gregladen | January 26, 2013It has become increasingly difficult to understand the motivation behind climate science denialism. The Earth’s climate is changing, mainly in the form of increased temperatures of the oceans and the atmosphere, because of the release of copious amounts of previously trapped Carbon through the burning of fossil fuels. There is no longer a question that this is happening, and every year, the various details that one might like to see worked out, regarding the mechanisms or effects of climate change, are increasingly known. To state, with a straight face, that the jury is still out, or that we…
gregladen | January 26, 2013From the NCSE:
The Next Generation Science Standards represent a tremendous opportunity to strengthen science education in the United States, but also a tremendous risk.
Dozens of states have signed up to consider replacing their existing standards with these new ones. NGSS could revolutionize the US science curriculum, doing great good if they live up to their promise: if evolution and climate change are covered accurately, if they are integrated throughout the curriculum and across grade levels, if the nature of science is presented honestly and incorporated throughout the curriculum, and…
gregladen | January 25, 2013The Wall Street Journal recently published and editorial by Bjorn Lomborg which uses misleading statistics to justify utterly inappropriate delays in addressing climate change. I would like to direct you to a response to that editorial:
In WSJ op-ed, Bjorn Lomborg urges delay with misleading stats
gregladen | January 25, 2013With Masters, Mann, Hayhoe and Douglass. From Climate Denial Crock of the Week.
gregladen | January 24, 2013Michael Mann is one of the key climate scientists of the day. History will crown Mann as one of the great heroes who defended the freedom to do science rationally despite constant attacks from mean spirited and ignorant, self interested, politically motivated, oil-money-soaked climate science denialists. You know of Michael Mann as the coiner of the term "hockey stick" to refer to the alarming uptick in temperature and related measures connected to the human caused release of copious quantities of fossil Carbon into the Earth's atmosphere, causing one of the greatest disasters this planet…
gregladen | January 24, 2013We were talking about insects, and eating insects, and this reminded me of something funny. I was traveling in the most remote part of Central Africa, several days walk from any place you could possibly drive a car, visiting uncharted villages mainly occupied by people who had moved into the deep forest because they were in trouble with the "law" in some way (usually for perfectly good reasons in this lawless country). I was traveling with a Lese Villager and his sister, who was hired as our cook, and three Efe Pygmy men. We visited a village that was not exactly uncharted, but which…
gregladen | January 23, 2013I may want to do a poll here in the medium future, and I thought I'd try out some different methods to see what works. This first one is from this site.
If there was a poll on this blog, would you participate?
Yes
No
pollcode.com free polls
From the same site, a different objective and layout:
What kind of bird is depicted in each of these photos?
Photo A is a Sparrow
Photo A is a Hawk
Photo B is a Sparow
Photo B is a Hawk
Photo C is a Sparrow
Photo C is a Hawk
Photo D is a Sparrow
Photo D is a Hawk
pollcode.com free polls…
gregladen | January 23, 2013In a good way!
This is a very interesting story; I'm going to pass along the press release without modification:
NEA PRESIDENT SUPPORTS SEATTLE EDUCATORS WHO REFUSE TO GIVE FLAWED STANDARDIZED TEST
***Standardized test takes away from student learning***
WASHINGTON—National Education Association (NEA) members at Garfield High School in Seattle, Wash., voted to not administer the district-mandated Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) standardized test that is not aligned with state standards or the district curriculum. NEA has long urged for the careful consideration of the fact that these…
gregladen | January 23, 2013NOAA says 2012 was the hottest year on record.
According to the National Climatic Data Center of NOAA, 2012 was the hottest year on record in the US lower 48:
According to NOAA scientists, the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. for 2012 was 55.3°F, which was 3.2°F above the 20th century average and 1.0°F above the previous record from 1998. The year consisted of the fourth warmest winter, a record warm spring, the second warmest summer, and a warmer-than-average autumn. Although the last four months of 2012 did not bring the same unusual warmth as the first 8 months of the year, the…
gregladen | January 23, 2013This is smallish, but many of you will appreciate it: Comments now have numbers, like they should! So, we'all can more effectively yell at each other in the comments section! Yay!
gregladen | January 22, 2013There will be no Falcons in the Super Bowl, only Ravens, this year. But, there has been a lot of talk about Falcons lately so I jotted down a few notes and thought I'd share them with you.
One year after moving to Minnesota, I relocated to the city of Falcon Heights. If you know the Twin Cities you may be familiar with the “Saint Paul Campus” of the University of Minnesota. This campus is located almost entirely within Falcon Heights, not Saint Paul, and I think this is a missed opportunity. How cool would it be to take classes in ornithology, or visit the Raptor Center, in Falcon Heights…
gregladen | January 22, 2013Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis: Volume 1 - The Physical Climate is a new book you may be interested in, authored in part by my friend John Cook of Skeptical Science. Importantly, the project deals not only with climate change, but also, with important aspects of the politics of climate change and with climate change denialism:
The textbook is written for the introductory science student at the undergraduate college level. We describe the discipline of climate change science, and individual climate scientists whose expertise spans Earth history, geology, geography, biology,…
gregladen | January 22, 2013For starters, I've put a bunch of videos including a must see by Jon Steward and another must see by Melissa Harris-Perry HERE. Following is a veritable carnival of topical and timely posts, stories, and sites:
Warning shot: Gun violence lands US lowest life expectancy among rich nations
Widespread gun ownership and lax firearms controls were deemed major reasons for the US topping a list of violent deaths in wealthy nations. The study comes amid a fiery gun control debate, triggered by the fatal school shooting at Sandy Elementary.
The 378-page survey by a panel of experts from the…
gregladen | January 21, 2013Never mind Fresh Water Diatoms hitching a ride on meteors. We've got a possible Gamma Ray Burst in about 774 or 775 CE to talk about. Phil Plait has described the phenomenon which is reported here.
The tl;dr: Extra 14C Beryllium in tree rings laid down at that time had to come from somewhere, and the best explanation at present is a gamma ray burst resulting from two neutron stars melding. This might have been visible; some say that a visible signature would have been in the sky for a while, but maybe not. The gamma ray burst itself would be one of those colorless odorless tasteless…
gregladen | January 21, 2013Some may deny the science of climate change, but we're not listening to them any more.
Hat tip to Peter Sinclair for this clip:
gregladen | January 19, 2013As you know, I often mention reports from the Ohh Shoot blog, which chronicles the virtually daily instances of someone doing something accidental with a gun and the associated serious wounding or killing of one or more other individuals. These events are not part of the large number of suicides using guns that happen every year, and they are not part of the large number of shootings related to felonies carried out with the aid of a gun and they are not part of the number of times a person shoots a truly armed and dangerous intruder truly intruding the home (as opposed to a grandchild hanging…
gregladen | January 19, 2013Happy Gun Appreciation Day!
Let's spend a little time to appreciate guns. Because this is the very first Gun Appreciation Day! I'm not sure why we've never had a Gun Appreciation Day before, but now that we have one let's celebrate with a review of the last month's interesting stories about guns! Yay!
For completeness, because I'm sure Gun Appreciation Day was generated in response to the massacre of 20 six year olds and their teachers and other school personnel in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, we'll go back to the day before that event, to something sort of local to me, and review events over…
gregladen | January 18, 2013As I mentioned, I'm busy, so I'll just do this in pictures, kinda like a cartoon:
There was no "walk back" by Joe. He merely added some links.
The results of the poll so far:
Personally, I'm hoping for "Force him" ... that would be fun to watch.
Meanwhile, there is a lesson here. Science denialists like Anthony Watts do not want to be disagreed with. I think we may have already known that, though.
Related posts:
What's up with that?
Greg Laden, Liar.
gregladen | January 18, 2013... in preparation for an attack.
Also, more evidence, which you did not need, of how many people are in cars at any given moment, apparently!
This is a map where there are dots representing each and every person in the US and Canada. It is zoomable. Is is HERE. It is pretty freakin' cool.
It is also about all I've got for you today. Over the last two weeks the immediate and extended family has been ravaged with illness and stuff, things are in a state of slow down. When I'm not laying there sick, I'm taking care of Huxley, who is laying there sick, or, the two of us are laying there…
gregladen | January 17, 2013Sometimes, a person shows up at a gun range, checks out a gun ostensibly to use in target practice on the range, but instead uses the gun to commit suicide. In one case not long ago, a woman brought her teenage son to the range, and checked out two pistols. They took turn shooting for a while, then, while he was aiming his firearm at the target, she shot him in the back of the head and then shot herself. So that was murder-suicide. Now and then a person goes to the shooting range, and while shooting end up shooting themselves dead but it is not clear if it was an accident or suicide.
A quick…