Now on ScienceBlogs: HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets
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 and communications consultant 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
March 24, 2010
Category: climate
I suppose we'd better start hiking taxes to pay for the multi-trillion-dollar space mirrors and other geoengineering schemes that will be our only option to avoid the really bad stuff that's in the business-as-usual pipeline.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 23, 2010
Category: climate
The Economist's reputation as the intellectual's news outlet of choice is probably undeserved -- its questionable choice of correspondents and lack of bylines, heavy editing and conservative politics undermine it's credibility in my book -- but because it's widely read...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:26 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 22, 2010
Category: climate
Since I moved to North Carolina (five years ago next month), it's been depressing to watch the political climate there move ever closer to the one the U.S. managed to pull itself out of in 2008. The latest news, which...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:44 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 19, 2010
Category: climate
Hint of a things to come?
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:26 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 16, 2010
Category: climate
From our friends at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, in Asheville, N.C., we learn the following: The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for February 2010 was 0.60°C (1.08°F) above the 20th century average of 12.1°C (53.9°F). This...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:54 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 12, 2010
One Strawbarb Pi, an entry in the Second Annual Pi Day Contest....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 4:28 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 8, 2010
Category: climate
Randy Olson says: There comes a point where the public DOES want to see the science community stand up for themselves. And as if on cue comes the release of another round of once-private emails among members of one section...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:15 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: science culture
I am pleased that activity on the Island of Doubt has increased in recent months. I manage to squeeze in a hour four or five days a week to write about what I think is the most serious public policy...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:47 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 4, 2010
Category: climate
There is, of courses, absolutely nothing wrong with "balanced" teaching on any subject. In theory. But in practice, it's a disingenuous attempt to counterbalance science with pseudoscience, superstition or just ideological propaganda into science classrooms.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:33 AM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: climate
If you were hoping for a definitive answer, look elsewhere. But if you're willing to be patient and consider how slowly science moves on such things, then a new paper in Nature Geoscience is worth a read.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:01 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
denialism blog 02.14.2012
respectful insolence 02.14.2012
uncertain principles 02.13.2012
confessions of a science librarian 02.13.2012
starts with a bang! 02.13.2012
