Posted inScience

Not a big surprise: women are more moral than men

Roger Steare, a "corporate philosopher," has gotten 60,000 people across 200 countries to take a Moral DNA Test.  One conclusion: women are more moral than men. Which to me, is just about as surprising as a researcher concluding that wolves are more dangerous than kittens. Still, science is to be respected, even when what it tells us agrees with common sense. The study, which measured responses to questions about honesty and competency, showed females are more likely to make decisions based on how they impact on others. It also suggest the moral compass of both men and women alters with…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Heartland Institute compares global warming believers to “murderers”

As if we needed more proof that anti-science global warming deniers are wackos, here it is: Well, when facts, reality, and 98% of the world's leading climate scientists aren't on your side, it looks like the global warming deniers are reduced to disgusting fearmongering and personal insults. Here's what part of the Heartland Institute's press release announcing the billboard campaign said: May 3, 2012 – Billboards in Chicago paid for by The Heartland Institute point out that some of the world’s most notorious criminals say they “still believe in global warming” – and ask viewers if they do, too. Heartland’s first digital…
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Posted inScience Sustainability

Arctic warming could be cause of NW cool spell

It's been freakin' cold this spring of 2012 in the Great Pacific Northwest. Also, rainy. March saw the most rainfall ever in Portland. I think here in Salem we had the third rainiest March on record. Today I went for an afternoon dog walk in 45 degree weather. Driving home from my Tai Chi class tonight, my car thermometer "dinged" with a 37 degrees nearing-freezing alert.  Global warming deniers seize upon any unusual cold spell as evidence that Al Gore is wrong; global warming is a fraud perpetrated by the United Nations One World Order and complicit climatologists; weird record-breaking…
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Posted inScience

Cool real-time wind map of United States

Thanks to Climate Progress, I was turned on to what's described as the "coolest wind map ever." Well, since I've only seen one wind map in my life -- the one they're talking about -- I'll have to take the scientists' word on that. Indeed, it's intriguing to see a countrywide flowing view of what the wind is doing today. The map creators advise using the Chrome browser to view the map, which I use, but even so I discovered that after that web page was open for a few minutes, my MacBook's fan went noisily on. Checking the Mac…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science Sustainability

Eugene girls sue Kitzhaber over climate change inaction

Here's four big Green Thumbs-Up from my wife and me to Eugene residents Olivia Chernaik, 11, and Kelsey Juliana, 15. The Register Guard reports: ...with the help of their mothers, Lisa Chernaik and Catia Juliana, [the girls] filed a lawsuit against the state of Oregon and Gov. John Kitzhaber, accusing them of violating their duties to uphold the public trust and to protect the state’s atmosphere, water, land, fishery and wildlife resources from the impacts of climate change. Excellent! The lawsuit is being brought under the aegis of iMatter, a group that encourages kids to get involved in the fight to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Science supports a progressive political agenda

Nice!  The voice that speaks inside my head couldn't do anything but agree with Alex Rosenberg's conclusion near the end of his book, "The Atheist's Guide to Reality:" modern science leads to a left-wing ideology. Like a lot else that Rosenberg says in his provocative book, this statement was jarring. Usually the scientific method is considered to be above politics. Scientists deal with objective facts about the world, while politicians mess around with subjective values. Yet Rosenberg perusasively backed up his words. This pleased me, given that I'm both a progressive and an admirer of science. I've always figured there…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Republicans are seeking an unscientific America

Oh, yeah! Right on! That's what my mind screamed when I opened the mailbox a few days ago and saw the headline on the cover of New Scientist: "Unscientific America -- A dangerous retreat from reason." So true. It's mostly Republicans who are trying to lead us back to the Dark Ages of irrationality, even though a New Scientist editorial on this subject tries (semi-successfully) to spread the anti-science blame. Even today, as China and India flex their muscles, the world still looks to the US for leadership. This is especially true in science. A nation founded on the Enlightenment has…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Krauthammer is wrong about relativity being proven wrong

Whenever I watch Charles Krauthammer expressing his conservatism on Fox News, or read his right-wing newspaper columns, almost always I strongly disagree with him. Seeing that his most recent column was about a possible discovery of faster-than-light neutrinos, which I blogged about here, I thought that maybe Charles and I would find some agreement on the common ground of science. But no, I got as irritated with his "Gone in 60 nanoseconds" as with his overtly political pieces. Because what Krauthammer wants to say goodbye to is trust in modern science.  Scientists at CERN, the European high-energy physics consortium, have announced the…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Richard Dawkins calls Rick Perry an “uneducated ignoramus”

I wonder if Rick Perry, Republican presidential candidate and Texas governor, knows what "ignoramus" means. Probably not. I'll help Perry out in case he stumbles across this blog. Here's the definition, Rick: Utterly ignorant person. Such is how noted evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins describes not only Rick Perry but also the entire leadership of today's Republican party. He's right on. Anyone who doesn't believe in evolution or other unarguable scientific facts indeed is an ignoramus. How is it that they even could be considered for high public office, especially the presidency of the United States? Here's how Dawkins starts off…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Republican presidential candidates disrespect reality

Whenever the current crop of Republican presidential candidates make a public utterance, I think, Reality is a terrible thing to waste. WIth a single exception, Jon Huntsman, they don't care whether what they're saying is fact-based, scientifically-defensible, or otherwise firmly rooted in demonstrable consensual reality. They just spout off about whatever is politically expedient. If Republican primary voters demand crazy talk from a candidate, that's what they're given. This is dangerous. What if one of these reality-deniers somehow becomes President of the United States? Who wants the leader of our country to be out of touch with what is really…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

A neuroscientific view of Anthony Weiner’s Twitter scandal

I'm tired of all the media attention that's been given to Rep. Anthony Weiner's semi-scandalous Twitter escapades with young women who caught his cyberspace eye. But I find his story interesting in a scientific sense, having just finished reading David Eagleman's "Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain." Eagleman is a neuroscientist. He also is a terrific writer. His earlier book, "Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives" is wonderfully creative. (I've blogged about Eagleman's ideas here, here, here, here, and here.) A central theme of "Incognito" is that conscious awareness is a tiny part of what's going on in the…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Ann Coulter and Lars Larson are idiots about “good” radiation

As unoriginal as the title would be, I toyed with the idea of calling this post "Lars Larson is a big fat idiot." But since I wanted Ann Coulter to share in the idiocy, and she's a lot closer to anorexic than fat, I had to give up that notion. Which leaves Coulter and Larson being plain idiots for claiming that low levels of radiation are good for you.I heard Portland, Oregon right-wing talk show host Lars Larson say this last week, citing the rarely-reputable Ann Coulter as the source of this amazing bit of scientific misinformation. Of course, it…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science Sustainability

Global warming is causing disasters — Republicans ignore reality

With one exception, I'm not particularly worried about the damage Republicans can do in the new Congress, now that they're about to take over control of the House. A Democratic Senate and President will prevent them from enacting any batshit crazy laws. What's the exception? Acting on much-needed global warming and energy policy legislation. This is a policy area that can't wait for voters to come to their senses in 2012 and kick the do-nothings out of office. Obama is doing what he can administratively, but it'd be a heck of a lot better for the United States and the…
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Posted inScience

Yay! Sun has started to set later.

Great news from nature for us late afternoon dog walkers: a few days ago the sun started to set later, even though the days are still getting shorter. Here's why. You may wonder how days can still be getting shorter through the winter solstice, which occurs on Dec. 21 this year, if the sun is starting to set later in the day. That is because the sun also rises later in the mornings through the winter solstice, and the rate at which sunrise times are becoming later is higher than the rate at which sunset times are becoming later. The…
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Posted inScience Sustainability

There’s more snow storms in warmer years

Here's another arrow that's been lost from the unscientific quiver of climate change deniers: It's snowing hard! Global warming isn't happening! Untrue. The anti-science crowd has been doing a killer job pushing the myth that the big recent snowstorms somehow undercut our understanding of human-caused global warming.  But aside from the fact the precipitation isn’t temperature, it turns out that the “common wisdom” the disinformers are preying on — lots of snow means we must be in a cold season — isn’t even true.Let’s look at the results of an actual, detailed study of “the relationships of the storm frequencies…
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Posted inPhilosophy Science

When mind wanders, happiness departs

I used to work with a highly creative and socially conscious guy who told me once that he was always thinking about something. Driving his car, brushing his teeth, eating his dinner -- most of the time his mind was occupied in pondering how to make the world better while his body was doing something else. This probably made him more productive, but not more happy. Such is the conclusion of research I came across today in the New York Times: "When the Mind Wanders, Happiness Also Strays." Whatever people were doing, whether it was having sex or reading or…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science Sustainability

Climate scientists challenge global warming deniers

Great news: climate scientists have decided they no longer will tolerate truth-besmirching, anti-science, fossil fuel industry-supported global warming deniers. Unfortunately, the campaign to bring more facts and less irrationality into policy debates isn't quite as aggressive as the LA Times story said (which was reprinted in the Portland Oregonian, where I read it this morning). Faced with rising political attacks, hundreds of climate scientists are joining a broad campaign to push back against congressional conservatives who have threatened prominent researchers with investigations and vowed to kill regulations to rein in man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The still-evolving efforts reveal a shift…
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Posted inScience Sustainability

Letter to editor shows ignorance of global warming deniers

Marcia Turnquist of Northwest Portland, you should send me a cyberspace gift basket. I was this close to titling my blog post, "Marcia Turnquist is a scientific freaking fool." But I thought that sounded just a tad impolite for a headline, so I demoted that sentiment to the body of this post -- though I still dearly hope Google manages to connect "Marcia Turnquist" and "freaking fool" for as long as the Holy Search Engine does its thing.As I guess is obvious, I'm losing my patience with global warming deniers. Also, with media outlets that treat their scientific illiteracy with…
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Posted inScience Sustainability

Lars Larson’s lies about global warming

Even though I got satellite radio to avoid the right-wing talk shows that dominate the Portland, Oregon airwaves, occasionally I tune into Lars Larson (KXL) or Victoria Taft (KPAM) to check on the strength of my cranium -- since almost always what I hear makes me feel like my brain is going to explode.I survived ten minutes or so of Larson a few days ago, but just barely. The combined scientific ignorance of Lars and a global warming-denying sidekick he had on, Chuck Wiese, was astounding.And intensely disturbing.Three years ago I criticized Larson for joking about how global warming is…
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Posted inScience Sustainability

Sensuous climate science: most beautiful curves on the planet

The Earth has gone through big climatic changes in its multi-billion year history. Global warming deniers point to these and say, "See, nature continually warms and cools the Earth, so there's no need to worry about what people are doing to the climate." That's ignorance talking, as I learned in reading more of James Hansen's fascinating book, "Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity." If that subtitle sounds dramatic to you, be assured that it isn't. About four years ago TIME magazine, a genuinely fair and balanced news source,…
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