Thanks to Randy Scalise for bringing this excellent graphic from the Romney campaign to my attention. The Texas Republican party recently put in their platform a plank that called for an end to teaching critical thinking; this graphic suggests, as is the wisdom, that what happens in Texas has wide-ranging […]
Politics
277 posts
While driving through the University Park neighborhood the other day, I saw the new Romney campaign sign on a lawn (see left). Seeing the sign for the first time made me realize that an old pet peeve of mine – lack of punctuation in signs – was still peeving me. […]
American Airlines is planning to run an anti-vaccination message from the Australian Vaccination Network, AVN. AVN is a mis-leadingly named organization that promotes the discredited link between vaccines and autism, among other anti-scientific nonsense. They claim there is scientific debate about the dangers of vaccines (there is no such debate) […]
Preface: Many thanks to Profs. John Cotton, Randy Scalise, Ron Wetherington, and John Wise for their tireless efforts to promote science. Their perspectives on the scientific method, and the issues I outline below, have been a tremendous influence on my thinking and writing about this subject. I also thank Profs. […]
Peter Gleick’s unethical subterfuge to obtain internal documents from the Heartland Institute has begun to give some interesting insights into this anti-science institution. While not all of the documents have been confirmed, enough has been confirmed from independent sources (including those named in the documents) to begin shedding light on […]
Let me begin this post by saying the following. The Earth is warming, and has been doing so exponentially faster for more than a century. This warming was initiated by exponentially rising levels of carbon dioxide. That carbon dioxide, rich in long-sequestered C14-poor carbon, was put there by humans. None […]
I have been following on Twitter all of the major Presidential hopefuls in the Republican Party, plus President Obama, and the major fact-checking and political reporting organizations (you can find them in my Twitter list, https://twitter.com/#!/drsekula/u-s-political-spotlight). I peruse it daily for claims and subsequent fact-checks. It’s also a useful way […]
The following are statements from Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum, juxtaposed with images of the scientific evidence. See how long you can keep your brain from hemorrhaging. These statements were made at the Colorado Energy Summit on Monday, Feb. 6. “We were put on this Earth as creatures of God to have […]
This past week, Republican Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich tried to position himself as the big pro-science candidate (or, at the very least, the big “pro-idea” candidate) [1]. He articulated a science fiction view for the U.S. federal space agency, NASA, in partnership with private aerospace corporations. The goal? Establish a […]
Many years ago, I commented on the seeming extinction of the species Sanctimonium Santorum [1]. Like many species that were previously believed to be extinct, there has been a sudden and unexpected reappearance of this odd species. However, as I commented then, In government, there are limited resources. There are […]
I photographed this in an abandoned pedestrian tunnel stairwell in Palo Alto, CA, in April of 2010. Seems prescient now.
Fresh from the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), here are their favorite anti-science quotes of the year: http://tfninsider.org/2011/12/26/2011-in-quotes-the-war-on-science/. By “favorite,” I of course mean the quotes that probably ensaddened the staff at TFN. TFN ” . . . is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of more than 50,000 religious and community leaders. […]