Topic: Als Research

In 1978, Leonard Nimoy hosted a television special warning of a coming ice age following a brutal winter in Buffalo, New York. By 1982, the narrative shifted toward warming, featuring then-Senator Al Gore advocating for increased federal research funding for carbon dioxide monitoring. This transition highlights the rapid reversal of scientific consensus in media reporting between the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Al Sharpton is criticized for claiming on MSNBC that a disproportionate number of "black and brown" service members die in Middle Eastern conflicts. Adam Curry cites a 2015 Congressional Research Service report to debunk this, noting that white service members account for the vast majority of casualties. The discussion also revisits racial statistics from the Vietnam War to challenge common historical narratives.

The U.S. State Department issued a cable banning ambassadors and high-ranking officials from participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge. Spokesperson Marie Harf explained that federal ethics rules prohibit using public office for private gain or the promotion of private charities, regardless of the cause's worthiness. Meanwhile, Representative John Dingell criticized Republicans for participating in the challenge while allegedly defunding NIH research.

A brief news item covers the arrest of a researcher at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in France for alleged links to Al-Qaeda. Adam Curry suggests this story, while significant, was buried in the Financial Times beneath the coverage of the Nobel Peace Prize. The hosts use this as further evidence of the media's focus on "distraction" stories over substantive security news.