Climate Scientists Turn to Hollywood?

Word is out that frustrated climate scientists -- who have seen public support for their alarmist cries fall after various scandals and various researchers admit that the world has cooled in the last 15 years -- are now turning to Hollywood for help in, uh, "educating" the public.

So what was "The Day After Tomorrow"?

But the story seems to indicate that it isn't just "scientists" who are looking to Hollywood, but "government scientists."

One effort, announced at the meeting, will recruit Hollywood to help scientists tell their stories. NAS and the University of Southern California will team up to draw on USC’s expertise in film, TV, websites, and video games. The partnership will be the first between a federal agency and a film school.

“Entertainment media has been pretty much untapped as far as science literacy goes,” Dr. Fink says. A huge portion of the public doesn’t go to science museums or watch science programming on TV, she says. “Those are the eyeballs we’re trying to capture.”

Did you catch the "partnership between a federal agency and a film school"?

The U.S. government teemed up with Hollywood during World War II to produce films. But that was a time of war and it wasn't hard to persuade most Americans that the fight was a just cause. Producing propaganda to convince a skeptical public that we need to let the government, perhaps even a world government, control our thermostats and tax us through higher energy prices, seems like the wrong thing to do in a free society.

Unless, of course, you have no intention of keeping your society free.

'I'm Your Huckleberry'

MSNBC is reporting that Val Kilmer is considering a run for governor of New Mexico.

I say great, but only if he puts on his Doc Holiday duds.

Kilmer's a Democrat, of course, who reportedly donated $4,000 to the presidential campaign of Ralph Nader last year but says he voted for Obama in the general election.

Kilmer said if he ran it wouldn't have to be a conventional campaign.

That's what I'm counting on. Unconventional and entertaining.

And perhaps a good conservative would actually win. It's a long shot but anything is possible.

Very disappointed that MSNBC failed to list "Tombstone" among Kilmer's cinematic achievements. It is, by far, the best portrayal of the deadly Arizona dentist friend of Wyatt Earp. (But when does MSNBC ever fail to disappoint?)