Why people love Krugman:

To dismiss [the global-warming] consensus, you have to believe in a vast conspiracy to misinform the public that somehow embraces thousands of scientists around the world. That sort of thing is the stuff of bad novels. Sure enough, the novelist Michael Crichton, whose past work includes warnings about the imminent Japanese takeover of the world economy and murderous talking apes inhabiting the lost city of Zinj, has become perhaps the most prominent global-warming skeptic. (Mr. Crichton was invited to the White House to brief President Bush.)

It's only fair to both of them to point out that the subject of the briefing was not, as Krugman implies, global warming; rather, Crichton focused on assessing the likelihood of a murderous-talking-ape attack on the United States, a subject on which he is undeniably an expert. (And incidentally, I think you'll all be pleased to know that Crichton estimated that likelihood at only "low to medium.")