Now on ScienceBlogs: Recent Science-Related Events in the Triangle

Seed Media Group

Collective Imagination

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

me-fergus.jpg 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

Recent Comments

Archives

Other Doubtful Blogs

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

climate:

Hacked emails, tree-ring proxies and blogospheric confusion

Category: climate

Just why tree rings no longer provide useful proxy data for temperatures is not known. There are several theories, many of which suggest that climate change itself is the problem.

Read on »

The hacked climate science email scandal that wasn't

Category: climate

The hacking of the data is a worthwhile story, insofar as IT security goes, but the content is just plain banal. All we learn is that scientists are humans after all.

Read on »

The ultimate anti-tar sands message

Category: climate

I promise to get back to substantive blogging shortly, but in the meantime, if you've got three minutes to tear yourself away from coverage of Sarah Palin's book: Scientifically sound? Not the words I would use, but not too far...

Read on »

Canada learns to love global warming

Category: climate

Too precious not to pass along: Canadian Tourism Federation Welcome Video from Canadian Tourism Federation on Vimeo. In case there's any doubt. There is no "Canadian Tourism Federation."...

Read on »

Record high and low temps: An interesting trend

Category: climate

Even as late as 2100 there's a still a good chance of the odd record low, even while we approach global average temperatures several degrees above pre-industrial norms.

Read on »

George Will gets something right

Category: climate

In an otherwise typically error-dominated Newsweek column, George F. Will spelled "minuscule" correctly. So I don't want to read any complaints that Will gets everything wrong each time he writes about climate change. Of course, that doesn't mean we can't...

Read on »

Climate Cover-Up

Category: climate

Hoggan could have titled his book "Lies and the lying liars who tell them" but Al Franken already took that one.

Read on »

Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic

Category: climate

(Pseudo)-Skeptical Environmental Bjorn Lomborg advises in the Wall Street Journal that spending money on anti-malarial campaigns makes more sense than, and by implication is morally superior to, spending money on cutting carbon emissions. But to make his case, he has...

Read on »

The link between the climate denial and anti-vaccine crowds

Category: climate

Rarely does a blogging day pass that I don't stumble upon some post or comment or email that champions the value of skepticism of anthropogenic global warming and the need for scientists to answer their critics. So it's refreshing to...

Read on »

Climate control in Canada: And now the good news

Category: climate

Dramatic changes are necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change. There's no getting around that. Pretending, as the Globe and Mail does, that any plan that accepts that reality is "unacceptable" is denial, pure and simple.

Read on »

ScienceBlogs

Search ScienceBlogs:

Go to:

Advertisement
Enter to win a free copy of The Monty Hall Problem
Visit the Collective Imagination blog
Advertisement
Collective Imagination

© 2006-2009 Seed Media Group LLC. ScienceBlogs is a registered trademark of Seed Media Group. All rights reserved.

Sites by Seed Media Group: Seed Media Group | ScienceBlogs | SEEDMAGAZINE.COM