sheril | February 11, 2008The invitations have been sent, the date and venue scheduled, and already the blogosphere and beyond are ablaze!
Hot off the Greenwire, Lauren Morello, reported:
A group of scientists, journalists and lawmakers pressing for a presidential science debate said today it is planning to hold the event at a Philadelphia science museum in April, just before the Pennsylvania primary.
The Franklin Institute will host the April 18 event, which organizers hope to broadcast on national television and the Internet.
Pennsylvania's presidential primary is just four days later, the group noted in its…
cmooney | February 11, 2008For months, everyone has been asking us--on and off the blogosphere--when will there be an invitation for ScienceDebate 2008? Well, that day has come. See here for the press release (featuring Intel chairman Craig Barrett, who just joined the initiative), and here for the actual invite.
The latter is quite long, so here are the essentials you need to know. ScienceDebate2008 is now co-sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academies, and the Council on Competitiveness. We were looking at venues, and finally settled on an offer from the Philadelphia-…
cmooney | February 11, 2008
...and I have read a lot of them, including Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe.
Nevertheless, the book I just reviewed in the latest New Scientist--Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King's The Hot Topic--trounces them all. This it does by being simultaneously more comprehensive, and less ideological, than any other global warming book I'm aware of. Or as I write of Walker and King:
Their overview of the science and policy of climate change is a model of clarity, comprehensiveness and, above all, sanity. It truly does find a middle ground in the…
sheril | February 8, 2008Okay, so it's Fashion Week in New York. But there's something I just don't get. Sure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yadda, yadda, yadda...and yes, everyone is beautiful in their own way, but uh, will someone please explain to me what's going on with the male models?
"Where the masculine ideal of as recently as 2000 was a buff 6-footer with six-pack abs, the man of the moment is an urchin, a wraith or an underfed runt."
I couldn't make this stuff up folks, that's straight from my own NYTimes!
Now we're used to hearing everyone complain about the women on runways being too thin and…
cmooney | February 7, 2008Clinton, Obama, and McCain have a lot in common on climate, but also perhaps a lot less than you might think. So, see here for what I think a race between two of them might mean for global warming policy. An excerpt:
Clinton's and Obama's cap and trade plans would auction off 100 percent of the initial pollution permits, using the proceeds for needed causes like investing in clean energy technologies that will reduce carbon emissions. In contrast, the Liberman-Warner bill - closer to McCain's favored approach - would auction off only a small percentage of allowances initially. Major emitters…
cmooney | February 7, 2008
..."not much," I'm afraid, is the answer to the question in the title of this post. In light of the recent, surprising tornado disasters in the South, I've done my latest Daily Green "Storm Pundit" item on the subject, and concluded the following: Given the data difficulties when it comes to studying such small scale and short lived phenomena as tornadoes, it is of course very hard to detect trends. However, there are theoretical reasons for expecting a change--more intense tornadoes, but perhaps less of them.
Is that cautious and unprovocative enough for you? See here for more.
sheril | February 7, 2008Ah, February... that very special time of year for celebrating the one we love (or bemoaning the greeting card industry). While flipping through the month's Scientific American, I came upon this article about 'Why We Kiss' and immediately found myself intrigued.
Now I expect most of us hope to experience the 'ever-elusive, out-of-the-ballpark-home-run, earth-shattering, perfect kiss,' but what exactly is it? How does it happen? Wait a sec, this is ScienceBlogs for goodness sake, so let's dissect this one carefully and get down to exploring the science of kissing...
Why do we kiss? It's…
sheril | February 6, 2008"The ocean holds a special place in all of our souls. A place where life came about, evolved and was cradled. A historical refuge from extinction. A place where bountiful resources nurtured early civilizations. A superhighway and living market for modern civilizations. Yet a place where we can rest our weary bodies, contemplate and find inspiration."
Carnival of the Blue 9 is now up at The Other 95% where host Kevin Z reminds us to 'Live like you love the ocean.' Of course, I already do...
cmooney | February 6, 2008
Recently, my inbox has been filling up with emails about new online resources that bring you up to speed on the science policy positions of the candidates. The AAAS has a website, as does Popular Mechanics, Physics Today, and Scientists and Engineers for America (the SHARP Network, which also looks at congressional candidate science policies).
And I'm sure there are other ones out there that I've simply missed.
In my latest Science Progress column, though, I canvass these sites and find, understandably, that most are based on information from campaign websites, candidate speeches, press…
cmooney | February 6, 2008I've just written a column about this to be syndicated by Blue Ridge Press, so I won't tip my hand yet...but instead I'll ask: What do you think? If it's a McCain-Clinton or a McCain-Obama race--i.e., a race in which both candidates care about addressing climate change--is that good for the issue (because it ensures that we'll get action in 2009) or bad for the issue (because global warming will seem to have been neutralized, even though there are actually significant differences between McCain and the two Dems)?
sheril | February 5, 2008
As much as I love New York, Superbowl XLII's got nothing on Super Tuesday!
So folks, with 3,156 delegates to be allocated, let's hear some predictions for today's historic 24-state White House nominating showdown...
cmooney | February 4, 2008Let us quote the source:
February 4 -- The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine are joining the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Carnegie Institution, the Council on Competitiveness, and several other organizations and universities in an effort to co-sponsor a presidential candidate debate on science, technology, health, and the economy. "This would provide a nonpartisan setting to educate voters on the candidates' positions on key science, technology, and health challenges facing the next administration, while…
cmooney | February 4, 2008
Just like Hurricane Felix, 2007's Hurricane Dean has now also been upgraded by the National Hurricane Center. I have done my latest Storm Pundit item about the new official tropical cyclone report (PDF). Interesting facts:
* Both Dean and Felix had maximum sustained winds of 150 knots, or almost 175 miles per hour (as estimated in these final reports). That means both were stronger than any other hurricane anywhere else in the world in 2007...which is odd.
* At landfall, Dean kept intensifying and there is a new estimate for the storm's minimum sea level pressure--905 millibars. That leaves…
cmooney | February 4, 2008PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer has just done a wonderful online story about how Science Debate 2008 originally came about, and how far it has come since those early days. Reporter Jenny Marder didn't miss a point that I myself have been making in talks like this one--namely that if it weren't for the Hollywood writers' strike, two of our central organizers, Matthew Chapman and Shawn Lawrence Otto, might've been a lot, er, busier, and consequently, we might have had a much tougher time getting off the ground.
To that effect, Marder quotes Otto: "This is the danger of what happens when writers…
sheril | February 4, 2008
Last Thursday night, my Blue Devils triumphed over N.C. State 92-72. But what turned the Cameron Crazies green?
The answer here...
cmooney | February 1, 2008I'm not quite sure what is up with people...but, they seem to be buying, already, copies of the paperback edition of Storm World on Amazon.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there's 5 % off on Amazon.com book preorders. I'm not sure.
In any event, given that I am devoting this weekend to writing a scintillating new introductory essay to the paperback edition, seeing some preorders come in was really inspiring.
Now I'd better deliver.
Also, I thought I'd preview, at this point, the new cover image for paperback. What do you think of it?
sheril | February 1, 2008
Lots going on just one day into February...
In Science magazine, Donald Kennedy has an excellent editorial called 'The Real Debate':
We in the United States are sliding down a ramp that will take us, in just 4 days, to the much anticipated "Super Tuesday" in the presidential nomination cycle, when voters in over 20 states participate in preliminary elections to select their favorite candidate. I have prepared for this by watching, in alternating stages of boredom and disbelief, the numerous "debates" staged by the creative powers who run television. I wonder whether the same sensations haven…
cmooney | February 1, 2008The entirely volunteer ScienceDebate2008 effort--owned by no one, and by everyone--continues to defy expecations.
Consider the "Science 57," a list of organizations and institutions that now endorse the effort:
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
American Economics Group, Inc.
The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Annual Reviews
Arizona State University
The Aspen Institute
Association for Women in Science (AWIS)
Astrophysical Journal
The Biophysical Society
The Carnegie Institution of Washington
Center for Inquiry
Center for Science Writings,…
sheril | February 1, 2008
From TreeHugger:
For anyone who doesn't have Superman vision, the text from this striking image says: "Don't let this be our future. Save our rainforest, stop global warming".
Sure it's creative and interesting. Alarmist to some and frightening to others. As for me, I'm reminded of Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol'--An artistic foreboding image of a potential 'Earth Yet to Come.' Our future's uncertain and depends on whether we act to change the way we live. I for one have great expectations that we'll curb our pesky carbon emissions, calm this planetary fever, and Tiny Tim lives.
cmooney | January 31, 2008Folks: Here's another old article I wrote that wasn't online. You could say this is the article that started it all...my 2001 report on how John Marburger had been marginalized in the Bush administration. We're talking old school....but at the same time, this kind of writing ultimately led to The Republican War on Science.
Political Science: The Bush administration snubs its science adviser
The American Prospect
December 3, 2001
MOST PEOPLE ARE DEMOTED FOR POOR PERFORMANCE. Dr. John H. Marburger, President Bush's newly confirmed science adviser, was kicked down a notch before he even started…