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. Mostly regarding climate change, though.
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.
Search
Recent Posts
- Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- The link between the climate denial and anti-vaccine crowds
- Climate control in Canada: And now the good news
- Another nail in the Superfreakonomics coffin
- Is 350 the right target for atmospheric CO2?
- Explaining plummeting belief in anthropogenic climate change
- Science is not a religion
- Limbaugh listeners need to do some soul-searching
- Superfreakonomics: How did they get climate change so wrong?
- Isn't that special?
Recent Comments
- konya chat on McCain on climate and energy
- Alec on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- konya chat on Fact-checking? We don't need no stinkin' fact-checking!
- Oran Kelley on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- JK on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- Survival Acres on The link between the climate denial and anti-vaccine crowds
- Lucas on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- ChrisZ on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- Brian D on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- crf on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
Other Doubtful Blogs
- Panda's Thumb
- Real Climate
- George Monbiot
- Chet Raymo
- Ben Goldacre
- James Annan
- John Fleck
- Kristine Harley
- DeSmogBlog
- Climate Progress
- Jennifer Oullette
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.
"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
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
Previous
Next
