Monthly Archives: September 2009

Animal Logic — Photos by Another Darn Genius

Having six billion plus humans on the planet creates some problems, but also has some advantages. Surely there are more geniuses amongst us now than ever before. And thanks to the Internet, we can experience their work a little more easily than back in Da Vinci's day. Well, Richard Barnes may not have Da Vinci'sContinue reading “Animal Logic — Photos by Another Darn Genius”

The Global Warming Debate in Real Life

From the great Overheard in New York: Boyfriend: Can you believe they're saying the temperature is gonna rise, like, 5 degrees over the next 100 years?Girlfriend: Yeah, but it's all based on scientist's predictions and computer models.Boyfriend: Predictions and computer models? C'mon!Girlfriend: How do you think they predict anything?Boyfriend: But to force public policy uponContinue reading “The Global Warming Debate in Real Life”

Battle of the Headlines: “World’s Ocean Temps Warmest Ever Recorded” vs. “Arctic Sea Ice Is Again on the Rise”

The first headline for USA Today, atop veteran science writer Seth Borenstein's story for the AP, was inspired by world-wide records from the National Climactic Data Center. As the story said: WASHINGTON — The world's oceans this summer are the warmest on record. The National Climatic Data Center, the government agency that keeps weather records,Continue reading “Battle of the Headlines: “World’s Ocean Temps Warmest Ever Recorded” vs. “Arctic Sea Ice Is Again on the Rise””

The Age of Stupid — A Documentary About Us. (Hey, Wait as Minute…)

Gotta admire the wit of English filmmaker Franny Armstrong. Instead of warning us of climate change disasters to come, she mocks our thick-headed inability to listen to these warnings from from the distant future. It's a clever way to make a point. Her film, bluntly called "The Age of Stupid," is built around the ideaContinue reading “The Age of Stupid — A Documentary About Us. (Hey, Wait as Minute…)”

Don’t Waste Your Dreams — Recycle Them

Rebecca Solnit, one of today's great thinkers, wrote recently in her book A Field Guide to Getting Lost: It is in the nature of things to be lost and not otherwise. Think of how little has been salvaged from the compost of time of the hundreds of billions of dreams dreamt since the language toContinue reading “Don’t Waste Your Dreams — Recycle Them”

In Wildness, Truth. In Wildness, Life…

From an essay by Jay Griffiths in Drunken Boat: What is wild cannot be bought or sold, borrowed or copied.  It is.  Unmistakable, unforgettable, unshameable, elemental as earth and water and fire.  Don’t waste your wildness: it is precious and necessary.  In wildness, truth.  In wildness, life.  And, for the human spirit as for anyContinue reading “In Wildness, Truth. In Wildness, Life…”

A Scientist Who Can Write, Thank God

A lot of scientists — not all, but a good number, I must say — see to regard the English language as a mortal enemy which must be evaded with jargon, neutered with utterly emotionless prose, and crushed under heavy statistical arguments. Often I find that the graphics are the only legible part of aContinue reading “A Scientist Who Can Write, Thank God”

The Sloshy, Scary Future of New York City

Robert Lee Hotz has been writing about science for thirty years for various American newspapers, has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twice and won it once, and these days works for the Wall Street Journal. He writes big, thoughtful pieces about cutting-edge science. This is good, but it means he doesn't publish often, soContinue reading “The Sloshy, Scary Future of New York City”