Walk on the Wild Side

Walk on the Wild Side

The issue of Global Warming has been a hot topic for several years for both the scientific community and for conspiracy theorist who believe that the science behind global warming has been invented and is being perpetuated by organizations and governments because of financial or ideological reasons. Proponents of such allegations refer to the scientific consensus as a "global warming hoax” or "global warming fraud".

Many individual scientists and scientific organizations such as NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), NASA Finds 2011, Ninth Warmest Year on Record the United States Global Change Research Program which consists of thirteen United States federal entities Participating Departments and Agencies, CFR  (Council on Foreign Relations) and many others have devoted countless amount of hours and money to research the global warming issue and its many theories.

Along with the growing number of studies and organizations being conducted and developed to study this global “hot issue”, the number of groups and individuals who believe in the global warming conspiracy theory also has exploded over the past several years. Like many other conspiracy theories, many of the global warming conspiracy theorists believe that the USA (United States of America) federal government, individual state governments, politician leaders and other world country governments are involved in making the so-called global warming problem as big of an issue as what it has become.

One of the most well-known and possibly most well educated believer of the global warming conspiracy theory is researcher, former weather forecaster for the United States Air Force, and current Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University (CSU) and head of the Tropical Meteorology Project at CSU's Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Dr. William M. Gray.

Dr. Gray has been described by many in the scientific, meteorological and media worlds as being one of the world’s leading experts on tropical storms and has been labeled by MSNBC (Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company) hosts as being a top meteorologist. Dr. Gray has made statements regarding his personal beliefs of the global warming “hoax” very clear in the past. According to the article Global-Warming Skeptics Continue to Punch Away which was published by the Seattle Times in 2006, Dr. Gray stated the following about according to him, not being approached on his beliefs about the global warming trend, "I've been in meteorology over 50 years. I've worked damn hard, and I've been around. My feeling is some of us older guys who've been around have not been asked about this. It's sort of a baby-boomer, yuppie thing."

According to the article published by the Seattle Times, Dr. Gray had lost much of the government funding for his research programs and he has had to put his own money, more than $100,000, into keeping his research going.  Dr. Gray believes that humans are not responsible for the warming of the earth and has stated that "We're brainwashing our children." He asked, "How can we trust climate forecasts 50 and 100 years into the future (that can’t be verified in our lifetime) when they are not able to make shorter seasonal or yearly forecasts that could be verified?"The Independent Institute lists Dr. Gray as one of their Research Fellows

Another believer that the global warming issue is a conspiracy theory or hoax is U.S. Senator Inhofe who was said to be a former believer of the global warming theory. The following video features an interview which Senator Inhofe had on Fox News in 2009 regarding global warming, which he believes to be a “hoax” set up by the UN (United Nations) and the democratic side of the U.S. government.

Even Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has expressed his thoughts about global warming. Rick Santorum told attendees at the Gulf Coast Energy Summit in Biloxi, Mississippi, to trust his judgment on the environment, highlighting his position on climate change—that is, that it's a liberal myth. "The dangers of carbon dioxide? Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is," Santorum said, according to the Associated Press. Below is a video interview which Rick Santorum did with MSNBC regarding his beliefs that global warming is a conspiracy and how he feels that scientific researches doesn't back up the issue of global warming. 

Many scientific studies have been conducted over the past several years proving that the Earth’s atmosphere and climate has been increasingly changing since meteorological and scientific data has been studied since the year 1880. NASA provides the following chart on their website for the findings of change in global temperature from the year 1880 to the year 2011.

             From looking at the above chart, it is obvious that scientific studies have found that the Earth’s annual temperature has continued to increase most of the years since global climate data has been recorded, with the change in global temperature rising at an alarming rate between the years of 1980 and 2011.

                
             Forbes Magazine published an online article in July of 2011 regarding the global warming conspiracy theory and spoke about how British journalist James Delingpole believes in the global warming conspiracy theory and how he stated that he promised to show that the man-made global warming is a fraud, one that has already cost billions of dollars and is a clear and present danger to our liberty and democratic traditions — and, ironically, to the environment itself.


              With the exception of Dr. Gray and a few other scientists, most scientists who have studied the global climatic change agree that the planet’s climate and atmosphere are changing and changing for the worst. Most also believe that these changes are due in large part to the human abuse to our planet. Studies have been conducted by scientists in an attempt to predict the future increase of the global temperature.  The following graph was released in 2007 showing what some scientists predict to be the change in global temperature in degrees Celsius between the years of 2070 and 2100 if the current rate of temperature change continues.

  I have to agree with the findings and beliefs of many of these scientists on the ever increasing and troubling trend of global temperature and environmental changes. I feel that we humans as a species need to pay much more attention to the global warming issues which have become so well debated in recent history and if we don’t, the future generations of humans, animal and plant lives will have to adapt to a completely different environmental planet then what we all know today. Along with these changes will come far less beautiful places for our children’s children and their children to admire.

One example of this is the quickly decrease amount of natural glaciers located at Glacier National Park in the U.S. State of Montana and the Canadian Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia along with other glacial areas found around the globe. According to the article Recent Global Glacier Retreat Overview , studies conducted by the U.S. National Park Service and U.S. Geological Service focusing on the decrease in amount of glacial cover in the park, Only 27% of the 99 km² area of Glacier National Park covered by glaciers in 1850 remained by 1993. An increase of approximately 1 degree Celsius (2 °F) in average summer temperatures is reflected in reduced glacier sizes. A computer model indicates that present rates of increasing warming will eliminate all glaciers in Glacier National Park by 2030. It is believed that the glaciers are quickly decreasing in both size and volume because of the global warming issue and that the behaviors of us humans and our contribuations in playing a role in helping cause the global climatic warming issue.

Then and Now

The assignment for this quest, we are supposed to interview a person who is at least 10 years older than what we are and have them identify five different examples of popular culture that were popular when they were growing up. Then we are asked to also choose five examples of popular culture which are popular in our lives or today’s society. For this Quest, I interviewed my father who was born in 1959.

(Then)

 The first example of popular culture which my father chose was when he was growing up how the standard radio receiver in the average American family’s personal vehicle only hosted AM (Amplitude Modulation) Broadcasting. He talked about how the quality of the AM radio stations were often full of interference and static much like they are today on a radio. He also said that when a person would drive their AM only equipped vehicle under a wide bridge or through a long tunnel, how the radio would frequently lose signal causing the stations to only be heard poorly if heard at all. My father explained to me how excited he remembers being when his parents purchased their first vehicle which was equipped with FM (Frequency Modulation) Broadcasting radio.  

(Now)

Today, not only are all new automobiles equipped with both FM/AM radio but a majority of the vehicles manufactured in the past couple of years come equipped either with Satellite radio being standard in the vehicle or the vehicle being pre-wired to accept Satellite radio through its receivers. At the current time, a customer has to subscribe to receive Satellite radio signal in their personal vehicle and pay either monthly, annually or a once lifetime fee to the Satellite radio provider. I believe that Satellite radio will eventually become the standard and possibly the only type of radio signal vehicles come equipped with because of the clarity of the Satellite radio frequencies and because of the option of the consumer being able to listen to his or her favorite Satellite radio station any place they travel to unlike AM or FM broadcasting. 

(Then)

The next subject which my father spoke of was the popularity of 8-Track players inside of vehicles from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s. The 8-Track quickly became a popular music playing device not only in people’s vehicles but also in people’s homes, replacing the vinyl record which was so widely used and popular prior to the invention of the 8-Track tape. But, like the AM Broadcasting radio which I wrote about above, after the invention of the music cassette tape, the 8-Track tape quickly died off. The 8-Track tape was very limited in its capabilities compared to the cassette tape which became popular in the 1980s. For instance, the 8-Track could only hold on average, four-10 minute songs compared to the cassette tape being able to typically hold between 30 to 45 minutes of music on each of its two sides of tape. Also, the 8-Track tape had problems with coming loose and being “eaten” by the 8-Track player.

(Now)

During my childhood years of growing up in the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, I can remember the popularity of the music cassette tape. By the time that I was old enough in the late 1980s to understand in great detail, the popularity and details of the cassette tape, the “in thing” was for the youth population to own a portable cassette player or a “Boombox” which a person could also carry around with them and listen to their cassette tapes. Then in the mid-1990s, I can remember as a teenager, the CD (Compact Disc) becoming the popular music listening device. The CD quickly took over the popularity of the cassette tape much like the cassette tape took over the popularity of the 8-Track some 10-15 years earlier.

 

(Then)

The third topic my father spoke of was how when he was a child growing up, how he can remember the lack of safety devices which came standard in automobiles. My father talked about how he could remember as a child, not having seatbelts inside of his parents’ vehicle and how most vehicles also did not come standard with outside mirrors or reverse lights. At the time when my father was growing up as a youth in society, Airbag safety devices in vehicles were also completely unheard of.

 

(Now)

Now days, Seatbelts (although they may not be used as much as what they should be), Airbag safety devices, rearview mirrors, reverse lights and other safety devices are the bare minimum safety equipment which is mandatory for automobile makers to make standard in every vehicle which is sold to the consumer. Automobile safety features have become such a popular and required feature to modern vehicles that automobile manufactures seem to be in competition with each other constantly to be the make their vehicles the first on the market to have a new safety device such as the back-up video monitor so the driver can visually see objects behind the vehicle when in the reverse gear more clearly than using only rear view mirrors or turning one’s head to attempt to look behind the vehicle. Manufactures also compete to release the greatest amount of vehicles each year which rate at the top of the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) picks for vehicles released to the general public.

(Then)

The fourth example which my father used for popular culture items when he was growing up in the 1970s was the clothing fashion of Polyester and plaid clothes which were popular with the American youth population. My father showed me a photograph which he has of him and my mother as high school teenagers walking along a sidewalk in the downtown district of Prescott, Arizona before prior to them moving away from the area after graduating high school. In the photo, my father is seen wearing a shirt made out of polyester.

(Now)

I am not to up to date with the current fashion scenes of today’s youth but I have heard the hype and often criticism of teenage boys wearing slim-fit-pants, also known as “Skinny Jeans” which in my opinion resemble a pant style which is often seen worn by the younger female generations. Flare style cut jeans also appear to be in style with the female population. While I was growing up as a teenager, the “big thing” in clothing fashion for the male population in the areas which I grew up in was the baggy shirt and sagging jean fad which was also known as the “Gangster Style” of clothing.

 

(Then)

The final thing which my father talked about was how when he was growing up attending elementary through high school how classrooms used 16mm (millimeter) movie reels to show educational videos to the student population.

(Now)

Although I recently returned back to college at the fairly late age of 29 years old, I have seen first-hand in the classroom setting both during my educational classes and at my 1^st grade daughter’s school, the popularity and ease of using laptop computers and Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) internet to view videos in the classroom which come directly from the internet or a downloaded video disk or program which is pre-installed on the laptop. For the most part, the use of wirelessly broadcasting videos to the classroom population provides a greater variety of available videos, higher quality and more modernly produced videos than what were available with the 16mm movie reels.

 

Microreflection

The class Tuesday night was a lot of fun. I enjoyed hearing everyone's personal thoughts on popular culture items which they believe will be "The Next Big Thing."

Be a Skeptic

             Our Be a Skeptic Quest in the 3d Game Lab states that we are to choose a group or person who is trying to promote the use of critical thinking through popular culture and evaluate his or her beliefs. For this Quest, I chose to focus on The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) which is the paranormal investigative group that the well known Syfy reality television show Ghost Hunters is based off of.

                For those of you who have never heard of TAPS or the television show, Ghost Hunters; the show follows around a group of “Paranormal Investigators” who are based out of the state of Rhode Island. Co-founders Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson founded the group in the year 1990. According to the official TAPS website, the group’s original purpose and mission is, helping those experiencing paranormal activity by investigating its claims in a professional and confidential matter using the latest in paranormal research equipment and techniques.  http://www.the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com/. Also according to their website, TAPS reportedly receives Thousands of case requests daily from the public for them to investigate a possibly “Haunted” location but the group is only able to annually investigate a handful of the requests which they receive.

            In 2003, TAPS founders were approached by Pilgram Films and asked to appear in a new and upcoming television program for the television station Sci Fi (now Syfy) channel. According to Tvguide.com http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/ghost-hunters-2004/episode-1-season-1/altoona-tantrum/191528 , the series premiere for the television show, aired for the first time on October 6, 2004. In it’s first publicly televised paranormal investigation, the team travel to and conducted an investigation in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Both Hawes and Grant work full time as plumbers and perform paranormal investigations while not on-duty as plumbers.

                At the time that this Blog was written, Ghost Hunters is on its eight season of television and has aired more than 150 episodes all across the globe. While on the location of an active investigation, the TAPS group, usually under the cover of darkness, uses several techniques and tools to conduct its investigations. Some of the tools used by the members of TAPS infrared and digital video cameras, thermal camera devices, EMF (Electromagnetic Field) detectors, digital thermometers and various other equipment.

                Most televised investigations, which the group appears in for the most part, seem to have the same basic investigative procedures. At the beginning of each investigation, the team members visit and survey the property of concern with either the property’s owner or a spokesperson for the property owner. It is during this time of the investigation that the property owner or spokesperson, sometimes along with other witnesses, describe alleged reports of possible paranormal activity, which either them or other people have reportedly experienced in the past while at the location of the investigation.

                After meeting with the property owner or spokesperson and receiving information pertaining to the location and its possible “hauntings”, the team usually sets up several different types of electronic surveillance equipment throughout the location of the investigation prior to the team beginning their official investigation of the property or properties. After the surveillance equipment is preset in chosen locations throughout the property, the team splits into smaller groups, usually consisting of 2 or 3 investigation members and camera operators start the main investigations of the property in question of possibly paranormal activity.

                After spending several hours investigating the locations, the team concludes its primary investigation, packing up all equipment used prior to departing the location. The team then spends a good amount of time, reviewing all audio, video and other possible findings that they may have found during their investigation. After reviewing and closely examining all found evidence of possible paranormal activity at the location, co-founders Hawes and Wilson then meet up again with the property owner or spokesperson who they met with prior to the main investigation, and provide that person with what the team feels is the most credible evidence found during their investigation of the property.

Many times after analyzing all of the data recovered by the team during their investigation, there is little to no evidence found leading the team co-founders and other members to make the decision that the location has paranormal activity. Several team members have been known to say during a few of the series’ episodes that the team first tries to debunk all reported possible paranormal activities reported by witnesses at the property by attempting to find reasonable or scientific explanations for the reported experiences.

 According to the article http://www.movieweb.com/news/grant-wilson-and-jason-hawes-talk-ghost-hunters published in March of 2008, during an interview with co-founders Hawes and Wilson, Jason Hawes stated; “We’ve been doing this for 17 years and, you know, we go in with a skeptical mindset. We’re going in trying to debunk the claims of paranormal activity.” In my opinion, it is this mindset of the team members which makes this paranormal investigation television show much more entertaining to watch than several others which have also appeared on cable television in the past several years. Some of these other groups, in my opinion, seem to go into a location of investigation trying to prove that the location has some sort of so-called paranormal activity. Also, the members of TAPS seem to me much more experienced and more professional during their investigations than some other investigative groups which have had television shows pertaining to their investigations.

               I believe that the fact that the success of the Ghost Hunters television show in popular culture over the past 8 years has in some ways effected some of the team members’ professionalism and truthfulness along with some of the investigations conducted and has also caused some property owners to fake false reports of possible paranormal activity in hope of having their so-called (15 minutes of fame) on television. During the same interview as listed above with co-founders Hawes and Wilson, Jason Hawes made a verbal remark regarding two such hoaxes which were set up at locations by the property owners. Hawes stated the following about those two incidents, “We did have one gentleman who built a speaker inside a wall. He would try to make sounds come from that wall. We were able to track the speaker wire up to the wall. We did a restaurant, which I don’t think we will air. But, you know, the whole place was rigged with fake paranormal activity and Grant and I were able to figure it all out and find that. 

           

Pop Music Website Analysis

                                        http://tobykeith.com/

Another one of our Quest for the 3d Game Lab in my Humanities 101 class is titled, Pop Music Website Analysis. In this Quest, our assignment is to pick a music group or singer in which we like, look at the official website for that band or group and how the visual and participatory elements of the website work with or against the image that the band or singer's music creates.

For this Quest, I am picking the well-known Country Music Star Toby Keith. I grew up spending many of my teenage years in a suburb of Oklahoma City. Toby Keith is originally from a town in Oklahoma called Clinton, which is approximately 70 miles from the town which I lived in. He currently lives outside of the City of Norman, Oklahoma which is approximately 35 miles from the town in which I lived in while in Oklahoma. Toby Keith has stuck to his down home Oklahoma roots which are heard in much of his music and seen in many of his music videos.  I believe that Toby Keith has written and sang some of the best country songs of our time. Many of the songs which he has written and sang over the years are not only great country music songs but are also patriotic to the United States of America and supportive to our past and current military troops. Some of his more popular patriotic songs are “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” “American Soldier,” “American Ride,” and “Made in America.”

Toby Keith is very well known for supporting the United States Military and for making regular guest appearances overseas to visit with and perform for our troops who are deployed to foreign nations. With how his official fan website is currently designed, one of the very first things noticed when one accesses the website are the colors of Red, White and Blue, which we all know to be the colors of the United States of America Flag. At the top of the page is written “Toby Keith” in big bold white colored letters which appear to be faded possibly like an old pair of western jeans or an old Stetson cowboy hat.

On both sides of the words “Toby Keith” there is red colored 5-point stars which are the style of the stars which appear on the flag of the United States of America. In the background of this same area of the main website page is a photograph of Toby Keith performing for a crowd at what appears to be a venue containing a large amusement park. In my opinion, this photo also depicts the “party life” which Toby Keith also seems to be very well known for. Alongside of his patriotic music, many of Toby Keith’s other songs are related directly to the party scene and drinking of alcohol. A few of these songs are “I love this Bar,” “Beer for my Horses,” “Whiskey Girl” and his latest single, “Red Solo Cup.”

Most of the text on the website is written in bold and is either the color Red or the color Blue, also showing Toby Keith’s patriotism to the United States. I think that the website was designed very well to portray Toby Keith’s love for the United States and his respect to the members of our military branches. The website is just enough visually appealing with graphics, colors, links and videos to catch the viewers’ attention but not so overwhelming with colors and graphics making it too much to comprehend and focus on. The main theme of the website is obviously patriotism, promoting a “Downhome” yet “Upbeat” style of country music.

Movie Poster Comparison Quest

The two movie posters, which I chose to use for the “Movie Poster Comparison” Quest in the 3D Game Lab for my Humanities 101 course, were the poster for the 1974 release of the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre and of the 2006 movie release of Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Beginning.

            The poster for the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, which was first released on October 1, 1974 in the United States, is a very colorful poster, which depicts a psychotic chainsaw and facemask made of human flesh wilding male serial killer who possibly focuses on beautiful young women as his victim of choice.

            The poster has what appears to be a young woman who is being hanged by a rope from some sort of wooden structure. The woman appears to be attempting to use both of her hands to try and free herself before the killer is able to dismember her with the chainsaw, which he is holding in his left hand. The facemask, which the killer is wearing in the poster, appears to have stitching around the edges of it and holes cut out of it so that he can see out of the mask. The stitching and color of the mask gives the impression that the mask was possibly made of human skin cut from the body of one of his prior victims.

            There is very large and colorful font used in this poster to capture the attention of the audience. The wording of the poster provides a very basic yet fairly detailed description of the films’ plot. The main text on the poster states, “Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them?” gives the impression that some of the killer’s victims will survive the ordeal but may be missing limbs or other parts of their bodies.

            The poster also indicates through some of its text that the events, which occur during the film, were based on real life events and that the movie is made with such detail that it will also feel as much of reality as the events, which occur during it. To me, the graphics and design of the poster show that the film was made on a low budget even for the time period, which it was released.

            The second poster is for the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre-The Beginning that was released on October 6, 2006 some 32 years after the release of the original film and poster. The poster for the 2006 film release is a much visually darker poster than the poster for the original movie. I believe that the reasoning behind having his poster designed with darker colors and a darker theme than the original poster is because society today in the United States portrays fear and gruesome violence as being very dark themed.

            I believe a reason that society sees fear and violence this way is because of how the media has portrayed serial killers and other extremely fearful films and stories in the recent past. Some examples of this are the Hannibal Lecter horror movie series based on a cannibal serial killer portrayed mostly by actor Anthony Hopkins. Many of the horrifying scenes of these movies were set in dark locations such as in the movie The Silence of the Lambs where towards the end of the film a female Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agent was searching inside of a very dark house for the serial killer who was without her knowledge stalking her through the house using a pair of night vision goggles. Other thriller movies in recent history such as the Scream series, Paranormal Activity series and Saw series are also mainly set in dark locations during the most horrifying scenes of each movie.

            There is very little writing on this poster release and because of this, it is much more difficult to figure out the main plot of the film just by looking at the movie poster. However, I do believe that the intended audience for this film which is mostly the younger generation is drawn more to the visual effects of a movie poster than what they are to the writing of a movie poster, leading the poster designers to make the newer poster much more visually interesting and appealing than the poster was for the original film release in 1974.

            The poster for the 2006 film release also gives the impression from reading what little texts are on it, that the film is based solely on the killers uprising to his horrific and brutal killings. Like the poster for the original film, the killer on this poster also appears to be wearing a facemask possibly made of either human flesh or possibly has a dismembered face. The Killer is also a male subject and like the original film’s poster, is holding a chainsaw. Unlike the original poster, there is not anything about this poster, which gives the impression that the events, which occur during the film, were based on true-life events from our history.