cmooney

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July 31, 2008
I really enjoyed Sheril's post last week about scientifically inaccurate movies. As I went to check out the list that she linked to, I found myself nodding constantly. But of course, that's hardly an exhaustive list. Let me tell you a bit more about the kinds of scientific inaccuracies I've noted…
July 29, 2008
The "two cultures" effect that we're seeing with the responses to Sizzle continues: Now the famed industry rag Variety loves the film that has many scientists scratching their heads (or worse). From the Variety reviewer: The film emerges, more skillfully than "Flock of Dodos," as an exceedingly…
July 28, 2008
Not to be outstaged by Juno, over the past two days I spent most of my energies on this: Note to Philip H.: Sydney thanks you for blogging and providing me some relief. At 10 weeks, this Boston Terrier needs much of my attention...
July 23, 2008
So: Dolly, which is now lashing southern Texas as a borderline Category 1/Category 2 storm, wasn't the big one. It wasn't a Katrina or a Rita--a storm capable of shutting down all Gulf oil production. On the other hand, if you're the type to worry then it's not irrelevant that we're staring down…
July 23, 2008
This is not good. The pressure reported by the National Hurricane Center was 976, then 972, then 967....meanwhile, the storm has developed a perfect eye: The Advanced Dvorak Technique, a computer program being run by folks at the University of Wisconsin that assesses storm intensity, now shows a…
July 22, 2008
This storm, heading for the Mexico-Texas border, is now a hurricane. Our second of the 2008 season, and it's not even August yet.... Eric Berger has some interesting discussion of just how busy this year is starting out. Only three years in recorded history have been busier so early, and two of…
July 22, 2008
[From Sizzle: No caption needed.] On Saturday night, along with Molly and two friends, I attended the opening of Sizzle at the Fairfax theater here in Los Angeles. The movie was airing at Outfest, a gay and lesbian film festival, and the woman introducing the film remarked on its pioneering…
July 21, 2008
[Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures: A Whole Lot of Energy Just Waiting for a Storm] I've just blogged over at the Daily Green about the latest tropical developments. I'm a bit stunned that we're on our fourth named Atlantic storm--and likely soon enough, our second hurricane--and it isn't yet…
July 16, 2008
[From Sizzle: The scientist meets American culture.] Yesterday my review of Randy Olson's Sizzle went up at Science Progress. I absolutely loved and raved about the movie. To my mind it's exactly the kind of thing we need more of. So you can imagine how I felt when I surveyed the reactions from…
July 15, 2008
My review of Randy Olson's Sizzle just went up at Science Progress. Wonderful, excellent, hilarious, profound: These are some of the things that I would say about this movie. In the review I even note that Sizzle "may be the funniest global warming movie ever made (unless you count The Day After…
July 9, 2008
[Kivalina, Alaska, is suing Exxon Mobil and 24 other fossil fuel companies over climate change.] My latest Science Progress column is up: It's about the growing potential for global warming tort cases--in which aggrieved parties directly sue polluting companies and seek damages--to succeed going…
July 9, 2008
Right now, Hurricane Bertha is a reintensifying Category 1 over the open Atlantic. But on Monday, the storm rapidly intensified to Category 3 or possible Category 4 status before a subsequent rapid weakening occurred yesterday. Bertha was odd to begin with--having formed extremely far east for so…
July 2, 2008
That's the title of my latest Science Progress column....even though the column itself is not entirely about sheep. Rather, it's a recounting of the Mooney-Nisbet science communication "boot camp" at Caltech....but, well, sheep came up, and believe it or not, it was in a pretty profound way.…
June 25, 2008
You can read it here. It starts like this: It was one of the largest public demonstrations in US history. On June 12, 1982, an estimated 750,000 protesters thronged Central Park in New York City, chanting "No nukes!" and bearing signs reading "Reagan is a bomb -- both should be banned" and "Arms…
June 23, 2008
The latest issue of Wired is now on newsstands, though not yet online. In it, I have a lengthy feature story about the scientific mainstreaming of geoengineering, which has occurred because of several trends: 1. Global warming seems to be moving even faster than scientists originally expected. 2.…
June 19, 2008
Over the past year, I've done well over two dozen talks, with Matthew Nisbet, about science communication. And now we're taking it to the next level. Next week at CalTech, we're unveiling a two-part affair: Our lecture (entitled "Speaking Science 2.0") followed by an all day "Speaking Science" boot…
June 18, 2008
My latest Science Progress column is up: It presents some ideas for improving the relationship between science and Congress other than the most obvious one--restoring the Office of Technology Assessment. The piece starts out like this: First the good news: The number of physicists in Congress just…
June 17, 2008
...we learn that New Orleans still can't necessarily withstand a strong Category 2. In other words, three years after Katrina, we still don't have the protections we were supposed to have before the storm hit. Gotta love the Corps, and its masters--Bush and Congress. All this, and I've been…
June 13, 2008
I have probably been remiss in not doing this post sooner. You may have noticed that Sheril and I are not blogging with our regular frequency these days. There's a reason: We are, as we've announced previously, working on our book, which is going to consume us for much of the summer. I still plan…
June 11, 2008
My latest Science Progress column is up: It's about two recent developments which basically prove that those of us who have been flagging abuses of climate science in the administration were right all along. The developments are these: 1) NASA's own Inspector General now backs up charges that the…
June 9, 2008
Well, I'm anxiously awaiting the July 19 premiere of scientist-filmmaker Randy Olson's newest feature, entitled Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy. The website is now up, and the trailer looks hilarious, as do the other various clips available (hint, click on the planets--when you get to the website…
June 5, 2008
Maybe it's the bug I caught when I moved to LA. But increasingly, I've been thinking about how well science connects--or perhaps rather, fails to connect--to the entertainment industry. It seems to me that there's evidence on both sides of this issue. Positives: 1. Hollywood made a science movie,…
June 4, 2008
I did my latest Science Progress column about last weekend's World Science Festival in New York, which I unfortunately could not attend, but which sounds like it was awesome. In my column, I simply had to rate the festival a success based upon how much of a splash it made, including in non-science…
June 3, 2008
Following a Natalie Angier story about a science and humanities blending curriculum at Binghamton University, Sheril wrote in to the paper--and actually got published. Here's what she had to say: As the product of an interdisciplinary graduate program, I cannot overemphasize the value of…
May 31, 2008
It doesn't look like much, and probably won't amount to much either. Nevertheless, the National Hurricane Center just renamed the remains of East Pacific Tropical Storm Alma--after crossing over Central America, this storm is in the Atlantic and should be called Arthur. I'm not even going to post a…
May 28, 2008
Next week, our leaders will begin to debate legislation that would significantly curb U.S. greenhouse gas emissions--the Lieberman-Warner bill. This legislation is nothing if not moderate--not strong enough for many environmentalists, but way too strong for the likes of George W. Bush. I've done my…
May 27, 2008
Perhaps some of you already have heard of this book by David Michaels, entitled Doubt is Our Product--which is basically the most comprehensive documentation yet of the war on science being conducted by private industry. But nevertheless, I want to emphasize again that you need to check it out if…
May 21, 2008
My latest Science Progress column just went up--it's a reaction to this intriguing proposal, by scholar Jonathan Gottschall, to remake the ailing field of literary studies with a scientific foundation. An excerpt: Writing in the Boston Globe ideas section, Gottschall describes in detail what his…
May 16, 2008
The Intersection just got an email from Oxfam America, asking for our help getting the word out about the urgent need to help cyclone survivors in Myanmar. To quote in brief: "In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis - which struck Myanmar on May 3, washing away entire communities - conditions remain…
May 15, 2008
...about, like, things people don't want to hear. But if you do want to hear, listen to this Skepticality podcast. I'll quote a particularly poignant part of it, from Olson discussing how little the science world does to support innovative attempts at communication (around minute 40): What if there…