I don't know if many of you are following the enthralling mystery of dark matter and dark energy, but I find it fascinating.  My guess is it is from other universes within the multiverse having an effect on ours.  It fits all of the criteria.  Of course, I'm talking about the multiverses from M-theory (banes bang together to create new universes), not those from quantum speculatiion (spinoff universes when multiple alternative events happen, thereby creating alternate versions of our own universe - silly idea).

What's GE?

Yer UT there's the bunch who think global warming is purely man made and we should all live in caves to protect the environment.

My father always told a good story. As a young man, he worked after the war at the Co-Op. He had been in the Royal Army Service Corp transporting munitions, supplies and every manner of thing needed in the fight against fascism and nazism from the age of 19, so came out of the war as a highly politicised 24 year old determined to change things, so a job at a Cooperative as a delivery man seemed a logical choice. It was highly unionised, which at the start was good as it fought for workers rights, but it soon transcended into workers rights being diametrically opposed to what the needs of the business were, to the detriment of both sides. By the early 50's, he was married and starting a family and the union bosses always wanted to have its rallies and meetings after work, and young family men like my father just wanted to get home to see their families which left the hot heads and the guys with more radical sociological agendas attending the meetings. This made the output of those meeting more radical and even harder for men like him to abide by. In time he moved politically from what we would know call left wing to right wing for that very reason.
He often said if someone wanted to be in politics, this alone should bar them from doing it. Anyway, whoever you vote for, a Government will get in. The world seems to have so few 'Statesmen' these days; just a succession of pigs with their noses in the trough.
Where's Churchill when you need him ?

Urban_Tribesman said:

He often said if someone wanted to be in politics, this alone should bar them from doing it.

Good plan.  I liked Heinlein's suggestion.  Every law should only be implemented if it is 100% "Yea" votes and, at any time after that, a single "Nay" would veto it.  It wouldn't work but sounds like fun.  And, then, my own version, a hard reset on government about once a century or so.  Throw out all of the laws and start over.  Also wouldn't work but sounds like fun.

My grandad was a soldier in the first WW. After it, and I'm guessing during it, he was a Communist and used to stand on a soap box in Lincoln Arboretum. He had a flowerbed in the shape of a star in his front garden. Sadly I was too young to understand any of this before he died. The questions I'd like answered now...
I come from a very political family. How sad that I'm just as apathetic these days as a lot of others..to my shame.

Concerning global warming, my concern is that we are underestimating the potential for disaster, as well as temperature change.  Scientists are conservative by job choice.  You get bashed to a pulp for seeming flighty and not grounded in reality.  So, their estimates are going to be as "safe" as possible.  And, then, there's the folks that are spending gobs of money to counter the argument and make those that are concerned that we are endangering the only environment in the universe that we know can sustain human life seem foolish.  And, a lot of people seem to be prone to the "boy who cried wolf" concern.

It would be quite appropriate, though, if we destroyed the earth through our vanity and desire for comfort (climate change) rather than our warlike nature (nuclear threat).  Of course, then there is our arrogance (fiddling with mother nature without a great deal of caution) that could bite us in the ass, as well.  But, the one that really ought to get us is the us versus them mentality that seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.  It really would be nice to see us stabilize a little, instead of going at things with incredible abandon.