Congratulations for Almost Diamonds and Quiche Moraine blogger Stephanie Zvan for her brand new Guest Post at Scientific American.

The Politics of the Null Hypothesis

… Nothing about the field of IQ studies is free of political influence. It’s naive to believe that any kind of research on a purported measure of individual merit could be politics-free in a self-proclaimed meritocracy with wide inequalities. …

Read it HERE

Or else there will be … consequences.
Continue reading Please turn off your cell phone →

Polio is almost completely eradicated. But as Bruce Aylward says: Almost isn’t good enough with a disease this terrifying. Aylward lays out the plan to continue the scientific miracle that ended polio in most of the world — and to snuff it out everywhere, forever.

Well, that was interesting. We are having turbulent weather here in Minnesota. The current low pressure system passing across the US is sitting on us like a bullet on a bull’s eye. Almost every line of storm activity is breaking into small blobs which in turn are spinning up wall clouds and twisters, mostly small, mostly only on radar, mostly not touching down.

Except the one that is currently bearing down on Coon Lake Beach and Forest Lake. It was spotted on a traffic cam earlier, seen by some spotters, damaged a shopping mall, and hit the small airport we have down the road from here. But what happened here, at our house, was kinda cool.

A large cloud which I believe contained the tornado to our east sat over head dropping one or two inch an hour rain (but no hail). However the wind velocity was zero. The leaves on nearby trees were quivering lightly from being rained on. I heard the freight train but the air did not move.

Then, just as the sound of the tornado going by faded into the distance, with the wind still at zero, leaves started to fall. I could see them way up in the air, two or three times higher than the tops of the perfectly still trees all around me, and the leaves fell, spinning or wavering a bit, but not much, straight down to the ground. And, when they hit the ground I could see that every one of the green falling items was a small fragment of a leaf or other vegetation. Debris carried high into the air, spread out from the tornado, and gently dropped on it.

As I write this I’m hearing that dozens of homes in one area have been damaged, people are using their own axes and chain saws to cut through trees sitting on people’s houses to rescue those trapped inside. No reports of injuries from that locality right now. I don’t know where the heck the breathless reporter was calling in from … oh, wait, North Minneapolis. People are trapped in their homes and cars. We’ll keep an eye on that.

UPDATE: They’re showing traffic cam film of a twister on the ground in Forest Lake now, a few miles away from the camera, which in turn is in the sun.

Bird migration is a huge topic. Super-Big. Vast. Overwhelming.

So, starting today, it is Bird Migration Week (running from Thursday to Thursday) on this blog. I’ll be posting a number of quick reviews of bird-migration related books and a few other items, but for starters, I’ll send you over to 10,000 Birds for a post on bird migration.

To a birder, migration means that you can live in Minnesota, New York, Paris or Moscow and see exotic tropical birds such as Piranga olivacea and Icterus galbula on a regular basis without buying a plane ticket. The birds do the flying for you. Even if you don’t live in the summer range of a particular species, you may have opportunities to observe it while it passes through, especailly if you live in an active flyway, like I happen to. All of this leads to a longer life list, which is, after all, the entire point of bridwatching, right?

Read all about it in A Question of Migration.

Everything is connected to everything else. Sometimes, the connections are non-trivial. Often they are fundamental, sometimes exploitable, and now and then very potent sources of debate and discussion. I’ve come to think that a measure of sanity is the degree to which one limits a sense of connection when taking in new information. For instance, I was lambasted by a fellow blogger a few months ago when he insisted that there were connections … of influence, of a pecuniary nature, at least … between me and a major Big Science institution which caused me to say things that he thought I should not say. My refusals to back down from his assertions that I was wrong were proof that I was being paid off. That sort of over-belief in connections is the raw material of conspiracy theory. It can be amusing. Usually, it is merely distracting but sometimes it is just plain annoying.

The point is, understanding, managing, and exploiting connections is not a skill inborn for our species. It requires talent in that area, and some training.

Sheril Kirshenbaum is a person who understands a class of connections between science, politics, society, law, and that emergent property of government and institutions in general we know of as “policy.” You know Sheril from her blogging at Science Blogs in the past, and more recently, on Discover.com (The Intersection … intersection of connections, we assume) but she left the Intersection a couple of months ago. And now (well, actually, yesterday) we have the announcement that she has started a new blog at Wired called “Convergence” …

…where everything is connected.

Convergence is a forum to explore all sorts of topics, but the primary focus will be the interdisciplinary nature of understanding our world. For example, if we aspire to protect biodiversity, we must address social issues. Boosting fisheries requires economics. Tackling our tremendous energy problem involves a great deal of policy. That’s what this blog is all about: people, science, decision-making, and more. It’s where seemingly unrelated fields overlap, boundaries blur, and practical solutions are sought.*

Like most people, I originally got interested in Sheril (who wrote this book) because of her ground breaking work with the Sea Cucumber. More recently, thought, we’ve had a few (far too few) opportunities to conspire in bloggy activities having to do with things like the plight of women in war-torn ‘third world’ countries. I look forward to seeing the kinds of connections Sheril makes at Convergence.

Go have a look.

on Skeptically Speaking, recording live today.

Continue reading The hunt for planets circling other stars →

I’m looking forward to the moment in a few weeks from now when Desiree Schell and I sit down and have a serious public conversation about approaches to promoting skepticism and science-based reasoning and policy. We’ll also discuss New Atheism and Accommodationism, I assume.

As you know, Desiree hosts the highly popular radio program and podcast “Skeptically Speaking.” This may be the first time she’s engaged in a public conversation with some crazy New Atheist blogger anywhere other than on her own home turf (we’ll be talking on Atheist Talk Radio, with Mike Haubrich hosting). It should be interesting to say the least. The word “Feisty” has been used in reference to the conversation likely to develop.
Continue reading Which is right: ‘In your face’ or staid professionalism? →

I had never felt airsick before, or since. But now I was a nauseated rag doll flopping around in the middle row of a six seater prop plane and I was ready to hurl at any moment.
Continue reading Flight 447 and the ITCZ →

Surly Amy has been (successfully) raising money to help defray conference costs for women interested in attending The Amazing Meeting. Moments ago, Emma Cating, Megan Wells, and Amy Peters, who has applied among many others to obtain this funding, were awarded the first Surly Women Thinking Free TAM Grants.

There are more women in need of funding and I know you can help. Please visit this blog post to find out how.

Did I use ‘offing’ correctly? Strange word.

Anyway, Mike Haubrich has pulled off another coup at Atheist Talk Radio. He has arranged for a conversation to happen, live, between Desiree Schell and yours truly. This will be in early June (details forthcoming). We’ll be talking about multiple strategies for effecting change, especially with reference to things like skeptical (in a good way) thinking, science, and so on.

This is very timely because we are quickly approaching SkepchiCON (click here to donate), at which this will be one of the topics discussed in the track organized by the Skepchicks. In fact, Desiree is one of the participants in that track this year, as is PZ Myers, a bunch of other people, and me. Watch this spot for more details on that as well.

In the meantime, the latest posts on this topic are:

The two species problem of New Atheism

The Accommodationism Challenges

What do you do when the person next to you on the plane is reading Deepak Chopra?

… And earlier posts are linked to here.

It’s Bora’s birthday. He’s here and here. Well, he’s everywhere, but those are two places he be.

“We should not have published the altered picture”

Meaning, what exactly? Oh never mind. Have a look at this:
Continue reading But wait, there’s more …. →