How then, do we move backwards? How does a society, with most of the people having no clue of future events, move from being dependent on a vast and intertwined network of goods and services produced by the indigenous people of whereever, to a local resource and renewable energy based society, and do so in the timeframe available (20-30 years using the most liberal extimates, 10-20 with resonable estimates, 5-10 with worst case scenarios), all the while prices on everything increasing, world politics getting more militaristic, governments continuously reducing civil liberties, shortages of goods on the market and weather patterns resembling bad Hollywood movies?
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:00 pm Post subject: Penn & Teller - No Energy Crisis, no EOTWAWKI
Penn & Teller - (No) Energy Crisis
The linked video is not work safe (nudity) but it is amusing.
Penn and Teller argue that there can be no energy crisis because we can expand nuclear, so drive all you want. Talk about slight of hand! (Well they are two los vegas magicians...)
Del: "Civilization as we know it could definitely come to an end."
Steve: "You just look at the resource use and things like that on our planet, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it's all going to run out sooner or later."
Penn: "The good news is the rocket scientists are working on new technologies, not hiding in a shack like this."
Then Penn skips the resource issues and spends the rest of the video debunking religious cults and Nostradamus. Can you say slight of hand!
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 1:51 pm Post subject: Re: Penn & Teller - No Energy Crisis, no EOTWAWKI
dub_scratch wrote:
The No Energy Crisis show is a hoot... Fun stuff....... and they've got *** too
Yeah there's no question they put on a good show! They're great magicians, but I think in these two episodes they are making the facts disappear along with their assistant's cloths... And what do cats have to do with a discussion on energy?
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 3:50 pm Post subject: Re: Penn & Teller - No Energy Crisis, no EOTWAWKI
Bread and Circuses.
The more things change the more they stay the same. _________________ "Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box."
-Italian Proverb
Joined: Dec 16, 2004 Posts: 705 Location: Santa Monica, CA
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:15 pm Post subject: Re: Penn & Teller - No Energy Crisis, no EOTWAWKI
steam_cannon wrote:
dub_scratch wrote:
The No Energy Crisis show is a hoot... Fun stuff....... and they've got *** too
Yeah there's no question they put on a good show! They're great magicians, but I think in these two episodes they are making the facts disappear along with their assistant's cloths... And what do cats have to do with a discussion on energy?
I won't expect a half hour entertainment/opinion format would be the best to layout all the energy facts. All Penn & Teller really did in this show was debunk is the anti-nuke hype and the hybrid panacea hype. I did not have a problem with their positions.
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject: Re: Penn & Teller - No Energy Crisis, no EOTWAWKI
dub_scratch wrote:
I won't expect a half hour entertainment/opinion format would be the best to layout all the energy facts. All Penn & Teller really did in this show was debunk is the anti-nuke hype and the hybrid panacea hype. I did not have a problem with their positions.
I don't have a problem with their position on Nuclear either! But they titled their show is "Energy Crisis", they start off in a car, they mention OPEC, they have two lesbians driving around questioning the road efficiency of a car. And then they just talk about Nuclear.
The nuclear thing made a little sense since in the beginning Penn puts in a Jab saying people claim we need a smaller carbon foot print "for film maker Al Gore". I'm guessing Penn is dealing with the global warming angle by discussing Nuclear, but it looks like just a smoke and mirrors routine saying we can drive all we want because we can expand nuclear. Maybe they have stock in an electric car companies?
And the other film is the same. I agree with them that dooms day cults and Nostradamus is BS. And it's funny. But they started the show with a couple talking about resource depletion, then they presented that as equivalent to Nostradamus cult stuff, which is all they talked about in the rest of the show. If they made a show about Nostradamus cult stuff, that's be cool. But that tie in of resource depletion, discredits their presentation because resource depletion isn't Nostradamus, it's science. One of these things doesn't belong, so why did they add it? And their argument that scientists are on it? What are they saying, population can grow to infinity? Resources never run out? The lights will never go out in Vegas?
These two shows just have a real smoke and mirrors feel to them, and they're papering over resource depletion and oil depletion. Maybe they weren't trying to, but that's what they managed to do...
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject: Re: Penn & Teller - No Energy Crisis, no EOTWAWKI
I've also heard Penn and Teller have conflicting interests in these areas.
Quote:
Its first episodes were a very funny and astute debunking of hapless psychics and spoon benders.
A few episodes later, P&T shifted from rightly ridiculing pseudoscience to attacking real, hard peer-reviewed science — as if the two were the same thing.
As a result, the 2003 show where P&T assert as proven fact that global warming is bullshit is now finding a brand new audience — people who take as scientific proof Penn & Teller’s claim that global warming is bullshit.
We’ll leave aside that in 2003 the scientific record showed P&T’s claim was total, provable bullshit.
Some environmentalists have pointed out that both Penn Jillette and Teller are research fellows of the limited government and free market advocacy group the Cato Institute,[15][16] which receives contributions from various individuals and companies, including ExxonMobil...
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:05 pm Post subject: Re: Penn & Teller - No Energy Crisis, no EOTWAWKI
"Penn Jillette, H.L. Mencken research fellow, is the louder, bigger half of the magic/comedy team Penn & Teller. He and Teller co-host
a new series on Showtime that looks to debunk junk science,
scares and scams with reason and logic. Jillette writes the "Final
Word" column for Regulation magazine."
I love reason and logic and good science. When someone has to
bluster and and bellow, and flash female t&a at you, I believe
their logic is probably weak. I have an idea for their next show, debunk magic and illusion and show us how all their tricks work, and and while their at it, show us their *** just to keep it fair and balanced.
Suggested show title?
"Two illusionist comics debunk magic and strip to hold audience."
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 6:12 pm Post subject: Re: Penn & Teller - No Energy Crisis, no EOTWAWKI
efarmer wrote:
I love reason and logic and good science. When someone has to
bluster and and bellow, and flash female t&a at you, I believe
their logic is probably weak. I have an idea for their next show, debunk magic and illusion and show us how all their tricks work, and and while their at it, show us their *** just to keep it fair and balanced.
Suggested show title?
"Two illusionist comics debunk magic and strip to hold audience."
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