It’s one thing when you are bombarded daily by news articles, it’s quite another when you want to buy a custom teddy bear and are treated to a video lecture on global warming. That’s why I’ll never buy anything from this company and advise my family and friends with children to avoid them also.
www.buildabear.com – their main page below looks just like any normal toy page with a Christmas theme, but visit the games section and you enter a whole new winter wonderland.
Apparently “build-a-bear” is quite the fad, now in 17 countries. But they had a dirty little secret, they were pushing an agenda under the guise of a cartoon designed to entertain the kids.
Maura Flynn writes at biggovernment.com
Attention Santas:
This missive is directed at the guardians of, and donors to, tiny humans. If you fall into that category you likely are already familiar with Build-A-Bear, a world-wide corporation that provides the most innocent of services. They sell customizable stuffed animals. Make your own bear, dog…penguin. Cute concept.
So cute, in fact, that the Build-A-Bear empire sweeps across nearly every state and into 17 other countries. You’ll find their outlets in shopping malls everywhere and even some ballparks. The company also has a website called Build-A-Bearville.com where children can play an interactive video game that, on it’s surface, is unlikely to raise suspicion or sound alarms.
But when your unsuspecting tot logs on and hops a virtual train to the North Pole…you should know that he or she will be informed — by Santa Claus — that Christmas may be canceled this year due to Global Warming. Below is part two of the 3-part video.
Here’s an excerpt (1:07-2:22):
Girl Elf: Santa, it’s gone!
Papa Elf: It’s gone, It’s gone!
Santa: What’s gone?
Girl Elf: Tell ‘em, Dad!
Papa Elf: The North Peak.
Santa: A mountain? A mountain’s gone? How is that possible?
Ella the polar bear: Santa, sir, that’s why I’m here. That’s why we’re here. The ice is melting!
Santa: Yes, my dear, we know, the climate is changing. There’s bound to be a little melting.
Ella: It’s worse than that, Santa, a lot worse! At the rate it’s melting, the North Pole will be gone by Christmas!”
Santa: My, my…all of this gone by next Christmas? I don’t think so.
Ella: No sir, not next Christmas, this Christmas! The day after tomorrow!
And this is merely the tip of the dialogue iceberg, if you’ll forgive me for putting it that way. You can view parts one and three here and here. Children of the world can look forward to priceless exchanges such as, “Oh my! Where will the polar bears live?” and my personal fave: “Where will the elves live?”
I suspect you’d like to think it can’t get any worse than that. Thus, it pains me to tell you that animated characters actually break into a discussion of satellite photos and that Mrs. Claus conducts a rather unscientific experiment involving ice cubes.
Needless-to-say, this constitutes brainwashing on the sleaziest and most sinister level. The good news is that this nonsense isn’t coming from our government this time and the rocky economy is our friend here. People, we have the means, if we have the will, to topple these charlatans who shamelessly prey on little children. So boycott Build-A-Bear. And, more importantly, tell the world why.
They apparently have been getting overwhelmed with letters, because today they posted this:
December 22, 2009
We have received inquiries regarding our online webisodes and would like to provide you with the following information.
Our goal is to entertain and engage the imagination of children with our stuffed animals, our store environment, and online. Our intention with the Polar Bear story was to inspire children, through the voices of our animal characters, to make a difference in their own individual ways. We did not intend to politicize the topic of global climate change or offend anyone in any way. The webisodes concluded this week with Santa successfully leaving on his journey to deliver gifts around the world. The webisodes will no longer be available on the site.
I started Build-A-Bear Workshop as a place for families and children to come for a fun experience combining imagination, creativity and empowerment. I have always placed great value in the trust that our Guests have in our brand.
At Build-A-Bear Workshop we also strive to encourage kids to help others by participating in their communities. We listen to parents and kids about topics that they are interested in and care about. We especially value the input of parents. We are listening and taking all points of view into consideration for the future.
If you have questions, please contact us:
Guests with questions should contact:
Guest services
314-423-8000
866-232-7269
Media with questions should contact:
Jill Saunders
314-423-8000 ext. 5293
314-422-4523 (cell)
Investors with Questions should contact:
Investor Relations
314-423-8000 ext.5353
Sincerely,
Maxine Clark
Founder and Chief Executive Bear
Build-A-Bear Workshop
There’s an important word missing from that letter, that word is “apology”. Global Warming and Christmas have no business being together, and hopefully this will be a lesson for other companies that try to put an agenda into children’s stories. Sadly, I suspect we’ll see more of this though.
If you already bought one of these, my advice is to call their customer service and ask for a full refund.
(toll free) 1-877-789-BEAR (2327)
Actually, Santa already moved his production to China in 1998, the warmest year ever, mail is being forwarded to Shanghai (or is it Guang Dong, I think Shanghai is his summer home. Rudolph drowned before the move, may he RIP.
The focus is on the kids now, nothing for the Alarmists to do but to wait for the older folks die off and are replaced by a generation of brainwashed Gaia worshipping replacements.
Hummm…….Let them look at this graph closely:
http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm
I see the BBC childrens news website is still peddling the same old lies despite my one man campaign. Perhaps if a few more join in?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_1570000/newsid_1575400/1575495.stm
Well Anthony, you have to understand the position Build-a-Bear put themselves in here. The science was settled, so they didn’t really think that they were going too far out of the way to give Santa a crisis to solve, which happens in almost every Santa kids movie there is. Now they were not expecting a flood of emails from parents upset about it because the science was settled, surely everyone believes in global warming (as the theory)? Well, now if they apologize, they are taking a stand and the AGW believers will excoriate them, whereas if they do not apologize, then they are taking the stand they have already unwittingly taken. The path of least resistance.
It is mildly concerning to me, but think about this for a second. If you do not home school your kids, you will have to face the fact that AGW is taught as fact in schools across the country. That is far more pressing to me than Build-a-Bear.
I think Apple and Nike should re-think their promotion of the man-made global warming hoax and pulling out of the US Chamber of Commerce for their ideology. I know I’ll be sunning those companies products.
Embargoed. This is pure hardcore propaganda in the guise of entertainment.
Part 3 gets really serious. I’ve not seen anything like this. And the “apology”
letter that isn’t, is pure hogwash.
Anthony, the google ad running now below your article is for “Build a Bear Workshop”.
Typo;
Shunning
“Global Warming and Christmas have no business being together,”
Oh i dunno….theyre both based on a story. 🙂
Shame! Political messages directed at children is uncalled for from a commercial site intended for children. Some form of warning must be placed before any video with a political message can start. If a company has a political message they have every right to display it openly and make it part of their corporate mission statement as it is their right to freedom of speech. When they hide it in programming for children they cross the line in interfering with parental rights.
It’s too bad I didn’t hear about this earlier, before a loving relative bought one for my daughter, I could have suggested a different present.
Post-Copenhagen, carbon market in ‘bit of a vacuum’
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/post-copenhagen-carbon-market-in-bit-of-a-vacuum/article1409821/
I actually like the idea of this. Then I can tell my kids it is not real just like all the other cartoons they watch.
[please don’t encourage that kind of thing. It’s a violation of terms ~ ctm]
It is quite obvious what they are doing. They are attempting to grow a generation of “believers” who have been indoctrinated with this baloney since they were children. The kids of today will accept this bull as “truth” because their teachers, the TV, even “Build-A-Bear” says it is so.
My daughter loves “Build-A-Bear” and sadly, I can’t in good conscience take her back there again.
This story was on FOX news Red Eye this morning. If someone could get a youtube clip, it’s funnny.
“Where will the elves live?”
I don’t know, I kinda like that they are merging two myths together – when we break it to kids that Santa doesn’t exist that we can tell them not to worry about global warming too.
It would be my guess that the kids take the news far better than the adults.
Isn’t this dialogue actually making fun of AGW?
Santa: My, my…all of this gone by next Christmas? I don’t think so.
Ella: No sir, not next Christmas, this Christmas! The day after tomorrow!
I think asking people to get refunds is a bit over the top.
The same green agenda has been at work down under for several years. I was conned into buying my young grand-daughter, a precocious, almost-computer-literate tot, software that advertised you could make your own cartoon of Blinky Bill, a much loved Aussie koala.
I was horrified to discover that the only script you could actually use was the usual horror story of the loggers raping the forest, wrecking the homes of Blinky and his mates and then setting fire to the forest.
As it happens logged forests are a far safer habitat for koalas than are national parks which for years have been the major hotspots in our annual wildfire scene.
Needless to say that particular DVD is now serving as a bird-scarer under my grapevine.
The same little girl asked me, just after starting school, “what’s growbuw warming?” and proceeded to lecture me on how we would all burn up because we were making the world too hot.
The AGW movement has a Joe Camel moment.
What irks me about this is that the idiots who created those videos probably weren’t doing it to nefariously sneak their inappropriate message to kids. I suspect that they are so insular that it never even occurred to them that teaching kids to fear global warming is any different than teaching kids to be nice to animals. They are probably still puzzled why anyone objected.
They definitely won’t understand why we won’t be patronizing their store with our daughter for a more fundamental philosophical reason. Build-a-Bear’s pervasive promotion of mindless altruism is also troubling, “…we also strive to encourage kids to help others…”. We’ll be teaching our daughter that there are valid reasons to share, cooperate, assist or reciprocate with others based in rational long-term self-interest. I believe the mantra about “helping others” needs to be taught with a parallel understanding that there are situations where such help should not be universally granted without reasonable limits or conditions. Teaching my daughter to blindly help others as an unquestioned moral imperative will only lead to feelings of guilt when she’s confronted with a situation where her common sense tells her that short-term “help” won’t be long-term helpful.
I’ve probably bought a dozen of these things over the last few years, along with the insanely expensive clothing for them. Kids love them.
Never, ever again. Words can’t even express how disgusted I am.
Its santa or I’m seeing IPCC chief Pacahauri and his colleges…
Here’s what I wrote to Build-a-Bear:
Dear Build-a-Bear,
I came across an interesting article in one of my favorite blogs:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/23/unbearable-global-warming-threatens-the-north-pole-christmas/#more-14441
After reading this article and the unapologetic response provided by your founder, I have decided to discontinue all shopping at your establishment.
My daughter has several build-a-bears and these will be her last. All my children are banned from any Build-a-Bear stores and website until I can be assured that your company will refrain from political oriented content directed towards children.
You have interfered with my parental rights. You have freedom of speech rights but I have freedom to purchase rights. I’m very glad that I read the article before my children had contact with your site. Santa Clause is a harmless myth that is chosen by parents to embellish the Christmas custom. Global warming is not a harmless topic that can be mixed with this myth.
I take great pride in presenting information from all sides to my children and allowing them to make their own informed decision. Your web content subverts this and I won’t stand for it! The closest thing I can imagine to demonstrate my feelings is if you were to make web content telling Muslim children that their parents are bad and that he/she should be a Christian! How far away are we from a Nazi society where children turn in their parents?
Shame on you,
Chris Burrows
Seems like a natural follow on to the Build-A-Scare shindig in Gropenhagen….
Geesus! These Super Parasites are threatening to give The Black Plague a good name by comparison.
[snip] is the North Peak? They know they are lieing, then blame it on the Children [and their Parents] who need to be “inspired” – by THEM, a teeming horde of cancerous one-cells much worse than mere Giant Mutant Ants ever were. They’re also trying to infect the Adults using the Children, and so on……flesh eating Zombies just doesn’t cover it at all. I’ll send them a personally “built” message later, maybe this one.
Amazing. Why can’t the saner members of world population see through this irrational propaganda? Even the UK “government” is at it, and any change of government next year will make no difference at all, as the opposition are “on message”, too.
It’s as if everyone has been pre-brainwashed into accepting it all without demur – it’s like an auto-response trigger to switch off common sense.
We realists appear to be in a minority – what will become of us? We don’t appear to be able to make much headway, being stalled at every turn, and with the mainstream media (especially in Europe) refusing to take any scepticism on board, however justified.
You can hardly see a television programme, or advertisement, or newspaper these days without some reference to “green”, “eco-friendly” or “carbon footprint” as if those terms are de rigueur in order to either sell a product, or comply with some pre-ordained global rule that these warnings MUST be fed to the gullible human race at every opportunity.
No wonder the kids are at best confused, and at worst mentally (and inescapably?) locked into “the message”
Frightening days – I sometimes wish that some other Armageddon (natural or otherwise) would overtake humanity, so that we either cease to exist, or the remaining few can have an opportunity to start over.
That’s appalling, but not as bad as the UK government actually drowning cartoon pets…
Of course, Satan…I mean Santa, as we know him to be, didn’t exist until about 1840, thanks to the US media. But St Nick, he was real and a true saint.
OT, but news reports here in Sydney, Australia, it’s quite warm here tonight actually, about a harsh winter, the worst in living memory (Apparently), cars being stranded, Basingstoke “shutdown” (LMAO).
Reminds me of the ’70’s. As for “British Rail”, wrong snow, every year since I can recall, delays have been caused buy the “wrong leaves” on the lines.
What is wrong with you heartless people on this website? Don’t you have any sympathy for the poor lil’l animated polar bear? I was not a believer until I saw that movie, but now I’m signing up for green peace.
I was in the gym yesterday and, I am not kidding, there was a single cross training machine out of about 30 that had a sign on it: “Switched off to reduce our Carbon Footprint” … they did have about 10 televisions on with one of them showing “snow” (i.e. it was not tuned in).
People have gone crazy. They feel good that they are “combating climate change”, “doing their bit” etc… Makes me sick the way they think they are doing something good when they could go out and actually do some real good. It is a time and effort tax on doing good, because so many well intentioned people are wasting their time on this stupid, pointless lie.
Tallbloke that BBC link has this to say to children about global warming:
“Water expands when it’s heated so sea levels could rise.”
it’s propoganda from the UK AGW press office aimed at scaring children!
Remember when you were a kid and it dawned on you that adults had no clue about anything?
This entire generation is being set up for one huge collective rebellion against all things liberal and green. Sad, both have their strong points, but once they realize that the terror and panic they’ve been indoctrinated with since early childhood is complete nonsense, done for no other reason than to control their behavior, then both viewpoints will be regarded with deep suspicion from that moment on.
Indoctrinate young. How well they do it, even better now then when I was in school and there were people trying to drive stuff into our heads that was all doom and gloom. I swear these people are trying to make a world full of paranoid schizoids.
Hey, chill. Build-a-bear have done nothing wrong, and Maxine’s letter was fine. Not everyone thinks about AGW, reads ClimateAudit and WUWT, and has an interest in sceptical scientific thinking. Some people run teddy-bear companies. That they have been convinced that AGW is real, and a threat, is not surprising given the apparent consensus.
I had 5 21 year-olds in the car Monday night. I asked them, on a scale of 1 to 10, how serious they thought man-made global warming was as an issue. 2 said 10, 3 said 7. And I could hear their hackles rise when I asked why.
The AGW consensus have done a tremendously effective job, also, for the young, of melding sustainability, pollution, aid, and AGW into one blurry mass.
I wonder what the carbon footprint is of 8 flatulent reindeers.
The indoctrination of children seems to be the name of the game, now.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8426269.stm
Deceiver.com has a very humorous take on the story along with updated information on the video and company:
http://deceiver.com/2009/12/23/build-a-boycott/
Worth a read.
Of course we can’t read the minds of the Build-A-Bear employees who came up with this theme, so it could be a purely commercial attempt to exploit a current topic, but equally we could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was a genuine attempt to help educate kids about just how serious global warming is. After all, today’s kids are the ones who are going to have to be dealing with it when they’re adults.
The realists need to organise, join as one, and take them on at their own game – if the finances can be raised. A free (thought and content) newspaper; a free news television channel; a free radio channel; party political broadcasts; a single umbrella website with links to websites such as this etc, etc.
At the moment we are fragmented – we need to unite our efforts.
The left has a habit of trying to use fantasy as a propaganda tool for indoctrination. I can think of a lot of examples, but one that got to me when my children were young was the movie Fern Gully – all about faeries who live under a rainforest canopy. Through deforestation humans cut down a an old “tree prison”, and release the evil “Hexus”, a demon-like entity who finds a tool that he can use to wreak havoc on the earth -namely, O-I-L-L-L-L. Dirty, evil, filthy, deadly, horrible oil. So the villains in the movie are Hexus, evil, dirty oil, and stupid greedy humans.
I was seething at the time, but my kids never got the message intended by the moviemakers. They loved it, and It was just another fantasy cartoon to them. Nothing real about it. That actually set me at ease.
In reality, the cute little polar bear girls would have stayed away from each other (unless they both had cubs), and each would have hunted down, ripped to pieces, and eaten their little penguin friend Kelvin. And Santa and his elves and flying reindeer, well, that’s another story, but when you think about it, combined together, the entire movie is nothing more than a string of manmade fantasies, including catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.
Personally, I think their work should be encouraged. By getting the impending catastrophic crisis down to a single day, what did they do but highlight the apex of where the CAGW crowd is headed, with their increasingly shrill alarms – wherein “things are actually even much worse than we thought” part of their predictable MO.
Personally, I think they should be giving a medal of some kind, for finally putting CAGW squarely in its proper context!
The Catlin Ice Survey crew actually did make it to the North Pole, but their findings were suppressed.
http://i45.tinypic.com/epiwqo.jpg
This fits in with the post I made under “Tips & Notes to WUWT”
Think of the children –
Turning children into Orwellian eco-spies
A few excerpts –
“There is a long and sordid tradition of trying to socialise children by scaring them. The aim of such socialisation-through-fear is twofold: firstly, to get children to conform to the scaremongers’ values; secondly, to use children to influence, or at least to contain, their parents’ behavior.”
“By transmitting their values to children, the scaremongers hope to channel children’s indignation into hostility towards older generations that are apparently destroying the planet”
“A similar message is communicated by one of Britain’s leading green crusaders, who recently informed children that ‘your parents and grandparents have made a mess of looking after the Earth.’ ”
“Politicians and governments have embraced environmental education as a potentially effective instrument for influencing and managing the behaviour of the public”
tallbloke (00:22:30) :
I am with you, absolutely horrifying, i have written a strong Email to the BBC web site but had to lie, at 71 years old I don’t have a parent or guardian to give me permission.
Please read the crap at http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_1570000/newsid_1575400/1575495.stm
and join Tallbloke in his campaign
Children just don’t have opinions. So dont create one. Not just yet. Let them decide when they are 18 or 21(18year olds vote what there parants vote, ore then opposite just to be a manice)
My daughter bought those things when she was younger, now at 14, she fully understand the extent of the brainwashing being imposed by the “green” industry and she is disgusted by it. I present to her both side of the debate and let her choose.
She is well aware of the choices we need to take as a society and did science fair projects on garbage pyrolysis to recycle 100% of what we produce. She also did a presentation and model of a high speed maglev train to get away from using oil for transport.
Education based on science will save us from those swindler using animation to brainwash kids to their point of view – Humans are BAD!
Here a link to her work on the maglev:
http://simonfiliatrault.blogspot.com/2008/05/prsentation-train-lvitation-magntique.html
Ah, come on guys. You are sounding just like some of our paranoid citizens who complained about Obama’s indoctrination.
The same people who made these videos in the belief that they can ‘educate’ children about global warming also believe in global warming. Kids brainwashed about something are the foundation for the most potent backlash and the greens are simply clueless in this regard. Have some faith on our kids.
School-teacher based brainwashing has always been the green methodology.
Bill Williams (03:03:28) :
Re: Santa article in the BBC website:
Like Karsa Orlong would say – ‘too many words’.
Want to send Maxine Clark a Merry Christmas message?
http://tinyurl.com/yc9nryy
Thanks to these loons, Sir Topham Hatt can’t find enough funds to buy carbon credits, so the whole Sodor railway operation appears to be in jeopardy. Just as well – Thomas and Percy are getting tired of the children of Sodor spitting on them and calling them Planet Killers.
Or maybe that was B-a-B’s plan all along…
As Bible says
“It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”
It’s time for Anthony’s site to encourage a mass boycotting of products from the worst companies to exploit AGW alarmism. Goodness knows our democratic mechanisms are already being rolled back by Big State, so the rights of the consumer become the most powerful (and perhaps, only) tool to use against this mindless collusion.
On a different note, it’s interesting to see the minds of global-warming alarmists appear to indulge in elaborate fantasies concerning the harming young children. We have already seen this fantasy expressed in the British CO2 ‘fairytale’ advert and I think it is also behind the ‘projection’ onto others of a preoccupation with harming future “children and grandchildren”.
Adding this to the underlying wish to return the world to some sort of pre-adult existence (along with a refusal to get on with adult life) reveals the ‘warmers’, I think, to be harbouring some unresolved deeply infantile need.
Jason (02:11:14) :
Tallbloke that BBC link has this to say to children about global warming:
“Water expands when it’s heated so sea levels could rise.”
it’s propoganda from the UK AGW press office aimed at scaring children!
A 0.3C rise in temperature at the sea surface causes around one inch of sea level rise due to thermal expansion. So the entire 20th century warming caused around a two inch rise in sea level.
Do you think scaring kids about the habitability of the planet on the back of a two inch sea level rise is reasonable rational or responsible?
Bilderberg….Build-a-bear I don’t know, I’m just saying…
Just emailed the Beeb.Good idea from tallguy,we should spread the word.
@ Simon Filiatrault
“Education based on science will save us from those swindler using animation to brainwash kids to their point of view – Humans are BAD!”
I think the intent behind the message given to children is more specifically “adults are BAD”. Or, still more specifically – “to be adult is BAD’. We need to remember that in the minds of those who indulge themselves as global-warming fantasists, ‘children’ are only one step above ‘animals’… harmless, cuddly, pliable and ‘innocent’. Indigenous adult populations of third-world countries come in just above children on this scale and all three groups sit just above plant-life.
The primary reason the Greens demand the third-world and its peoples remain undeveloped is that they wish to have a fixed Disney land full of all these various groups which they can take extended (government or trust-funded) vacations to and collectively indulge themselves in a condescending and patronising infantile pleasure of ‘saving the world’ – from BAD (ie: Western) adulthood.
This just in…
Global warming researchers develop new proxy based on the brightness of Rudolph’s nose!
A research team consisting of members from NASA, Penn State, and UEA have discovered a strong correlation between the brightness of Rudoph’s nose and North Pole temperature records. A spokesman for the group stated “It’s worse than we thought…our proxy data show an unprecedented increase in the brightness Rudolph nose which has persisted over the past decade. This has been demonstrated to be highly correlated with station records at Santa’s north pole factory.” Santa and Mrs. Claus are said to be concerned.
re: Steven Douglas- I guess you’ve noticed that Ferngully just got remade with grownup Smurfs as the starring characters and some HALO suits tossed in for grins.
Not to worry. I live here in St. Louis where Build-a-bear is based, and know several people who work/have worked there. The place is going down the tubes, as they focused too much of their expansion efforts on shopping malls, which are dying.
It was a great idea that continues to be hampered by poor execution. And this horrifying political cartoon on their website is just the latest example. They’re destined for the ashbin with or without a “WUWT boycott”.
Heres a more cheerful link for kids for christmas http://video.telegraph.co.uk/services/player/bcpid1529569286?bctid=5524339001. Perhaps Anthony you could make this a sticky for the christmas period
What’s the problem? Brainwash those kids I say.
Anyway children, in the UK at least, have been tucked up in bed for weeks crying themselves to sleep over their drowned pets. They have no time for the internet.
Perhaps we could have a WUWT version … “Hey kids look at the real Arctic (or the Polar Bear gets a 303 to the head)“
Tallbloke:
I have also sent an E-mail to the BBC.
I point out that whatever the global or even national issue is, a lot of adults have a hard time dealing with them mentaly, let alone kids.
As a young teenager I was indoctrinated by a teacher on the issue of Nuclear disarmement.
I still remember my feelings of fear and above all imoptence and being a deppressive anyway it just fueled my ‘Whats the bloody point’ attitude.
Guess what? I left school with NOTHING, bar a couple of CSE’s.Which for our American friends is worth less than second hand toilet paper.
tallbloke,
I took a look at the site — what a joke! They even claim that melting sea ice will raise ocean levels (I guess that works differently than ice cubes melting in a glass of water).
Have you ever noticed that the predicted consequences of global warming are universally bad? Floods, droughts, hurricanes, ticks, extinction, refugees, disease, etc. Never, ever a mention of any good whatsoever that might result if the planet warmed a few degrees. For example, wouldn’t it stand to reason that vast regions of presently barren permafrost would become fertile and habitable? That there might be more food rather than less for some varieties of cute, furry creatures? Or is it only the ticks and mosquitoes and malevolent germs that are expected to benefit?
“D. King (04:46:32) :
Bilderberg….Build-a-bear I don’t know, I’m just saying…”
I noticed that as well. But probably they just ordered their company name from a marketing dimwit who does too much cocaine who thought he was being funny. Well actually it is.
I can only recommend to all parents to let their kids grow up amongst all this marketing tripe and give them some real information along the way. The kids are very adept at seeing through all this after a while. Don’t get too agitated about it, it’s just a company trying to sell product.
I don’t blame them too much.
They are just caught up in the hype of a well orchestrated scam…..
As this rapidly unraveling saga unfolds they will probably be as horrified as the rest of us at the enormity of this foul fraud and the damage it has done.
I’d say Santa’s sleigh will be a lot lighter next year….Phil Jones, Micheal Mann, Al Gore, etc, will have been crossed off the nice list and added in underlined red ink on the Naughty list….;-)
**************
Peter S (04:36:12) :
It’s time for Anthony’s site to encourage a mass boycotting of products from the worst companies to exploit AGW alarmism. Goodness knows our democratic mechanisms are already being rolled back by Big State, so the rights of the consumer become the most powerful (and perhaps, only) tool to use against this mindless collusion.
On a different note, it’s interesting to see the minds of global-warming alarmists appear to indulge in elaborate fantasies concerning the harming young children. We have already seen this fantasy expressed in the British CO2 ‘fairytale’ advert and I think it is also behind the ‘projection’ onto others of a preoccupation with harming future “children and grandchildren”.
Adding this to the underlying wish to return the world to some sort of pre-adult existence (along with a refusal to get on with adult life) reveals the ‘warmers’, I think, to be harbouring some unresolved deeply infantile need.
****************
GE definitely needs to be on the list. I read somewhere that they turn out a wind generator every three hours. The CEO of GE, Jeff Immelt, is kow towing to the green movement. I seem him in a light simlilar to that of Al “The Liar” Gore and the head of Kookenhagan – they all have invested money in the “green” movement.
http://greenenergyreporter.com/2009/12/ges-jeff-immelt-to-u-s-climate-change-law-key-to-winning-renewable-energy-race/
It’s time to hit them where it hurts. WUWT has a huge audience. Let’s blacklist and stop shopping those with a knee-jerk to AGW.
The message should be, let’s let the real science coenence and act on that, and not CRU/ IPCC scaremongering.
Ice age ended by cavemen lighting campfires. This has been scientifically proven
and all other theories debunked by Al Gore a.k.a. Bullwinkle
Cavemen start Global Warming!
I Igor produce Obama Birth Certificate at http://www.igormaro.org
Compare Obama Care vs Igor Care at Obama Care vs Igor Care
This is a repeat of a prior post, so for that I apologize. But I expanded it some and I think it is germane:
I suggest we change the word “Denialist” or “Skeptic” (words assigned to us by the AGWers) to “Realist”. That puts the monkey back on the AGWers as being outside the realm of reality, which is truly the case.
We can take the moral high ground by calling ourselves Global Warming Realists, or Climate Change Realists. Our quest is for honest-to-goodness information and the utilization of unadulterated scientific methodology. It’s time our name reflected our views.
We must be proactive rather than reactive.
This explains why so many people outside the Czech Republic believe in global warming: they are actually taught that the gifts are being brought by Santa Claus who lives in the North Pole.
In reality, as every Czech or Austrian child knows (and some Germans know it as well – although the German-speaking kids think that the gift-giver is actually female), the gifts are being brought by Baby Jesus.
http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/12/santa-claus-vs-baby-jesus.html
And it’s just a fact that Baby Jesus doesn’t live on the North Pole. He lives on Godly Gift (“Boží dar”) in Ore Mountains (“Krušné hory”) which is not melting away anytime soon. They just opened a special post office over there where you can get the right stamp from Baby Jesus for your gifts. 😉
Merry Christmas!
I think they’ve backed down from this idiocy. This is a particularly stupid move for any company, especially in a recession.
Here is a letter I wrote to Maxine Clark:
Your attempts to brainwash young impresionable children with fictitious horrors of global warming are outrageous. I don’t blame people for boycotting your products. There are certainly many other suppliers of stuffed animals who do not engage in imposing their political ideology on young children
With 5 times the number of Polar Bears as in 1950, the “diminishing Sea Ice” will soon be overrun with them! Maneating beasts with poisonous livers taking over the Arctic.
Jones, Mann, Gore et al will be getting lumps of coal this Christmas.
Was it “build-a-bear” or “build-a-FEAR”. Don’t know if that was a typo. : )
Juraj V. (04:24:10) :
As Bible says
“It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”
Amen.
Andrew
Dave UK (05:48:06) :
Couldn’t agree more!
CSE is no more than a certificate saying X attended school & isn’t a complete moron! (& that’s a grade 1)
I was supposed to have been put in for GCEs but wasn’t as the Headmaster didn’t believe in GCEs. His idea was that everyone should get a prize! (Typical bloody socialist). I had to go to tech college for further education despite getting grade 1s. Wasted a year! 🙁
Sorry to hear you were demoralised to that extent & happy you’ve recovered. 🙂
DaveE
sent to Guestcomments@buildabear.com. Dec 22, 2009
The more I thought about your webisodes about disappearing ice at the
North Pole, I realized how appropriate it was.
The imaginary loss of all the ice at the North Pole threatening an imaginary
character… Santa Claus. I hope the kids get the joke. I’m sure scaring
them was not Maxine Clark’s intent.
Just so you get the joke, I attached an image of Arctic ice from the National
Snow and Ice Data Center (http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/) for Dec 22,
2009. The plus sign marks the North Pole.
Lucky there’s no scientist Build-a-Bear. I’ll certainly keep this in mind when I
buy presents for my six (so-far) grandchildren.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Regards,
Bob Tatz
Luboš Motl (06:52:44) : Nice tale!. Merry Christmas!
Climate is now the religion, and this is its teaching. Isn’t this a postmodern (progressive/neo-marxist?) view where truth is relative, and we can shape truth/future by acting? The importance of constantly be aware and act should also makes this quite similar to pietism (and as a state religion even islamism?).
A good read is an article by Brendan O’Neill about Johnny Ball, who was booed off stage in an event for (supposedly) atheists:
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/7841
Johnny interviewed on BBC Radio Ulster, 25 March:
Merry Christmas!
There was more: when I was in school, the big deal was Nuclear weapons (we were all going to get blown up, the few survivors would die in the nuclear winter). Also, we were going to be out of oil before I was even old enough to drive, the rainforest is ALWAYS going to be completely destroyed in just a few years, we’re destroying and polluting everything. After school it was the Ozone layer, monoculture crops, global warming, and the latest overhypes of Pandemic (AIDS, SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, etc.)
Funny, these scares all just fade away. 10 years ago the area I live in was in drought. We were being told that the water table was so low, it would never recover. It only took two seasons of normal/above normal precip to completely eliminate the worry… but did anyone apologize or correct the record? Of course not.
Guess what? We still have rainforests. We still have oil. Nobody managed to nuke the world. The numbers of people killed by “pandemics” doesn’t ever exceed the mortality from seasonal flu.
IMO, these deliberate campaigns to frighten children and undermine their hopes of a future are a form of child abuse. Many kids DO give up, and end up coasting through life because they never felt the need to get a proper education.
OT but i’m feeling funny. So i visited http://www.greenpeace.com just to see what’s going down. To my joy, they run an e-mailing campaign with a pre fab text that is mailed to Barack, Kevin Rudd and Jose Manuel Barroso.
Even better, you can edit the body of this message. Here’s what i had to say:
Dear Sirs,
I’m pretty satisfied that COP15 has not managed to cripple the economic development of the world.
It is of the utmost importance that we don’t prohibit economic growth around the globe. Too many people still live in poverty, and only economic growth can lift them out of this poverty. This is the only rational way to combat hunger.
Don’t be ashamed because you’ve been humiliated by China. China stopped you all from making a fatal mistake. And don’t listen too much to the Greenpeace-WWF-FoE Coalition.
Sincerely,
…weeelll. I don’t think it goes through the filter but it might just annoy them a little. Why don’t you send them your wishes as well?
Merry Christmas!
My belief in Santa disappeared when I caught my Pop assembling a kiddie car
back in ’58 when I was 4. This was never forgotten by me- also the language Pop
was using during the assembly.Though it was usually reserved for reluctant tractor
and combine parts.
NEW FROM ‘MENTELL’
A range of toys made of Ice.
Watch your kids face drop and then burst into an explosion of tears as it melts.
Over the noise of your blubbing child you can explain it was all their fault it melted because they breathed Co2 onto it.
Hurry before stocks melt.
If you are worried aboout the indoctrination of the next generation you are way too late. Just Google K12 educational materials and you get:
http://www.google.ad/#hl=ca&source=hp&q=global+warming+k12+educational+material&btnG=Cerca+amb+Google&lr=&aq=f&oq=global+warming+k12+educational+material&fp=fcd4be264531cbe6
A couple picks I found with a few seconds research… such as the WWF suggested high school curriculum:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/globalmarkets/Climate%20Change/Climate%20Cirriculum/item5944.html
or the global warming for kids web site:
http://globalwarmingkids.net/
I don’t think your typical kid hangs out at WUWT unfortunately. I came across this at work when questioning a couple Gen Y’s what they thought about global warming, and they were both convinced it was quite an issue. They didn’t have the foggiest about any of the science of course. I try to joke around with them about the issues in a humourous way to get a more balanced message across, but you have to realise that the typical school teacher is quite happy to parrot the WWF type stuff to their kids. The results are self-evident.
I am not sue what you can do about it to be honest… I also notice that science education (especially maths) is woeful in Australia these days. Critical thinking is also lacking as a consequence. As a former university educator I find this quite distressing.
I appreciate your work but IMO you really need to stop grabbing the entire content of posts you reference. It goes far beyond fair use. Most everyone merely uses excerpts when they reference the work of others.
Well why not, why not let Santa drown, NASA friggin melted the Venusians?
For those who would propagandize children:
“… but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6
She is not evil just wrong, give her a break.
Ours went broke but the kids loved it
Let ’em. I was force-fed soviet propaganda since kindergarten. By my early teens I was thoroughly anti-communist. Luckily, those people never learn (I hope).
Tallbloke I definetly agree with you I’m sick of the BBC it’s become nothing more than a propoganda outlet for alarmist nonsense
This reminds me of NASA’s fascination with the mistaken discovery of krypton production in lunar samples from the 1969 Apollo Mission to the Moon.
NASA’s PR (public relations) guys seemed fascinated with the idea of linking NASA and Apollo with stories that only Kryptonite could kill Superman.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/23/unbearable-global-warming-threatens-the-north-pole-christmas/#more-14441
We repeated a similar study in 1972 and found that excess Kr-78 (the lightest Kr isotope) was implanted in lunar soils from the solar wind. This experiment shows that lightweight elements – like H (element#1) and He (element #2) – and the lightweight isotopes of each element – like Kr-78 and Xe-124 – are enriched at the solar surface by simple mass fractionation inside the Sun.
Here are the data that NASA did not want to see: http://www.omatumr.com/Data/1972Data1.htm
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
With kind regards,
OLiver K. Manuel
Galen Haugh,
“I suggest we change the word “Denialist” or “Skeptic” (words assigned to us by the AGWers) to “Realist”. That puts the monkey back on the AGWers as being outside the realm of reality, which is truly the case.”
But we don’t get too choose which word the other side uses to insult us with.
Usually just lurking around WUWT, but I wanted to thank you for informing consumers of this. My kids love Build-A-Bear, but money talks and we won’t be shopping there anymore.
Also wanted to inform your readers I’ve started a boycott of Costco as well. They published a sinister picture of Al Gore on the cover of their November Costco Connections magazine with an article enclosed promoting his book and his ideas about “alternative” energy. I support Costco selling Gore’s book, I just don’t want my membership dues paying for promotion of his destructive and fictitious claims. The letter I snail-mailed to Sam’s Club and Costco is also published at my blog if you’re interested.
Make them suffer where it hurts – in the pocketbook.
These build-a-bear people are no worse than nearly every other business – perhaps a bit more zealous. Ok, a bit worse perhaps.
However, you can’t go anywhere today without seeing claim after claim about “carbon footprints being reduced” and “environments saved.” Our supermarket chain has signs up everywhere telling any shopper that cares how the hand dryers in their loo’s have the lowest carbon footprints, and their light bulbs are all energy efficient. It’s a win-win strategy. They reduce their costs, advertise their virtue to those that care, and if you don’t care – well, so what?
These bear people, have, I think, crossed the line between advertising a supposed virtue and prosletyzing. But that is surely because whereas the supermarket is cynically deploying a marketing strategy, the bear people see themselves as crusaders for the planet. I imagine them holding all night sessions thrashing out ways to use their position to “get the message across.” Having done so, it is perfectly right that they receive the approbrium of their customers, and they may well be shocked at the response.
They thought the whole world shared their views. Sure, some folk may be less passionate than themselves, some even indifferent, but nobody could possibly be opposed, could they? How wrong they were.
Cynical, I agree. My kids were fed the re-use/reduce/recycle mantra all through school and now they are the worst at sorting trash for recycling. I guess the message is tuned out after a while.
I am so glad that I taught my daughter the fundamental principles of science at a very early age. Scepticism being the principle philosophy and the idea that almost nothing is correct or right. most of the “accepted theories” are just not wrong yet.
She is now studying zoology at university and is broadly sceptical of human induced climate change being caused by CO2.
Bulldust (08:42:02) :
“I am not sure what you can do about it to be honest… I also notice that science education (especially maths) is woeful in Australia these days. Critical thinking is also lacking as a consequence. As a former university educator I find this quite distressing.”
Bulldust, I just keep asking ‘why?’. They get bored quite quickly but it makes them think. Their answers generally refer to pollution or sustainability (whatever that is, exactly) rather than AWG, so it sorts out the distinction between AWG theory and the others.
sorry, AGW, tired typo.
I just fired this off to them:
To all responsible,
After viewing your No More North Pole cartoon, I am speechless. Your actions are reprehensible, regardless of the fact or fiction of climate change. To foist scare tactics into the spirit of Christmas, Santa, the family, and giving upon small, impressionable children is without moral conviction. You should be ashamed to the fullest extent.
I would excuse your naivete for not being aware of the actual science surrounding climate, whether changing or not, and for not being aware of recent revelations of scientific fraud as a result of ‘Climategate’ emails and programs. Even if you still were of the belief that the “science is settled”, your actions in producing this series of cartoons is tantamount to scaring little kids into sending you money, because if they don’t, the Easter Bunny will die.
Have you no scruples?
Even Al Gore, the most dire predictor of impending doom, says that the polar ice cap COULD be gone in 5 YEARS, not 2 days. 5 years is meant to scare adults, 2 days is meant to scare children. Young, impressionable, uneducated in real science, innocent children.
Would you care for me to produce a series of similar cartoons showing that Santa won’t be able to deliver Teddy bears (or Build A Bears, for that matter) on Christmas because all the materials they’re made from come from a Lao Gai prison factory in China and the inmates are rioting?? There would be far more truth to that than your cartoons.
You owe an apology, not a disclaimer.
Respectfully,
A former customer
Santa is a big fat idiot to believe those doom-sayers animals. He should have seen it was an hoax the minute he saw the glass of water… ice-cubes don’t sink to the bottom of a glass full of water.
Makes you wonder the level if basic science understanding from those producers and artists that made this piece of propaganda.
I think Santa should make nice rugs with those kinds of animals.
Here is the clip with the the ice sinking in water…
“These bear people, have, I think, crossed the line between advertising a supposed virtue and prosletyzing. ”
Agreed. They are telling outright extreme lies. I am sure that if the North Pole was to melt at Christmas, then where the elves live will be the very very least of our concerns.
In fact, if the North pole were to melt at Christmas, we would not be here to have any concerns.
We are nowhere near a complete melt in summer, yet. A total melt in the depths of winter? Rubbish.
Icarus (03:11:12) :
Of course we can’t read the minds of the Build-A-Bear employees who came up with this theme, so it could be a purely commercial attempt to exploit a current topic, but equally we could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was a genuine attempt to help educate kids about just how serious global warming is. After all, today’s kids are the ones who are going to have to be dealing with it when they’re adults.
I guess you are afraid your wings will melt?
Have you studied this well documented sequence of the temperature changes the last 400.000 years in Greenland and the antarctic?
Can you honestly say that the danger comes from overheating? The current temperatures are a blip in the climate scheme, where one sees oscillating temperatures. 400.000 years says “what goes up will come down”.
Build-A-ManBearPig, they mean…
Icarus (03:11:12) :
Of course we can’t read the minds of the Build-A-Bear employees who came up with this theme, so it could be a purely commercial attempt to exploit a current topic, but equally we could give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was a genuine attempt to help educate kids about just how serious global warming is. After all, today’s kids are the ones who are going to have to be dealing with it when they’re adults.
I guess you are afraid your wings will melt?
Have you studied this well documented sequence of the temperature changes the last 400.000 years in Greenland and the antarctic?
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/noaa_gisp2_icecore_anim_hi-def3.gif
Can you honestly study these graphs and say that the danger comes from overheating? The current temperatures are a blip in the climate scheme, where one sees oscillating temperatures. 400.000 years say: “what goes up will come down”.
Except if you are not able to read graphs.
The danger these kids will face will be of cold, not of heating, is what the history says.
If you want to really drive your point home, and at the same time make the pro-AGW crowd so insanely angry their heads will explode, then anti-AGW realists should band together and buy a Super Bowl commercial. If CBS refuses to air it, make a big stink about censorship. As in, go to CBS’s home office and protest every single day crying CBS censorship. Such a commercial will rate low on the interest scale, but it will have a large audience. And the best part is, it will cause the rich pro-AGW zealots to make a desperate response. But the next Super Bowl sized audience won’t be until 2011.
If the pro-AGW crowd gets Build-a-Bear and the news and the children and the governments and the ignorant and the corrupt, then the anti-AGW side can at least threaten their source of income and power. Of course, if AGW falls throw, these very same people will change the scare tactics.
Ok, aren’t we just a wee bit off the end of the hyperbole scale using words like indoctrinate and brainwash? This is Build-a-Bear. If you are going to be concerned, be concerned about what your children are taught, and not taught, at school.
Many organisations, including the WHO, are wondering why there’s a massive growth in the incidence of depression.
If you give people essentially no future, or one that’s not worth having, why wouldn’t they get depressed?
And yet, it seems to me like no one wants to see the connection.
Ray (09:40:57) :
“Santa is a big fat idiot to believe those doom-sayers animals”
Did you mean Santa – or Santer!
Poor Bilderbear. The economy has tanked and they are facing bankruptcy. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
But the real Grinch in this tale, the culprit who wrecked Christmas, is the banking cabal that gambled away $trillions and left the economy in ruins.
Their new strategy, to recover their frittered loot, is to establish “carbon markets” ala ENRON. Buy, sell, short, and derivativize a fiat non-commodity, force everyone to purchase the “stock”, and steal like there’s no tomorrow.
Algore and his buddies are the Grinches who killed Santa Claus.
Indeed, if ice sank, it is postulated that there would be little or no life on earth? Why? The oceans would be one solid block of ice and the earth would be frigid. The current temperature of water at the bottom of the oceans is cold enough (about 4 C), but if all the ice sank every winter, it would just pile up and eventually fill the ocean basins with little hope of ever melting. What would melt every summer if sinking ice were the norm would be a top thin layer and that’s about it.
A frozen ocean would wreak havoc on the earth’s climate because the massive transport of heat-bearing water via ocean currents would grind to a halt (indeed, many hypothesize that the disruption of the great conveyor belt oceanic current is what causes the glacial epochs–Europe is much farther north than the US and it currently has a climate similar to the US because of ocean current heat transfer; stop that current and European temperatures would plummet.)
Just as an aside (and appropriate to the season), my uncle once worked as a chemist for a crystal growing company in California and he was put in charge of the drinks at their Christmas party one year. He had some elaborate high-pressure equipment at his disposal so he created some high density ice to cool the drinks. During the party, he would circulate and ask all the revelers why the ice in their drinks was on the bottom, which invoked some rather perplexed responses as they checked out his observation. Eventually most of the drinks were left unfinished (and put in some very unusual places), which resulted in the most sober Christmas party anybody could remember (or the only Christmas party many could remember).
I hope Al Gore isn’t convinced that normal ice sinks… (Maybe Al was at that party and it was the only time he’s ever observed ice. Maybe that’s why he believes the polar bears are having difficulty finding ice to walk on. How does one counter such lack of intelligence?)
The only other videos I could find of a polar bear and a penguin together are also cartoons featuring Chilly Willy
At least the only myth they portray is polar bears and penguins being at the same place at the same time. (Other than the fact that they can talk).
Legend of Rockabye Point
Polar Fright
The international Build-a-Bearer conspiracy!
Just heard they pulled the ad-anyone else?
3×2 (05:44:25) :
Perhaps we could have a WUWT version … “Hey kids look at the real Arctic (or the Polar Bear gets a 303 to the head)“
.303 British, the old Enfield round? While suitable for deer and humans, there is too little delivered energy, it would have to be a very well placed shot. Even .30-06 may be questionable. If you think you can aim and time that head shot as the polar bear is charging at you with their usual head-bobbing gait, then you’re a better shot than… virtually everyone.
I will defer to the judgment of the esteemed and sorely missed Col. Jeff Cooper, who with extensive ballistics testing combined with personal experience hunting large game concluded that “large and slow” beats “small and fast” when comparing energy at the muzzle to energy delivered at the target and the resulting effectiveness. Consider the older cartridges that likely started as blackpowder rounds suitable for buffalo, starting around .45 and going upwards, with proper bullet selection of course.
anna v (09:59:44) :
An alternate way of looking at it is to distract while the pocket is picked.
Hey, look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane ….no it’s…
SuperGlobalWarming Man.
Icarus, I’m just glad to hear you haven’t gone the way of almost all Polar Bears yet! Do you live in a Zoo?
kadaka (11:15:26) :
I will defer to the judgment of the esteemed and sorely missed Col. Jeff Cooper, who with extensive ballistics testing combined with personal experience hunting large game concluded that “large and slow” beats “small and fast” when comparing energy at the muzzle to energy delivered at the target and the resulting effectiveness.
I don’t know, I ain’t no ballistics expert, but given Kinetic Energy, K, with projectile mass, m: K = 1/2 mV^2 = 1/2m[VV]. So concerning Polar Bears, Grizzlies, Kodiacs/Great Browns – all related – I’d go for maybe an M16 or a Bazooka.
Lewis and Clark had to shoot a bunch of Grizzles when they started swimming after them as L&C were innocently floating down a river. The Grizzles apparently thought they were some kind of tasty big game themselves. So there’s that.
But didn’t the Build-a-Bear site simulate that for Polar Bears, also master predators? If not, I’d say there’s not much of practical value there.
In marketing terms the end of the world will be very big. Anyone trying to save it should remember that. (Ben Elton – This Other Eden) – Discuss.
Douglas DC (08:28:31) :
“My belief in Santa disappeared when I caught my Pop assembling a kiddie car
back in ‘58 when I was 4. This was never forgotten by me- also the language Pop
was using during the assembly.Though it was usually reserved for reluctant tractor
and combine parts.”
That was no reason to lose belief in Santa. It’s important for kids to believe, since Santa IS real. He is the spirit of giving, and we have all seen him. They need to be shown that he exists, to personally experience the results of giving, not only their own but more importantly of other’s. I see none of this in that video. Santa is just a dude somewhere far off that is worried about his home being lost.
To be fair though, something I hadn’t thought of earlier, is that the company has decided to discontinue the webepisodes, and it appears that they may have realized this goes over the top, so instead of being boycotted perhaps they should be given a chance. Their names may be on the list, after all.
It is being reported that the webisode has been pulled:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413979/posts
I don’t see why Santa can’t just relocate to Antarctica. There’s plenty of snow and ice there, and no polar bears.
A high velocity, V, small mass, m, projectile is effective given the size of the recipient [its ability to “absorb” energy without it doing major damage], because the energy, K = 1/2 mVV, gets transmitted from where the projectile hits to more distant parts of the body. It might even travel from the arm [bone] to the chest [heart, lung], spine [spinal cord and vessels], or skull [brain and bleeding vessels around it]. It also “cavitates” below the surface where it hits, so that the “entry” wound does not reflect the “interior” damage even if no bone is directly hit. And the projectile also fragments.
In theory, you can also use the formula for energy use and conservation compared to the velocity of a regular motor vehicle, so that travelling at 50mph uses about 1/2 the fossil fuel, or any other, energy that travelling at 70mph does: 2500 = about 1/2 of 4900.
It goes without saying that the Build-a-Bear site wouldn’t have any interest to care about travelling Bears.
J.Peden (12:08:39) :
Guns in the hands of children is like temperature records in the hands of corrupted bad scientists… it leads to a disaster.
I found it interesting that this is what they wrote to anoter complainer (see the blog)
“Thank you for writing to us and voicing your candid opinions and sharing your point of view. We are sorry that we disappointed you.
At Build-A-Bear Workshop we have always empowered and encouraged kids to help others by participating in their communities and the world. our Huggable Heroes program honors kids throughout the USA for making the world better. We listen to parents and kids and take the lead from them on things that they are interested in and care about.”
The UN has been pushing the concept of being a “citizen of the world” to children to further their global governance agenda.
The video has been pulled without apology.
http://www.buildabear.com/aboutus/OurCompany/Letterfrommaxineclarkwebisodes.aspx
Blog-o-sphere 1 Buildabear 0.
J.Peden (12:45:19) :
In theory, you can also use the formula for energy use and conservation compared to the velocity of a regular motor vehicle, so that travelling at 50mph uses about 1/2 the fossil fuel, or any other, energy that travelling at 70mph does: 2500 = about 1/2 of 4900.
Is the purpose of life to waste time on a freeway? The earth is energy rich. I think it is quite acceptable to use it.
We need to make a movie for kids called: “Gems of Science from Al ‘The Liar’ Gore”. We just need to make sure they don’t sit too close to the surface of the Earth.
J.Peden (12:08:39) :
So concerning Polar Bears, Grizzlies, Kodiacs/Great Browns – all related – I’d go for maybe an M16 or a Bazooka.
The M16 is nearly always chambered for the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge, with the “civilian” version being the .223 Remington. (The difference is due to military preferences for specifications, the quick rule is .223 works in 5.56 weapons but not the reverse.) The small cartridge was designed for automatic fire from a handheld weapon with reasonable accuracy at a distance, getting several hits on a target quickly. Using such a lightweight .22-size bullet, the nickname “poodle shooter” came into use. Given the large mass of a polar bear, the effect of an M16 on full auto would be similar to using a full auto BB gun on a deer. As the battlefield experience goes, the 5.56 can produce large numbers of wounded but it is lacking on killing ability. (Note that we are often facing enemies who would rather abandon their wounded for us to take care of rather than they themselves, thus we are the ones burdened.)
“Small and fast” relies on hydrostatic shock, the sudden transfer of kinetic energy from a lightweight bullet at a very high speed causing an intense pressure wave in the soft tissues leading to damage. Thus bones are not impressed, nor are thick hides, and penetration can be insufficient on large game. “Large and slow” has heavy bullets traveling at more modest speeds, relying on the time-honored tactic of punching in a large deep hole.
As a practical matter you can only get so much chamber pressure in a firearm, thus only so much muzzle velocity and so much energy imparted to a bullet. To get twice as much kinetic energy at the muzzle, thus more at the target, it is far easier to double the bullet mass than it is to quadruple the velocity, which is likely considered impossible.
Additional: Concerning (12:45:19), the concept of “cavitation” with high velocity small bullets hasn’t worked out as well in real life. Punching big holes works better. Besides, “small and fast” leads to too much meat loss.
And did you forget that 55 mph was chosen as the former US maximum speed limit as around there the coefficient of air friction, or whatever the official terminology is, changes from being based on velocity to velocity squared, thus above 55 would use far more gas than a slower speed for the same distance traveled?
J.Peden (12:45:19) :
Um, no. Kinetic energy is not the same as the amount of energy it takes to maintain a certain speed (kinetic energy is significantly lower). Most energy that you consume driving a vehicle is wasted through myriad inefficiencies.
You can test this simply by driving your car and noting your gas mileage at 50 mph and 70 mph (gas mileage is a fair guage of fuel consumption). I’m quite certain it is not cut in half at the upper speed for any car. My car, an Xterra, gets almost identical gas mileage at 50 mph and 70 mph.
Mark
Nice name drop for the most stupid disaster movie ever made.
“…Global Warming and Christmas have no business being together…”
Just shows that Santa was one of the biggest contributors to AGW – putting lumps of coal in all those stockings.
Scott Base – Ross Island, Antarctica
is very cold for this time of year today max temp -6.1c thats -4.9c on last year.
may be Santa could move here hehe .
http://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/weather/SBweather/sbweather.html
>>At Build-A-Bear Workshop we also strive to encourage kids to help others by participating in their communities.
They should strive to encourage kids to build stuffed animals in their stores. That should just about do it. I don’t think any parent is counting on Build-a-Bear, Inc. to help their kids learn about being responsible citizens. That’s the thing about liberal do-gooders. They think that if they so much as supply plastic spoons to a school cafeteria, they have a license to play a role in raising the children who eat Jello with those very spoons. I don’t suppose it ever occurred to the Build-a-Bear CEO that parents might have significant areas of their child-rearing responsibility under control, and that they are not in dire need of Build-a-Bear’s assistance.
Our protests made Fox News at 6 pm!
D. King (04:46:32) :
Bilderberg….Build-a-bear I don’t know, I’m just saying…
More like Star Trek: Build-a-BORG
kadaka (11:15:26) :
If you think you can aim and time that head shot as the polar bear is charging at you with their usual head-bobbing gait, then you’re a better shot than… virtually everyone.
Everyone knows the way to stop a bear is with a .22 air rifle. A well aimed pellet to the genitalia works every time.
When in the woods, wear little bells to warn the bears of your presence, and carry pepper spray.
And learn the difference between black bear poo which is contains berry seeds; and grizzly poo, which contains little bells and smells of pepper.
Used to be… personally I think 2012 beats it by a mile.
tallbloke (16:55:53) :
kadaka (11:15:26) :
If you think you can aim and time that head shot as the polar bear is charging at you with their usual head-bobbing gait, then you’re a better shot than… virtually everyone.
“Everyone knows the way to stop a bear is with a .22 air rifle. A well aimed pellet to the genitalia works every time.”
Why would I want to stop a bear? I’d rather he went right on by. And lying in wait for one to roll over so I could get a good shot at his genitalia somehow doesn’t sound wise. I know it would not be wise for someone to do that to me, and I’m nowhere near as rude as a polar bear.
“When in the woods, wear little bells to warn the bears of your presence, and carry pepper spray.”
Good advice for New York City perhaps, but again why warm bears of your presence? It warns them you are in their territory. And the pepper spray would not put you out of your misery anywhere soon enough before the bear started ripping arms and legs off, no matter how much you inhaled.
“And learn the difference between black bear poo which is contains berry seeds; and grizzly poo, which contains little bells and smells of pepper.”
Ok now I know. Now what? Fling the black bear poo at the grizzly, and the grizzly poo at the black bear? How’s that going to help my arms being ripped off by a polar bear because I didn’t have an express rifle?
@ tallbloke (16:55:53) :
My favorite in-the-woods advice along those lines is when confronted by a grizzly or similar large bear, simply roll up into a fetal ball. The bear will bat you around like a cat’s play toy, it may break some bones, but you’ll be okay.
I’ve seen enough nature shows to know what their claws look like, I would expect some lacerations. So one could be bleeding next to the bear and giving off a lovely “fresh meat” scent. Then after the bear of course gets bored and wanders off, you can be bleeding, with broken bones, presumably with the little pieces still attached and functioning (like fingers, eyes, head), in the middle of deep forest. And you’ll be okay.
I wonder if I can find an online guide on how to naturally, in the wilderness, process a furry hide for a fabric-type use, like a cloak or a rug, with advice on how to patch large holes. Could be useful someday.
Mark T (14:30:24)
Yeah, though I did say “In theory”. I’ve heard Dr. Bill Wattenberg use the kinetic energy equation, in theory relating to practice, as it relates to fuel consumption. He’s one of the most accomplished, knowledgeable, and practical scientists around, and will mention everything else relevant if you want him to. He has a 10pm – 1am Pacific Time, Sat. and Sun. radio show on KGO, 810am, San Francisco. You can call him up and ask him anything. He loves it and seems to be one of these people who never sleeps, or something. He was onto the MBTE gas additive scam before it went down – testified against it and told the politicos what was going to happen, has solved several big Bay Area problems free of charge, owns and runs constrution companies and heavy epuipment whilch also fights the area Forest fires, etc., etc.. He worked in Iraq putting out the oil well fires, is a working expert on nuclear whatever,….
J.Peden (21:25:51) :
Sure, I noticed that and almost included a bit mentioning that. Probably should have.
Eliminate inefficiencies, which basically amounts to the generation of heat in one fashion or another, and it would be a great thing for the world. Unfortunately, our cows are not perfect spheres in vacuums, are they? 🙂
Mark
Has this been overlooked? Just like Coke and the WWF,
“March 7, 2006–Build-A-Bear Workshop(R) announced today it has given $1 million to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) through the sales of its WWF Collectibear(R) stuffed animal series.”
http://ir.buildabear.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=182478&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=827820&highlight=
“The WWF Collectibear(R) stuffed animals not only raise funds to support our work but also bring awareness to the plight of threatened and endangered animals.”
It appears they were also bringing awareness to “the plight” of polar bears and Santa.
Ok, Glenn (23:14:40), I understand(ish) you concern with Build-a-Bear and the Santa video, but if buying a Build-a-Bear helps protect an endangered bear such as the Panda, how is that bad? It is not, it is actually the shame of AGW that it distracts from these more pressing environmental issues.
To you folks who mention bear encounters, you both have it wrong. Do NOT wear bells, at least not in U.S. Grizzly territory…many bears are actually drawn to the sound. DO shout out, sing and clap every once an awhile, especially when rounding blind corners in the wilderness.
Also, Do NOT roll up in a ball if the bear attacks. Assuming you have a backpack, lie flat on your stomach (protect those soft parts!) and put your hand on the back of your neck. Of course, this assumes you forgot your bear spray (super large container of pepper spray that blast up to 10 yards).
I had an encounter with a Griz just this past summer and fortunately good ‘ol fashioned hand waving while backing up slowly and yelling “hey bear, hey bear” did the trick.
Yes, Grizzly scat often smells like pepper spray and has little bells in it.
Mark
“Of course, this assumes you forgot your bear spray (super large container of pepper spray that blast up to 10 yards).”
The best defense? Always take someone who runs slower than you do.
ZOMGZ Build-A-Bear was right! The pole is almost gone. Witness the Googlemaps new follow Santa link:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/noradsanta/index.html#utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=hpp&utm_source=en-hpp-na-us-gns-norad
I fear all the polar bears have drowned because Santa is standing on the last piece of ice in the Arctic. It´s only a matter of hours before that disappears too!
I almost ran right into a Ma Bear who had just shooed her two cubs up a tree about 25 yds. off. I heard the cubs going up before I saw them and knew what it was, but it was too late to do anything except keep jogging like nothing was happening. It was almost instinctive and it worked. I had a .38 with me and it was comforting. But I wasn’t going to shoot the bear if I could avoid it , maybe get off a warning shot if she started at me, because the old logging road I was jogging on was turning away from the bears almost as soon as I saw them. So I might have had time to warn the bear first. 25 yds. wouldn’t have been enough, though. Bears are really fast and I was too close to the cubs.
I think Ma Bear was kind of confused about what I was, maybe because of the jogging? She didn’t look or get aggressive at all.
From an article I read in 2007 in reply to Al Gores propaganda movie :
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmFiZDAyMWFhMGIxNTgwNGIyMjVkZjQ4OGFiZjFlNjc=
“Polar Bears. Polar bears are not becoming endangered. A leading Canadian polar bear biologist wrote recently, “Climate change is having an effect on the west Hudson population of polar bears, but really, there is no need to panic. Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear (sic) to be affected at present.’ ”
When you think about it, polar bears do not NEED floating ice, they need seals who bask or nap on floating ice. If there is no floating ice the seals need to go elsewhere, probably making it easier for polar bears to catch them. If there is any effect of reduced floating ice it may be on the seal population.
I shot a black bear (approximately 450 lbs) with a .270 Winchester at 30 yards one fall while hunting elk; the bullet went in the ribcage and out the other side (2 holes in the hide). The bear ran downhill for about 200 yards before finally collapsing. I’m just glad it didn’t head my way; it could have taken me apart before I had a chance for a second shot.
That black bear was much smaller than either a grizzly or a polar bear. The ballistics for a .270 Winchester are somewhat equivalent to a 30-06, and far superior to a .223. Should I ever have to kill a griz or polar bear before it ate me, I’d want to be packing something like a 300 Weatherby Magnum or it’s equivalent. That’s pretty difficult for a hiker or jogger to do.
My grandfather helped to erradicate the grizzly in the Teton Basin area in Idaho. He was appalled when they reintroduced it. Like him, I see absolutley no reason for the grizzly in areas where humans live since co-habitation isn’t possible without significant conflicts. As I see it, the only reason the griz was reintroduced was to force humans out of certain areas. Lets put grizzlies in Central Park in NYC and see how those tree huggers like it.
My same sentiments apply to the wolf.
As I see it, the only reason the griz was reintroduced was to force humans out of certain areas. Lets put grizzlies in Central Park in NYC and see how those tree huggers like it.
My same sentiments apply to the wolf.
Amen. I “carry” when hiking, trying to jog, etc., which I do very very frequently. The protected Cougars are already getting damn dangerous around here. One local rancher shot one as it was confronting his 12 yr. old kid in the daylight right at the house. Another person told me she was riding down a trail and a Cougar tried to jump on the back of her horse.
Even the reintroduced Wild Turkeys seem to be set to take the place over. They’re neat animals, but are multiplying and moving up-canyon rapidly. A couple of years ago there were only a few who showed up, but last Summer someone saw at least 60 in one flock about a mile away.
I asked one local outfitter-packer what he does about the hordes which show up at his place in the Winter. He said, “I use the mason jar solution”. He says he just “cans” them, but that would be about a full-time job, and he’d end up with his license removed. He was joking.
Dave F (23:52:49) :
“Ok, Glenn (23:14:40), I understand(ish) you concern with Build-a-Bear and the Santa video, but if buying a Build-a-Bear helps protect an endangered bear such as the Panda, how is that bad? It is not, it is actually the shame of AGW that it distracts from these more pressing environmental issues.”
You missed the point, “bringing awareness” to children that want stuffed bears is the problem. I’d consider any “awareness bringing” whether it’s disappearing ice or Panda to be improper in this context.
J.Peden (01:35:40) :
Yes, the “Without a Paddle” defense.
Mark