Category Archives: science

Bonobo Swingers?

Arts&Letters Daily pointed to this fine essay by Ian Parker in The New Yorker. It really is an interesting and entertaining blend of anecdote, history, and good science reporting.

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Why Dawkins is Wrong – by D. S. Wilson

Skeptic: eSkeptic: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

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Jim Motavalli at AlterNet on the Nuclear Option?

AlterNet: Environment: Is Fear About Climate Change Causing a Nuclear Renaissance? provides a balanced review including summaries of a number of people’s positions but doesn’t really add any new information.

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Climate change: A guide for the perplexed – earth – 16 May 2007 – New Scientist Environment

Climate change: A guide for the perplexed – earth – 16 May 2007 – New Scientist Environment

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An Orthogonal Trajectory

Light and Dark These words (used in the previous post) need exploring. We are not nocturnally well adapted so naturally fear the dark. This leads to much weight being attached to the words and makes their metaphorical use a powerful … Continue reading

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The DNA of Religious Faith

David Barash reviews some theories of religion in an article in The Chronicle: 4/20/2007

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Kudos to Fox News ?

Thanks to Theodore Labadie who posted the link on the ‘Transforming Langara’ listserv, but this is not surprising. The interview subject is promoting the purchase of “carbon offsets” and the opportunities for fraud in that are so magnificent that no … Continue reading

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Robert Lanza’s “New Theory of the Universe”

This is generally well-informed nonsense from a very smart nut.

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Faces Just 6 Pixels Wide

This post by Stephen Downes presents an interesting link, but I don’t agree that it supports his thesis about human reasoning. Pattern recognition at this level is characteristic of many species and devices, and it’s a capability that is probably … Continue reading

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AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Renewables Can Turn the Tide on Global Warming

AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Renewables Can Turn the Tide on Global Warming

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What Al Gore Hasn’t Told You . . .

What Al Gore Hasn’t Told You About Global Warming is a review on Alternet by David Morris of George Monbiot’s book ‘Heat’

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PNW Conifers–Genus page

PNW Conifers–Genus page

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Oregon State Univ., LANDSCAPE PLANTS

Oregon State Univ., LANDSCAPE PLANTS

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Carbon Footprint

Carbon Footprint includes a “calculator” for estimating one’s personal contribution of CO2 to the atmosphere and suggests various ways of reducing or offsetting it. But the encouragement to “plant trees” (or pay for same) may be misguided, since it seems … Continue reading

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RealClimate – Climate Science Blog

RealClimate is a blog about climate science maintained primarily by Gavin Schmidt. It appears to be a forum for active discussion of current issues with input from a wide cross section of those active in the field.

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The Carbon Dioxide Greenhouse Effect

This is a balanced complete and well referenced account of the history of our understanding of CO2 in the atmosphere.

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The New Yorker on String Theory

This The New Yorker article discusses two recent books criticizing the current ineffective dominance of String Theory in theoretical physics

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Silence: A short history of our atoms

Silence: A short history of our atoms is actually a posting by Dutch blogger Renee Alkmar about the idea of science as a form of religion. I arrived there via the link from the author’s March21 comment on the Jan24 … Continue reading

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Philosophy Talk: The Blog: Does Truth Matter?

From the ‘PhilosophyTalk’ blog, Ken Taylor’s posting on Does Truth Matter? leads to a discussion in which the question of whether the question has a well defined answer becomes one of the issues to address. But although “Truth matters” may … Continue reading

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