Category Archives: Uncategorized

From Pico Iyer, perhaps the best travel writer in the world today, a well-written reminder that the Dalai Lama is not a human spiritual fire around which we can warm ourselves vicariously, but a town cryer sounding the alarm…for his nation.

For a wonderfully thorough scientific discussion of this important topic with lots of comments from the field, check out this post at RealClimate. Sample quote from comment and response #18: The current Landsea/Trenberth/Emanuel discussion has been parsed by many to mean that Landsea claims that the number of hurricanes is constant, and Trenberth is claimingContinue reading “Global Warming and Hurricanes: A Connection?”

For two weeks. Here’s where I’m going. A billion bonus points to anyone who knows where it is: Come back and see me again late this month…please!

Roger Pielke, Jr. is one of the most prominent and moderate voices in the world of science and policy-making today, and a man determined to keep politics out of climatology. But when it comes to Katrina, he is profoundly unhappy with the Bush administration: The Bush Administration’s complete lack of preparedness for responding to HurricaneContinue reading ““Intelligence Failure””

The White House press corps–and Terry Moran of ABC News, in particular–gave Scott McClellan, the President’s spokesman, forty-two minutes of hell yesterday. Here’s one exchange: Q I just want to follow up on David’s questions on accountability. First, just to get you on the record, where does the buck stop in this administration? MR. McCLELLAN:Continue reading “42 Minutes of Hell”

Steven Milloy makes a nice living working at home ($90,000 a year, according to Mother Jones) as a science abuser. Formerly he was the executive director of the Advancement of Sound Science Coalition. Among his achievements, according to reporter Chris Mooney, was a column he wrote in the right-leaning Washington Times in 2001 advising theContinue reading “The “Junk Science” Misleader”

To an agnostic such as myself seeing God’s will in a the wanderings of a hurricane just seems absurd. Yet something in human nature cannot help but find purpose in the destruction or lack thereof. To the zealots at RepentAmerica, Katrina was God smiting New Orleans for a gay festival in the French Quarter scheduledContinue reading “God and Hurricanes”

In response to the escalating disaster in New Orleans, the White House proves unable even to co-ordinate its own spokespeople.  The Bush administration, struggling to master the chaos of New Orleans, seems to have a logistical problem closer to home: getting the White House on the same page with the Homeland Security Department. But really,Continue reading “Proving the Point…Again”

That’s a slogan Arthur C. Clarke coined back in the late 60’s, when his interest turned to our fossil fuel addiction, and ways to cut down on our cravings. Here’s a fascinating site (put up by Swiss Re, among other corporate sponsors) and includes a page–and a superb photograph–on the remarkable efforts Japan is makingContinue reading ““Don’t Commute–Communicate!””

Hurricane Katrina turned out not to be a Category 5 tropical storm, and as the storm moved a little to the east of the city, the storm waters did not top the levee system. The worst was avoided, blessedly. But civic engineers, FEMA officials, and meterologists remain concerned about the prospect for a major disaster,Continue reading “Catastrophe Avoided”