hrynyshyn

One question keeps rising out of the ScienceBlogosphere muck: Are PZ "Pharyngula" Myers and his ilk doing more harm than good by relentlessly and mercilessly attacking religion? Rob "Galactic Interactions" Knop apparently has had it up to here with Myers's brand of anti-faith rhetoric, and started…

The fine folk at DefCon (shorthand for the imprecisely named Campaign to Defend the Constitution) have released a poll showing that intelligent design hasn't made much headway into the evangelic right wing. The polls also suggests that the new Creation Museum does not exhibit a vision of the past…

I love music as much as the next guy, just not when I'm actually out in the real world, which offers much more interesting -- and often critical -- sounds. But I had no idea just how dangerous iPods and their ilk could be until I read this. From the current New Scientist: A man in Vancouver, Canada…

So Michael Moore the documentarian takes on CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta the medical science guy in the former's first appearance on the network in three years, arguing that the latter committed libel by claiming the filmmaker "fudged the facts" in the new documentary Sicko. The two argued vociferously…

"In public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds." So says former U.S. surgeon general Richard H. Carmona (2002-2006). Worth a read, if your day isn't already shot. Then there's…

Martin Durkin, the science documentarian responsible for the most irresponsible documentary ever made on global warming, lashes back at his critics (those who understand the science), in an op-ed for The Australian. It is perhaps the most audacious attempt to defy the facts I've come across since…

Could autism be caused by not enough sun? I sincerely hope that parents of children with autism-spectrum disorders apply the appropriate degree of skepticism and caution to the latest possible explanation for this most maddening of diseases. The absence of a convincing explanation for the recent…

I don' t know and I don't much care why the number 7 is considered lucky. But I do know that people who hold to such nonsense seem incapable of making sense even of their own superstitions. Consider this pitch from the marketing department of mydomains.com: 7-7-07 is your lucky day at MyDomain.com…

I promised myself I would go easy on the Live Earth spectacle, despite the easy pickings on the hypocrisy watch. But just how much can one skeptic take? Watching Sting admit he could do more to reduce his carbon footprint was one thing (ya think?), but the Pledge and the only "actions" being asked…

You know how some people can't just leave that half-pint of ice cream sitting in the fridge? You know you shouldn't, but you can't resist. I'm that way with climate change stories. So when a friend called to alert me to a local NPR call-in show with a climate change dissident, I couldn't resist.…

The New York Times Science section today is devoted entirely to evolution. Wonderful stuff, including a review of the idea that it is possible to encode messages in DNA, and the news that a team of biologists has done just that with E=mc2. For the essay's author, Dennis Overbye, the whole thing…

London's often trigger-happy Independent reports today that Al Gore is criticizing climatologists for not reaching a strong consensus on global warming soon enough. That's a switch. The quotes that reporter Jonathan Owen provided, lifted apparently from a forward to a new edition of Gore's Earth in…

It's hard to believe that a dog can understand four languages, discuss the intricacies of Christian theology, and perform complex mathematical operations, including calculus and algebra, but it's even harder to believe that the editors of an until-now reputable newspaper would be so hard up for…

Implicit in every "clean coal" advocate's pitch (no pun intended) for subsidizing the technology to free us from our oil addiction is the assumption that we have at least 200 years' worth of the stuff under American soil -- and plenty more around the world. That could be very wrong, according to a…

Everyone's glommed on to a revived story about a study that found more "feminine" names undermine a girl's chances at success in science and engineering, and much gnashing of teeth ensued. (See here, here, here, here and here.) Then the Scientific Indian noted the tendency for his culture's…

The headline for this post is stolen verbatim from a section headline in a paper on climate change just published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. It's yet another depressing read by NASA's Jim Hansen and five co-authors from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the…

Scienceblog posts tend to revolve around current events, almost to the point where history is irrelevant, and the Island of Doubt is no different. I try to put things in historical perspective, but concede that I tend too often overlook what has gone before. In an effort to undo a little of that…

I take a keener interest in the autism-vaccine conspiracy nonsense, now that I'm taking my very young son to the doctors every few months for his shots. It bothers me no end that not every parent does the same, and that some are stubbornly clinging to the discredited notion that autism is caused by…

Business Week recently published an odd little essay by Greg Blonder, someone I've not come across before. He posits that painting your roof white will do more to offset anthropogenic climate change than installing photovoltaic panels. Seriously. The science appears to be pretty sound, but it has…

Remember a few months ago, when the news came that circumcision can cut the risk of contracting HIV through sex by 60 percent ... at least, in males, in some parts of Africa? Now we get the bad news. A study just published in the British Journal of Urology finds that what boys lose in the process…

For quite a few years now, some pretty smart people have been floating an answer to the thorny problem of how to get both the developed and the developing world to agree on a path to carbon emissions reductions. I have resisted supporting it because it's so bloody simple it seemed like I was…

It's as if man can't sin. The Southern Baptist Conference, perhaps the most powerful organization of fundamentalist protestants in America, has decided that the evidence humankind is responsible for global warming is just too thin. From Forbes (why not?): Southern Baptists approved a resolution on…

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has released a radio ad designed to play on soccer mom's fears about road safety, dishonestly arguing that Congressional attempts to increase fuel mileage will make safe cars too expensive to afford. This despite the fact that SUVs tend to be more dangerous…

From The Guardian's reliable and irreplaceable Ben Goldacre, who writes the "Bad Science" column, we learn the sad news that the ivory-tower types running University College London have no spines. Such a shame. It was such a good school. The offense? Asking one of their own to stop attacking…

Barack Obama has finally decided that coal isn't any particular god's gift to humankind after all. It wasn't easy breaking with his black-seam mining allies in downstate Illinois, but it looks like he's decided green votes are more plentiful. About time. I was beginning to wonder whether he really…

When CNN announces it has "what Loch Ness Monster watchers say is among the finest footage ever taken" it's hard not to bite. Never mind that what used to be the most famous photographic evidence turned out to be fake. Never mind that the very concept of megafauna surviving in a 24-square-mile lake…

PZ Myers offers up a worthy review of a recent poll on Americans belief in science, one that not too surprisingly finds that fundamentalist Protestants are the least likely to believe in evolution. More interesting was the discovery that while higher levels of education tend to increase one's…

As Tara writes at Aetiology, it's interesting that the Rwandan government, which might be excused for letting for a little blood lust taint its criminal justice system, what with the slaughter of 800,000 people on their minds, has voted instead to abolish the death penalty. Yet here in America,…

Science magazine today has a long and comprehensive article on scientists who are "Pushing the Scary Side of Global Warming." As it won't be freely available for months, I will post some of the juicy bits, while doing my best not to violate the AAAS copyright. First, you gotta love the headline.…

They say wind turbines are where the renewable money is, but I don't know. Judging from all the solar power activity among the pious, I'd want to invest in photovoltaics. First there's the news that 80 per cent of Amish homes in one Ohio county already have solar arrays on their roof. Then the…