Now on ScienceBlogs: The Politics of Drug Abuse Research Funding
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 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
January 30, 2009
Category: climate
There's nothing new, scientifically speaking, in the Monaco Declaration. It's just another plea from 155 scientists representating 26 nations that "sets forth recommendations, calling for policymakers to address this immense problem." The problem is ocean acidification. It's a problem that...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:47 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 28, 2009
Category: climate
... and we have ignored economic constraints....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:54 AM • 3 Comments • 2 TrackBacks
January 27, 2009
Category: climate
Is there a danger in pointing that we've already done "irreversible" damage to the ecological support system of the planet?
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:59 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 26, 2009
Category: evolution
New Scientist's recent cover that heralded the stunning news (not) that "Darwin was wrong" has generated an enormous amount of antipathy in these parts. Bora's keeping notes, and the feature article's author, Graham Lawton, surely doesn't deserve the vitriol. (Although...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:59 PM • 26 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: climate
Last week, I wrote to John Tomlinson, "a local conservative columnist" for The Flint (Michigan) Journal to ask him for the sources he used for a recent column on the scientific evidence against global warming. He indulged me, and "thousands"...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:57 AM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 23, 2009
Category: climate
No sooner had I finished writing about the Eos poll on the near unanimity of the climatology community on the anthropogenic cause of global warming than I came across another poll on the general public's position. And I did not...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:39 PM • 40 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 21, 2009
Category: climate
When it comes right down to it, you shouldn't need a poll to tell you whom to trust.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:35 AM • 39 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
January 20, 2009
Category: politics
Well, sort of. It went live a minute past noon ET. But there's no comment function, so it's not what most of us would call a blog. Still, it's nice to know Obama's hip to the blogosphere's significance. Also nice...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:19 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: climate
The US Climate Action Partnership includes several notable and powerful environmental organizations, specifically the Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund and World Resources Institute. So one might expect that any plan endorsed by the partnership would be...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 11:33 AM • 10 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
January 19, 2009
Category: science culture
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending ScienceOnline '09, a conference-meetup-lovefest of about 200 scientists, journalists and bloggers. There I learned much about what we should and should not be doing in the blogosphere, and astute readers may...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:40 PM • 33 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
PZ Myers 11.03.2009
PZ Myers 11.04.2009
Ed Brayton 11.04.2009
Ed Brayton 11.04.2009
Orac 11.04.2009
