It is nice to have a post you can point to when people suddenly become hyperskeptical of Evolution. Thanks Qualia Soup. Filed under: Education, Science Tagged: Education, Evolution, Qualia Soup, Science, Science 101
Continue readingTag: science
CuriosityCat: Justin Trudeau, heed the advice of Dan Gardner from The Ottawa Citizen
Dan Gardner’s challenge to Trudeau Dan Gardner has some very valid advice for any government led by Justin Trudeau – put our money where our mouth is when it comes to policies based on “hard, scientific facts and data”: Announcing his candidacy for the Liberal leadership, Justin Trudeau got a
Continue readingThings Are Good: Physicists Open Up
Results from publically-funded research often ends up in places that the average person can’t access the findings because scientific (and other) journals where results are printed cost an arm and a leg. Physicists, who are already renowned for being open, have taken the next logical step and said that any
Continue reading350 or bust: We Are Star Dust, We Are Golden
Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” This is his answer: * Joni Mitchell put it this way: I came upon a child of god He was walking along the
Continue readingTerahertz: Why read when you can watch and listen?
A bunch of shameless self promotion. Back in August I was invited to join Don McLenaghen on Radio Freethinker, the skeptical podcast of CiTR radio (the UBC radio station). Ethan was away that week, so we spent the entire hour talking about Humanism. You can listen to that interview here
Continue readingExponential Book: Who’s really obsessed with Impact Factor ?
What brings more prestige to a scientist, an article which receives hundreds of citations, even if published on a relatively minor, or even obscure journal, or one that is published on a high profile, glamorous publication with a high Impact Factor (IF), but whose citation record is modest ? Most
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Removing the Blinders of Privilege – A Political Moral Awakening
Meaningful discourse requires a mutually accepted set of shared definitions to start. Otherwise the parties involved will unerringly talk past each other and misconstrue what the other is saying. George Lakoff, a cognitive scientist, has mapped this procedure brilliantly in several books ( The Political Mind being the most concise).
Continue readingknitnut.net: Ask Me Anything: #6 – The moon
Future Landfill asked “Did you go outside and look up at the moon when Neil Armstrong went for a walk there in ’69?” I wish I could say that yes, I did go out and look at the moon, but the truth is I don’t remember actually doing that. What
Continue readingExponential Book: In praise of failure
“In 2004, Kim and Chan (KC) carried out torsional oscillator (TO) measurements of solid helium confined in porous Vycor glass and found an abrupt drop in the resonant period below 200 mK. The period drop was interpreted as probable experimental evidence of nonclassical rotational inertia (NCRI). This experiment sparked considerable
Continue readingImpolitical: Late night
Neil deGrasse Tyson makes the case for NASA, space exploration, and essentially, the use of government funds for science programmes. Some incredible footage here.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Jason Warick reports on how the Cons’ decison to gut federal environmental assessments will have a particularly acute effect on Saskatchewan: The federal government has cancelled nearly 700 environmental assessments in Saskatchewan for oil wells and pipelines, sewage lagoons, hydro projects, a major
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: To the Moon and Back: Neil Armstrong RIP
Neil Armstrong has passed away, at 82 years of age. He was the first person to walk on the Moon. No one has set foot on the Moon since I was born. It’s possible the last human to ever walk on the Moon has already done so, and that’s terribly
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Just 2% of Canadians Deny Climate Change Occurring, Poll Finds
canada-climate-change_0.jpeg Originally published on EnergyBoom.com A recent survey conducted by Insightrix Research, Inc. has found that only 2% of Canadians believe climate change is not taking place. The online poll, commissioned by IPAC CO2 Research Inc., a Saskatchewan-based center studying carbon capture and storage, asked respondents where they stood on the
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The Problem With Racists
Focus groups are good at focusing. If there is a strong racist voice in the group, they might start to focus on race. When I heard the news this morning mention the Bank of Canada changed the image of a woman on the $100 because she wasn’t white-bread enough, I
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fracking Industry Paying Off Scientists For "Unbiased" Safety Studies
science-and-money.jpg As a whole, Americans have an unfortunate tendency to distrust scientists. The number of those who distrust science and scientists is skewed heavily by ideology, with self-identified “conservatives” overwhelmingly saying that they don’t trust science. DeSmogBlog’s own Chris Mooney has spent an enormous amount of time and energy devoted
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Health Care in the US – Retaking Political Discourse – George Lakoff
Why does the progressive movement keep on suffering set backs when they are quantifably right on the issues. George Lakoff suggests it has much to do with framing and how human cognition works. A great lecture, well worth the 60 minutes of your time. Filed under: Politics, Science Tagged: Cognitivie
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: 5 rules for a science-based decision on the Enbridge Pipelines
Monday, August 13, 2012 Prime Minister Harper was in Vancouver on August 7 and took the opportunity to tell Canadians that any decision on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines and tankers project would be made through an “independent process” and on the basis of science, not politics. The Prime Minister
Continue readingExponential Book: On confirmation bias
Doug Natelson has done an outstanding job at debunking a ridiculous charge of confirmation bias allegedly affecting a recent study of climate change. Such a charge is put forth in an article published in the popular press (on a very prominent venue). While ostensibly aimed at educating the general public
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Earthshine and Meteors
I tried photographing some Perseid meteors, but didn’t have much luck this year. I did get some nice shots of the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus though. -I took this one while a meteor flew down, from above Venus, but it didn’t show up. Maybe the shutter wasn’t open like I
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Mars Laser
We’ve equipped Mars with a laser. Our latest rover there, called Curiosity, actually shoots fricken laser beams from its head. How cool is that? Is there a scientific purpose in aiming the rover’s laser at Earth and detecting the flash here? I think there must be. We could use it
Continue reading