hrynyshyn
Posts by this author
August 30, 2006
This week we've been asked to comment on James Robbins' ridiculous essay in The National Review, Hooray For Global Warming. Although a more appropriate response would probably be to ignore such twaddle, that would be contrary to the whole blogging thing. Others might argue that it's obviously…
August 30, 2006
I will second David Ng's plea for everyone to watch or read the farewell speech of the outgoing UN ambassador for AIDS, Stephen Lewis. It's a rare combination of passion and reason, one that should leave every civilized person seething at what can best be described as a colossal failure of…
August 29, 2006
The first reports of the changing of the guard at the Vatican Observatory suggested evil-doing were afoot. The outgoing George Coyne is known as a stalwart defender of science and evolution in particular. But the Vatican later insisted Coyne was just tired of the job, which he had held for 30 years…
August 28, 2006
Astrology is not usually at the top of my worry list. Sure, there are far too many gullible readers of daily horoscopes, and it did bother me a bit to learn Ronald Reagan was consulting an astrologer while sitting in the White House. The space those astrology columns waste in the newspapers could…
August 25, 2006
Can someone please carry out a fact check on Katherine Harris' resume? Because I have to wonder about any institution that would bestow a degree on someone so ignorant of just about everything. Joan took a whack at her in the Refugee, but I want to grab the torch and run with it.
What prompted this…
August 24, 2006
The government spokesthingies say it's just a oversight. "On its own, it's not really a smoking gun," Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education tells New Scientist. "Inadvertant" is the explanation supplied to the New York Times. But the white space where "evolutionary biology" used…
August 24, 2006
I envy Nature reporter Jenny Hogan, who's been blogging from the International Astronomical Union's big meeting in Prague for the past couple of weeks. I've always considered science journalism the most fascinating sector of the industry (that's why I'm one), but Hogan appears to be having an…
August 23, 2006
Carl has added Jack Kemp to his pantheon of creationist-friendly pols after coming across the Republican presidential-wannabe's latest column, which attempts to cast doubt on the notion that pro-evolution forces aren't doing as well as the liberal media would have us believe.
I second Carl's…
August 23, 2006
A paper due to be published next month by Adrian White, a psychologist at the University of Leicester, makes a sincere effort to compare global happiness rates. This sort of thing has been done before, and surprises are few. As you might expect, happiness is correlated with health, wealth and…
August 21, 2006
If Richard Dawkins spends much time in the blogosphere, he's probably quite pleased with himself these days on account of the success of the meme meme. By that, I mean the "unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one…
August 17, 2006
The juxtaposition in recent news lineups of the debate over the definition of a planet and the depressing debacle in Lebanon puts the lie to the idea we live in a global village. While some of us are lucky enough to be paid to argue over whether "hydrostatic equilibrium" is enough to warrant…
August 16, 2006
Word is the proposal on the table at the International Astronomical Union meeting in Prague calls for a new definition of planet that would widen the category to include Ceres, Charon and "Xena." I say, bring it on!
Why?
Because change is good. It sends a great message to schoolkids everywhere:…
August 15, 2006
If only we could teach our kids what science is really about before they get too old, then they'd be better equipped to deal with intelligent design and other anti-intellectual propaganda that poisons the noosphere. At least, that's a common theory, one that's taken up again this week by Jonathan…
August 14, 2006
I have resisted reposting pre-ScienceBlog posts as the lazy way out, but seeing as how many of my fellow bloggers have done it, what the heck? This one comes from a year ago, on the heels of the discovery of "Xena," what might be a tenth planet. It seems appropriate given that newspaper columnists…
August 10, 2006
This week's issue of Science includes the results of a survey that doesn't exactly provide cause for celebration. LiveScience has a preview for those averse to reading journal papers:
A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to…
August 10, 2006
If any member of the medical profession wonders why more than a few people prefer to seek "alternative" treatments, wonder no longer. While ignorance and gullibility among the lay public are rampant, there is also the very serious problem that people simply don't believe that conventional,…
August 8, 2006
The news that Pat "700 Club" Robertson finally admits that climate change is something to worry about is a few days old, but I thought it worth mentioning.
His Road to Damascus conversion is all the more remarkable when this quote, when you recall that
In October, Robertson, a former Republican…
August 7, 2006
Here's a depressing way to start your week, courtesy of The New Statesman:
.."psychic schools have never been so busy, and it's not the Doris Stokes brigade who want to learn, but the young, the prosperous and the educated. Stephen Armstrong uncovers a paranormal boom."
If you don't know who Doris…
August 4, 2006
I've finally gotten around to reading The Next Big Storm, Can Scientists and Journalists Work Together to Improve Coverage of the Hurricane-Global Warming Controversy? -- the Skeptical Inquirer's monumental review of media coverage of the hurrican-climate change links, by our own Matthew C. Nisbet…
August 3, 2006
I used to be dead-set against the idea of letting Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists deny their children conventional treatment for life-threatening illnesses. It still makes me angry to know that there are mothers and fathers out there who love their god more than their sons and…
August 2, 2006
If you haven't already read Mike Dunford's latest posts (first here, and then here) on the FDA's attempt to restrict emergency contraception to adults only, it's time. Then, just for fun, try to square the government's position on abortion (it's wrong) with its actions (denying girls and young…
August 1, 2006
Well, not clams. And not legs as such. But there's a neat piece out in Nature on the evolutionary leap, so to speak, between fish fins and the limbs of land critters. A team of researchers has "discovered that the median fin of Catsharks, although originating from different embryonic cells, uses…
July 31, 2006
While online polls are generally worthless when it comes to generating representative statistics - see this post and ensuing dicussion (sorry for being cranky, girlscientist) -- they can at time produce quite curious results. This self-described unscientific poll from the Australian science…
July 31, 2006
On the one hand, it's kind of sad that early 21st-century society is in need of frequent reminders of just how important reason is. Israelis and Lebanese are slaughtering each other. Iraq is in the midst of what can best be described as a civil war. American politics is dominated by those who…
July 28, 2006
A newly unearthed memo from a rural utility in Colorado has shed some light on the thinking behind the coal industry's support for climate change contrarians. You can read the memo, which lays out a strategy for a propaganda campaign against the idea that climate change is something we should be…
July 27, 2006
It's like every rationalist's worst media nightmare. Pat Robertson interviews Sen. Jim Inhofe on the 700 Club. I know I shouldn't be surprised by what transpired. After all, Inhofe is the guy who keeps calling global warming the greatest hoax of all time. But I have to admit I wasn't prepared for…
July 25, 2006
Fill in the blank in this excerpt from a statement by 10 leading climate experts:
These ________ trends are setting us up for rapidly increasing human and economic losses from hurricane disasters, especially in this era of heightened activity. Scores of scientists and engineers had warned of the…
July 24, 2006
Time was when I wouldn't have cared much if my alma mater had invited a New Age quack to give a lecture on the university's dime. That was then. This is now. Under the very clever headline of "Pitching Woo-woo," Vancouver's online newspaper, The Tyee tells us that the University of British Columbia…
July 24, 2006
I see no reason why frivilous posts should be restricted to Fridays, especially when the item in question is as funny as the original Trek gang performing Monty Python's sendup of "Knights of the Round Table."
July 22, 2006
From today's New York Times comes a story that should worry everyone:
From 2002 until this year, NASA's mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: "To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next…