The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda.

Although only just now in the blogdex, Crichton's 3-month-old scathing indictment of the pop-environmentalism movement in his Commonwealth Club Speech seems apropos here on this day that follows news of the death of Free Willy whale-star Keiko who has passed on from pneumonia at the young age of 27.

How is it that the star of three movies that perhaps raised more suburban 'consciousness' (not to mention suburban money) for environmentalism and conservation than any dozen other mass-media splashes, how could that same cash-cow media star then spend an additional six years imprisonment in a tourist park before finally tasting those open seas he'd not seen since he was two? How indeed.

When I worked at Cognos, they were just jumping on the no-smoking workplace bandwagon, which, in a way, is a Good Thing because most workplace smokes are not smoked, they burn away from distractions, but nonetheless, I asked the instigating parties, just out of scientific curiousity, "So .. have you planned a follow-up study to see if in fact the smoking ban really does reduce the cited respiratory-related absenteeism?"

"Uh ... ah ... er ... well ... no."

They were positively shocked and derailed that someone should actually ask such a question.

During the WWII years, families were asked to "Turn in your household metal" alledgedly for the 'war effort' --- only consumer grade metal is far too substandard for military use, and the scrap was just swept under a carpet somewhere, a ploy to make the folks back 'ome believe they were contributing to the war effort. No one bothered to ask to see the balance sheet.

Free Willie, Born Free, Gorilla's in the Mist and the tireless heroism of Jane Goodall while we spend oodles to drive nicotine addicts into the streets all in the name of saving some fraction of a percent of respiratory stress over the roar of unseen micromonsters airborne through decades-old uncleaned office ductwork ...

Knowing what to do is relatively easy, but it's a matter of attention, a matter of following up to see where your money was spent, asking to see the results. Like doing a media-blitz, you then check the buzz to see if you really did increase your market mindshare. It's all attention, attention, attention, asking questions instead of patching it over with answers.

Ironic that this advice on scientific diligence for clarity should come from Crichton, a writer of science-critical fiction ...