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How the West was ‘Won’: with spin and rewriting history

The Discovery Institute is spinning wildly to make excuses for West's performance on Friday, and to declare him the "winner". I got two calls last night about Dr. John West's presentation at the University of Minnesota on Darwinism's fathership of eugenics. It appears that the scholarly and well-delivered lecture, derived from the new West book, Darwin Day in America, was successful in influencing the thinking of a largely skeptical audience. (The dyspeptic and ad hominem blogger/biologist Dr. P.Z. Myers was there and brought a Darwinist claque. West generously introduced him and acknowledged…

Weekend Diversion: A Story To Tell

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” -Rudyard Kipling You might not believe it, but when I was a kid, I hated writing. Absolutely hated it. And it wasn't because I didn't have anything to write, or because I didn't enjoy communicating my thoughts, or because I didn't like the written word, because I always enjoyed reading. Perhaps because I was a lefty with bad handwriting, I felt that the entire enterprise of writing was against me. Image credit: samarth over at MemeCenter. Of course, that was my issue to work through, and not only do I write all…

About That Satellite Data

Last December, the United States Senate subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, headed by Ted Cruz, held a hearing to which they invited a gaggle of climate change deniers and one good guy to testify about how the science on climate change is all wrong. I wrote about it here. The strangest aspect of this hearing was probably shock jock Mark Steyn's use of the venue to argue his case in a civil law suit pertaining to his apparently libelous behavior. But there was another feature of this hearing worth noting. Both the deniers, in particular John Christy, and Senator Cruz…

If only banality disqualified one from running for president…

I passed on listening to the Democratic debates, so you can sure as heck bet I skipped the recent Republican debate. Just as well, too; the candidates got pressed on that evolution question again, and wouldn't you know it, it simply triggered an avalanche of idiocy, with Mike Huckabee leading the way. Just look at these quotes. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth," said Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister. "A person either believes that God created the process or believes that it was an accident and that it just happened all on its own." An accident? That's the only…

The Lifetime of an Opportunity

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." -Henry Ford Back in 2003, a twin pair of rovers -- Spirit and Opportunity -- were launched from Earth to Mars. For no good reason at all, Opportunity has long been my favorite of the two. Image Credit: NASA / JPL, as are all the Opportunity rover pictures. Opportunity landed in January of 2004 in Eagle Crater, a relatively small crater on the surface of Mars. Originally slated for a 90-day mission, Opportunity has been going strong for nearly seven years now! Over that time, it's made some amazing discoveries…

Why Physics Gives Us Earthquakes!

"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake." -Jeannette Rankin As you all surely know, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake just struck Japan, devastating the island of Honshu. Before and after images link at abc.net.au. Ask a geologist, and they'll rightly tell you about plate tectonics, subduction zones, fault lines, and much, much more. But there's a simple physics reason that they happen underlying all of it. Image credit: Jean Anastasia. The Earth is built like a giant, spherical layer cake. The inner core -- made up of mostly iron and nickel -- is the densest of all the layers…

Never a Miscommunication?

Mr. Harley: Your impatience is quite understandable. Klaatu: I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it. Mr. Harley: I'm afraid my people haven't. I'm very sorry... I wish it were otherwise. -The Day The Earth Stood Still, 1951 People love to talk about the constancy of the natural phenomena. Every 24 hours, from anywhere not within either the Arctic or Antarctic circles, for instance, there's one sunrise and one sunset. Image credit: Danilo Pivato. And, of course, there are two high tides and two low tides every day. The Earth rotates on its axis, and revolves…

Here's the deal, Mike S. Adams: you don't pretend to be a biologist, and I won't pretend to be a sleazy ratbag columnist for a right-wing online tabloid

Mike S. Adams is pretending to knowledge of evolutionary biology again, in service to his insane ideas about feminism. It's ugly and stupid. My understanding of (and disrespect for) the underpinnings of modern feminism was actually fostered by a biologist who once made a very candid remark about the foundation of his support of Darwinism. When asked about the lack of evidence supporting Darwinism — the fossil record, etc. — he confessed there was a very human reason for his faith in evolutionary theory despite the lack of scientific evidence. He confessed that if Darwinism were not true, he…

Hubble for the Holidays: A Bauble of a Bubble

"When I had satisfied myself that no star of that kind had ever shone before, I was led into such perplexity by the unbelievability of the thing that I began to doubt the faith of my own eyes." -Tycho Brahe Supernovae are the most spectacular death-knells of the largest stars in our Universe. Nearly all stars burn light elements into heavier ones, releasing energy through the incredible process of nuclear fusion. But all stars eventually run out of this fuel. For our Sun, we've got about another 6 billion years left. But the more massive your star, the faster it burns through its fuel.…

The Best Stars You Might Never See

"The image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy." -Ezra Pound Back in the 1800s, observational astronomy was already entering its heyday. We had already discovered Uranus, the first planet not visible to the naked eye, knew of a number of comets and asteroids, and had a whole catalog of "bizarre" objects in the sky. Some turned out to be star clusters, globular clusters, remnants of exploded stars, or other galaxies entirely! But one of the unfortunate things about astronomy around 1800 is that the Southern Hemisphere objects were grossly…

Can explosions move faster than the speed of light?

"Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules." -Douglas Adams Every once in a while, a star in our own galaxy can do something to surprise us. Over in the constellation of the Unicorn lived a quiet, run-of-the-mill star named V838 Monocerotis. But in early 2002, it brightened incredibly rapidly, and the before-and-after pictures were rather astonishing. What was initially thought to be a nova turned out to be much, much more fascinating by time the Hubble Space telescope got around to looking at it in May of 2002. Warning: what you'…

I like this book so much I've read it 3 times: Neotropical Companion

The Neotropical Companion by John Kricher came out years ago, in the late 80s if I recall correctly. I've got a copy of it around somewhere. I loved that book because it did a great job integrating all the things in one place: animals, plants, habitats, evolution, etc. Even though I was working in the paleotropics at the time, I found it informative. Then, more recently, I got a revised version of the same book. I've got it around somewhere. It is from the 1990s, I think. Great book, same idea as the first one, but with more in it, and a somewhat larger format. This dates to after my…

Cindy Lee asks a favor

A reader sent in a request that I post a reply to an old article. How old? From June 2005. I'd almost forgotten this old quack, but Cindy Lee had to remind me. Yes, the email she sent was all set in Comic Sans. It seems most of these posting are rather old so in reading them I am going to comment and post a more up-to-date statement. It is easy to be critical of something you have not experienced. I have hear stories, been to several healing services at the churches and have had five or six private office visits with Dr. Nemeh. I have also encouraged many family members and friends to come…

Most Recent Polling Shows Tight Race

"Trump's chance of victory have doubled over the last two weeks," notes FiveThirtyEight, and this is in accord with what I've been saying. I suggested a few days ago that while Clinton would probably win, there is a nowhere near zero chance that she won't. FiveThirtyEight came out with an analysis today very similar to mine, suggesting that Trump has abut a 3 in 10 chance of winning. Historically, races tighten near the end, I think FOR THIS REASON mainly, and that has been happening. The actual national difference between Clinton and Trump by Tuesday will probably be about 2.5 percent or…

Creepy Clown Open Thread

I refer you to the book Bad Clowns, by Benjamin Radford. I remember my first bad clown. I was at a Home Bureau event with my mother, and I was probably not in kindergarten yet. Home Bureau was part of the "Ladies Auxiliary" arm of the war effort during WW II, that remained as an organization long after. It had to do with sewing, I think. This was at the Albany Armory. It might not have been a Home Bureau event per se, but a Home Bureau booth at a larger scale event of some sort. And there were many different events and attraction. One of the things they had was a booth with Bozo the…

The 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season So Far. Keep an eye on Hermine.

A quick note about the current Atlantic hurricane season. With resect to just the US, we've had a fairly low level season, and it is easy to become complacent about this time, but in fact, the risks from Atlantic hurricanes rise about this time of year, so pay attention. Watch for Hermine. More on that below. We are approximately in the middle of the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season, by calendar time. The number of named storms (tropical storms plus hurricanes) predicted for this year is about 14, taking the average of all the predictions made so far, and there have been 7 storms including…

The Last Great Prediction of the Big Bang!

"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." -Neils Bohr As many of you know, the Big Bang is one of the most powerful scientific theories we have. It's also one of the most unsettling. The idea that our entire Universe -- filled with practically a trillion galaxies -- is only three times as old as our Sun and was once compressed into the size of your thumb is pretty unsettling. As an astute commenter noted earlier this week, I'm asking what persuasive predictions BB has to its credit. Most usually the best I see is new observations favoring one BB variant over…

I am not afraid to believe in the Big Bang!

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -Aldous Huxley People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs. -Anonymous Over at The World's Fair, the question of belief in science arose with the provocative question, "Do you believe in the Big Bang?" I thought about it for a few seconds. What popped into my head? The thought that, 13.7 billion years ago, all of the matter and energy within our observable Universe was concentrated into a space no bigger than the size of a single proton. That the incredibly high densities and temperatures in this…

Starting the New Year Right (with a Bang, of course)

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right. -Oprah Welcome to 2010, everybody! I know that many of you have been following my writing for some time, and many of you have just started recently, so I'd like to start the New Year off right, and (re)introduce myself and this blog to you. With lots of pretty pictures. My name's Ethan, and I love the Universe. I love looking up, out, and beyond what's here on Earth, into the great abyss of deep space, and trying to figure out what's out there. Not just what's out there, but how it got to be there, where it came from, where it'…

Inflation’s Problems and Alternatives

This month's issue of Physics Today has an interesting article by Robert Brandenberger of McGill University, entitled Alternatives to Cosmological Inflation. As a refresher, cosmological inflation is the theory that sets up the Big Bang: it takes whatever was in the Universe prior to inflation and expands it away, leaving you with a Universe that has roughly (to a few parts in 100,000) the same properties everywhere, and is spatially flat. There are many models of inflation which give a Universe like ours, although we have to fine-tune the parameters of it. For instance, if we treat…

Is Harvey a failure of the assumption that we'll adapt to climate change?

There are two reasons that it is fortunate that the death toll for Harvey is very low, compared to similar size storms at other times and at other places (zero at the time I first wrote this, a few confirmed, maybe ten or so suspected three days after landfall).. One is that all those people didn't die! (Obviously.) The other is that we can ask honest questions about this event, while the event is still fresh in our minds (and, at the moment, actually happening) with the intent of eventually seeking some clarity, without concern trolls biting at our ankles and telling us that we must wait…

A Letter To The Logging Company That Is Suing Greenpeace

This is interesting. It is a letter from Hachette Livre, a major international publisher, to Resolute Forest Products, the group that is trying to sue a number of environmental groups into submission. (See these posts: Taking The Axe To The Environmental Movement: Resolute v. Greenpeace and Freedom of Speech, Resolute Forestry, Stand.Earth, Greenpeace: New Developments) Hachette Livre uses Resolute, and seems to be a significant customer of the tree cutting pulp giant. And, they are giving Resolute a little what for: HACHETTE LIVRE’S COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Richard Garneau…

What Makes the Universe Expand?

So, the Universe started with a bang. Everything was hot, dense, and expanding. It's 13.7 billion years later now, and our Universe is cold and sparse. The temperature of the leftover glow from the big bang -- which used to be over 10^30 degrees -- is now down to 2.7 Kelvin, just barely above absolute zero. The Universe used to be denser than the center of the Sun. Now, on average, the density of the Universe is only about one proton per cubic meter, with mass clumped into stars and galaxies separated by trillions of miles. But, for all of it, the Universe is still expanding. What's amazing…

Weekend Diversion: The Steps of Man

Somewhere in my mind, I like to try and construct a timeline of all of human history. Yes, there's the obvious stuff, like the discovery of fire, the learning of what foods will and won't kill you, the domestication of the dog, and all the similar things that led us to become successful hunter/gatherer tribes. Yes, these were incredibly important steps, which allowed us to do things like eat more meat without getting sick through the power of cooking, find out that some poisonous plants are actually edible when you either boil them or eat only the proper part (hi, rhubarb), and the start of…

The Camera that Changed the Universe: Part 4

Yesterday, the Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the Hubble Space Telescope, and now the removal and replacement of WFPC2 has commenced. As you probably know, I'm going to miss that camera. It's been unveiling the secrets of the Universe for the last 16 years, and in a way that no other camera ever has before. So, you can check out parts one, two, and three in my series of ways that this camera has changed the Universe, and then look below for today's edition of saying goodbye to Hubble's grand old camera, WFPC2. Part FourOnce in awhile, we get very lucky in the Universe. Instead of looking…

Manifesto Against Islamic Totalitarianism

A group of writers and dissidents have issued a joint manifesto called Together facing the new totalitarianism, which has been published, appropriately, in the same Denmark newspaper that published the caricatures which have caused much violence around the world. The signers include Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasreen, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and several others whose lives are in constant danger from the fatwas issued by radical Islamist clerics. I will publish the full text of this manifesto, with which I agree fully, below the fold: After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now…

A New Human

A few years ago, everyone was in a tizzy over the discovery of Flores Man, curious hominin remains found on an Indonesian island that had a number of astonishing features: they were relatively recent, less than 20,000 years old; they were not modern humans, but of unsettled affinity, with some even arguing that they were like australopithecines; and just as weird, they were tiny, a people only about 3 feet tall with a cranial capacity comparable to a chimpanzee's. This was sensational. Then on top of that, add more controversy with some people claiming that the investigators had it all wrong…

Update on Dembski and Shallit

More information has come to light on this situation. I noted on Monday that Shallit had not testified, despite being deposed, because after Dembski withdrew the TMLC had objected to allowing him to testify and the attorneys reached an agreement that he would not do so unless they used Dembski's work in their defense case. There was some doubt, however, as to whether there had actually been a motion filed by the defense to prevent Shallit from testifying. As it turns out, there was. I've uploaded that motion and it can be viewed here (pdf file). All of this makes Dembski's claims the other…

Denyse O'Leary's Latest Absurdity

For those of you who don't know of her, Denyse O'Leary is sort of the ID movement's demented, spastic little cheerleader. She's a Canadian journalist who spends most of her time making profoundly silly claims in support of ID. Her latest bit of loopiness is to claim that Stephen Jay Gould would not have signed the NCSE's Project Steve statement, named after him, in support of evolution. That statement reads: Evolution is a vital, well-supported, unifying principle of the biological sciences, and the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that all living things share a…

Defense Witness Helps Plaintiffs

The Thomas More Law Center's defense of the Dover school board is beginning to resemble a Keystone Cops sketch. After having yet another witness drop out, they presented Steve Fuller, a British sociologist, to defend the teaching of ID in public schools. And you're gonna love the rationale he offered for why it should be taught: Because the scientific community is a monolith, impenetrable and often hostile to new theories, intelligent design proponents have to turn to the public schools to recruit support, a witness said Monday... A sociology professor from the University of Warwick in…

About Me

Ed Brayton has had an interesting 37 years on the planet Earth. During college, he coached high school debate for 3 years, followed by more than 4 years on the road as a stand up comic. Today he is a freelance writer and a partner in a mortgage company and a political consulting firm. Okay enough of speaking about myself in the third person. In honor of James Lipton and that French guy he's always talking about, whose name I can't remember, I'll begin the list of things about me with the questions he asks of every guest at the end of Inside the Actor's Studio. What is your favorite word?…

Wedding Tales

Just discovered a great blog through someone who left a comment on this site. This blog is done by Sheila O'Malley. Reading some of her entries had me laughing out loud in my office. There was one on being a bridesmaid that reminded me of my own experience as a best man. I've only been a best man once and it was now nearly 12 years ago, for my oldest and best pal in the world, Rick, and his wife Tami. Brian, another of the groomsmen, and I arrive together at her parents' house the day before the wedding for the rehearsal dinner, and we are unfortunately the first to arrive. Being the first…

The JoMo Creationist Challenge, Take 3

The saga of Joseph Mastrapaolo's $10,000 challenge to evolutionary scientists continues. As I noted a few days ago, the True.Origins webpage removed the "debate dodgers" article that so childishly attacked evolutionary scholars who didn't respond to their already-defeated challenge to prove their case in a court of law (though I recently found another version of the article here). I sent an e-mail to Tim Wallace, who runs True.Origins, and asked why it was removed. He replied that it was removed due to "questions about the potential legitimacy of the debate challenge itself". He didn't spell…

Thinking Rationally about Climate Change: FTBConscience Conference Session

Climate Scientist John Abraham and I just finished a session of FtBConscience on Climate Change and during that session we promised to provide some useful links. We also used some graphics during the session. Below are the links and the graphics! First, here is the video of the session: Climate Change Science Twitter List I created a twitter list of people (or organizations) that tweet about current climate change science. If you check this list at any given moment you’ll know the latest climate science news. If you have a suggestion as to who should be added to this list, send me a tweet!…

Arctic Sea Ice Cracking Thing (Updated)

It is important to get this right. There is something interesting happening in the Arctic right now, and some people are pointing to it and jumping up and down and yelling about how it is a major climate change event. But it may very well not be. Or it could be. The thing that is happening is something that normally happens, but there are features of the event that are odd. We won't know its significance until the Northern Summer, and even then we won't be sure if this is just an unusual thing for this year or a new trend because, by definition, trends run over periods of time. Every year as…

Antiscience bill dies in Oklahoma

From the NCSE: Senate Bill 758 (document), the so-called Oklahoma Science Education Act, which would have undermined the integrity of science education in the Sooner State, is dead. February 25, 2013, was the deadline for Senate bills to pass their committees, but the Senate Education Committee adjourned its February 25, 2013, meeting without considering it. Still active in the Oklahoma legislature is House Bill 1674 (document), styled the Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act, which differs from SB 758 primarily in mentioning "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life,…

Australia's BoM no AGW, Tasmanian Fire Video, and a Koala. #BigAussieHeat

First, a word about the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's position on climate change, heat, and fires. It has been suggested (by a commenter here) that the BoM is claiming that the current heat wave is not related to climate change, but rather, a matter of natural variability and a late arriving monsoon. But that is not true. The BoM has a different take on the current situation. From Ben Cubby, an Australian journalist: The heatwave that has scorched the nation since Christmas is a taste of things to come, with this week’s records set to tumble again and again in the coming years, climate…

A brief history of disbelief

I just finished watching a copy of a three-part program that was broadcast in England three years ago — A Brief History of Disbelief, narrated by Jonathan Miller. All I can say is … wow. It's less an advocacy of atheism than a kind of post-atheism, a historical and philosophical review of this strange, dying idea of "religion" that reveals the progressive growth of atheistic thought. It's wonderfully dismissive. The real question isn't how people can disbelieve, but how faith can survive and still linger on. Here's a brief summary of the programs: A Brief History of Disbelief combines an…

The Disappearance of the Rainforest of the Sea

Let Them Eat Shrimp: The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea by Kennedy Warne has been out for about a year, but if you've not seen it you may want to have a look at it. Warne, editor of New Zealand Geographic magazine, is a naturalist who writes about the embattled mangrove swamps, which are a key part of many oceanic ecosystems as well as local and regional economies. "What’s the connection between a platter of jumbo shrimp at your local restaurant and murdered fishermen in Honduras, impoverished women in Ecuador, and disastrous hurricanes along America’s Gulf coast?…

A True Ghost Story Part 4: I see dead people. Hey, It's my job!

... Continued ... I wrote earlier about the graves that were dug daily to receive the dead. In truth, the details of this procedure are still being worked out by archaeologists at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, but when we were there on this particular trip, part of the grave yard to which I refer had been just discovered, accidentally uncovered during a public works drainage project. I've never seen anything quite like it in all my years as an archaeologist. It should not have been terribly surprising that there were graves in this particular patch of land, just across a small road…

A True Ghost Story Installment D: I see dead people. Hey, It's my job!

I wrote earlier about the graves that were dug daily to receive the dead. In truth, the details of this procedure are still being worked out by archaeologists at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, but when we were there on this particular trip, part of the grave yard to which I refer had been just discovered, accidentally uncovered during a public works drainage project. I've never seen anything quite like it in all my years as an archaeologist. It should not have been terribly surprising that there were graves in this particular patch of land, just across a small road from an existing…

Even Better than a Halloween Costume: Life Size Cutouts!

I went to graduate school to study Anthropology, so naturally, there was very little funding. Some semesters, I paid the bills working as an administrative assistant for one Harvard Muckimuck or another, often at the Kennedy School of Government, but for a while, at the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. There, I was the assistant to the director, a man named Marvin Kalb. There is a chance you've heard of him as well as his brother, Bernard. Kalb was the Shorenstein Center's original director and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy.…

Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses

A paper coming out in the next issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases addresses the question of the link between vaccines and autism. This new review article examines three hypotheses linking vaccines to autism: (1) the combination measlesâmumpsârubella vaccine causes autism by damaging the intestinal lining, which allows the entrance of encephalopathic proteins; (2) thimerosal, an ethylmercuryâcontaining preservative in some vaccines, is toxic to the central nervous system; and (3) the simultaneous administration of multiple vaccines overwhelms or weakens the immune system. […

The State of State Science Standards

The vast majority of American public school students are not proficient in the level of science learning expected for their age group. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has issued "The State of Science Standards 2012" as part of an effort to assess the causes of this dismal state of affairs. Here's a map summarizing their results: State Science Standards Grades, 2012 Notice that some of the battleground states for the "Evolution-Creationism Controversy" have reasonable ratings. Notice also the vast regions of D and F states. In fact, in order to convey the meaning of it all, I've created…

The torch has been passed on: Ann Reid is now running NCSE

I admit it is hard to imagine a National Center for Science Education without Genie Scott; the NCSE was Genie, and Genie was the NCSE. But I think I know what Genie would say if she heard me say that. The NCSE will be fine without her, Ann Reid is going to do great, etc. etc. And, I'm sure that is all true, owing both to Ann Reid being an excellent choice of Executive Director, and because Genie and the other staff at NCSE have done an excellent job. Here's part of the announcement of the change in leadership, which happened yesterday: Ann Reid is joining NCSE as Executive Director,…

Faux Pause: climate contrarians lose favorite talking point

In an ongoing effort to discredit mainstream climate science, climate contrarians have incorrectly asserted that there is a “pause” in the rate of global warming. This was never true, but now, it is even less true. (Originally Published Here) To any objective observer, the Earth is now a world warmed. The decade 2001–2010 was the hottest decade on record, and every single month since March 1985 has been warmer than the 20th century average. The present year promises to be the sixth warmest year on record. Already this year, our fellow Americans out West have been confronted by record…

How does Richard Dawkins corner the Atheist market?

Years ago I knew Richard Dawkins as a fellow evolutionary biologist (met him only once, at a memorial event for WD Hamilton, but we have numerous mutual friends and colleagues). To be frank, and I'm only being frank now because I'd prefer not to use my real name, Dawkins was considered a bit of an enigma. He had great fame (and fortune and privilege) but that was without doing much important research. I always defended him back in those days. His fame came from The Selfish Gene and his subsequent books, and his popularization of science was well done and important. Those who complained,and…

Funny haha, funny strange

... Continued ... Funny Thing Two and Funny Thing Three.... Second funny thing: BFF Stephanie and I were working in the free weight area of the Kimberly gym one evening. There were a lot of people there. Then these two meaty looking guys came in and tossed a big rubber thingie on a bench. One of the guys then proceeded to unpack the rubber thingie, and it was some kind of shirt or jacket, much like (yet different from) a wet suit. So Guy One starts to put the jacket thing on, and Guy Two is helping him, but it seems to be several sizes too small. Photo by Flickr user Sum_of_Marc. These two…

How To Identify Hawks at a Distance (and a recommendation on binoculars)

Imma let you hear all about how Hawks at a Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors is a remarkable and important field guide, but first I want to mention that one of the most interesting parts of that guide is the forward by Pete Dunne, who himself has written a bird book or two. Dunne reviews the history of bird identification guides, going back to the time before they actually included illustrations (yup, just words!) and follows the evolution of bird guides through the 20th century, with special reference to how raptors have been handled. Or, more exactly, mishandled. It make sense…

Influenza, "fear-mongering," and conspiracy

See, it's posts like this (and many of the comments that follow; hat tip to Mike) that make me worry about "bird flu." I'm more concerned about the inaccurate information and attacks on those who work in the field (and the effect this may have on public acceptance of real public health advice) than I am about the actual virus at the moment. Too many people think avian influenza is either just "media hype" or a government conspiracy (one commenter even cited the oft-refuted notion that HIV was a man-made virus. Aargh). They downplay it because it's killed relatively few people thus far,…