The Worm Turns
This morning when I was doing my regular news search online, I came across two stories that stopped me cold: we’re being invaded. By worms. Yep. Worms. Not the slimy…
science
The Baseload Mistake
One of the hangups some of my friends have about converting the electrical grid to renewable energy, has been the difficulty in storing electricity generated for use when energy input…
Canada’s Oily Media
There are opportunities to support journalism in Canada that doesn’t take millions from the oil industry and the oil-soaked Conservative government. Had you heard that the Conservative Party communicated with…
And I Am Back
It has been years since I blogged, I have been generally been using FaceBook and the twitters, but I have been finding that these are limited and I need a…
2020 Solar Power for 100% of Saskatchewan Homes Possible
This letter appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on Saturday. In response to Kurt Soucy’s letter about the cost of powering the entire provincial grid with Photovoltaic (PV) solar power,…
Forcing An Athiest to Practice Religion
Here’s what it can feel like to practice religion when you don’t believe in the common fantasy . I knew from a young age that I didn’t see religion as…
Pompeii: Swords-and-Sandals Flop
As a film setting, the town of Pompeii in the first century CE is a lot like the deck of the Titanic in 1912: no amount of special effects or…
Lunney unleashed
Citing media “intolerance and bigotry”, anti-science Canadian MP James Lunney has quit the government caucus to sit as an independent. Among Lunney’s claim to the crown as Canada’s least scientifically…
Got DNA evidence of Bigfoot? Don’t peer review, write a book!
Science Editor Jonathan Leake skewered Bryan Sykes in The Sunday Times today over bigfoot claims. Sykes is publishing a new book in which he’ll present the DNA evidence he claims…
Canadian Ambivalence Towards Religion
A new Angus Reid poll underscores the changing, ambivalent nature of Canadian attitudes towards religion, but there are many things about the poll that concern me and make me question…
Edmonton Journal grants space to debunked anti-WiFi conspiracies
Some parents in Alberta are trying to get schools to ban wi-fi on baseless fears and scare-mongering. The kicker: these same parents are fine with wifi in their house. It’s…
Lucy and the 10% Brain Myth
We watched the film Lucy on iTunes last night and, while reasonably entertaining, its plot is founded on a persistent bit of pseudoscience: that people only use 10% of their…
It’s Official: Homeopathy is Bunk
“Homeopathy not effective for treating any condition, Australian report finds,” reads a headline in The Guardian this week. Well, that’s hardly news. But it repeats saying anyway. It’s a story…
Oh, This Is Rich. Stephen Harper Wants Us to Listen to Scientists.
“get the facts from the …scientific community, and if you’re not a …scientist yourself, listen to the people who are. It’s that simple.” You heard it right, straight from the…
Inoculating Against Science-Denialism
This op-ed appeared in The Ottawa Citizen on February 10, 2015. There’s an illness sweeping its way across North America, one which has long-troubled the scientific community and baffled even…
Arctic Apples highlight absurdity of GM regulations
Okanagan Specialty Fruits is a small biotech company from central BC. For the past twenty years they have been trying to get their main product to market, jumping regulatory hoop…
Oceans Rising Faster In Last 100 Years
If Greenland ice sheet slipped off tomorrow, sea would quickly FALL in Newfoundland and Scotland, but rise disastrously at South Africa! — John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) February 11, 2015 Here’s a…
National Post Guilty of Defaming Climate Change Scientist
It shows the misguided focus of the national Postmedia “tabloid” when they let a star like Mike De Souza go, and hang onto a convicted libeler like Terence Corcoran. Maybe…
A Devilishly Smart Pope
A DEVILISHLY SMART POPE One of the books I’m reading now is John D. Barrow’s ‘The Book of Nothing’. The subject is a look at the concept of ‘nothing’, the…
A Devilishly Smart Pope
A DEVILISHLY SMART POPEOne of the books I'm reading now is John D. Barrow's 'The Book of Nothing'. The subject is a look at the concept of 'nothing', the void,…