Filth Media

There’s a new freebee mag in Brizzie called MX (God only knows why it has this name, but I suspect it’s to attract those that dug BMX’s as a kid and/or those that engorge over MX5’s now). I found a copy on the train the other evening, and actually found some of the articles fairly interesting. Apparently, German scientists have discovered that Birds have a sensory apparatus on their beaks that tell them where in the world they are because of the earth’s natural magnetic field – well I never.
Anyhow, while perusing this publication (I had left in a rush and left my book at home, something that I have since vowed to never do again) it came to my attention that there was a letters section that had been filled this week by one Mr. Terry Balson from Grange.
Now, I’ve kind of been wrangling with whether to give people a fair go or not of late, and have been leaning toward the warm and fuzzy notion that people aren’t so bad, and we’re all fairly trust worthy once it gets down to it, ’cause after all, life’s just a bit o’ fun and all can be cleared up with a nudge an’ a wink, ’cause we’re all just in it togeva.
Anyone who is aspousing this notion should grab a copy of this weeks MX magazine, and turn to page 12.
I sincerely think this guy was influenced by oil companies somehow; I dunno if they held a gun to his head, payed him off, or threatened to wipe out his Neighbours collection from the mid-eighties or what, but this guy sang like a nighting-gale with a rose-red bump on its head, and still made letter of the week.
It’s a good job I intercepted this bit of filthy media, and let me tell you it’s as filthy as it gets. It made me kinda wonder if the guy who wrote it actually exists, or if they just put something together to actively lower the intelligence of anyone who migh unwittingly get a copy (check it out, it’s really something).
It all kinda made sense, though, when I looked up MX magazine on the web this evening when I got home. It’s run by news limited for a start (i.e. the fox corporation), and (oddly enough) despite being a free magazine, you can’t actually get a free copy off the web. They’re pretty big on the advertising thing though, just check out the list of contacts, and I love the almost subliminal ‘PICK ME UP’ in the header. All this helped explained the new ads for a type of canned drink called MX advertised at central station too (you think it’s a new type of funky drink that will make you more attractive, until you realise it’s just a magazine. Two weeks later you forget about your embarasing run in with stupid ads, but remember that the name made you feel something real.) Check it out – http://www.mxnet.com.au/
Anyway, I had to respond to this stooge ‘letter of the week’ and figured I’d better let you all know, just incase I get wiped out this weekend in a freakilly localised tornado (or some such). The attatched letter is my response to Mr. Murdoch’s veil of shame, and I’m gonna transcribe this whole article for you me finks, just ’cause I’m drunk, bored, and passionate, so you should find that at the start of the next paragraph –

Climate Theory Still Unproven
According to Vicki Stocks (mX, Tues), climate change, as caused by human activity, is accepted by the scientific community. That’s incorrect.
Climate change has occurred continuously during the Earth’s history. This is due to the natural but complex movements in the universe (Earth around the sun, our solar system within our galaxy, our galaxy within the universe) coupled with the natural variations in the radiation output of the sun.
These factors have controlled changes in global climates and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, with minimal interference from any life on Earth.
There’s still active debate about the role that human activity has in affecting climate change.
In science, an idea that may or may not be correct is called an hypothesis. If it is confirmed by further testing it becomes a theory and, if proven, becomes a law.
At the moment, climate change is an hypothesis.
The global climate is an extremely complicated entity, as indicated by the difficulty in predicting the weather – even a few days in advance.
Another fact is that coal (via trees), oil (via aquatic organisms) and gas (methane via anaerobic degradation of organic material) all originated directly or indirectly from atmospheric carbon dioxide. When they are used as fuels, the carbon dioxide released is just part of the recycling process.
Finally, I recall the Y2K computer bug debacle.
Nobody, as far as I remember, spoke out against the consensus position that at midnight on 31/12/99 there would be chaos as many computer systems crashed. Yet the year 2K entered without a whimper.
So, beware of politicians jumping on bandwagons.
-Terry Balson, Grange.

15/02/2007 mX Magazine

BE WARNED!!! THE HUMAN RACE HAS MOVED PASSED THE STONE AGE, THE BRONZE AGE, AND THE IRON AGE. THIS IS NOT THE COMMUNICATION AGE, FAR FROM IT, THIS IS THE MONEY AGE!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

In response the letter of the day 15/03/2007

I don’t know where Terry Balson got his degree in science, but I would be very keen to find out, as I must tell everyone I know to avoid (like the plague) getting any form of education from his institution of choice. ‘In science, an idea that may or may not be correct is called an hypothesis. If it is confirmed by further testing it becomes a theory and, if proven, becomes a law.’ I don’t know when scientists started making laws, but I’m sure that legal firms all over the country would be keen to rectify this problem as immediately as is humanly possible, and I agree, so long as they don’t burn too many fossil fuels in the process.
‘[Climate change] is due to the natural but complex movements in the universe (earth around the sun, our solar system within our galaxy, our galaxy within the universe) coupled with the natural variations in the radiation output of the sun’.
Firstly, the earth may receive heat and electromagnetic influences from the sun (which I assume are the “variations” that Mr. Balson was alluding to), and it’s true, these factors do influence our climate to some degree, however, our solar system is a ridiculously insignificant little speck in a gargantuan mass of some hundred-billion stars, the closest of which (given our current state of technology) no human could reach in one lifetime – even if there was enough food and entertainment on board to keep him or her going for the duration. And that’s just our Galaxy, which (as Eric Idle once sang) ‘is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe’.
As far as the control of carbon-dioxide levels on our tiny planet are concerned, we are living in a closed system. We don’t get carbon dioxide from anywhere else but right here on earth, and the fact is, when carbon is in the form of a fossil fuel, it is perfectly safe. If carbon remained in its liquid or solid form until the sun turned into a red giant and engulfed this planet some 5 billion years from now, that would be just dandy for our little blue-green paradise and its inhabitants. However, it is in its gaseous form that carbon causes problems, and as we human beings insist on the need to move from one place to another at a faster and faster rate, we are burning fossil fuels with hardly a concern beyond those which plague us at this very minute.
If that’s just human nature, then that’s fine. We want things done now, and we will do what we can to see them done now, and if that demands a sacrifice, then what we do is all the more noble for it. But if we are going to make a sacrifice (and to quote Hollywood, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs), can we at least try to understand exactly what the sacrifice we are making is first? And when I say understand, I don’t mean like Mr. Balson of Grange understands things (with an atlas of the universe and a teddy bear that tells him things when he goes to bed at night), I mean really understand, as in put in some effort so as to know what the realities are.
I for one am not prepared to risk what little beauty there is left on this amazing little gem of a planet, because, not only is it where I was born, but it’s where I grew up, it’s where I first fell in love, and it’s where I’m going to die, and I’d rather die knowing that my home is going to be alright when I’m gone, than think that it was all lost so that some pathological bastard could make a few measly dollars.

Madison Moriarty – Upper Brookfield