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"As far as we know, Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, is an evolutionist, however many of his crticisms of mainstream science and it's political, bullying nature are the same ones we've tried to make on these pages...webmaster Caltech Michelin Lecture January 17, 2003 My topic today sounds humorous but unfortunately I am serious. I am going to argue that extraterrestrials lie behind global warming. Or to speak more precisely, I will argue that a belief in extraterrestrials has paved the way, in a progression of steps, to a belief in global warming. Charting this progression of belief will be...

It’s a measure of Carol Browner’s growing influence in the West Wing that she’s been given the coveted key to the taupe-accented kingdom — President Barack Obama’s personal BlackBerry e-mail address. The administration’s so-called energy czar is just about the only high-ranking official to emerge from the BP oil disaster with an enhanced reputation — making her, some say, the most powerful woman in the White House next to Obama’s longtime friend Valerie Jarrett. Yet even as Browner’s stock rises, her rationale for remaining by Obama’s side is declining. The collapse of the administration’s comprehensive climate change effort — a...

It's been a  few years since the release of the film The Thirteenth Warrior. It was a rarity: an intelligent actioner. Directed by Michael Crichton and based on his novel Eaters of the Dead, it was a retelling and rationalization of the ancient Beowulf legend. In Crichton's version, the monsters of legend comprise a tribe of human cannibals preying on Viking settlements. The story is told through the eyes of an educated Arab visitor who has traveled to the far north out of curiosity and wanderlust. He witnesses an attack by the cannibals in which the Vikings panic and run...

November 10, 2008 Michael Crichton, who died at 66 on November 4, election day, may not have been an outstanding stylist but he sure sold a few books in his time, mostly in the techno-thriller genre, such as Jurassic Park. He was a writer of ideas and also a medical doctor (Harvard Medical School), television producer, and film director. Crichton’s enormous success did not prevent him from speaking out on politicized science, a raging issue of our time and too often overlooked. He took up the theme in State of Fear (2004), a footnoted novel about environmental intrigue on a...

'Aliens Cause Global Warming' From a lecture delivered by the late Michael Crichton at the California Institute of Technology on Jan. 17, 2003: Cast your minds back to 1960. John F. Kennedy is president, commercial jet airplanes are just appearing, the biggest university mainframes have 12K of memory. And in Green Bank, West Virginia at the new National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a young astrophysicist named Frank Drake runs a two-week project called Ozma, to search for extraterrestrial signals. A signal is received, to great excitement. It turns out to be false, but the excitement remains. In 1960, Drake organizes the...

Michael Crichton, 1942-2008 Michael Crichton was a man of formidable intelligence and boundless curiosity. The two don't go together quite as often as they should. For years, when I picked up his latest novel, I'd find myself sighing, "Of course." The books had the inevitability of all the truly great ideas - as if they had not been cooked up in his study but had always been lying there, like truffles out in the woods, and he'd just been the first hound to get to them and snuffle them out. But, of course, he got to them again and again,...

In memory of Michael Crichton, who died Tuesday, let us consider a question that preocuppied him: How do we separate science from religion in environmentalism? As a spinner of sci-fi horror stories himself, he had a finely honed skepticism for the apocalyptic scenarios presented by environmentalists. In a speech in 2003, he argued that environmentalism was a modern remapping of Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths: There’s an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there’s a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as...

Best selling author Michael Crichton died unexpectedly in Los Angeles after what his reps call a "courageous and private battle against cancer." Getty Images Crichton, best known for such books as "Jurassic Park" and "Disclosure," also created the hit TV series "ER." His rep released the following statement: "While the world knew him as a great story teller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us -- and entertained us all while doing so -- his wife Sherri, daughter Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father and generous friend who inspired each...

CBS News is reporting that author Michael Crichton has died at age 66. According to the report, Mr. Crichton, whose books include The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, Prey, and others, fought "a courageous and private battle against cancer, according to a statement released by his family." (Gawker brought this story to our attention.)

Prolific novelist and "ER" creator Michael Crichton has passed away. He was 66. Perhaps best known for being the author of Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World, which were turned into a hugely successful movie franchise, his numerous books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide. In what his family calls an unexpected death, it was revealed that he was waging a private battle against cancer.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama said Sunday that his religious beliefs influence his plans for how to protect the environment. Speaking before religious leaders and others at what he called an "interfaith forum on climate change," the Illinois senator said God has entrusted humans with the responsibility of caring for the earth, and "we are not acting as good stewards of God's earth when our bottom line puts the size of our profits before the future of our planet." "It is our responsibility to ensure that this planet remains clean and safe and livable for...

Imagine that there is a new scientific theory that warns of an impending crisis, and points to a way out. This theory quickly draws support from leading scientists, politicians and celebrities around the world. Research is funded by distinguished philanthropies, and carried out at prestigious universities. The crisis is reported frequently in the media. The science is taught in college and high school classrooms. -excerpted- Click HERE for the rest of the essay.

My topic today sounds humorous but unfortunately I am serious. I am going to argue that extraterrestrials lie behind global warming. Or to speak more precisely, I will argue that a belief in extraterrestrials has paved the way, in a progression of steps, to a belief in global warming. Charting this progression of belief will be my task today. Let me say at once that I have no desire to discourage anyone from believing in either extraterrestrials or global warming. That would be quite impossible to do. Rather, I want to discuss the history of several widely-publicized beliefs and to...

This is the first of what I hope will be an ongoing series of exchanges with notable friends of the Ablution. Our first respondent is one of the most popular novelists of our time. According to his official biography, he: Graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College, received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, researching public policy with Jacob Bronowski. He has taught courses in anthropology at Cambridge University and writing at MIT. He’s “a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the...

David Suzuki vs. Michael Crichton Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 Last Thursday, environmentalist guru David Suzuki stormed out of a Toronto AM640 radio interview with host John Oakley because Oakley dared to suggest that global warming might not be the "totally settled issue" Suzuki insisted it was. Oakley only reported a fact: Many accredited scientists -- some full professors from top universities, including Nobel prize winners and a former president of the National Academy of Sciences -- would argue that "global warning is at best unproven and at worst pure fantasy," according to novelist and...

One of the perquisites of being president is the ability to have the author of a book you enjoyed pop into the White House for a chat. Over the years, a number of writers have visited President Bush, including Natan Sharansky, Bernard Lewis and John Lewis Gaddis. And while the meetings are usually private, they rarely ruffle feathers. Now, one has. In his new book about Mr. Bush, "Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush," Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best-selling novel, "State...

Fear and Complexity The Independent Institute San Francisco, CA November 15, 2005 by Michael Crichton  Is this really the end of the world?  Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods? No, we simply live on an active planet.  Earthquakes are continuous, a million and a half of them every year, or three every minute. A Richter 5 quake every six hours, a major quake every 3 weeks. A quake as destructive as the one in Pakistan every 8 months.  It’s nothing new, it’s right on schedule. At any moment there are 1,500 electrical storms on the planet. A tornado touches down every six...

It would be nice if FR allowed more search options. For instance: Author. I'm currently trying to find a Michael Chricton article about global warming that appeared as a thread a time back but none of the keyword or title searches have helped. I'm sure I could google both Chricton and global warming and probably find the link and then search for that title at FR, but wouldn't it be better to have that option within FR from the getgo. Just a thought; in reality, I don't know how much of a strain that would put on the search engine...

Fear, Complexity, & Environmental Management in the 21st Century Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy Washington DC November 6, 2005 By Michael Crichton I am going to challenge you today to revise your thinking, and to reconsider some fundamental assumptions. Assumptions so deeply embedded in our consciousness that we don’t even realize they are there. Here is a map by the artist Tom Friedman, that challenges certain assumptions. . .

I have not read Dracula ever again. I was ashamed of myself. Here I was, a 2nd lieutenant of Marines, fresh out of OCS, going to fight those Japanese SOB's, and just think, I let a book of fiction scare me like that.

Thank you Mr. Chairman, and members of the Committee. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the important subject of politicization of research. In that regard, what I would like to emphasize to the committee today is the importance of independent verification to science. In essence, science is nothing more than a method of inquiry. The method says an assertion is valid-and merits universal acceptance-only if it can be independently verified. The impersonal rigor of the method means it is utterly apolitical. A truth in science is verifiable whether you are black or white, male or female, old or young. It's...

...The drumbeat on global warming was intended to reach a crescendo during the run-up to the summit at Gleneagles. Prime Minister Blair has been a leader in the global warming crusade. (Whether his stance reflects simple conviction or the need to propitiate his party's Left after Iraq is unknown.) In the event, for believers, Gleneagles turned out to be a major disappointment. On the eve of the summit, the Economic Committee of the House of Lords released a report sharply at variance with the prevailing European orthodoxy. Some key points were reported in the Guardian, a London newspaper not hostile...

"Banned in the United States more than 30 years ago, it remains America's best known toxic substance. Like some sort of rap star, it's known just by its initials; it's the Notorious B.I.G. of pesticides. Now DDT is making headlines again. Many African governments are calling for access to the pesticide, believing that it's their best hope against malaria, a disease that infects more than 300 million people worldwide a year and kills at least 3 million, a large proportion of them children." . . . "What people aren't remembering about the history of DDT is that, in many places,...

Michael Crichton’s technopolitical thriller State of Fear (HarperCollins) turns on a controversial notion: that all the talk we’ve been hearing about global warming—polar ice caps melting, weather systems sent into calamitous confusion, beach weather lingering into January—might be at best misguided, at worst dead wrong. It’s The Da Vinci Code with real facts, violent storms, and a different kind of faith altogether.

Michael Crichton has written that rarest of books, an ­intellectually dishonest novel. Crichton has made a fortune exploiting the public’s fears: Prey (fear of nanotechnology), Rising Sun (fear of Japanese technological supremacy), and Jurassic Park (fear of biotechnology). These books attack the hubris of those who use technology without wisdom. In Prey, he warns, “The total system we call the biosphere is so complicated that we cannot know in advance the consequences of anything that we do.” Given the author’s past, one might expect that a Crichton book on global warming would warn about the risk of catastrophic climate change—the...

Michael Crichton has written that rarest of books, an ­intellectually dishonest novel. Crichton has made a fortune exploiting the public’s fears: Prey (fear of nanotechnology), Rising Sun (fear of Japanese technological supremacy), and Jurassic Park (fear of biotechnology). These books attack the hubris of those who use technology without wisdom. In Prey, he warns, “The total system we call the biosphere is so complicated that we cannot know in advance the consequences of anything that we do.” Given the author’s past, one might expect that a Crichton book on global warming would warn about the risk of catastrophic climate change—the...

Michael Crichton's scary movies, like "Jurassic Park," have made billions. He has sold 100 million copies of his scary books. And now he's telling us: Don't be scared. He almost didn't write his latest book, "State of Fear." "I'm 62 years old," he told me. "I've had a good life. I'm happy. I'm enjoying myself. I don't need any of the flak that would come from doing a book like this." Flak is coming because the fear Crichton is questioning is fear of global warming. And as Crichton told me, "people's feelings about the environment are very close to religion."...

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com The green 'State of Fear'By Suzanne FieldsPublished February 3, 2005          Michael Crichton is a high-tech, science-savvy Renaissance man in the 21st century. He has sold more than a hundred million books, which have been translated into 30 languages. Twelve became high-grossing movies. Children everywhere have "Jurassic Park" nightmares.     His books are so popular in China that when the calcified remains of a species of dinosaur was discovered there, the Chinese named it Bienosaurus crichtoni in his honor. In 1992, People magazine named him one of the "Fifty Most Beautiful People." Now a new kind...

There's a problem with Michael Crichton's new thriller, and it shows up before the narrative even begins. In a disclaimer that follows the copyright page, Crichton writes: ''This is a work of fiction. Characters, corporations, institutions and organizations in this novel are the product of the author's imagination, or, if real, are used fictitiously without any intent to describe their actual conduct. However, references to real people, institutions and organizations that are documented in footnotes are accurate. Footnotes are real.'' Footnotes? Yes, there will be footnotes. Although ''State of Fear'' comes dressed as an airport-bookstore thriller, Crichton's readers will discover...

WASHINGTON - A provocative new novel that says fears of global warming are unjustified and stoked by an environmentalist-media conspiracy is taking Washington by storm. “State of Fear,” a novel by Michael Crichton, the best-selling author of “Jurassic Park,” and the creator of the TV show “ER”, compares scientists who warn of global warming to advocates of eugenics who said that the mixing of races would ruin the world’s genetic stock. In an appendix explaining his position, Crichton writes: “Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon. Nobody knows how much of the present...

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."

[State of Fear, by Michael Crichton. 603 pages. Published December 7, 2004, by HarperCollins Publishers. Hardcover, $27.95. Available at www.Amazon.com.] Michael Crichton, the author of The Andromeda Strain, Rising Sun, Jurassic Park and other block-buster thrillers, has penned a novel that could profoundly change the national and even international debate over global warming. It's long overdue. Crichton's State of Fear, with a reported first print run of 1.7 million copies, is an action thriller that doubles as a scientific primer on global warming and other environmental topics. Crichton's protagonists -- a scientist, a lawyer, a philanthropist and two remarkably athletic...

Last week I posted a thread on Tom WOlfe's new book, "I Am Charlotte Simmons," about life on an Ivy League campus in 2005. There were some great comments (including my favorite, which I don't agree with, that "71-year-old men should not write about 21-year-old girls"). I thought Wolfe captured the tensions of a culturally conservative young woman who found herself totally adrift in a sea of immorality and lunacy pretty well. The other night, Wolfe was on C-SPAN's "Booknotes" with Brian Lamb. The calls were remarkably level-headed. One caller asked Wolfe about conservatism in his books. He didn't say...

In today's segmented America, Michael Crichton's new novel "State of Fear" might seem to be just reading for red states.... The theory of global warming — Crichton says warming has amounted to just half a degree Celsius in 100 years — is that "greenhouse gases," particularly carbon dioxide, trap heat on Earth, causing . . . well, no one knows what, or when. Crichton's heroic skeptics delight in noting things like the decline of global temperature from 1940 to 1970. And that since 1970 glaciers in Iceland have been advancing. And that Antarctica is getting colder and its ice is...

E-mail Author Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version December 21, 2004, 8:39 a.m. Science FictionMichael Crichton takes a novel approach to global-warming alarmism. By Iain Murray Michael Crichton's new blockbuster novel, State of Fear, begins with sex, violence, and oceanography. It's that sort of book all the way through, mixing the usual adventure novel clichés of beautiful young heroes, indestructible secret agents, and a plot to kill millions alongside hard science, including graphs, footnotes, and words like "aminostratigraphy." As such, the book is half a rip-roaring roller coaster of a read (as Edmund Blackadder would...

On the surface, Michael Crichton's "State of Fear," can be seen simply as a thriller in which environmentalists happen to be the villains. Mixed with the story, however, are lengthy, annotated attacks on the scientific consensus that the globe is warming, human activity is a cause, and accumulating emissions of greenhouse gases may dangerously disrupt the climate system. While Mr. Crichton includes a note emphasizing that most of the book is a "product of the author's imagination," he adds that "references to real people, institutions and organizations that are documented in footnotes are accurate. Footnotes are real." Just one week...

Yet many climate scientists have endorsed climate change predictions. Climate records continue to fall as many different regions experience warmer temperatures than they have in centuries. While it is always possible that the experts are wrong, that possibility diminishes with each passing year as evidence mounts for a connection between carbon dioxide emissions and climate warming.

This year I turned 62, and I find I have acquired—along with aches and pains—a perspective on the world that I lacked as a younger person. I now recognize that for most of my life I have felt burdened by highly publicized fears that decades later did not turn out to be true. I was reminded of this when I came across this 1972 statement about climate: “We simply cannot afford to gamble…We cannot risk inaction. Those scientists who [disagree] are acting irresponsibly. The indications that our climate can soon change for the worse are too strong to be reasonably...

This year I turned 62, and I find I have acquired—along with aches and pains—a perspective on the world that I lacked as a younger person. I now recognize that for most of my life I have felt burdened by highly publicized fears that decades later did not turn out to be true. I was reminded of this when I came across this 1972 statement about climate: “We simply cannot afford to gamble…We cannot risk inaction. Those scientists who [disagree] are acting irresponsibly. The indications that our climate can soon change for the worse are too strong to be reasonably...

My topic today sounds humorous but unfortunately I am serious. I am going to argue that extraterrestrials lie behind global warming. Or to speak more precisely, I will argue that a belief in extraterrestrials has paved the way, in a progression of steps, to a belief in global warming. Charting this progression of belief will be my task today. Let me say at once that I have no desire to discourage anyone from believing in either extraterrestrials or global warming. That would be quite impossible to do. Rather, I want to discuss the history of several widely-publicized beliefs and to...

Best-selling author Michael Crichton says environmentalists and the media are alarmists when it comes to global warming. 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." Crichton is an extraordinarily bright...

Aliens Cause Global Warming A long read, but filled with interesting anecdotes from people like Feynman and Teller. I must say, he sounds pretty conservative. My topic today sounds humorous but unfortunately I am serious. I am going to argue that extraterrestrials lie behind global warming. Or to speak more precisely, I will argue that a belief in extraterrestrials has paved the way, in a progression of steps, to a belief in global warming. Charting this progression of belief will be my task today.

<p>My topic today sounds humorous but unfortunately I am serious. I am going to argue that extraterrestrials lie behind global warming. Or to speak more precisely, I will argue that a belief in extraterrestrials has paved the way, in a progression of steps, to a belief in global warming. Charting this progression of belief will be my task today.</p>

Author Wins Control of Internet Name GENEVA (AP) - Best-selling author Michael Crichton (news), who wrote "Jurassic Park" and created the television series "ER," has won control of the Internet name www.michaelcrichton.com in a ruling by a United Nations The panel ordered the transfer of the domain name to Crichton after he complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization that it was being used illegally. The ruling Tuesday said the registered owner of the name — Alberta Hot Rods of Alberta, Canada — had no rights or interests in the name. Crichton's lawyers told the panel the domain linked...

Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton has been tied up and robbed at gunpoint.The two men searched through his California home but he wasn't harmed.Crichton, 59, is also responsible for creating the hit TV hospital drama series ER."An incident did occur, but everybody is fine, and that's all I can say because a kid is involved," said publicist Joseph Marich.Police said some items were taken from the Santa Monica house but the value was not immediately determined.Since his 1971 novel, The Andromeda Strain, was made into a film, Crichton has enjoyed a string of literary and Hollywood successes.More than a dozen...