The upside of the Hollywood writers' strike?
Category: science culture
Now's your chance to spare us all from another piece of dreck like The Core.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:48 AM • 3 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.
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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
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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
January 31, 2008
January 30, 2008
Mitt Romney is right ...
Category: politics
... or, at least, in this one case, he's on the right track. Although the editors at the journal Nature don't think so. In fact, they tear a strip off the guy in last week's editorial, and I'm not really...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:57 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2008
The seven signs of pseudoscience: testing climatology
Category: climate
Speculation is waste of time. Running sophisticated climate models on supercomputers is better use of same.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:18 PM • 34 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 28, 2008
Drugs, abortion, and the Ends that justify the means
Category: medicine
In a world in which ends can be measured. some, though not all, means are justified.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:46 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 25, 2008
Canadian government axes science adviser
Category: science culture
CBC reports that Canada's "national science adviser Arthur Carty would be retiring on March 31, and that the position and office would be phased out." To which I could only say: "Who would want the job anyway? You'd just be...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 1:43 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Shell says 7 years before oil demand outstrips supply
Category: climate
The CEO of Royal Dutch Shell says "after 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand." This in an email from Jeroen van der Veer to his staff. Hmmm....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:27 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 23, 2008
Few hurricanes for the United States?
Category: climate
Will a warmer world mean fewer hurricanes hitting American soil? Nobody really knows. But a study just published in Geophysical Research Letters is bound to provide fodder for those who enjoy heralding every little morsel of evidence to support their...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:08 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 22, 2008
Trust, skepticism and the value of blogging
Category: climate
"Trust no one" makes for a fine motto if you're Fox Mulder. But in the real world, it would be suicide.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 11:18 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 21, 2008
Who can save science?
Category: misc
How can we help change this absurd culture of celebrity worship, and replace it with one that values the contributions of science?
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:09 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 19, 2008
A lump of coal for breakfast
Category: climate
The only way you're going to survive is if you manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat in the next few years and find a way to cheaply and efficiently capture and store the CO2 you pump out.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:48 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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