Announcements
illconsidered | June 23, 2009James Hansen was arrested today for trespassing at a protest against mountaintop removal coal mining in Coal River Valley, West Virginia.
Today Top Climate Scientist James Hansen and Actress Daryl Hannah were Arrested in Effort to Stop Mountaintop Removal
Also arrested was former Representative Ken Hechler, Michael Brune of Rainforest Action Network, Goldman Winner Judy Bonds and more than a dozen Appalachian residents and allies
Protest on the heels of Obama administration's new policy on the destructive coal mining practice
The question is: does this diminish his scientific integrity or…
thusspakezuska | June 22, 2009Hi all...just wanted to let you know that I am planning to do the first post for Chapter 2 of The Gender Knot sometime next week, probably mid-week. I have the new edition of the book and have been reading but there's a lot of stuff going on with mine and Mr. Z's family this week. I hope to do a few posts on other topics in the meantime, but we will be back with the Gender Knot next week. Meanwhile. there are still some pretty active discussions on the last few posts. Thanks to my readers for such intense conversation.
illconsidered | June 21, 2009Just like those national debt clocks showing you dollar by dollar how high it is, this site has a "Carbon Counter" showing how many metric tons of carbon have been released into the atmosphere.
As I post this, we are at 3,642,255,344,781. No wait, now its 3,642,255,367,521...no, it's 3,642,255,381,988...well, you get the picture!
They have some other interesting resources there as well.
oracknows | June 18, 2009Don't forget to get your fortnight's dose of skepticism right here, as The Unincredible Hallq serves up the latest Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. It's another tasty concoction of skepticism, critical thinking, and science.
Next up on July 2 will be a newcomer and first time host, Homologous Legs. If you're a blogger with a skeptical bent, start sharpening your pencils (metaphorically speaking, of course--who uses pencils to blog?), and be sure to send your best stuff for the 114th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. Then join us here two weeks hence!
thusspakezuska | June 15, 2009Kim at All of My Faults Are Stress Related asks:
I've got a question for women readers, especially those in the geosciences, environmental sciences, or field sciences: what do you get out of reading blogs? And if you have a blog yourself, what do you get out of writing it?
I'm asking because there's a session at this year's Geological Society of America meeting on "Techniques and Tools for Effective Recruitment, Retention and Promotion of Women and Minorities in the Geosciences" (and that's in the applied geosciences as well as in academia), and I wondered whether blogs (whether geo-blogs or…
oracknows | June 14, 2009Don't forget, everyone: The Skeptics' Circle is fast approaching. It's due to appear at The Unincredible Hallq on Thursday, June 18. Don't forget to get your submissions to Chris here before it's too late. Guidelines are here.
oracknows | June 4, 2009Skeptics, unfortunately, have an image problem. The woo-loving crowd thinks we're all stodgy and buzz-killing, but we like to party just as much as anyone else. Indeed, the latest Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is proof positive, as our host Cheshire hosts a Skeptic Party.
Next up is the Unincredible Hallq, who, I hope, will be back from his blog break by June 18, which is when the the next Circle will appear once again.
jstemwedel | June 1, 2009Remember those prizes 3 Quarks Daily is offering for the best science blogging of the past year?
Well, the nominees are now up, including four of my posts:
How does salt melt snails?
SVP Ethics Education Commitee statement: lessons learned from 'Aetogate'
The Hellinga Retractions (part 1): when replication fails, what should happen next?
The Hellinga Retractions (part 2): when replication fails, what should happen next?
If you have several hours and a taste for some informative and entertaining writing about science, the full list of nominees will provide lots of good reading.
But don't let…
oracknows | May 29, 2009I've been a bit remiss in not mentioning that everybody's favorite blog carnival (well, at least my favorite blog carnival), the Skeptics' Circle, is fast approaching. This time around, it'll be hosted by Cheshire, who has helpfully provided a reminder with contact information. It'll be here on Thursday, June 4, which means you have less than a week to provide some material to make this blog carnival a success. So, if you're a skeptical, science-based blogger, please be sure to make sure to send some good skeptical blogging Cheshire's way in order to make this yet another successful and…
thusspakezuska | May 27, 2009I promised you the first post on The Gender Knot today, and I still plan to get it up today if at all possible. My plan had been to work on it Monday and Tuesday but most of those days I was plagued with headache and it was difficult to concentrate on writing. So, it's not done yet.
Please note Chapter 1 is available online here.
In the meantime, perhaps you'd like to listen to fellow Scienceblogger Pal MD's latest Palcast, The Kitchen Edition, which relates to my post On Being A Patient.
Or maybe you'd like to read this post by Sheril Kirshenbaum at The Intersection and just puke, puke…
jstemwedel | May 27, 2009Actually, the awards will include other sorts of blogging, too, but it's the awards for science blogging that have a fast-approaching nomination deadline.
3 Quarks Daily Announces The Quarks: The First Award for Best Science Blogging Judged by Steven Pinker
Celebrating the best of blog-writing on the web, 3 Quarks Daily will award four annual prizes in the respective areas of Science, Arts & Literature, Politics, and Philosophy for the best blog post in those fields. This year, the winners of the 3QD Prize in Science will be selected from six finalists by Steven Pinker, who will also…
illconsidered | May 23, 2009By the by, I have another post up on The Energy Grid called The Blame Game.
This week's question is one of finding fault. What brought us to the current confluence of crises? Was it a failure of the political, or the technological?
Unlike the beltway pundits and the political scoundrels they defend, who use the phrase "blame game" to mockingly to retreat from accepting responsibility for, well anything, I don't think blame is just a game. Insanity is sometimes defined as trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, if you never bother to revisit your…
thusspakezuska | May 22, 2009UPDATE: There still seem to be some comment problems. Two entries, at least, are missing most of their comments and when I tried to test comment on one of them, the comment landed on another entry. Trying to get it fixed... (10:20 pm Fri. evening)
UPDATE: Hopefully the borked comments problem is fixed now. Some problems with the MT software, some settings were messed up...think I've got it straightened out now. If you are seeing problems anywhere on my site, please email me at
bobtownsuz AT yahoo DOT com.
Dear Readers, from where I sit, it seems to me that on each entry on my blog,…
oracknows | May 21, 2009Time flies, and the ShamWow guy shows up...
And so does the 111th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, this time at hosted at Action Skeptics. You'll never look at the ShamWow guy in the same way again.
Next up is Cheshire, who will be hosting two weeks hence on June 4. This blog has never hosted before, and we always love to bring new blood to the Circle. So get your best skeptical work ready. You have less than two weeks.
oracknows | May 18, 2009Time marches on, flies, or does whatever it is that time does, and, before I know it, two weeks have passed, and you know what that means. That's right, the next meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is only three days away.
This time around it's going to be hosted at Action Skeptics. Blog-specific instructions for submitting your work can be found here. General instructions for submitting your work can be found here. So get cracking! There's still time!
Finally, as usual, I'm always on the lookout for intrepid skeptical bloggers to host their very own meetings of the Skeptics' Circle. Take a look…
thusspakezuska | May 15, 2009Well, that's quite a vigorous discussion we've all been having these past few days over proto-feminist d00ds, no? I am grateful to you all for your participation and for the many good suggestions made to help proto-feminist d00ds along the path of growth. In case some of you missed it, Comrade Physioprof offered his own handy-dandy guide for d00dly commenters over at Isis's place.
With all the interest in these two posts, I'm thinking that maybe we need to spend a little more time talking to/with/for the d00dly d00ds. Herewith, I am proposing Zuska's Outreach Project For D00dly D00ds.…
illconsidered | May 14, 2009Science Blogs has a new special blog on sustainable energy called The Energy Grid. It is a short term project, planned to run a few months, where each of the six contributors posts once per week on a subject introduced on Sunday.
I am flattered to have been asked to contribute and you can read my first contribution posted today, here. It is headlined Sustainability will not come without reductions in consumption and here is a free sample:
Our energy system faces security and environmental challenges because we have created a social and economic paradigm based on over-consumption and a non-…
thusspakezuska | May 12, 2009The next edition of Scientiae, the carnival in support of women in STEM, will be hosted by Alice and Sciencewoman on their Sciencewomen blog during the first week of June. The theme for the carnival will be Moving Forward, and you can find details about the carnival, ideas for submissions, etc. by checking out this post. Deadline is midnight UTC on May 31.
I hope I can get my act together this month and contribute. I have not been very good about this the last several months...too much going on IRL. I didn't even manage to get up an announcement about May's Scientiae, but you can find it…
illconsidered | May 8, 2009It seems that the HTTTACS was referred to by a parlimentary member in the Scottish Parliment, so it is now part of the official record!
The link there was to the version on Grist.org, which last I checked is a bit out of date, but no matter...
(Apropos of nothing, I just got a kick out of that... : )
oracknows | May 7, 2009As you may recall, the last meeting of the Skeptics' Circle never came to pass due to the illness of the host. That was to be the 110th Skeptics' Circle. Given that I had somehow screwed up and used the same number twice, though, it all works out if I simply label this Skeptics' Circle the 110th.
And a fine edition it is, hosted as it is by Corey, our youngest host thus far. So, check out the 110th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: The Calvinball Edition.
Next up to host will be Action Skeptics on May 21. Get your best skeptical blogging ready!