April 22, 2017
Just a little video and some pictures from today's March for Science, Minnesota.
This one from the march route on the way to the capitol. Skip ahead to about 1:12 go get the best chant:
Another video, this one from The Hedge:
You don't see this sign at many protests:
Mammals were welcome at the…
April 21, 2017
We just had an execution by lethal injection. Everything went fine. If, by "fine," we mean a guy died as a bunch of people watched emotionlessly.
The execution was carried out so late in the process that only a few minutes passed between the pronouncement of death and and the expiration of the…
April 20, 2017
I'll never forget my first lion.
A colleague and I had just arrived in the Semliki Valley, in the Congo, to a part of that valley then known as the most predator-rich region of Africa, with loads of lions and heaps of hyenas. Lots of leopards too. We arrived at the main base camp for a large…
April 20, 2017
This is alarming and sobering. I was already alarmed and sober, but in case you were not, take heed.
April 20, 2017
On September 11th, 1640, a Dutch armada preparing to attack the New World Spanish settlements was lost to a storm, thus changing the course of Dutch, Spanish, and New World history.
On January 2nd, 1678, an entire fleet of French naval ships was lost off the Venezuelan coat, changing forever the…
April 19, 2017
I remember like it was yesterday, the anti Hillary rhetoric flying around during those final weeks of the election. People were making statements that seemed to be based on actual sources, though the sources themselves were not crossing my path. The attitude of those repeating the stories was very…
April 18, 2017
In which I interview Geoffrey Rojas, an organizer for Minnesota March for Science:
Books mentioned in the interview:
The War on Science: Who's Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It by Shawn Otto.
The Meetup Information for the Atheists Bus is here. The bus is currently full!
The…
April 14, 2017
Behold the following letter from Representative Donald S. Beyer in reference to the recent House Science, Space, and Technology hearing "Climate Science: Assumptions, Policy, Implications, and Scientific Method" held last month (Warning Big File):
Beyer Fact Check - Submitted April 11
Here is a…
April 14, 2017
The latest data from NASA GISS has come out, showing a surprise result for the month of March.
Hat tip to Jeff Masters of Wunderground for sending this info. He'll probably be blogging on it soon.
The surprise is that March, while expected to be warm due to human caused greenhouse gas pollution…
April 14, 2017
A lot of people are offering free advice to the Democratic Party these days. This is natural in the wake of a resounding defeat, especially a defeat that was snatched so clumsily from the jaws of victory.
I gave some advice a while back (see: Why Trump Won And How To Fix That For Future…
April 13, 2017
The New York Times has a history of supporting a certain degree of climate change science denial, while at the same time supporting some very good journalism in this area. Just now, the Times jumped over one big giant shark by adding Bret Stephens to its opinion page staff.
Stephens comes to the…
April 12, 2017
Why Hitler is Different
Hitler is not entirely different from Pol Pot, Stalin, and the other mass killers. He is not entirely different from other fascists. But there is a short list of people, with Hitler on that list, who have this characteristic: They were so bad that we can not and should not…
April 11, 2017
Righting America at the Creation Museum (Medicine, Science, and Religion in Historical Context) is a strange book and I do not fully approve of it, even though I'm mentioned in it (not in a bad way).
Here is the write-up of the book provided by the publisher:
On May 28, 2007, the Creation Museum…
April 10, 2017
About once a day, someone tells me that human caused climate change is not real because this or that thing in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contradicts something I, or some other scientists or science writer, has said.
I've noticed an uptick in references…
April 10, 2017
For example, consider the following truthful and accurate report. You won't see mainstream media doing this. Mainstream media would give a false "balanced" view, where the Republican attack on democracy is given the same positive spin as the Democratic attempt to save it. Why is this?
April 10, 2017
Here's a video from the Guardian on the current status of the reef:
This is going to take a while. If there is a major bleaching event every year for a few years, the reef could essentially die off right away, but most likely, there will still be a few years where coral can spread, and a few…
April 9, 2017
Hi there, folks. This post should have been a tweet in response to Roger Pielke Jr (@RogerPielkeJr), professor of political science at the University of Colorado Boulder, the guy who got fired by Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight for, as I understand it, his anti-science positions on climate change.…
April 8, 2017
The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, supported by Education Minnesota, ran the 29th annual Minnesota Book Awards ceremony tonight, and Amanda and I were graciously invited by author Shawn Otto and State Auditor and Gubernatorial Hopeful Rebecca Otto to join them at their table. Shawn's…
April 8, 2017
I was just thinking about Roger Pielke Jr. and Judith Curry, and the interesting situation they have found themselves in.
The hole they dug and climbed into. The corner they've painted themselves into. The metaphor that mightily mired them.
I'm talking about the situation they've created for…
April 7, 2017
I just read an interesting piece on the widely influential VOX, by David Roberts, called “A beginner’s guide to the debate over 100% renewable energy.” It is worth a read, but I have some problems with it, and felt compelled to rant. No offense intended to David Roberts, but I run into certain…
April 7, 2017
Indivisible is a lot like #Occupy but instead of being in tents, we are intense in other ways.
I have been at a few Indivisible meetings over the last few weeks. One of the questions I have about the movement is this: How many people in Indivisible now had voted for Trump, or in my case, our local…
April 7, 2017
For my friends who are thinking that military action like we just saw in Syria is OK.
No it isn't, even if it is.
Gather together the three smartest people you know. Then recruit the top five experts on Middle Eastern diplomacy, and the top five experts on military solutions in the region. Call in…
April 6, 2017
Have a look at the list of books, below.
Would you like a subset, or all, of these books, in electronic format, for very cheap? There is a way to do that. Note: This is time sensitive, the offer running for just about two weeks and it started yesterday.
I've reviewed several of these books on…
April 6, 2017
As we pass through Spring on the way to summer, the sea ice in the Arctic is starting to melt. The ice usually peaks by the end of the first week in March or so, then slowly declines for a few weeks, then by about mid-May is heading rapidly towards its likely September minimum.
With global warming…
April 5, 2017
This bill was so unpopular that only 11% of Americans thought he should sign it. It was so unpopular that 74% of Americans thought he should veto it.
This bill was not one of Trump's campaign promises, and it wasn't part of the Republican Party platform. I can only assume it was a bought and paid…
April 5, 2017
There are about four hundred species of birds we call "raptors" of which most are falcons, hawks, eagles, owls, and so forth. I believe there are about 40 in what is considered the United States (from a person, not a bird, perspective) and many of them are found across much of the US, with the…
April 5, 2017
In case you were wondering, Trump is telling you lies.
Syria is run by a horrible dictator. He is the kind of dictator that makes you want to bring back assassination of foreign leaders. The idea of putting him down is hardly an extreme one, once you know what he does and has done.
There was a…
April 5, 2017
Last week, House Representative Lamar Smith held yet another masturbatory hearing to promote climate science denial. Smith is bought and paid for by Big Oil, so that is the most obvious reason he and his Republican colleagues would put on such a dog and pony show, complete with a chorus of three…
March 31, 2017
A well known anti-science "think" tank has sent around, to teachers, a mailing including an antiscience book, a movie, and nice letter and, oddly, a pamphlet exposing the fact that the mailing is entirely politically motivated.
Most science teachers will ignore this. A few science teachers are…
March 29, 2017
It is hard to get very far into a discussion of non-fossil fuel energy, and the energy transition, without someone coming along and yammering about nuclear energy.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all for inexpensive and safe nuclear power and for building nuclear power plants that promise to eat up…