“Well,” declared Joe Average Citizen as he stared at his TV and watching anomalously high snowfall rain down on much of the U.S., “I guess global warming is over!” This simple statement, uttered by at least two people within earshot of me in the past two weeks (and likely by […]
Science
449 posts
This weekend, Jodi and I traveled to Wisconsin to celebrate the 3rd birthday of our twin nephews. Over a delicious bowl of guacamole, I engaged in a conversation with a couple who were friends with my sister-in-law (the mother of the twins). We quickly came to the recent Republican plan […]
Jodi and I keep extensive fuel-related data on our 1998 Honda Civic EX (2-door sedan). We note the mileage, fuel volume, and fuel cost for each time we stop at a gas station. This allows us to compute miles-per-gallon and cost-per-gallon as a function of time. I’ve reported on related […]
In the past, I have posted a “best of 2010 software” or some other retrospective. This time around, let’s look forward and I’ll make some useless predictions about what I think will be a few hot topics in 2011. Consider these things you might not have thought about, but should […]
Don’t want to believe me, a practicing scientist, when I talk about the false science pitched by the Discovery Institute? Take it from the mouth of a religious scholar [1]. SMU’s Chair of Religious Studies, Dr. Mark Chancey, today rebutted the Victory Campus Ministry’s opinion piece [2], which itself rebutted […]
A young boy looks up at Neo, and reveals to him the most critical piece of information about the illusion known as “The Matrix”: “Do not try to bend the spoon — that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: there is no spoon.” (The Matrix, 1999) The Discovery […]
On the main quad of SMU appears about 3000 tiny American flags, and a sign asking us to never forget. We won’t. But rather that just worrying about not forgetting, I find it a more valuable personal exercise to ask also what we value, and how those values are influenced […]
When religious beliefs are placed into the sphere of scientific test, scientific criticism of those beliefs is fair game. All questions put under the framework of the scientific method enjoy the same scrutiny, and it is imperative to approach the question with the same critical toolkit as one would approach […]
The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is an immediate crisis, getting immediate attention. It poses long-term effects for sea life, coastal life, and human economics (fishing, tourism, etc.). That oil leak represents a major release of carbon into the Gulf; oil in its crude form is a thick […]
I’m nursing a cold. Laying about on the couch has given me some time to think, and I’ve been thinking about aerosols. The recent eruption of an Icelandic volcano has brought air traffic over Europe to a grinding halt. When this same thing happened after the 9/11 attacks in the […]
An independent review of the climate research at East Anglia University has turned up no malfeasance [1]. The center of the Climate-gate controversy, I’ve been waiting patiently to see how this review went. Importantly, the report concludes that researchers need to spend more time working closely with statisticians to make […]
Ever since moving to Texas, we’ve had a lawn. I had spent months looking forward to the opportunity to take care of the lawn, even though we’re renting the house. Lawncare seems silly – a caricature of suburban American life. It’s important to me for two reasons. The first is […]