, I believed I was "twittering along" with Adam and my other "real" Twitter friends, when I saw adamcurry's Twittered request "Can you mimic the sound of a Monkey? Call and leave your best monkey impersonation at..." and he listed the (publicly available -- DUH!) numbers for the DSC call-in line.

Well, I thought this was funny... and listened carefully to the next DSC show to see if there was any mention as to why Adam was looking for Monkey Sounds... Alas, no mention or hint as to what was up. But clever me, I figured Adam was cleverly experimenting with Twitter... to see what he could entice his minions to do... Far be it from me to ruin Adam's experiment. Besides, I had EXPERIENCE with MONKEY VOICES! During my illustrious film career, I co-wrote, co-produced and was the "VOICE OF THE MONKEY" in the TROMA Cult Classic, SGT. KABUKIMAN, NYPD! I give good monkey!

So, while driving on I-95, Twittering in traffic, I decided to call into the DSC comment line and give Adam a taste of my "professional" monkey voice. Yes, alone in my car (thankfully with the windows up) I hit DSC in my speed dial and let loose a wild barrage of primate prose worthy of any jungle. Feeling a bit awkward, but oddly proud of my contribution to the cause, I looked forward to hearing Adam perhaps play my monkey call in the next DSC...

Several DSC's later, no mention of Monkeys... Until, alas, in DSC #578, Adam admits that someone has been impersonating him in TWITTER! (Although Twitter adamcurry had also admitted this in a Tweet, I remained unconvinced -- read, IN DENIAL -- until I heard it on the "air" from the Podfather himself).

So, I was duped by a dupe! The fake adamcurry had faked me into faking a monkey! Aside from a bit of embarrassment (and curiously wondering what the REAL Adam Curry must have thought upon hearing my monkey message), I have survived. I am now truly a TWIT, literally and figuratively. That said, I am not discouraged and am sure I will continue to monkey around with Twitter!