October 1, 2013
An interview with Michael Mann on metastable shifts in climate:
Published on Sep 24, 2013
In recognition of climate week, Thom talks with renowned climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann about the dangers of global warming. Dr. Mann in concerned we may be running out of time to rein in global…
September 30, 2013
Paul Douglas from Weather Nation (and elsewhere):
For the 5th time in 23 years, the world's leading climate scientists have released an update on the state of the climate. WeatherNation Chief Meteorologist reviews the highlights plus shares the panel's predictions for the rest of the century.
September 29, 2013
I've been a guest or interviewer on Minnesota Atheist Talk radio a number of times. I never talk about atheism because I'm nothing close to an expert on that or related issues (though I do have a chapter in a book about it, here!). And, of course, I'm very involved, professionally, in certain…
September 29, 2013
The fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just come out, and Greg Laden joins us this Sunday to tell us what it means. What do over 800 representatives of 85 countries have to say about the state of consensus in scientific literature? More importantly, what do we need to…
September 28, 2013
We call it "weather whiplash." This is not just meteorologists being funny. It is a phenomenon that perhaps has always been with us to some degree, but that has recently become much more common, apparently. If you were under the impression that there is a lot of strange weather going on out…
September 28, 2013
From the Minneapolis City Pages:
The New Ulm Actors Community Theater has decided to cancel its planned production of "Inherit the Wind" thanks to pressure from local evangelicals who object to the way the play portrays the evolution/creationism debate.
And from the New Ulm Journal:
NEW ULM - The…
September 27, 2013
Each of these graphs from the IPCC policy summary shows the global surface temperature relative to a 1961-1990 arbitrary baseline. The upper graph shows the annual average, and thus captures a sense of variation reflecting a wide range of causes, but with a general trend from the early 20th…
September 27, 2013
Eight hundred and thirty or more authors and editors representing eighty five countries wrote this thing. It is about climate change, and reflects pretty much all of the current (except the most most current of course) peer reviewed literature on climate change, with the intention of providing the…
September 26, 2013
“We won’t include gays in our ads, because we like the traditional family. If gays don’t like it, they can always eat another brand of pasta. Everyone is free to do what they want, provided it doesn’t bother anyone else.”
Details here.
September 23, 2013
... on Skeptically Speaking:
This week, we’re diving back into neuroscience, to learn how common conceptions of the brain stand up to real research. Desiree Schell speaks to neurologist and author Robert Burton, about his book A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us…
September 22, 2013
342
That's, like, twelve years.
So if you are 28 years old or younger, you've never experienced a cooler than average month. If you live on Earth.
Paul Douglas has the skinny:
September 21, 2013
This is about Obama Care:
Here's Obama on the defunding effort:
If you can't see that second video, it is HERE.
September 21, 2013
Recently, formerly respected writer Matt Ridley has been making a fool of himself with absurd and scientifically unsupported commentary on climate change. Recently he wrote something for the Wall Street Journal, "Dialing Back the Alarm on Climate Change," that serves as an example of this.…
September 21, 2013
Hat tip Miss Cellania:
I would like to add this. Some devices that are meant to replace a knife may save you time when you chop the food item but then, can't be put in the dishwasher and have to be cleaned with a tiny toothbrush or something which takes way longer than the time you saved.
September 19, 2013
No.
First, let me tell you that the Journal of Cosmology has a very checkered history and anything published in it can not be trusted in the same way one might trust counter-intuitive results, provisionally at least, in a legit journal.
An article in the journal indicates that British scientists…
September 19, 2013
There is a strong argument to be made that the recent flooding in Colorado is the result of global warming. Here are three things one could say about the flooding. Think of these as alternative hypotheses to explain that event:
1) Weather has extremes. Sometimes, instead of raining just a bit, it…
September 16, 2013
Maggie Koerth-Baker has an amazing story at Boing Boing. The link is HERE. You just have to go read it. It is about what happened to the body of Addie Mae Colins, one of the people killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by the KKK. Just go read it.
September 16, 2013
The big, current, story in the Atlantic is, of course, hurrican/tropical storm (there is some confusion on the status of the storm over the last 12 hours) Ingrid. Regardless of how it is classified, Ingrid is going to cause major flooding in Mexico.
But over the next several days a second and…
September 15, 2013
Fukushima Update #70: If you can't measure it, you can't analyze it.
by Analiese Miller and Greg Laden
It has been suggested, by various commenters on the internet, that the problem with Fukushima is not that there is a dangerous radioactive mess there, but rather, that the authorities in charge…
September 14, 2013
The EPA is providing free climate change related content material for middle school kids.
You can get the material HERE.
In my opinion, even though this material is aimed at middle school audiences, it is all potentially useful in high school as well depending on the class you are running. For…
September 14, 2013
Ingrid is serious and is going to hit something. (UPDATE: Ingrid is the second hurricane of the Atlantic Season.)
A tropical disturbance of one form or another has been hanging around since around the beginning of the hurricane season in or near the southern Gulf of Mexico, and the latest instance…
September 12, 2013
Almost everything in the bible is exaggerated, including the floods. So when we have a flood that IS exaggerated (as a weather event) it is natural to call it biblical. The National Weather Service is calling this flood BIBLICAL (They always use all caps). Paul Douglas is calling it biblical (see…
September 11, 2013
I just heard about this:
University of Manitoba climatologist among three killed in fatal crash in Arctic Ocean
A Manitoba researcher is dead after a helicopter crashed into the Arctic Ocean Monday evening.
The University of Manitoba climatologist, Klaus Hochheim, was among three people who died in…
September 11, 2013
Black NRA from Sarah Silverman
September 11, 2013
Learning is easy. Getting it right is harder. Expunging falsehoods is hardest, but most rewarding.
There is a "meme" (using the definition of a meme as something most people in a certain community think whether it is true or not) that to produce one gallon of Ethanol for fuel you have to use some…
September 11, 2013
From Paul Douglas:
Much of the Upper Midwest could use a good soaking. Hard to believe when we started July, most of the Midwest was drought free. WeatherNation Chief Meteorologist Paul Douglas says in 35 years in the weather business, he's never seen such sudden changes. Hence the term: "Flash…
September 10, 2013
This just in to the newsroom...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
ZACK KOPPLIN FILES PUBLIC RECORDS LAWSUIT AGAINST SUPERINTENDENT JOHN WHITE
September 10, 2013
Re: Zachary S. (“Zack”) Kopplin, Citizen versus John White, in his Official Capacity as Superintendent of the Department of Education, a Department…
September 10, 2013
As you know, if Tropical Storm Humberto, which is out in the eastern Atlantic at the moment, turns into a hurricane AFTER noon tomorrow, September 11th, it will break the record for latest first hurricane in the Atlantic hurricane season for the period of good records. Everyone was expecting…
September 10, 2013
What if you went to drive to work one day and the highway on ramp was closed, and a big sign across it said "Highway is closed. Sorry for the inconvenience."
Well, you would find your way to a different highway entrance. But say that one was closed as well.Then, you check around and find out that…
September 9, 2013
Pacific Island Nations Tell The World ‘Climate Change Has Arrived’
“Climate change has arrived,” and the world must act. That’s the message from fifteen nations in the southwestern Pacific, who signed a statement yesterday calling on other countries to join them in “the urgent reduction and phase…
