cmooney
Posts by this author
October 10, 2006
Okay, I wasn't supposed to be blogging...and now, I'm not any more. At all. Period.
Let me just repost my events list for those wishing to catch me on the road in the next month or so; note that a new event, in Miami/Coral Gables, has been added, for election day no less (wonder what that will do…
October 10, 2006
I know I am supposed to be working on my book, and indeed I am--a productive day today has made me feel less guilty about blogging.
Anyway, following on my last post, I'd like to go further. The earliest elephant's ass I've seen in the media (broadly conceived) is the following:
However, so far…
October 9, 2006
Um, maybe it's just me, but doesn't the above image look an awful lot like the image below?
What do you think, should I be annoyed by this, or flattered?
October 4, 2006
Well...I am not bringing this blog back to life for the moment...but I also can't avoid a major update like this.
I'm happy to announce that an article I did for Seed last year, about the Dover evolution trial, is now contained in Houghton-Mifflin's Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006,…
September 30, 2006
I have had a very, very good September.
I traveled across the country, and back, twice (with offset credits for my carbon). I gave fifteen speeches, to (I would guess) over a thousand people in total. At many of my stops I made new friends, or was able to get reacquainted with old ones. I even got…
September 29, 2006
As usual, being on the road is starting to wear on me a little bit...but there's one more talk tonight, and then I hole myself up again to work on the hurricane book. This one is in Santa Fe:
Friday, September 29
7:00 PM-8:30 PM
College of Santa Fe
The Forum
Santa Fe, NM
Meanwhile, Dietram…
September 28, 2006
My piece in the latest issue of Seed--not yet online, but will be soon I hope--is about the scientist activism group that just announced its existence, Scientists and Engineers for America. As I argue in Seed, this could be the organization that finally brings the national scientific community out…
September 27, 2006
I had a good event at Changing Hands bookstore, in Tempe, Arizona, tonight. So many people came to the talk that the bookstore had to rearrange chairs quickly, in a larger space, to accommodate them all.
In the audience, among others, was fellow ScienceBlogger John Lynch, the author of Stranger…
September 27, 2006
"...tiresome polemic masquerading as a defense of scientific purity...."
"The reader must therefore decide if the narrator is unreliable or just hopelessly naïve...."
"Mooney's polemical fervor blinds him to the political content inherent in all discourse that connects science to human affairs…
September 26, 2006
Fellow science blogger John Fleck has a piece this week in the Albuquerque Journal about yrs truly blowing through New Mexico. An excerpt:
They say it's better to be lucky than good, though it helps to be both. That might describe the arc of journalist Chris Mooney's young career.
Science policy…
September 25, 2006
I am a lucky author.
Anyone who writes a book hopes to avoid the fate that David Hume famously ascribed to his Treatise of Human Nature, which he said ''fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such distinction, as even to excite a murmur among the zealots.'' I certainly have managed to…
September 24, 2006
Tomorrow I head out for five talks in five days in the following locales....New York, NY; Madison, Wisconsin; Tempe, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. This will be accompanied, as usual, by various radio interviews and such. I'll keep you posted on all of that. Meanwhile,…
September 24, 2006
I'm happy to announce that the paperback edition of The Republican War on Science is a "Paperback Row" pick for this Sunday's Times book review. The Times also links to John Horgan's mostly favorable review, which was part of a cover package last December. Back then, I didn't know that Horgan, like…
September 23, 2006
As you can see in this pic of (from left to right) Big Head Rob, Matt Nisbet, and myself, we were stylin' at Science Club Friday night in DC. Although no one, no one, could out-style Matt Nisbet's white blazer. I scoured the Washington, D.C., area for one to match, so that we would both be wearing…
September 21, 2006
Numerical models suggest that Mooney and Nisbet will be in rare form this Friday night at Science Club in DC. And Big Head Rob and Kelly Ann Collins have official party announcements (one of which includes a Weird Science poster). But will this unprecedented social union between a few science geeks…
September 21, 2006
...Between now and the bday party tomorrow, I am going to try to get some significant work done. It's an important snatch of time, especially as I have another talk on Saturday (in Ohio, info here) and then I'm back on the road Monday. I'll be talking at an event along with PZ up in NYC Tues the…
September 20, 2006
So: KAC got sent the Discovery Institute's critique (PDF) of my chapter on "intelligent design." Her very appropriate response: "(WTF?!)" She also claims I'm "blinding her with science" (and provides the classic Thomas Dolby video to prove it).
The video is quite a trip, you have to watch it.…
September 19, 2006
Born September 20, 1977, in Mesa, Arizona. (And I'm speaking very near there on Sept 27!)
I don't remember at what time of day I was born. I'd have to call my Mom to find that out and she's probably asleep at the moment. However, I do remember hearing that I apparently didn't cry. Read into that…
September 19, 2006
Check this out, in no particular order:
1. I finally have stuff up on YouTube, two videos. Go watch them if you like. At the moment I'm competing with Sensei Chris Mooney for views and ratings....
2. For those who missed my Skeptics Society debate with Ron Bailey over who's worse when it comes to…
September 19, 2006
After the Discovery Institute's criticism of my credentials, it occurred to me that I'm hardly the only person to study the works of someone like Chuck Dickens in college, only to end up writing professionally about the works of someone like Chuck Darwin. For instance, here's physics writer…
September 18, 2006
Back in May, fellow birthday boy Matt Nisbet and I gave a two-pronged keynote address to the annual meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. The subject: How to communicate about science, particularly in politically fraught areas. I pretty much winged it, though I hope I provided…
September 18, 2006
Well, I've read through the Discovery Institute critique of my work (PDF). I am not impressed. Neither is Carl Zimmer, who has experience with this sort of thing. PZ, meanwhile, has a good refutation of Casey Luskin's attack on my credentials.
[To tell you the truth, PZ, Luskin's criticism is…
September 18, 2006
I note this post from last week, and am flattered that a well known D.C. beacon of social radiance like KAC has deigned to Google me. Furthermore, she's mooting whether I'm worth going on long walks on the beach with (PG version). If she only knew.
It all reminds me of a (modified) Han Solo line: "…
September 17, 2006
Helene is getting to be a hell of a storm. Look at how well defined the eye is. Note also that the storm is taking up roughly a 5 degree by 5 degree latitude/longitude square. That's big. Winds of hurricane strength extend outward 50 miles from the center. All of which means that if Helene tracks…
September 17, 2006
I've kinda missed hurricane blogging--even though you readers seem to enjoy fights over "intelligent design" much more. In any case, here are hurricanes Gordon and Helene, drifting harmlessly out to sea (though Helene might still have a few surprises in store). In general, it's been that kind of…
September 16, 2006
Hoping to see some Bald Eagles as I make the 80 plus mile drive from Seattle up to Bellingham today, in order to deliver this talk:
Saturday, September 16
7:30 PM-9:00 PM
Village Books
1200 Eleventh Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
I'm feeling a bit under the weather--to much masquerading about--but…
September 15, 2006
ForaTV was there filming my very well attended talk in Mountain View, CA, earlier this week, and you can watch the whole event through this link (scroll down). I cannot find a direct link to the program, unfortunately.
On the left bar, under "Sights and Sounds," I'm also building a list of links…
September 15, 2006
Okay, the "rebuttal" (PDF) of my work from the Discovery Institute went online early today. So I have at least gotten to peruse it briefly. I can't allege that I was "surprised" by it, though the timing of its release remains curious.
Anyway, you can peruse the document yourself, here, and compare…
September 14, 2006
The Discovery Institute is apparently going to come out with a report tomorrow outlining 14 "false facts" in my book. I hope that the first I hear about the contents of this report is not on the air with Michael Medved. We'll see.
Still, we can start with Discovery's press release announcing the…
September 14, 2006
Man, I just arrived in Seattle and had scarcely gotten a nap in when I woke up to find this:
SEATTLE -- In his book The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney declares war on intelligent design, calling it a "reactionary crusade" promoted by "[s]cience abusers." Discovery Institute now responds…