cmooney
Posts by this author
August 24, 2006
There are two things you've gotta read today on the politics and science front. First, check out Matt Nisbet's analysis of polls on hurricanes and global warming. A current Zogby poll is getting attention, but one single poll never really means anything from a scientific perspective.
What Nisbet…
August 24, 2006
In the poli-sci literature--politics and science, not political science--an important new book has come out; and no, I'm not talking about my own book in paperback. It's a more scholarly take on the problem, entitled Rescuing Science from Politics: Regulation and the Distortion of Scientific…
August 23, 2006
My latest Seed column is up, and it dovetails so nicely with some of the themes I've been trying to enunciate in relation to the paperback release that I'd like to call it to your attention. Entitled "Thank You for Polluting," it's a piece about my battles with Congressman Jim Gibbons of Nevada,…
August 22, 2006
Let the tasteless jokes begin...the NHC expects this one to develop slowly but they've adjusted the track more to the west. Still no indication that Debby will be hitting land, but she certainly does have the chance to become our first hurricane of the year in the North Atlantic.
Meanwhile, when it…
August 22, 2006
This post is just to thank everyone who helped me prepare to debate tonight with your comments....you can listen here. I actually am feeling a little rusty, I haven't done much public speaking or radio in a while. I'm not as sharp as I once was because I'm out of practice, but this should be a…
August 22, 2006
Here is how Wells ends his book:
So a growing number of bright young men and women have the courage to question Darwinism, study intelligent design, and follow the evidence where it leads. They know they are in the middle of a major scientific revolution. And the future belongs to them. (p. 207)…
August 22, 2006
Well, I continue to peruse The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design in anticipation of the debate tonight. (11 pm ET, the Alan Colmes Show, website here.) By this point in the text, Wells is done debunking evolution; now he's on to promoting intelligent design. In the "…
August 21, 2006
We now have Tropical Depression 4 (perhaps soon to be Tropical Storm Debby) just off the African Coast. First forecast discussion here. Satellite here. Jeff Masters thinks this one will stay over the ocean; apparently waves that develop this early almost always do. More soon....for now, hold off on…
August 21, 2006
Word is starting to get around about the paperback. If you didn't see them yet, DarkSyde over at Daily Kos did something last week; and now, Big Head Rob (dynamo of the D.C. social blogging scene) has done an interview with yours truly that, although pegged to the book release, covers a somewhat,…
August 20, 2006
I just downloaded and read a small part of Judge Gladys Kessler's gargantuan 1742 page opinion in the Justice Department's tobacco industry racketeering case (PDF). The table of contents alone is 29 pages long! I must say, this looks like the best and most official documentation we will ever get of…
August 20, 2006
One of the things I have tried to do, as a journalist who's been cast in the role of a defender of science ever since the publication of The Republican War on Science, is to take on some of the attackers. That's why I agreed to debate Jonathan Wells this coming Tuesday night, and it's why I have…
August 19, 2006
In anticipation of the paperback release, the book website is being substantially upgraded. It announces many new tour dates, most recently including this one in Ohio. It now shows the actual paperback cover image (displayed in high resolution below after the jump). Furthermore, there's a new book…
August 18, 2006
Well, there are ten days until the official publication date of the paperback Republican War on Science (August 28). And I have decided, based on the suggestion of an e-correspondent, to do a countdown here on the blog, adding a relevant new angle, analysis, or update every day. So here's the first…
August 17, 2006
Well, I just started reading The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. All in all, I find Wells fairly lucid at the beginning of this book and I agree with most of the definitions he offers about what "evolution" is, what "creation" is, and so forth. In short, Wells…
August 17, 2006
We often forget who really did in New Orleans: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with its ridiculous projects like the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet ("Mr. Go"), which quite literally welcomed storm surges into the city. But you won't forget after reading Michael Grunwald's great feature in the…
August 16, 2006
Well, summer has been fun, but it's time to get back in business. So I just agreed to debate anti-evolutionist Jonathan Wells on the Alan Colmes Show on Fox Radio, next Tuesday, August 22, from 11:00 to 11:30 ET. Wells, you may or may not know, is author of Icons of Evolution, and now he's got a…
August 16, 2006
There's a widespread notion that hurricane basins across the world take turns having active and inactive years. It's epitomized, for example, in this 2005 NOAA press release anticipating a slow season for the East Pacific:
"There tends to be a seesaw affect between the East Pacific and North…
August 15, 2006
Tudo bem? Muito obrigado.
Those are about the only things I learned to say while in Sao Paulo (plus a few things that I can't mention here). The wedding ceremony was beautiful, and I'm the type that generally doesn't care much for Catholic rituals. As for Brazilians, after dining at a churrascuria…
August 7, 2006
Today I head up to New York, where I'll be doing this event tomorrow. Then, tomorrow night, my brother and I are flying down to Brazil to attend his wedding. This will be my first ever trip to the Southern Hemisphere; and yeah, I know the water in the toilet or sink doesn't really rotate clockwise…
August 6, 2006
Here they come, surfing atop the literary swell generated by the upcoming one year anniversary of Katrina: The first two popular books (that I'm aware of, anyway) that put global warming and hurricanes in the foreground. Neither book is exclusively devoted to the subject, as far as I can tell; but…
August 5, 2006
Well, 15.9 actually, 7.9 of them hurricanes and 3.5 of them intense hurricanes (Cat 3, 4, 5). See here (PDF). We can now do a comparison with the latest Klotzbach-Gray forecast, which is slighly lower: 15 storms, 7 hurricanes, 3 intense hurricanes. Really, the two aren't that far apart.
What's…
August 4, 2006
One of the best known seasonal hurricane forecasts comes out of Colorado State University courtesy of William Gray (although Gray's student Phil Klotzbach is now lead author of the forecast). Another one comes out of the University College-London Benfield Hazard Research Center courtesy of Mark…
August 3, 2006
Next Tuesday I'll be appearing at the following event at the Century Foundation:
Drop It Like It's Hot: The Politics of Global Warming
SUMMER POLICY BROWN BAG LUNCH FORUM FOR NEW YORK CITY INTERNS*
Featuring:
Brenda Ekwurzel--Climate Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Union of…
August 3, 2006
I just got my author's advance copy of the paperback The Republican War on Science. Man, this is so exciting. It looks great, and I think the new preface, updates, and revisions make for great additions--the preface especially really lays out the big picture in a much better way than I think the…
August 3, 2006
Over at Skeptical Inquirer online, two of your ScienceBlogs denizens have teamed up in a major article about the pitfalls in the way the press covers the issue of hurricanes and global warming. And this isn't simply some pat story about avoiding robotic "balance" in coverage, such as one might tell…
August 3, 2006
Yesterday Jeff Masters had some amusing comments about previous tropical cyclones that have been named Chris:
There were storms named Chris in 1982, 1988, 1994, and 2000. Each time, Chris has been an insignificant storm that either never made it to hurricane strength, or in one case, barely made it…
August 2, 2006
The big story about Tropical Storm Chris, at least from a U.S.-centric perspective, is that it could wind up hitting Florida or intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico, and then going God knows where. AccuWeather put that plainly with its latest report:
Those residing in South Florida and the Keys need…
August 2, 2006
I wake up this morning, rub the grog out of my eyes, and find that this storm is still stronger and better organized. The winds are up to nearly 65 mph, the pressure down to 1001 mb. You can even see what looks kinda like the beginning of an eye in the satellite imagery. In short, just a little…
August 1, 2006
This storm is intensifying more than expected. Winds are at 60 mph already. Meanwhile--and I know it's dangerous to do this, but I will do so anyway--there's certainly a distinct possiblity that this one could end up in the Gulf. Of course, uncertainties in the long range forecast are massive.
P.S…
August 1, 2006
I am not a forecaster. In fact, the forecasters will be putting out their August outlooks during the next couple of days, and I'll report what they say here. But in the meantime, with Tropical Storm Chris in the Caribbean, let's look at some statistics that will help set whatever happens this month…