Fallwell's continued fall
Category: religiosity
Jerry Fallwell. Can anyone compare to his particular brand of idiocy? He more than anyone else is the reason I blog. From the AP...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:15 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Island of Doubt
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.
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Profile
James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
Recent Posts
- Gambling on the climate
- Why should we care about the polar bear?
- Polar bears to be listed
- Who are these "neural buddhists" of which you speak?
- McCain's McClimate plan
- Yet more Republicans in denial
- A little game for Monday morning
- Carnival of the Blue 12
- Clinton and the politics of fear
- Why climate change is so tricky to cover
Recent Comments
- dave X on Gambling on the climate
- Hank Roberts on Gambling on the climate
- blugger on Why should we care about the polar bear?
- James Hrynyshyn on Why should we care about the polar bear?
- pough on Why should we care about the polar bear?
- Ian on McCain's McClimate plan
- DaPrez on Polar bears to be listed
- khefera on Polar bears to be listed
- DaPrez on A little game for Monday morning
- scicurious on Who are these "neural buddhists" of which you speak?
for 9 July 2007
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Inspiration
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
Author's site: cyamid.net
--- 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.
February 28, 2007
February 27, 2007
Polar Bear Day
Category: ecology
The good people at the Center for Biological Diversity have declared today "Polar Bear Day." It's not that big a stretch, since a bunch of science-types have declared 2007 the International Polar Year. So what the heck? Help save the...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:31 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The problem with family trees
Category: misc
My least favorite story-that's-occupying-too-much-media-attention this week is the Al Sharpton-Strom Thurmond family-ties affair. As a former newspaper editor, I know all too well why the story of the uncovering of the connection between a prominent African-American civil-rights leader and famous...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:03 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 26, 2007
Witchful thinking: water on the brain
Category: pseudo-science
This past weekend in the New Age capital of the New South (Asheville, N.C.), members of the Appalachian chapter of the American Society of Dowsers were scheduled to hold a quarterly meeting. I know this because the alternative weekly in...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:06 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 22, 2007
Texas and a techology fetish
Category: technology
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is having a bad week. The state House Public Health Committee just voted to rescind the governor's executive order requiring all pre-teen girls to be vaccinated against HPV and a county judge ruled against another executive...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 6:53 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 16, 2007
The end of an era at Princeton
Category: pseudo-science
After 28 years, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research institute is finally giving up the ghost, bringing an end to arguably the most respectable -- or the least embarrassing -- parapsychological research effort. Is this cause for celebration? I'm not sure,...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:22 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 14, 2007
Edwards blogger episode as science story
Category: politics
At the heart of the fuss over the departure of two members of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' blogging team is a science story, specifically the controversy surrounding the "Plan B" birth control pill. This has been overlooked in favor...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:17 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 12, 2007
Darwin as consciousness-raiser
Category: science culture
Absent anything original to add to the millions of words that have been written about Charles Darwin, on this Darwin Day I'm going to quote from one of his acolytes, Richard Dawkins. In his book The God Delusion, Dawkins runs...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 6:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 11, 2007
The naive John Edwards
Category: politics
John Edwards' recent decision not to fire two bloggers from his staff after word got out that they didn't always use the most diplomatic language in during their pre-Edwards campaign days should give him a big boost among those the...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 11:30 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 9, 2007
Virgin scientists to the rescue
Category: science culture
Richard Branson. Say what you want about his contradictory ways -- promoting wasteful extravagance while saving the planet from the products of those wasteful ways -- but his choice of brand name was brilliant. And it gives newspaper editors and bloggers an irresistible headline for anything he does. This time, it's a generous, $25-million prize for anyone who can come up with a way to scrub the atmosphere of all that nasty carbon dioxide we (including his transportation businesses) are pumping out.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 1:18 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 7, 2007
Why does anyone pay attention to this guy?
Category: religiosity
I'm talking about Alister McGrath, the author of the unbelievably weak polemic The Twilight of Atheism, who has resurfaced to take on his nemesis, Richard Dawkins. Jason does a good job dismantling McGrath's pathetic review of the Dawkins' The God...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:12 PM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 6, 2007
Doubt vs. Certainty in the NYT
Category: climate
Venerable New York Times reporter William K. Stevens resurfaces today in the paper's Science Times with a few words on the changing nature of the debate over the changing climate. The headline is only slightly misleading:...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:07 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
