Owner: Real Science Blogs URL:http://realscienceblogs.blogspot.com Join Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 01:46:34 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: No politics, no ponytails, no hysteria. We insult bad science, not your intelligence. Site statistics:Click here
Invisibility For Dummies 2006-10-21 17:12:00 The proof of concept demonstration of a 'cloaking' device has a lot of people interested in how this technology works and what it means for the military, industry and, most likely, peeping Toms. I am here to help.First, there are a few concepts. These are always the most difficult things to get people to agree on but if I don't make this simple enough that at least some wiseacre tells me I Read more:Dummies
, Invisibility
Want To Stop Pollution? Get Rid Of Animals 2006-09-29 22:20:00 Want to stop E. Coli? Get rid of animals. Half of the bacteria in the wild comes from animals. In the Potomac and Anacostia rivers only 16% and 24% respectively comes from humans.
Look for environmentalists to start protesting against animals real soon.
Read more:Animals
, Pollution
Save The Environment In 30 Years By Ignoring Environmentalists Now 2006-09-26 17:39:00 There are basically three kinds of environmentalists:
Type 1. The most avid environmentalists I have ever met are not Sierra Club employees or people in the middle of protests, they are sportsmen and sportswomen who appreciate the environment because cultivating a clean environment means they can continue to enjoy it. They basically pick up after themselves and leave things the way they found them. This is the great majority of people who spend time in the outdoors but you don't find them in magazine articles or on TV.
Type 2 are the political activists. They seem to care about the environment as a platform for lots of other political issues. The environment is part of a much larger agenda they have. They camp out in trees and prevent responsible logging from occurring which leads to out-of-control wildfires, or they file lawsuits about levee improvements in Louisiana until a hurricane comes through and they get to pretend the fault lies with some politicians in Washington, Read more:Environment
, Environmentalists
, Years
How To Rationalize Cooling Oceans In A Globally Warming World? 2006-09-22 19:55:00 It's just a little dip!
As long as there is money to be made on global warming, people will find new ways to rationalize evidence against it as inconsequential.
"This research suggests global warming isn't always steady, but happens with occasional 'speed bumps,'" said study co-author Josh Willis, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This cooling is probably natural climate variability. The oceans today are still warmer than they were during the 1980s, and most scientists expect the oceans will eventually continue to warm in response to human-induced climate change."
This logical fallacy is called appealling to popularity or the 'bandwagon' fallacy. I'll give you some examples.
*Most scientists believe human-induced climate change is causing global warming.Therefore, human-induced climate change is causing global warming.
*More scientists watch Channel 8 News than any other station.Therefore, Channel 8 News is the best news station.
*More people read Scienceblog Read more:Cooling
, Oceans
, World
Global Warming Is Caused By America, All Cool Kids Agree 2006-09-20 15:51:00 Dr. Bill Gray may be one of the world's foremost authorities on hurricanes, but he'd better be doing publicity for a book or he is in big trouble. There is a lot of money to be made in global warming protests these days and the people getting the money won't like what he said recently about global warming and how humans are involved.
"I think we're coming out of the little ice age, and warming is due to changes to ocean circulation patterns due to salinity variations," Gray said. "I'm sure that's it"
Not a big deal. It's as good a theory as any, since most climatology is somewhere above voodoo and leeching on the credibility scale. And his fellow experts are inclined to let him have his say, since they don't know either.
"Bill Gray is a widely respected senior scientist who has a view that is out of step with a lot of his colleagues'," said Roger Pielke Jr., director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado. Read more:America
, Global
, Global Warming
These Aren't The Environmental Articles You Want To Publish 2006-10-24 22:48:00 In today's environmental news of the bizarre, Al Gore rushed to a rally in Berkeley, California.
``I'm here to change peoples' minds on the climate crisis and to support Prop 87,'' Gore called to a group of reporters after he emerged from the ``100 miles per gallon'' Toyota Prius that brought him to a noontime rally in a sun-drenched park behind Berkeley's City Hall.
What did he leave out of Read more:Articles
, Publish
Guns, Guitars And Greenpeace 2006-11-02 05:39:00 As a younger man, I was a big fan of Greenpeace
.
As time went on, I thought they lost their focus by branching out from protesting nuclear weapons to whaling and trees and basically hanging out a shingle that said, "If you send us money, we will protest for you."
I watched them change from instilling their people with scientific literacy to educating their people on political activism. Then Read more:Guitars
How Math Can Save Your Marriage - An Interview With The Author Of Geek Logik 2006-11-03 05:28:00 Ever have someone tell you a certain pesky question can't be answered scientifically? Don't let Garth Sundem know. He's the author of Geek
Logik and it's his business to help you mathematically solve life's most pressing problems.
Garth has created plug-in numerical solutions that help you make decisions while completely abdicating accountability for your actions - because you can always Read more:Author
Face Recognition, Emotions And Why I Will Be The Next Jackie Chan 2006-11-07 17:29:00 Dynamic face recognition may be one of the last frontiers for quantifying why some of our simplest brain functions have difficulty being matched by computers.
As a kid, when computers were more basic, it was easy to see the differences between my brain and the power of a computer. When I played baseball I knew the instant the ball was hit whether I had to run back or forward. This was a Read more:Jackie
, Jackie Chan
, Recognition
The Mens Guide To Dating A Geek Girl V 1.0 2006-11-08 07:30:00 Let's face it, sometimes we get tired of dating models. Sure, they clean up well but it gets annoying having to tell her she's beautiful a hundred times a day and the cocaine bill gets expensive.
You might think you have no hope of getting an attractive low-maintenance geek girl and I am inclined to agree ( that you can't anyway ) but I would rather light a candle than curse your darkness, so Read more:Dating
, Geek
, Guide
The Science Of Baseball Scouting 2006-09-19 04:28:00 I was reading GQ - scientists read GQ now that all the Dolce Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols, perennial MVP Candidates.
This new tool, summed up, is highly developed binocularity. And it can be measured. That's a good thing since you're talking about millions of dollars at risk on guys who may or may not be able to hit a ball coming 100 MPH from 60 feet away.
There's no link to GQ yet but Read more:Science
, Scouting
Real Science In The News 2006-09-15 03:34:00 The folks at Backpackers.com referenced real science here and here because of our tirade about the Burning Man Art Festival and the 37,000 burners they used to tell everyone how much they care about nature - which is in addition to capping off the event with the release of an additional 114 tons of greenhouse gases by torching "The Man" - with his 76,000 pounds of wood.
The Burning Man folks Read more:Science
Inspiring Science Education 2006-09-13 18:06:00 Science education is in the tank. If you ask teachers, they will insist they need more money. If you ask sociologists they will say science needs to be more fun/creative/interesting/appealling/whatever. I don't know the answer in the classroom but I know the answer - fewer classrooms.
I was on one forum and some crazy woman insisted George Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program was at fault. Read more:Education
, Science
Surest Sign Of The Apocalypse - No More Blondes 2006-11-15 07:01:00 According to this article, researchers at the World Health Organization have claimed that the last natural blonde will be born in Finland in 2202. And the BBC version tells us German scientists have claimed this is due to decreasing frequency of the recessive gene for blonde hair.
The SkyNet article states that when the last Ice Age ended 11,000 years ago blonde hair and blue eyes were Read more:Apocalypse
, Blondes
Need A Christmas Gift For That Special Lefty Chick? Try Pine Tree Underwear 2006-12-05 05:44:00 You can absolutely bet when a marketing department uses the word "ethical" - about its lingerie - someone is out to make a buck at your expense. And they think you will believe anything, my environmental friends.
But French designer Sophie Young's g=9.8 company is doing it with a straight face. In yet another blatant product placement on treehugger.com they say with a straight face, the kinds Read more:Christmas
, Christmas Gift
, Lefty
, Special
, Underwear
A Plea For Eating Disorder Tolerance 2006-12-07 17:25:00 Just this once, we need to talk about something serious. I know it's easy for people to have a knee-jerk reaction to the problems of others and just start laughing but we're all adults here. So I am going to bring this up and then we can discuss the underlying issues and what we, as a society, can do to help.
You see, I just discovered that Dennis Quaid has "manorexia." Sometimes he looks Read more:Tolerance
The REAL Science Of Christmas 2006-12-17 21:52:00 Sometime people think that, because I write this column, I am somehow available for free science consulting services. Obviously this is not the case but I don't mind the occasional question, especially if it concerns real puzzles like how Al Gore can prove a car in China doesn't cause global warming but a car in America does.
Lately I have been pestered with questions about this whole Christmas Read more:Science
Retailers Complain About Global Warming Christmas 2006-12-23 03:47:00 Retailers are calling it the Coat Crisis of 2006, a fashion fiasco measured in racks of unsold fur-lined shearlings at Saks Fifth Avenue and down puffer jackets at Bloomingdale's.
Balmy temperatures on the East Coast, with average highs this holiday season 15 degrees warmer than last year, have been disastrous for sales of all kinds of cold-weather clothing, from cashmere caps to wool Read more:Christmas
, Global
Global Warming Solutions: Markets, taxes, or nothing at all? 2006-12-22 03:48:00 Assume man-made global warming is a big, bad problem. Let's try some thought experiments concerning what, if anything, should be done about it.
One "solution" might be recognizing, at least, that there is nothing to be done about it. One might argue that for the sake of lifting billions of poor people out of abject poverty humanity must continue to burn cheap oil and coal to fuel economic growth Read more:Global
, Global Warming
, Global Warming Solutions
, Markets
Open peer review a bust for NATURE 2006-12-21 03:50:00 Back in the summer, we reported that Nature, perhaps the most prestigious scientific journal on the planet, was experimenting with open peer review
(OPR). Instead of simply assigning manuscripts to a set of anonymous reviewers, Nature offered the authors the opportunity to also have their work posted on a publicly accessible site that provided a mechanism for making comments on the text. The
Climate Change vs Mother Nature: Scientists reveal that bears have stopped hibernating 2006-12-20 16:52:00 Bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain, scientists revealed yesterday, in what may be one of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting the natural world.
In a December in which bumblebees, butterflies and even swallows have been on the wing in Britain, European brown bears have been lumbering through the forests of Spain's Cantabrian mountains, Read more:Change
, Climate
This Site Has Moved 2007-01-29 23:29:00 I have moved over to Scientific Blogging.
If you like to read about science, please visit there and if you like to write about science, sign up for a column.
Fat? Blame It On Evolution 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The 10th International Congress on Obesity in Sydney threw down the gauntlet this past Monday. The problem, they said, is not just food, it is evolution.
Now, if there's one thing evolution people know, it's "natural selection." By that I mean they know how to select evidence they like. I am thinking they won't like this bit much.
Kate Steinbeck, co-chair of the conference and no small woman Read more:Blame
, Evolution
Civil War Submarine Hatch Removed 1970-01-01 00:59:59 CHARLESTON, S.C. - Scientists on Tuesday removed the rear hatch on the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, although the work won't immediately remove the questions surrounding the sinking of the sub in 1864.
Thw world's first submarine to have a combat victory went down swinging, it is assumed, but no one knows how or why. Read more:Civil
, Civil War
, Hatch
, Submarine
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