Inconvenient Truth Convenient Location

Transcript Staff Reports
The Norman Transcript

Al Gore, the bestselling author of An Inconvenient Truth and the 45th vice president of the United States, will deliver a presentation on global warming to University of Oklahoma students Thursday, March 1, in Paul F. Sharp Concert Hall of Catlett Music Center, 500 W. Boyd St. Doors will open at 3 p.m. Gore’s presentation will be part of a campus discussion of different points of view on global warming.

Devoting much of his political career to the topic of global warming, Gore in recent years has intensified his efforts both nationally and internationally on environmental protection. He is the author of the bestselling book, An Inconvenient Truth, upon which the major motion picture of the same name was based. The book claimed the No. 1 spot on the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Denver Post and Washington Post bestsellers’ lists. The film based on his book is nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. In addition, Gore talks about what he refers to as our “planetary emergency” or “climate crisis” as a frequent featured guest on some of television’s most watched programs.

“Clearly, the issue of global warming is of major importance to our society and it is appropriate to have an understanding and broad-ranging discussion of the subject on the campus. The view of Vice President Gore will allow our university community to hear first hand from one of the most prominent and active leaders in the entire nation in this field,” OU President David L. Boren said.

The day’s activities will begin with a free, public forum on global warming featuring two OU faculty members with different points of view. The forum, featuring David Deming, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and David Karoly, Williams Chair and professor of meteorology, is slated for 1:30 p.m. in Meacham Auditorium of Oklahoma Memorial Union, 900 Asp Ave. Additionally, a President’s Associates dinner and dialogue, featuring Gore, is scheduled for that evening.

Gore’s political career began in 1976 when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and was inaugurated as the 45th vice president of the United States in 1993.

Environmental issues have been at the forefront of Gore’s efforts since his days in the House and Senate. He authored an earlier, also bestselling, work on the environment titled Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992); it became the first book written by a sitting senator to make The New York Times bestseller list since John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. Gore also led the Clinton administration’s efforts to protect the environment. He lectures widely on the topic of global warming.

Gore is a visiting professor at Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, and Fisk University, Nashville, where he teaches courses on family-centered community building.

Gore earned a bachelor of arts degree in government with honors from Harvard University in 1969 and also attended Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School and then law school at Vanderbilt. After graduation, he volunteered for enlistment in the U.S. Army and served in the Vietnam War.

The lecture is open to OU faculty, staff and students, with overflow seating available to the public. For more information and accommodations on the basis of disability, please call OU Special Events at 325-3784.

Yet Another St. Valentine's Day Massacre

Last year for this “special” day, I posted my contemptuous view of this “holiday”. Being somewhat tired today and frankly, since my opinion has not changed, I am just going to reposted it again….

Valentine’s Day has a lengthy history dating back to 500 AD when Pope Gelasius I declared a feast in Saint Valentine’s honor. It didn’t take on its current form until the American marketing engine got a hold of the idea. It has now become synonymous with candy, greeting cards, roses, diamonds, and the clogging of restaurant arteries with happy couples. It will be virtually impossible to dine out tonight without witnessing a barrage of couples starring wide-eyed into one another’s eyes while they sip champagne and share desserts, most likely forgetting that a part of the cost of their meal should include a proper tip for the waiter serving them. This day has become quite the profit center for chocolatiers, florists and other purveyors off love the world over. I however, take a more cynical view of this “Holiday”. I believe this day was created by happy couples with the sole purpose of making those of us who are single feel bad. It is a chance for the joyful couple to rub it in our faces as if to say “See how happy we are and how miserable you are?”

Beer Goggles

Many of us have heard of the so-called "beer goggle" effect. It's the phenomenon that occurs when someone's had a few alcoholic drinks and suddenly, all of those people who looked semi-attractive on entering the bar look really, really appealing. Scientists have shown that it's not just a lowering of standards -- alcohol actually stimulates the part of the brain that judges facial attractiveness.

In 2002, researchers at St. Andrews University and Glasgow University in Scotland took 80 college students and had half of them drink a "moderate" amount of alcohol -- between one and four servings, depending on gender and body weight. The other half, the control group, remained sober. Scientists showed each subject pictures of people of the opposite sex. In all cases -- male and female alike -- the experimental (tipsy) group rated each picture an average of 25 percent more attractive than the sober group did.

The effect can reportedly be traced to the nucleus accumbens. When you're looking at another human being, the nucleus accumbens is the area of the brain that decides how attractive that human being's face is. If you look at, say, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie, this area of your brain probably experiences increased neural firing. In other words, it's stimulated. As it turns out, alcohol, all by itself, stimulates the nucleus accumbens. So when you've have a few drinks, and you look at a face you may have judged as unattractive when you were sober, your brain, under the influence of alcohol, tells you that this face is in fact somewhat attractive. And the increase in perceived attractive seems to be directly proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed.

In a more recent study, this one conducted by researchers at England's Manchester University in 2005, scientists actually came up with a mathematical formula to calculate the extent of the "beer goggle" effect on a given individual in a given situation. Their reasoning for creating this formula is that alcohol is not really the only factor affecting the drunken perception of beauty. Other factors, according to their research, include:

How brightly lit the area is
The observer's eye-sight quality
The amount of smoke in the air
The distance of the observer from the observed

The formula goes like this:

where:

An is the number of servings of alcohol
S is the smokiness of the area on a scale of 0 - 10
L is the lighting level of the area, measured in candelas per square meter, in which 150 is normal room lightning
Vo is Snellen visual acuity, in which 6/6 is normal and 6/12 is the lower limit at which someone is able to drive
d is the distance between the observer and the observed, measured in meters

The formula works out a "beer goggle" score ranging from 1 to 100+. When β = 1, the observer is perceiving the same degree of beauty he or she would perceive in a sober state. At 100+, everybody in the room is a perfect 10

source: BBC News via howstuffworks.com