“… they also have large corporate parties down here.”

Stalin-themed corporate parties? Pleasant. From Tsar Podcast.

This guy is freaked out and I don’t blame him!

Internet funny man Ze Frank recently got a mainstream gig at Time. His latest video talks about what it means to go green during the #iranelection. Check it out:

Also, I leave you with this amusing comic from John Cole of the Times Tribune (via laughing squid):

You have heard Al Gore carp on about the climate crisis, and his lofty call that: “We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization.” Without the environment, the argument goes, we won’t be around to worry about all that other stuff.

The problem with big picture threats like climate change is that they are hard to securitize. Environmental disaster is just too abstract for Joe Sixpack, whereas a suicide bombing on the local train is all too real (to the point of paranoia). Maybe people are just naturally more worried about the malice of other humans than their natural environment. The universe isn’t considered to harbour deadly intent.

Nevertheless, big picture threats are real. Unfortunately, debating them tends to lead to a near infinite recursion. Limiting ourselves to threats against the planet as a whole (what some call geocide), there are quite a few that are on the level climate — or worse.

Stephen Petranek lists ten doomsday scenarios at the February 2002 TED conference. To his credit, Petranek also offers solutions for each threat. Granted, this frequently involves leaving everything behind and becoming a space-faring nation, but I have no problem with that: I am a huge fan of Doctor Who. Below is Mr Petranek’s speech. I have included the entire list of threats below so that we may refer to them in discussion, but have done so after the fold so as not to reveal any spoilers. Enjoy.

(approx 30 mins)

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Brad Neely, the internet phenomenon made famous for his brilliantly twisted animated music video about George Washington (which used to be on YouTube), strikes again with an educational ditty about JFK. Check out Professor Brothers present History Lesson #1.