General
illconsidered | February 3, 2009I have made it pretty clear before that I am no fan of Roger Pielke Jr. Everytime I stick my nose in there the smell seems to get a little worse.
His latest effort at sabotaging productive discourse on climate science and policy is a really low blow, putting to rest any lingering hopes one might have had that he still had some integrity stashed away in there somewhere. Now I know these are strong words, but I have to confess this really gets my blood pressure up, it is just the slimiest of tactics. (I will happily retract this post and apologize if Roger makes ammends for his ethical…
sciencepunk | January 27, 2009Today my sweet new business cards arrived from Moo.com - a whole 6 days ahead of schedule!
I've been trying to get some made for a while, and Moo.com have a seductively simply online card creator, allowing you to upload pictures or import them from Flickr, Facebook, etc. You can even use several different images if you want. Then pick colours and card stock, add your text, and hey presto! your cards are on their way. You even receive a sweet little box, dividers, and a buzzword bingo card:
Perhaps you think this is the point where I give you some product code and receive a sneaky…
sciencepunk | January 27, 2009Publisher Penguin are marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species with this rather splendid edition boasting cover art painted by Damien Hirst.
Says Hirst of the project:
I was given a paperback copy of On the Origin of Species many years ago by a friend and I loved it, especially the contentious aspects of it. Being brought up a Catholic and questioning the nonsensical creation theory, it was exciting... I suppose the work, in a modest way, acknowledges Darwin's analytical mind and his courage to believe in those ideas that questioned the very fabric of existence…
sciencepunk | January 26, 2009Taking the art of small print to a whole new level, physicists at Stanford University have created the world's smallest lettering, just 1.5 nanometres tall:
Colin Barras reports in New Scientist:
The researchers wrote a computer program that works out how to arrange the carbon monoxide molecules such that they scatter electrons into waves of a particular shape. The software also demonstrated how varying the energy of the electrons could produce different shapes from the same pattern of molecules.
Full story
sciencepunk | January 24, 2009Student society BlueSci / Cambridge University Science Productions have invited me to give a talk next Tuesday Wednesday (28th). It'll be about making zines and blogging and making sweet websites and being a filthy Nathan Barley-esque media whore and the like. Audience participation encouraged. If you'd like to come along and chat, email enquiries@bluesci.org to book a place.
The following night I'll be in London for the launch of Standing Up For Science 2, a guide to tackling pseudoscience produced by the Voice of Young Science. I'm not sure if that one is open to the public but you…
illconsidered | January 6, 2009One of my first questions when I came to sci.environment for an education a few long years ago was "Does anyone know of a good resource for climate related information I can put on my mp3 player?"
I did not get much or any response then, but since I have found a few interesting podcasts that often have climate science related stories on my own.
So I thought I would make a new weekly posting out of it, "Climate science for your iPod", similar to H. E. Taylor's weekly Global Warming News Roundup.
Today will be the first installment, and I will endeavor to have one every Tuesday. Presentation…
illconsidered | January 5, 2009I found this YouTube clip via Crooks and Liars of James Hansen on Democracy Now. It also contains some highlights of other Democracy Now interviews, including one of Science Blogs' own Chris Mooney.
He talks about the political muzzling he has experience under both parties during his time at NASA. (But don't the denialists tell us of collusion between scaremongering politicians and money grubbing scientists?
Funny how the denialists tell us of collusion between scaremongering politicians and money grubbing scientists and yet the reality is NASA's earth sciences budget being cut and…
illconsidered | December 16, 2008My first Common Lisp programming job was for Mercury Scheduling (no longer around) working on the back end of airline crew control software. The main focus was assisting crew controllers in scheduling personnel on flights. We had to satisfy literally hundreds of constraints from union regulations, government regulations to...what else?...oh yeah, the constraints of reality like not being in two places at once or starting a new shift 1000 miles away in an hour's time (computers are stupid, you have to tell them everything!).
One thing I learned is just how complicated time can be when you…
illconsidered | December 5, 2008We have discussed that persistent question here before: what word to use when talking about people who simply refuse to acknowledge in the slightest the rather solid case for the theory of anthropogenic global warming.
I was thinking it would be worth a very in depth and lengthy post. But I gratefully bow to Greenfyre's excellent essy on the subject which you can (and should IMO) read in full right here.
He makes all of the points I would have plus a good deal more.
illconsidered | December 4, 2008A growing number of think tanks sound good for the environment but advocate for industries that could cause environmental headaches. (You think Americans for Balanced Energy Choices touts solar power? Nope.)
Try to match the groups with their mission.
More in depth examination of the front group industry here.
illconsidered | December 3, 2008I know blogs are supposed to be all about up to the second news and gossip. but sometimes I just don't get through my reading list in a very timely manner, what can I say?
So I thought I would just quickly share a small pile of good postings from around the local climate blogosphere, along with a smattering of pithy commentary (because if I'm anything at all, it is pithy ;-)
Eli Rabbet is a masochistic bunny who likes to visit horrible places like Jenn Marohasey's blog. Jenn is one of those "honest" sceptics who just likes to explore interesting alternate views of science, like maybe the…
illconsidered | November 21, 2008You all should check out some beautiful photographs of bacterial cultures Seed Magazine has in one of its "portfolios".
There are many other great sets there too, of all kinds of things.
illconsidered | November 15, 2008I received via unsolicited email a link to a website with an rather interesting video presentation about the recycling process.
So, if you've ever wondered just what happens to all that stuff you spend your time seperating out from the trach and depositing in the recycle bins, have a look at this: RecycleBank.
illconsidered | November 11, 2008Although there was not much buzz about hurricanes this season (which is not quite over yet), this year has in fact set a few records. I guess since New Orleans (narrowly) escaped Gustav there seems so much less to talk about!
Well, New Scientist has an article about some of the things that are worth noticing about the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season.
Perhaps the most notable record is "for the first time major hurricanes formed in five successive months, from July through November." Hurricane Paloma reached category 4 this month (November) and battered poor Cuba for the fourth time this…
illconsidered | November 10, 2008From New Scientist, here is a short article discussing five cases of small populations forced to relocate or plan to relocate due to sea level rise, caused by climate change.
It is a little anti-intuative to think that the 15-25 cm or so rise we have observed on average over the last hundred years could affect an island, even one whose highest point is only 2.4 metres above sea level, like the Maldives.
The relevant thing to remember is that it is not pure and simple submersion of existing land that is at work, rather it is erosion accelerated by both direct and indirect means. As waves lap…
illconsidered | November 6, 2008Michael Crichton has died of cancer. He was 66 years old.
Climate Progress has a lengthy obituary for those of you unfamiliar with his destructive role in the climate debate.
I enjoyed Jurassic Park.
illconsidered | October 29, 2008Anthony Watts has a post up purporting to show a very large UHI effect in Reno, Nevada.
I will just take his numbers and methods at face value, even though many questions come to mind. After all, 10oF is a big jump from outskirts to downtown, but maybe that is correct and not contaminated from engine heat. Also note this, which is specifically about Reno and shows how the UHI effect is removed from the data.
(pretty convincing, no?)
The problem is the conclusion that is at the very least strongly implied: if Urban Heat Islands are that pronounced, maybe global warming is just an artifact…
illconsidered | October 28, 2008"Skeptics use a scatter shot approach, using one kind of physics to 'disprove' one aspect and an opposing kind of physics to 'disprove' another. You need to have an internally consistent argument."
As Jen's site [Jennifer Marohasey's site] demonstrates so well, you don't need anything of the sort.
Check out Eli Rabett's post about how climate sceptics have no problem believing any number of mutually exclusive theories at one time, as long as they share the common thread of confirmation bias.
I have been wanting to put together an exhaustive list of all the internal contradictions there are in…
illconsidered | October 21, 2008As you can imagine, the How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic guide attracts a lot of comment from people who are less than inclined to agree with the general thrust of the material. Most can be easily answered with a pointer to another article or a rephrasing or expansion on one of the points in the post above it. (I'm not trying to claim that usually satisfies my skeptical visitors, but I don't often go to more trouble than that. I try not to bang my head too hard against any brick walls that come my way!).
But I had one recent commenter who asked a very straightforward question that seemed…
illconsidered | October 1, 2008Here is a very well done little animation about "tipping points" and climate change. It is by Leo Murray and it seems is a winner or candidate for some "Green" film festival I have never heard of.
Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.
Olive Heffernan gives it a positive review on the scientific content at Nature's Climate Feedback blog.
If you have 11 minutes I recommend it, or just forward a link to a friend.