cmooney | April 2, 2008Not that you weren't already--but if you want to be really, really outraged about the nefarious techniques used to undermine accepted scientific knowledge, you need to go get a book entitled Doubt is Their Product, by David Michaels. I just reviewed it for The American Prospect. By the end of the book--no, by the middle--you will be just sickened (just like so many people have been by dangerous chemicals and products defended by dubious science).
Here is part of what I say in my Prospect review:
Even most of us who have gone swimming in the litigation-generated stew of tobacco documents (you…
cmooney | April 1, 2008*** Not An April Fools Entry.***
Well, folks, I am deviating from my original plan in this series of framing posts that I've promised. I had wanted to launch into a long--and, I think, revealing--insider narrative account of how it is that we wound up being this polarized. But that will take me some time to write.
People on the last comments thread, though, seem impatient for me to get to "substance." So I thought a slight deviation in my plan would be both more satisfying to them, and also quite illuminating.
What follows, then, is a series of premises that, at least to me--not necessarily…
sheril | April 1, 2008Last night I had dinner with Geerat Vermeij--a man who can examine a shell and understand its history whether hundreds of millions of years old or newly collected on the seashore. He's one of the world's most famous paleoecologists and has published on subjects ranging from leaf morphology to bird evolution. I've been interested to chat with the Distinguished Professor from UC Davis ever since reading about his research to understand evolution.
It also happens that Geerat Vermeij is blind. And yet, he sees what others do not...
My post is now up over at Correlations on this inspiring…
sheril | March 31, 2008Google takes part in Earth Hour 2008
Hope illuminated the darkness...
The next Earth Hour happens March 28th, 2009.
cmooney | March 31, 2008After taking some time to mull over the events of last week--when I saw a side of Scienceblogs.com I've not seen before, and that troubled me a great deal--I felt a strong need to clear the air. So let me say, at the outset of this first post in a series, that I speak for myself alone. There has been plenty of confusion of late about what Sheril thinks, what I think, and whether either is the same as what Matt Nisbet thinks, but at least with this post there can be no mistake. It is by its author and no others.
Reading over all the comments we managed to generate here last week--in which we…
sheril | March 31, 2008Over the weekend, an hour of darkness brought reason for hope. Earth Hour 2008 serves as evidence that around the world, we're collectively recognizing climate change and ready to act to curb our planetary fever.
Detroit
London
San Francisco
Check back for more photos throughout the day...
cmooney | March 30, 2008
I'm hitting the road this morning for a week-long, three stop trip that takes me first to Princeton, New Jersey; second to Georgia Tech; and third to D.C. The first two stops are for talks, the last is for R&R, reconnecting with old friends, and meeting up with Sheril to work on a new project we've come up with (of which much more soon).
In light of all the controversy of late, though, I must say I find it rather symbolic how the two major talks that I'm giving break down. First, with Nisbet, I'll be speaking in the Princeton/Woodrow Wilson School Science, Technology, and Environmental…
sheril | March 29, 2008This hit my inbox last night, and after a week that left Scienceblogs reeling, it's a much needed reminder that we all ought to stop taking everything so seriously and laugh at ourselves too now and then. I don't know who made this, but atheist, agnostic, or spiritual at all, it's absolutely hilarious! Listen for mention of expletives, framing, and references to that ridiculous new movie. PZ's already got it up at Pharyngula, and look out for Darwin raising the roof at the end!
sheril | March 28, 2008Today's the start of Canada's annual seal hunt and this year a new rule is in place to ensure seals are dead before they're skinned. Hunters must sever the arteries under a seal's flippers in an effort to make sure 'it's humane as it can be.' Seal pups 10-21 days old who haven't molted their downy white fur must be spared.
Animal activists call the hunt cruel with little supplemental income to sealers. The Fisheries Department says the practice is sustainable and well-managed, providing supplemental support for isolated fishing communities. The most recent survey in 2004 estimatese the…
cmooney | March 27, 2008
I haven't blogged in the last few days--what happened here over Expelled has been quite a shock to my system, and I'm still trying to process it. I will have something to say about all that as soon as I'm ready, so prepare the expletives.
Meanwhile, though, I wanted to point out my latest Daily Green item, which is about two recent bits of climate change news--one, that we're losing another Antarctic ice shelf, and two, climate change may not be the cause of tropical frog declines. I find the juxtaposition more than interesting:
In one case the impact of climate change is both dramatic and…
sheril | March 27, 2008It seems nearly universal that we are drawn to oceans. Children and adults alike marvel at whales, sea turtles, manatees, dolphins and on. Our imagination runs wild wondering about all the biodiversity and mystery lurking just below the surface of the great blue.
Check out my post over at Correlations for a Top Ten List on why oceans are so important to all of us...
sheril | March 26, 2008Well it seems Nature has taken sides in The Great Marine Invertebrate Wars, which began here at The Intersection last week:
A bizarre geek-fight has erupted in the blogosphere over which types of invertebrates are coolest, Echinoderms or Molluscs.
And I'm sad to report, the otherwise brilliant journal fails to recognize the awe-inspiring, ever-charismatic, comic-book-superhero marvel that is holothuria. sigh...
Having spent the weekend playing with octopus in the Med, the Great Beyond is committing the full weight of Nature's reputation behind the mollusca cause.
The lines are drawn,…
sheril | March 25, 2008As I watch our traffic ebb and flow, I sometimes wonder whether these waves may reveal something deeper about human nature--acting as a microcosm of our broader society's attention span. Of course, we know those engaged in the blogosphere are not representative of the general population, but it's possible we may gain some insight by following the tides...
Yesterday we saw a huge traffic spike. So big in fact, it was the second most viewed 24-hour period in this blog's history trumped only slightly by our coverage of the tragedy as it unfolded in Bangladesh last November when Cyclone Sidr…
sheril | March 24, 2008Dear PZ,
[It's worth pointing out, my problem is not with profanity. Regular readers know that long before I entered the blogosphere, I've vocally celebrated the right to free speech and independent thinking. However, when influential and well respected professors argue like children in a very public online forum, substantive points decompose to nonsense blows, which puts a poor lens on a field that already has an image problem. As visible teachers and bloggers in the sciences, it's within our power to make strides to improve that, and a well argued rebuttal, over a dismissive profane…
sheril | March 24, 2008Chris and Matt have already explained at length the danger in PZ's unintentional promotion of Ben Stein's Expelled. What's also interesting to consider is the strategy employed in the 'super trailer', which utilizes many subtle techniques that have proven successful in the social marketing of ideas to large audiences over time. They include a call to question authority, hints of a 'big science conspiracy', unspoken references to abortion through imagery, inadequate interpretation of Darwin's evolution, spooky music, and a seemingly reputable purveyor in Stein. I still don't understand the…
cmooney | March 23, 2008Read it for yourself. People actually involved in the promotion of films, like Randy Olson or this screenwriter, Kevin Miller, understand perfectly well how such a controversy helps Ben Stein. And Miller in particular ought to know: He'll surely get residuals if this film does well.
Why is our side so clueless? I have no idea, but it is eternally frustrating.
sheril | March 23, 2008In the epic unfolding that began last week here at The Intersection--which has come to be known throughout the interwebs as The Great Marine Invertebrate Wars--it's a proud day for echinoderm enthusiasts everywhere...
Yes friends, the ever-charismatic sea cucumber has become a comic book hero!
When we last left Pucker, we were missing the other star on the marquee of my nascent Web comic. But given the recent kerfuffle over on the Science Blogs over the merits of molluscs versus echinoderms, it seemed natural to settle on a sea cucumber as the best choice to play the sparring role. So…