Fracking, or Hydraulic Fracturing, is a method of extracting hard-to-get oil and gas from shale. For the most part, fossil fuels originally formed in shale, which was in turn laid down by near surface life in anoxic seas. Sunlight powered a high turnover of near surface plankton, algae, and bacteria, but oxygen-poor conditions just a…

As you know, I write now and then for the Minnesota Progressive Project. I should do more there, I know, and I try. But anyway, the MPP has a new blog layout which preserves the Kos-esque diary thingie but loads faster and is easier to navigate, with a few cool “discoverability” features that link readers…

In response to a comment on my blog, I issued a snarky tweet (and repeated it on Facebook) to the effect that if your argument involves the phrase “World View” you might be wrong. This led to a number of light hearted but snarky, and often helpful, responses on Facebook and Twitter indicating that the…

This is an event some of you in the Twin Cities may be interested in attending Viewing of American Meat at the Bell Museum “A fabulous panel of dedicated agri-food issue talkers have agreed to walk us through this conversation with the film’s director after the film, all with tremendous credentials relating to supportive critique…

John Platt has a nice summary of recent activity in the are of de-extinction. This is where you use modern genetic techniques to bring species that are extinct back into existence. I find it interesting that casual talk about this sort of thing almost always starts out with things like de-extinction very large and very…

Pretty soon, I’m going to be giving away two pounds of free coffee on my blog. Just thought you’d like to know. It is special coffee. You’ll have to do something to get it, though.

You should check out “The Beauty Issue,” the latest issue of MPLSzine, a Twin Cities based on line magazine, in which I have a contribution.

That title is ambiguous but only if one admits to vernacular usage. Which is legit. Huxley is consonantly making grammatical errors that primarily serve to prove how stupid adults are. English has a typical way of marking past tense, for instance, and he uses it all the time, correctly. So he might have hided himself…

… is not what you thought it was, no matter what you were thinking. According to this interesting moving infographic movie thingie:

In the early/middle part of the interview.

This is not new, but I just found out about it from Paul Douglas’s blog. Back in 2011, an F3 tornado touched down and went straight for over 60 km. The beast (that’s the technical for a big-scary-tornaod) was almost a kilometer wide. It left an impressive scar, which you can see in this photograph:…

And, Happy Birthday Amanda!

So, I posted something at Daily Kos you might find interesting: As we wrestle with hard science and hard policy and the interaction between the two, the real problem we face are made much harder to solve because of the seemingly incessant drumbeat of science denialism. Climate change is real and is mainly caused by…

I already told you about this. In a BBC/David Attenborough special on Africa, this specific statement was made: That part of the African continent had warmed by 3.5 degrees. This was corrected by Leo Hickman. That datum is invalid. Africa has indeed been affected by climate change, but that specific factoid is incorrect. Now, the…

Today, a new Climate SOS Blogathon starts at the Daily Kos. I’ll be contributing a post tomorrow, which I’ll let you know about. The other contributors include an amazing list of bloggers, scientists, policy experts, and at least one federal level elected official of which I’m aware. The first blog posted is: Keystone XL pipeline…

Don’t forget to register for CONvergence. If you register early you get a break on the rate. Details at their site. For those who don’t now, CONvergence is the largest fan run fantasy and science fiction convention, and it is held in the Twin Cities at or near the 4th of July. And, even better,…

Skeptically Speaking’s 200th show is coming up soon! But first, there is show #199. But before I mention show #199, I want to remind you of show #198, because I was in it: #198 Nature’s Compass and New Caledonian Crows This week, we’re looking at some of the amazing abilities exhibited by our animal cousins.…

I wasn’t living in Boston yet; Albany, instead. But at the time I was actually travelling by car out to California, and was in Texas when this particular storm caught up with me. Texas got iced over, the Rio Grande froze, the citrus crop was destroyed and I spent two nights in Big Spring. Two…

Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute joins Scienceblogs.com, and here is his introductory post! Welcome to the first post in my new National Geographic ScienceBlogs column “Significant Figures.” I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you on a wide range of environmental science-related issues, data, and people, and to a productive and constructive interaction….…

There was an 8.0 magnitude earthquake a few minutes ago in the vicinity of Santa Cruz Islands, in the South Pacific, and it is now confirmed that this generated a potentially severe tsunami that by now would have hit nearby islands. But, no one has reports from the scene to confirm or elaborate on this.…

As you know, the permafrost is melting due to global warming, and this is releasing greenhouse gasses which cause global warming. What you may not know is that we could not have had this conversation even a century ago because science has only recently recognized permafrost (it was not clearly defined and known of in…

Ben Goldacre, the Bad Science column writer and at present, Wellcome research fellow in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has a book coming out soon (Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients). I’ve not seen it yet, but when I do I’ll get you a review as…

Birdchasers: An educational documentary ideal for the Discoverie Channel. Two teams of birdwatchers spend the entire birding season (from June 1st through June 22nd) in sometimes friendly, sometimes not so friendly competition in a desperate and dangerous search for dangerous and disparate birds. Team A is from Cornell University Bird Research Center, and their main…