Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
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.
The Demon-Haunted World:
Science as a Candle
in the Dark,
by Carl Sagan
(A
review)
The Doubter's Companion:
by John Ralston Saul (Excerpts)
Skeptic Magazine: www.skeptic.com
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal: www.csicop.org
A poem by Yehuda Amichai:
The
Place
Where We Are Right
The Meaning of the
Island of Doubt
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
June 30, 2006
Category: Sci-culture
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...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 4:06 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 29, 2006
Category: religiosity
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,...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:06 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 28, 2006
Category: climate
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...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:45 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 26, 2006
Category: pseudo-science
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...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 5:38 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 22, 2006
Category: evolution
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...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 1:49 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: evolution
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...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:59 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 21, 2006
Category: politics
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...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 11:35 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 20, 2006
Category: politics
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....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:16 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: politics
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...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:36 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 16, 2006
Category: punditry
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...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:25 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Orac 02.13.2012
Orac 01.26.2012
PZ Myers 02.02.2012
ERV 11.26.2011
Tim Lambert 02.01.2012
