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The author of The End of Nature asks an intriguing question: Which provides more information, 103 cable channels showering us with beguiling factoids--or a weekend in the woods? McKibben's work will forever alter our view of TV and the world.

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If you have a cold, you do not need to worry about reinfecting yourself with your lip balm." That's Beverly, who leads Christian calisthenics on Channel 116, Family Net. "If you used someone else's lip balm, I could see that. But not your own." So much happens between seven and eight in the morning on the ninety-three stations of the Fairfax, Virginia, cable system, until recently the largest in the world. On Good Morning America, Joel, the movie critic, says, "I learned something about England. For sore throats, the actors of Shakespeare's time used to take a live frog and lower the frog by its foot into their mouths. They figured that would keep the juices going. That's where the expression 'a frog in your throat' comes from." Since seaweed grows "in the nutrient-rich ocean," it comes as no surprise to anyone in the Annushka cosmetics organization that it attacks and destroys cellulite. An Amtrak train has gone off the rails in Iowa, according to CNN, and American companies will now be allowed to sell laptop computers in Eastern Europe. Kevin Johnson of the Phoenix Suns, so racked with the flu he had to be fed intravenously, nonetheless tallied 29 points and 12 assists in last night's game. Meanwhile, a robot surgeon has successfully replaced a dog's arthritic hip with an artificial joint. On the Fox affiliate, a cartoon Mr. Wilson is sure that's Dennis (the Menace) in the gorilla suit, so he uses a pair of pliers on the snout; entertainingly, however, it's an actual gorilla escaped from the zoo. The Infiniti Q-45 goes 0-60 in 6.9 seconds--" 'Wow' is an involuntary response of pure pleasure." Type A personalities are five times as likely to have a second heart attack, according to Otto Wahl, the psychiatry professor at George Mason University. Following vertical roasting on the Spanik Vertical Roaster, a chicken can be--is--carved with a carrot. In Czechoslovakia, Ambassador Rita Klimova tells C-SPAN, the newly emerging democracy has spawned dozens of political parties, including one for beer drinkers. Sesame Street is brought to you this morning by L, S, and 6. Only 11 percent of Americans feel the penny should be banned. Mr. Wizard is ripping apart fireworks to get at the chemicals inside. "Finally one of my favorites--strontium chloride," he exults. In Japan an exchange has opened to trade memberships in golf clubs as if they were stocks--they are already accepted as collateral by banks. Margie Grant now uses Dove soap: "I had this revelation. It's about time for me to start paying more attention to my skin, my face. Because you just don't realize how fast time passes." The Travel Channel provides the Lisbon forecast (high of 77) and then a documentary about Austria, a country you "may encounter on the far shores of the world, wherever humanity is striving to improve life." For instance, "airport passengers in Los Angeles may be driven to the terminal by airport buses made in Austria." The Hobel, a machine from nearby West Germany, is featured on Breakthroughs. It transforms food preparation from a tedious routine into an exciting event, and is top-rack-dishwasher-safe. Precision-minted pewter medallions celebrating former President Reagan are available for $10 on the Nashville Network. "Tums tastes like chalk," proclaims an ex-Tums user. On McHale's Navy, all leaves have been canceled until annoying enemy pilot Washing Machine Charlie can be silenced, much to McHale's disgust. ("If he's a menace, I'm a ring-tailed goony bird," he declares.) Hans, a Dutch national, prepares a creamy Gouda sauce to drizzle over cauliflower for the A&E audience. A harrowing documentary on the Howard University station documents the British genocide of Tasmanian aborigines, right down to the last man, whose skeleton hangs in the Oxford Museum. Richard Simmons introduces his brother, who used to weigh 205 pounds: "Here I was only forty-two and I felt fifty-two, maybe sixty-two." There's terrible flooding in Texas--on the Today show, a woman is plucked off the roof of her submerged car by a helicopter. Richard Nixon tells Bryant Gumbel that while it's true his resignation from the presidency may continue to cloud his record, "the main point is to live life to the hilt, all the time you possibly can, and to continue to give it your best shot to the end." Owning a firearm is a deeply personal decision, says a young woman in a checkered suit appearing on behalf of the NRA. "Whistle at me, will you, you shirt-tail cousin to a piccolo!" declares Wally Gator, "the swinging navigator in the swamp." A preacher is explaining something on the Inspirational Network--"As long as you're holding on to cash, you can't do anything with it. And if God tries to give you more, what happens?" He demonstrates--the bills bounce off your closed fist and fall to the floor. On the CBS morning news a "controversial Milwaukee alderman" says that unless a hundred-million-dollar minority jobs program is created soon, "revolutionary violence will be committed against the city of Milwaukee." Newly released hostage Frank Reed declares from his hospital balcony that he is looking forward to a three-pound Maine lobster. A man named Delvin Miller has been harness racing for eight decades, not including a stretch in World War II where he trained mules to deliver medicine in Burma for General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell. The members of singing group Wilson Phillips remark that people tell them their name makes them sound like a law firm or a type of screwdriver. Fairfax County residents are encouraged to burlap-band their trees for gypsy-moth detection and control. "The reason I'll always make a big deal about three-quarters sleeves is that you always used to have to push up your sleeves," says an announcer on the J. C. Penney Channel. Hamstrings work in opposition to quadriceps, according to an exercise instructor on the Lifetime Channel, who adds "the adductor muscles are too tight in most of the population." More CEOs of Fortune 500 companies were born under Taurus than any other sign; also, age-based sizing for children's clothing is out-of-date because children are larger than they were when the sizing was devised. A National Family Opinion Research survey discussed on Channel 34 found that most consumers "aren't shy about testing out beds in retail showrooms." On MTV, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden describes his new solo album, which has songs about how there are "all those people at the cocktail party with their little masks on, and all the businessmen in their suits and ties and they're just stabbing each other in the back all the time." (Adds Dickinson, "We've got a real rip-your-head-off direction in Maiden, and we're very proud of that direction. But with the solo stuff I can do stuff that's a little more varied.") Research from the University of Wisconsin indicates that hamburger may contain certain substances that inhibit skin cancer. Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens, who was convicted of having sex with a sixteen-year-old, said he had made a "dumb mistake" but that he would run for reelection anyway.   By now it's nearly eight.     Excerpted from The Age of Missing Information by Bill McKibben All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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Publishers Weekly Review

In this worthy but belabored attack on television, McKibben compares his experience watching 1700 hours of videotaped TV unfavorably to that of contemplating nature in the Adirondacks. Author tour. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

McKibben's dramatically titled, dramatically pessimistic End of Nature made quite a splash among devotees of the New Yorker. The same crowd may fall for this opus, so make sure it's on hand for them. But really, it's a tiresome clich{{‚}}e of a book--a diatribe against TV that just rewhines arguments that have been around for 20 years or more. At least it's got a gimmick: McKibben watched a day's worth of the programs a citizen of Fairfax, Virginia, which has the most voluminous cable service in the country, might but actually never could watch unless, of course, he or she had more heads than a hydra or, like McKibben, had friends taping them all for later viewing. He contrasts his watcher's report, which basically stresses how much can't be shown, or shown interestingly, on TV, with another report, spottily spread between thick hunks of TV-carping, on a walk up and around an Adirondack he lives near. Guess which is the more meaningful experience--the tube gazing or the hike? A book full of foregone conclusions as well as some gaps in logic that suggest perhaps McKibben's been watching too much TV. (Reviewed Feb. 15, 1992)0394589335Ray Olson

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Bill McKibben grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. He was president of the Harvard Crimson newspaper in college. Immediately after college he joined the New Yorker magazine as a staff writer, and wrote much of the "Talk of the Town" column from 1982 to early 1987. After quitting this job, he soon moved to the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.

His first book, The End of Nature, was published in 1989 by Random House after being serialized in the New Yorker. It is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has been printed in more than 20 languages. Several editions have come out in the United States, including an updated version published in 2006.

His next book, The Age of Missing Information, was published in 1992. It is an account of an experiment: McKibben collected everything that came across the 100 channels of cable tv on the Fairfax, Virginia system (at the time among the nation's largest) for a single day. He spent a year watching the 2,400 hours of videotape, and then compared it to a day spent on the mountaintop near his home. This book has been widely used in colleges and high schools, and was reissued in 2006. McKibben's latest book is entitled, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.

Bill currently resides with his wife, writer Sue Halpern, and his daughter, Sophie in Ripton, Vermont. He is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College. 030 (Bowker Author Biography)