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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.

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me-fergus.jpg 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.

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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


Add to Technorati Favorites! Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.
--- 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

May 30, 2008

O Solar Mio: An inconvenient opera

Category: climate

This may strike some as a bit much, but why the heck not? An opera based on "An Inconvenient Truth." The only problem is, how will the librettist keep the science of climate change current with an expected opening (at...

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May 29, 2008

The great blip of 1945 explained

Category: climate

Will warmer temperatures lead to more clouds, which could act as a negative feedback and put the brakes on further warming? Probably not, but we don't know.

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May 27, 2008

Why economics is the "dismal science"

Category: climate

Until we have something like the petaflop climate computer, any economics model is going to come with hopelessly wide margins of error.

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May 26, 2008

Alaska: State in Denial

Category: climate

This isn't the first time Alaska's politicians have demonstrated their contempt for science.

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May 21, 2008

1/8th of US high school biology teachers say creationism valid science

Category: evolution

One in eight. Is that low enough? Not according to the authors of a new paper in PLoS Biology who conducted the "first nationally representative survey of teachers concerning the teaching of evolution." They did come up with some optimistic...

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May 19, 2008

Before you read any coverage of the latest global-warming-REDUCES-hurricanes study ...

Category: climate

...read the backgrounder produced by Real Climate's Rasmus Benestad. It's another example of the kind of reseach journalists need to do before writing about climate change research....

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May 16, 2008

Gambling on the climate

Category: climate

Is putting real money on something as consequential as a computer model of climate trends consistent with the professional detachment that's supposed to accompany honest research?

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May 15, 2008

Why should we care about the polar bear?

Category: climate

This is all angels-on-pinhead philosophy. The real question is, would are the real consequences of an ESA listing?

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May 14, 2008

Polar bears to be listed

Category: climate

Word is the U.S. Interior Department, after much delay, is going to list the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) "as a threatened species because of declining Arctic sea ice," according to major news service alert. Marvelous. Now all we have to...

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May 13, 2008

Who are these "neural buddhists" of which you speak?

Category: religiosity

There are basically two kinds of news consumers. Those who will find David Brooks' latest creation from his corner of the New York Times stable of columnists absolutely irresistible and those who will cross the street to Fox News before...

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