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
July 31, 2006
Category: evolution
While online polls are generally worthless when it comes to generating representative statistics - see this post and ensuing dicussion (sorry for being cranky, girlscientist) -- they can at time produce quite curious results. This self-described unscientific poll from the...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:08 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: philosophy
On the one hand, it's kind of sad that early 21st-century society is in need of frequent reminders of just how important reason is. Israelis and Lebanese are slaughtering each other. Iraq is in the midst of what can best...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:43 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 28, 2006
Category: climate
A newly unearthed memo from a rural utility in Colorado has shed some light on the thinking behind the coal industry's support for climate change contrarians. You can read the memo, which lays out a strategy for a propaganda campaign...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:16 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 27, 2006
Category: politics
It's like every rationalist's worst media nightmare. Pat Robertson interviews Sen. Jim Inhofe on the 700 Club. I know I shouldn't be surprised by what transpired. After all, Inhofe is the guy who keeps calling global warming the greatest hoax...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:41 AM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 25, 2006
Category: politics
Fill in the blank in this excerpt from a statement by 10 leading climate experts: These ________ trends are setting us up for rapidly increasing human and economic losses from hurricane disasters, especially in this era of heightened activity. Scores...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:04 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 24, 2006
Category: pseudo-science
Time was when I wouldn't have cared much if my alma mater had invited a New Age quack to give a lecture on the university's dime. That was then. This is now. Under the very clever headline of "Pitching Woo-woo,"...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:49 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: humor
I see no reason why frivilous posts should be restricted to Fridays, especially when the item in question is as funny as the original Trek gang performing Monty Python's sendup of "Knights of the Round Table."...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:48 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 22, 2006
Category: climate
From today's New York Times comes a story that should worry everyone: From 2002 until this year, NASA's mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: "To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:32 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 21, 2006
Category: pseudo-science
This week's Science includes an interesting "forum" on the value of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), that wing of the U.S. National Institutes of Health charged with checking out whether or not herbal remedies and other...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:26 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
July 20, 2006
Category: politics
The fact that yesterday's veto was Bush's first, after more than five years in office, does't interest me all that much. Thomas Jefferson's veto record is a big fat zero and I see nothing wrong with that. What I found...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 1:46 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
