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They come at you at public events, wanting to argue. They light up the switchboards whenever there’s a radio show about climate change. They commandeer your blog comments …
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Progressive Proselytizing: Religion’s Changing Domain of Knowledge
Religion has long claimed ultimate Truth in two differing domains of knowledge: what is, and what ought to be; descriptive and normative; knowledge about the nature of the universe and knowledge of the morality of the universe. But these claims to know…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your midweek reading.- Not surprising: Canadians find Stephen Harper’s constant politicization of everything – including awards for volunteers – to be improper. Even less surprising: Stephen Harper couldn’t care less.- Meanwh…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: The Annual Arctic Sea Ice Drama Begins
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In my last post, I discussed how the increasing risk of devastating heat waves—unlike the worsening of tornadoes—is definitely a phenomenon we can link to glo…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Cosmological Missing Mass – Introduction to Dark Matter Question
Returning from vacation is always a pain, as routines need to be reestablished and new ones laid down. The time I usually spend blogging was not available as I was doing the 12 hour drive from Kaslo back to Edmonton. So, now we are catching up slowly with a few word-light/video-heavy posts. The PI institute […]
350 or bust: Is The Kremlin Now In Charge? Harper Government Silencing Canadian Artists And Scientists
The Harper Government is sending out a clear message at home and abroad that if your politics are not correct your art shouldn’t be shown, and if your findings are inconvenient your science doesn’t matter. A recent Vancouver Sun discussed t…
Continue readingAnother Canadian muzzled by Harper
Franke James, you are not alone. It’s not just the arts that get the Harper thug treatment. Science, the other most hated discipline of Conservatives, is also subject to censorship and the silent treatment. The following bit of horror comes from Postme…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Fun Sun Science
No surprises here, just a nice video of the birth and eventual death of our star. Filed under: Science Tagged: Astronomy, Science, Solar Evolution
DeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Forget Tornadoes. Lets Talk–Unendingly–About Heat Waves and Global Warming
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Earlier this year, I grew uncomfortable with attempts to link the massive tornado destruction that we saw in the U.S. to climate change. As I explained then—based on an int…
Continue readingExponential Book: Happy birthday, High-Tc. I miss you.
Twenty-five years ago, the first so-called high temperature superconductor was discovered — unexpectedly, almost out of nowhere. Suddenly, the interest of physicists all over the world in the phenomenon of superconductivity was re-ignited (click …
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Science – It works B*tches – Why, rationally, you must accept Evolution
It is nice knowing that you are fairly right about something. Evolution happens to be one of those topics in that category. The funny/sad part is running across people who still “don’t get it” and either are deluded or have let their misplaced skepticism get the better of them. I try unsuccessfully to hide my […]
DeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Light Bulb Madness: A New Case Study in Right Wing Misinformation
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The examples of conservative misinformation—devoutly believed by followers, repeatedly asserted by ideological leaders and media outlets—are growing too numerous to c…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Say Brother, Can You Share My Logic? The Climate Debate and “Talking Past Each Other”
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I’ve previously written about University of Michigan business professor Andrew Hoffman’s insightful work on the underlying motivations behind clima…
Continue reading350 or bust: Take Time To Renew Your Spirit
There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. ~ Leonardo da Vinci
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Alternative Medicine in Action! – Wootastic!
Funny, but people who actually believe in this shite want to bring it into the hospitals. Frightening.
Filed under: Medicine, Science Tagged: Alternative Medicine, What if…, Woo
Terahertz: Canadian airports x-ray homeopathy now
I got a message today from a friend who works in airport security that represents another skeptic win (that makes two this week): I thought you all might be interested in the fact that homeopathic medication is no longer exempt from going through the X-Ray at the airport. I’m not sure what prompted this change, […]
Continue readingTerahertz: Hookahs at SFU go up in smoke
The Pakistan Student Association at my school, Simon Fraser University, was planning a party/fundraiser to build municipal spirit in the aftermath of the Stanley Cup riots. As part of their party they planned to have hookah smoking. While possibly popular in the hipster/stoner crowds, the fact is that hookahs are at least as dangerous and […]
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Watts Up With the Internet? Motivated Bias on Climate Skeptic Blogs
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Recently, I’ve become aware that the prominent climate science skeptic blogger Anthony Watts has been challenging a number of my posts. Maybe it’s because in …
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: The Science of Astroturfing
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Here at DeSmogBlog, and around the environmental and liberal political blogosphere, there is great concern about “Astroturf” organizations—groups that pose as real…
Continue readingExponential Book: On being anal
It took me a while to come to the realization that I need to vent over this subject right here, on my blog, no matter how petty, ridiculous and irrelevant it is (the subject, smartass, not the blog). I am becoming quite tired of having to argue with th…
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