General
illconsidered | May 7, 2010Science has published a letter with 250 signatories protesting the recent and extreme attacks on scientists, climate scientists in particular. I agree with Michael, this letter should not be behind a paywall. I think the fact that it is, is disturbingly revealing of the disadvantage science has in the PR arenas.
It is very well done, though to be honest I wish they had not pushed the creationist button and had instead used an entirely different example of well established science to make their point. As scientifically non-controvesial as the age of the earth is, we need to reach even those…
illconsidered | May 3, 2010A = $6.08 billion
B = $75 million
Profits for the single last quarter for BP were 6.08 Billion dollarsevil>. Under current US law, their total liability for non-cleanup and containment damages is .075 Billion dollars.
Would any free market supporters like to defend this thinly veiled example of corporate welfare?
See also Things Break for some early estimates of how bad the worst case scenario could get, including implications for the entire US economy.
Like Katrina, global warming did not cause this disaster. But also like Katrina, it is an excellent illustration of issues relating to…
illconsidered | April 22, 2010Via DeSmogBlog comes the news that Andrew Weaver is suing Canada's National Post for libel and defamation.
You can read the press release here and the Statement of Claim is here [PDF].
While I think the basic aspect of holdinng a newspaper accountable for outright lies or reporting so irresponsible it is virtually indistinguishable from a lie is a Godd Thing, this particular action brings up some much less cut and dried issues such as holding the paper accountable for anonymous commenters and the paper accountable for article reposts.
Given the escalation of personal attacks and irresponsible…
sciencepunk | April 8, 2010Next week I'll be in London to attend Bad Idea magazine's Future Human, part of a series of salons exploring themese of transhumanism. Wednesday's event looks at whether increasingly sophisticated software will render some clerical occupations obsolete.
In the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, it was the British working class who fell victim to the mechanisation of industry. In the Information Revolution of the 21st century, however, industrial productivity is increasingly driven by software algorithms and the exponential rise of computer processing power.Middle-class…
sciencepunk | March 24, 2010Some time back, I was researching a feature for Wired when I stumbled across the US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. One of the responsibilities of this office is to monitor workplace fatalities. Each week, a roundup of deaths in the workplace are posted online. They make for compelling reading.
As Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis states on the site: "With every one of these fatalities, the lives of a worker's family members were shattered and forever changed. We can't forget that fact". Yet the lists only hold the briefest of details. The company…
illconsidered | March 12, 2010Not really apropos to climate change, but I saw this and just had to share.
Ever wondered what it would look like if you could actually see the entire network of tunnels that make up a large ant colony? Well, all it takes is 10 tons of concrete and a few months of labour.
Oh yeah, it also takes a willingness to destroy what you want to study. I have always had mixed feelings about that.
illconsidered | March 4, 2010This is interesting. I have mixed feelings about it but it is probably a necessary step in forcing the reality of this issue into the correct legal and political context. Actions have consequences and actors have responsibilities.
The only question I have is that the respnsibility is really shared by all of us as consumers of fossil fuels, in some sense it is not fair to place all the respnsibility on the fossil fuel companies.
Of course when they intentionally create misinformation to avoid addressing the problem, the face a corresponding increase in culpability.
Read it below:
Katrina…
sciencepunk | February 14, 2010Valentines is a time to pronounce your undying love to the geek in your life, and what better way than through the medium of maths and science?
A true geek knows that Texas Instruments says more than Hallmark ever could. Plotting a heart is a great trick if you're not good with words, or would rather let that special someone connect the dots. The Wolfram Alpha team have the formula for love right here.
If you'd prefer to express your feelings in three dimensions, Matt Parker reveals how to make a Möbius strip Valentines Card. Weird fact: It can't be cut into two halves - a delightful…
sciencepunk | February 7, 2010Thanks to Greg Foot for leading me to this delightful gallery of couture space fashion circa 1959 - present. I'd love to know more about the team behind each of these - did they employ seamstresses and tailors as well as materials scientists and flight suit technicians?
One of NASA's seven original astronauts, Gordon Cooper modelling the Mercury flight suit developed by B. F. Goodrich in 1959. I love how Cooper looks every inch the dashing hero - the pose, the athletic figure, the rich Kodachrome(?) colours. He lived out that image too - after a power failure onboard one spaceflight…
sciencepunk | January 26, 2010Today I got a tip off from science comms lecturer Alice Bell about a growing revolt amongst biology students in response to what they believe is an unfair exam paper.
BBC News reports on a Facebook 'campaign' launched against yesterday's A level biology exam. Students are apparently unhappy about the question posed by the AQA paper, citing that few had any relevance to the material they'd studied. Something to do with shrews, apparently.
These complaints have predictably found little support amongst those of us who've been there and soldiered though years of science education.…
illconsidered | December 1, 2009If you do not know what climategate refers to you probably got here via some odd typo in a google search. If you do but have not yet read Real Climate's post on it, you should do so. It is too late to rename the whole affair, but I thing "Swifthack" would have been more apropos.
Climategate is big news and not just in the climate blogosphere, all the major newspapers have opined. Here in cyberland, I have seen a doubling of traffic without really writing a thing about it or having a high traffic site link to me, I am assuming general interest in the story is the reason. Most of what I…
sciencepunk | November 22, 2009A collection of sublime images from embedded journalist Michael Yon of what happens when helicopters fly through dust storms. Lightning bolts arcing around the blades are thought to be created by static electricity arising from friction between two dissimilar materials - in this case the metal blades and the sand. Yon coined the term "Kopp-Etchells Effect", named for two soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Full set of images here. I suspect the blurring is due to the long exposures necessary to capture the effect.
illconsidered | November 5, 2009So I will be in Fiji for a one week stop over on my way home from Tasmania to Vancouver and I do not expect to have much internet access and/or time. I think I will schedule a few "Climate Crock" posts for edumusement but otherwise no one will be minding the store here. (that unfortunately includes this Monday's "Another week of GW news" which will have to go up asap the week after next.)
So feel free to raise any topics for discussion here but try to play fair (that goes double for all you Turkish spampots out there!).
sciencepunk | November 4, 2009I'm reading the award-winning Decoding the Heavens at the moment, so what better time to discover the Smithsonian website has an excellent article on underwater archaeology?
Beneath the slate-gray surface of the North Sea, about a half-mile off England's east coast, lies the underwater town of Dunwich. Crabs and lobsters skitter along the streets where some 3,000 people walked during the town's heyday in the Middle Ages. Fish dart through the sea sponge-ridden ruins of its churches, now partially buried in the seabed some 30 feet down.Erosion--caused by the North Sea's relentless pounding of…
sciencepunk | November 4, 2009And because I didn't get this up yesterday: it's been 52 years since an intrepid little mongrel made it into space. Here's to you, Laika!
illconsidered | October 30, 2009 (why am I thinking about cocaine now?)
So recently two very prolific climate contrarian commenters picked up their toys and went home. Skip did a nice piece on that surprise event.
crakar was one of my most prolific commenters, contributing about 100 comments per month since last December. He always struck me as a congenial fellow but he was definately antagonistic to the science of global warming and contributed mainly misinformation and misunderstanding. Nevertheless, I am actually a bit sorry to see him go on a personal level even though his presence was on balance a negative…
illconsidered | October 21, 2009Let's continue the Hockey Stick Open thread, as suggested by skip, under a new title.
A great place to pick it up is skip's most excellent response to a comment from crakar. He totally nailed all of crakar's various diversions and strawmen.
This thread is about how and why people choose their positions in the faux climate debate.
Skip said:
I would be prepared to bet all the tea in China that every study I produce that supports my views would be rejected by you in an attempt to support your own views of AGW
If you keep citing weak, partisan crap like Inhoffe and Singer (see below), you will…
illconsidered | October 15, 2009Check out WAG's simple, yet quintessential message on his Blog Action Day post, aptly titled "The only thing you need to know about global warming"
On a slightly related note, Matt Nisbet gets a guest post on C&L to talk about getting the public involved. And how does he use his brief chance to reach a very large audience of progressive minded but non-scienceblogy audience? He takes a cheap swipe at Chris Mooney and PZ Meyers as part of a long running in-fight and rambles on in jargon filled scientific mumbo-jumbo about "dimensions of knowledge".
Hmm..."those who can't, teach"...?
sciencepunk | October 7, 2009Live Science reports on the discovery of several new species of bio-luminescent fungi, bringing the total up to 71 different flavours of AWESOME. These are not fluorescing under a UV lamp - they really do glow in the dark, giving them the most beautiful name in mycology: Mycena luxaeterna, meaning "eternal light".
Live Science says:
Three quarters of glowing mushrooms, including the newly identified species, belong to the Mycena genus, a group of mushrooms that feed off and decompose organic matter."What interests us is that within Mycena, the luminescent species come from 16 different…
illconsidered | October 6, 2009Comments on the Hockey Stick is Broken article have really overrun, so they are now closed. I have not had the time to pipe in as much as I would have liked.
I have however seen the requests for an open thread for various digressions, such as Skip's interest in analyzing social science aspects of the climate debates, so here it is....
Given the recent outbreak of Yamalitis, it is probably a good time, too.