Posted on 12/11/2004 8:39:25 PM PST by Cincinatus
So often what you think you know may not be so. And it's a reason I love the book just out from America's top-selling thriller writer, Michael Crichton. He's the man who created the popular TV medical drama "ER," wrote "Jurassic Park," which ranks among the top 10 grossing films of all time, and much more.
Crichton's books and movies have grossed more than $4 billion. Now, he's tackling global warming in his latest techno-thriller, "State of Fear."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Hey! That was pretty darned good! Where'd ya get it?
ActivistCash.com
Yep, and men like Galileo who dared to speak the truth against the Ptolemaic lies were brought before the Inquisition and silenced. So it is today with scientists who oppose the religion of "global warming" being destroyed by the left-wing academic "establishment" and the MSM.
Thanks for the short answer.
We are looking forward to your more fully thought out reply.
I read his novel, Swarm, and it was nothing but Jurassic Park, with evil flesh-eating nano-bots replacing the evil flesh-eating velociraptors. Same plot, same gimmicks, different "creatures".
As a life-long sci-fi junkie, I recommend the hard-nosed realism of Robert Heinlein, the social criticism of Soviet refugee Isaac Asimov, the wild (but mostly accurate at this time) speculation of Arthur C Clarke, the free-wheeling worlds of Larry Niven, the military sci-fi of Jerry Purnelle and David Drake, the compelling dystopias of SM Sterling (from which my screen name is derived), the visions of Ursula K LeGuin, the technophilic tranhumanism of Greg Egan, The Uplifting works of David Brin (pun intended), the "Riverworld" series by Philip Jose Farmer (not the crappy Sc-Fi Channel's rendition, but the books), the Berserkers of Fred Saberhagen (Darth Vader and the DeathStar have got bothing on those sterile killing machines), the Freeper Orson Scott Card, and the hard, phyisics-based novels by Greg Bear over Micheal Crighton's slop any day.
The only reason ol' Mikey Crighton has any pull is becaue of Jurassic Park's ability to reel in the kids into the box office, sell toys, and produce boring, systematic video games. He takes the works of real, hard sf authors, creates a synthesis of high-tech and the fear of Frankenstein, and makes mega-bucks for the studio pigs in Hollywood.
Were Crighton's novels to be printed at the turn of the last century, I believe they would have been called "penny dreadfuls" - the term used for cheap, mass-produced pulp novels of the hackneyed "vampires-and-ghosts-and-werewolves-oh-my" horror genre.
It's not about "environmental awareness" at all. It's about beating the Jurassic Park dead horse for all the cash its worth. 'Nuff said.
(Don't get me going about bad science fiction - the stars and galaxies would burn out before I got finished)
Yeah - and Galilleo was imprisoned by the Church Militant not for his beliefs, but for the evidence he put forth.
What the hell is "progessive" about presenting conjecture as fact?
ROFLMAO! Oh, tres brutale, mon frere!
And ol' Algore looks like he's trying to squeeze out a watermelon in that pic!
The global warming crowd can't even agree on how to measure global warming, let alone prove how it might be occuring or whether it's even out of the ordinary in the longterm pattern of Earth's climatic cycles. They consistently come up short on evidence, methodology and reasoning, so it's natural that they would seek to bamboozle the layman with con games like "appeal to consensus" along with all their usual alarmist projections.
BTTT!!!!!!
The quote you just pulled from the review is one of the most vile, condescending remarks to come along since the remark about the CBS big wig defending Blather about how superior CBS' researchers were compared to a bunch of guys in the pajamas at computers.
I spent all of yesterday reading a little more than half of it and plan to finish it today. It's a great read and I recommend it to everybody here ($16.95 at Sam's Club). The really neat thing about it is how he integrates his sources and footnotes with the story. With its bibliography the book is one of the best anti-Kyoto sources anybody can find in one place.
As far as the review quoted in the immediately preceding post is concerned, note how the reviewer relies on alleged consensus of the experts instead of attempting to refute directly what Chrichton says. It's just like Kerry's shills yeling "liars" at the Swiftvets while not attempting to refute any of theier charges.
Not every book is going to be a hit and not every hit is going to be a good book. Heck, look at the dreck "written" by Bill and Hillary. Evidently those pieces of trash sold a lot of copies. Another piece of drivel, touted as a classic, is "The Catcher in the Rye."
Even writers have their off days.
I loved Jurrasic Park the book. I found it to be more than a sci-fi thriller. His whole philosphy about how you can't just change one thing without changing the entire course of the world is something that I ponder a lot -- Especially when I wish I could just go back and do something in my life differently. Then I remember that if that one thing were different, my entire life would be different, not just the one thing. I was pretty young when I read that book, maybe 12, and I am thinking about reading it again now.
Nelson DeMille's new book, "Nightfall," about TWA 800 is very good.
Also, if you want a VERY different Christian fiction, look at the trilogy by Ted Dekker, "Black," "Red," "White." It's too much to even begin to describe here.
Wow, that is a great site!
Yup... an indispensible know-thy-enemy resource!
Really good article, thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.