Science and (culture, politics, policy, media)
Kevin Vranes has a phud in Physical Ocean- ography and Cli- matology. He now studies sci- ence policy and politics at the CSTPR. (More in the about.)
email: kevin {/at/} nosenada.org
Comments policy
(listed in semi-random order)
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May 30, 2006
Category: Energy
If you're a member of AGU, your latest Eos carries an article by C.J. van der Veen titled "Reevaluating Hubbert's Prediction of U.S. Peak Oil." If you're not a member of AGU, the article hides behind a password wall and...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 5:08 PM • 7 Comments
Category: Climate change
Surprise, surprise! Government employees don't get 1st amendment protection to say whatever the hell they want while on the job, at least according to a very divided Supreme Court. (Of course, you might not have heard about this story because...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 3:48 PM • 0 Comments
May 26, 2006
Category: Ask a ScienceBlogger • Science money
Leave it to the SB uppers. They ask a question made for Janet and me but then only want us to write 300 words on it. Anyway, here goes: Nobody has a patent on the justification for why the U.S. government funds science, but...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 4:06 PM • 5 Comments
May 24, 2006
Category: Climate change • Science+culture
If you've read closely, you've seen me berate climate commenters for being tribal. What is tribalism? It's the sort of "what group are you in?" mindlessness that passes for critical thinking on climate policy and you see it on both...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 6:20 PM • 22 Comments
May 19, 2006
Category: Ask a ScienceBlogger
SB question of the Week: "If you could shake the public and make them understand one scientific idea, what would it be?" My answer: The simultaneously incomprehensible vastness of our universe and the scale-independence of physical phenomena. In other words,...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 6:41 PM • 6 Comments
Category: Friday Politics • Science money • Science+Congress
I got two interesting emails from a high-traffic list I'm on. I'm not going to identify the list or the email authors, but the list includes lots of beltway and former beltway types that also have connections to science. First,...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 1:34 PM • 6 Comments
May 17, 2006
Category: Academia
...and actually, that's an understatement. Here's an early heads up on the release of the Churchill Report by the committee assigned to investigate allegations of research misconduct by him. Committee docs are here and the 125-page report is here. There...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 2:04 PM • 4 Comments
May 15, 2006
Category: Bare politics • Energy • Geology • Science coverage • Science+White House
It's been clear for a long time why environmental issues don't get the same political traction as issues like crime, security, taxes, job and health care. Ask a bunch of voters whether environmental problems are important and a large majority...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 7:01 PM • 6 Comments
May 13, 2006
Category: Culture
The other day, while writing about the probability that the state of Texas executed an innocent man in a tragic misapplication of scientific evidence, I also wrote that one of the reasons I am opposed to capital punishment on practical...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 3:25 PM • 13 Comments
May 8, 2006
Category: Bare politics
This is the kind of story that always gets my eye. I don't care much about Tom Cruise or J-Lo or whomever, but if you're a campaign manager for an aspiring U.S. Representative and you take off with $100K in...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 4:50 PM • 2 Comments
Category: Blogs
Apparently he'd join in, if you take the actions of some of his acolytes as indication. This spam comment just made it through the filters on an old post. The comment, which I'm leaving up for comedic purposes for a...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 12:18 PM • 5 Comments
Category: Blogs
readers: complaining about the ads here, much as I'd like to, seems like whining about your allowance, so I'll just leave you with this and this. The first link should be considered mandatory usage and the second is a tool...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 11:27 AM • 8 Comments
May 5, 2006
Category: Energy • Friday Politics
It's not that Senators Domenici and Bingaman (R-NM and D-NM) have nothing at stake on wind energy. They are the Chair and Ranking Member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, after all, so they should be interested in...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 3:15 PM • 0 Comments
May 4, 2006
Category: Energy
...this time about ExxonMobil's bipolar disorder on the issue. It's up on Prometheus....
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 12:17 PM • 0 Comments
May 3, 2006
Category: Natural hazards/disasters
Just came across this photo in Andrew Lawson's 1908 report on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It's one of those things you seem to come across once a year or so and it's always worth reflecting on. If you've never...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 6:23 PM • 2 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
Category: Science at work
I have a pretty strong stomach. I can't think of any other time I've read a story and gotten a big pit and felt actually nauseous. But it just happened. I'm not opposed to capital punishment on moral grounds --...
Posted by Kevin Vranes at 1:29 PM • 4 Comments
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep. (Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
