Orson Scott Card writes a very compelling article that navigates around the issue of intelligent design, Darwin's theory of evolution, scientific dogma and global warming in quite a persuasive manner.

His premise comes down to scientific dogma stifles true science.  Even science that seems "proven" isn't, or it no longer falls under the title "science".  He makes the point that intelligent design is HorseSwaggle, but uses it as a device to talk about the science community.  When it starts censoring new thought and stops the questioning of theories then it is no longer part of science.

I am a skeptic of the global warming hysteria currently gripping the media and political class and eventually he addresses that as well.

Faith in global warming is an orthodox religion, and anyone who questions it is being treated like a heretic, while fakery "in a good cause" is tolerated. The result? Science is over to the degree that the global warming orthodoxy succeed in silencing "dissenters" (i.e., actual science).

It's all a matter of questioning assumptions.  The biggest assumption right now is that humans are causing global warming.  Scientists should be taking this on as the "null hypothesis" and attempting to debunk it.  But they aren't.  They are accepting it as de riguer en masse and moving on to the questions of what to do about it...

To me this is a big problem.  Because all the potential "solutions" are very drastic to society and how humans are developing better lives for more and more people across the world.

If it isn't a problem then we will be doing gargantuan harm to billions of people.  Do we want to do that right now?

...or do we want to make sure?

Me? I think I can wait a bit to be sure before I reduce the world GDP by 2% or more (and you thought the current slowdown is scary.)

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox.

Seriously go read the article.  It's quite good.

Just saying what a lot of people are thinking.

– Global warming is a “total crock of ****.” Then he added: “I’m a skeptic, not a denier. Having said that, my opinion doesn’t matter. (With the battery-driven Volt), “I’m motivated more by the desire to replace imported oil than by the CO2 (argument).”

I think we are going to wake up from this mass hypnosis in 10 years with the realization that it was exactly as Bob Lutz has so succinctly put it.

This is an interesting picture that shows the undersea cables that carry the worldwide Internet traffic, I'm sure you've seen something similar in the past.

This one also shows which cables were damaged and lays out who was impacted by the blackout.

Egypt.

Indeed.

We are in the 21st century all right.  The sta tement in that article that truly sticks out to me is this one:

"People should know how to use the Internet because people who download music and films are going to affect businesses who have more important things to do."

Businesses in Egypt are so tied into the Internet now, just like the rest of the world, that when there is bandwidth issues the Egyptian government steps in and requests people refrain from needless downloads to protect commerce.

The world is truly connected now. 

I liked this comment as well.

Egyptian blogger The Arabist said he would "resume posting after the problem is resolved" and predicted, with a hint of sarcasm, "complete social breakdown in vast swathes of (upmarket Cairo districts) Heliopolis and Mohandiseen as thousands are unable to update their Facebook status."

heh.

Great graphic showing the interdependency of partnerships and ownerships in the global automotive industry.  I wonder how convoluted the web of ownership/partnership/investment would be if we did it for the online world.