Someone tell me this is a spoof

I'm sorry for posting this late, and at all, but I was just gobsmacked. http://streams.cei.org/

"The Competitive Enterprise Institute has produced two 60-second television spots focusing on the alleged global warming crisis and the calls by some environmental groups and politicians for reduced energy use. The ads are airing in 14 U.S. cities from May 18 to May 28, 2006."

"There's something in these pictures you can't see. It's essential to life. You breathe it out. Plants breathe it in ... We call it Carbon Dioxide. Cee-oh-two ... Fuels that produce carbon dioxide have saved our world from a lifetime of back-breaking labour."

"Some poeple call Carbon Dioxide Pollution. We call it life."

All I can say is the "You breathe it out. Plants breathe it in." argument applies to bull shit too. Yes, bull shit is inevitable, and necessary, but that doesn't mean that covering the world in as much bull shit as possible would be nice or good or clever. I'm staggered at the amount of sense there isn't in that advert.

G-day

With thanks to Ian and Kirsty, and Anna, who asked the question, what if everything were this weird? Woo! I write serials!

Everyone remembers where they were on G-day, but mine is the story everyone wants to hear. I'd been asked to teach at a maths/physics summer school for gifted primary school children. It took me away from my husband for two weeks which I never liked, but he was taciturn and self-sufficient, so I knew it'd be ok.

I arrived at the school, fighting my way through the photographers. For once, apart from our pet dunagree Col riding on my shoulders, I wasn't wearing a dungaree my husband had caught, and the press wanted to capture my new outfit for the front of the maths magazines.

( Cut for length, and surreal violence )

Good and Bad cover letters

I was browsing publishing blogs (eg. agents in the uk by PTerry and by GNaimen), and Teresa Nielsen Hayden's blog Making Light, from Tor Publishing, one entry which was funny enough to basically reproduce.

Extracts from bad cover letters, actually sent:

— Projected literary reviews are as follows…
— Dear Mr. or Ms. Patrick Nielsen Hayden:
—- p.s. These are not my best chapters.
-— What I am sending now is an EXTREMELY DIFFERENT VERSION of a novel that I sent to Tor Books in April 2001 (it was rejected). I am sending you this altered manuscript now because THIS VERSION INCLUDES MATHEMATICAL PROOFS THAT REVEAL THE SECRET OF THE UNIVERSE and THE REJECTED ONE DID NOT. Furthermore, I made drastic changes in the story line, which is why I feel that this is worth consideration.

Template for a good cover letter:

Enclosed are the first three chapters plus an outline of my 85,000-word science fiction novel, Voodoo Robot. It is [insert here a one- or two-sentence summary of the basic setup and story arc]. This is my first novel. [OR: I have the following publication credits.] [Optionally, and only if EXTREMELY pertinent: In addition, I have the following related credentials or experience. For example: This is my first SF novel, but on the other hand I am Geoff Landis.] ...