An irregular exploration of the struggle between the power of rational discourse and the scientific method on one hand, and the forces of superstition and dogma on the other. Mostly regarding climate change, though.
James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist and communications consultant based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
Author's site: cyamid.netPenetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.
--- H. L. Mencken
By doubting we come to inquiry; and through inquiry we perceive truth.
--- Peter Abelard
Undisguised clarity is easily mistaken for arrogance.
-- Richard Dawkins
As for evolution, it happened. Deal with it.
-- Michael Shermer.
"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things
which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand.
Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving, and
tiny blasts of tinny trumpets, we have met the enemy, and not only may
he be ours, he may be us."
--Walt Kelly
Having worked as a communications officer for more than one scientific outfit, I can sympathize with the outreach guys at the University of Leicester. But methinks they took their attention-grabbing-headline lessons a bit too seriously. A story making the rounds...
Barack Obama is right. Barack Obama is also wrong. Not only should this not be surprising, it should be welcome. Because no other position is tenable when it comes to the subject of the role of faith in politics. Obama,...
One more time, with gusto: "There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused." So said Bush Jr. the other day. As Chris "Intersection" Mooney, noted, the only "debate" over the causes of climate change is taking place in...
No. I'm not talking about Dick Cheney's metric for how probable a threat must be before taking it seriously (that would be 1 %). Instead we have this bizarre statement in Newsday from a researcher of the paranorma identified only...
If I had $50,000 -- and no mortgage -- I'd love to bid on a letter that's just surfaced and is about to be auctioned off by Sotheby's. It's from the revered Charles Darwin to the Reverend William Denton. New...
Everyone's had a good time taking shots at Ann Coulter's inability to think straight. Some valiant types, like PZ Myers, have even sacrified several hours of their lives to reading and picking apart her pathetic prose. Everything she says is...
Move over Fritjof Capra. The author of The Tao of Physics captured the imaginations of naive readers a couple of decades back by exploring the similarities between quantum theory and Eastern philosophies. But as the New York Times' Dennis Overbye...
The American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973. The Pentagon is still mulling it over, according to a report from AP....
Yesterday's non-decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on just how far the Army Corps of Engineers can go in telling developers what they can and cannot build produced no identifiable winners or losers. But a close look at the rulings...
I wasn't going to wade into the Stephen-Hawking-has-lost-it debate, but then I came across an otherwise unrelated story this morning pitting Cosmologist Numero Uno against the late Pope John Paul II. For those unfamiliar with the fuss, Hawking had the...