Over at Shifting Baselines, Randy Olson posts a comment suggesting how to combat anti-science movies like Expelled: You want to know how to start — why doesn’t somebody run a film festival for pro-evolution films? THAT is how you reach out to tap into new voices, new blood, new perspectives. THAT is what is desperately… Continue reading A Pro-Science Film Festival: Why Not?
Category: Blogs
You Don’t Know Me
When I start to lecture, I go into Teaching Mode, which affects the whole way I present myself. I speak at a slightly higher pitch, and the whole cadence of my speech changes. I talk a little bit faster, but repeat myself more, and speak in a more formal style. The funny thing is that… Continue reading You Don’t Know Me
John Scalzi Should Be Ashamed of Himself
I’m not sure whether he’s making some kind of obscure point, or just trolling, but John Scalzi gave a recent installment of his “Big Idea” series over to the witterings of “Vox Day,” talking about his book The Irrational Atheist. Curse you, Scalzi, for getting me to even look at that. And it’s not just… Continue reading John Scalzi Should Be Ashamed of Himself
The Cost of Not Framing
In the comments to yesterday’s post about framing, Damian offers a long comment that doesn’t actually contradict anything I said, but re-frames it in terms more complimentary to the Dawkins/ Myers side of things. I may deal with some of what he says over there (probably not today, though, as I have a class to… Continue reading The Cost of Not Framing
Science in the 21st Century
The Perimeter Institute will be hosting a workshop in September on “Science in the 21st Century“: Times are changing. In the earlier days, we used to go to the library, today we search and archive our papers online. We have collaborations per email, hold telephone seminars, organize virtual networks, write blogs, and make our seminars… Continue reading Science in the 21st Century
The Framing Fracas
I really had intended for Tuesday’s dog pictures to be my only comment on the recent framing debacle (well, Monday’s expertise post was an oblique commentary on it, but nobody got that, which you can tell because the comments were civil and intelligent and interesting to read). But Chris Mooney is making a good-faith effort… Continue reading The Framing Fracas
The Definitive Statement on “Framing” and Expelled
I’ve managed to avoid most of the recent fracas over Expelled and what Matt Nisbet and Chris Mooney have said about it, mostly by unsubscribing from the RSS feeds for most of the participating blogs a few months back. Prescient of me, no? I’ve kept my RSS subscription for Chris’s blog, though, and I read… Continue reading The Definitive Statement on “Framing” and Expelled
On Moderation
(Now that I look at the title, that sounds like an incredibly tepid harness-team command. “On, Moderation! Forward, with prudent speed!” I could clear that up by adding “Comment” in the middle, but I kind of like the image…) Over at Boing Boing, Teresa Nielsen Hayden has posted a long explanation of the comment moderation… Continue reading On Moderation
Literary Divination
Over at Making Light, Abi has proposed a parlour game using books as Tarot cards. As always for Making Light, the resulting comment thread is full of dizzyingly erudite responses, and clever literary in-jokes. But it strikes me that there’s a fundamental flaw in the game– Abi’s examples all involve selected works, chosen to be… Continue reading Literary Divination
Ask Me Uncomfortable Questions
It hasn’t been a roaring success, but LBMango on LiveJournal has a twist on the questions meme that I like: Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don’t blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don’t blog about, but you’d like to hear about, and… Continue reading Ask Me Uncomfortable Questions