Author: somesnarksareboojums_xa83jk

Attention Conservation Notice:[1] Today’s post is self-indulgent, political, and contains no science. And it’s about stupidity. So you know. What prompts anyone to get back on the horse, even a trickless pony such as one’s own blog?  In my case, it was a column in the Denver Post by David Harsanyi. Titled “What if Palin… Continue reading Good morning!

Eric Prince, the famously secretive CEO of Blackwater USA, has emerged from an unspecified location to testify before a House committee, and delivered a vigorous defense of his company’s performance in Iraq. Despite Blackwater’s vigorous defense, no casualties were reported among House members, staff or press, so the hearing was deemed a great success. Much… Continue reading Plus ça change …

A few months ago, on a tip from Abel Pharmboy of Terra Sigillata, I paid a visit to some of this planet’s senior residents — the bristlecone pines of Windy Ridge, near Alma, Colorado. These magnificent trees stand at the very edge of treeline, in a landscape barren of anything much larger than a tuft… Continue reading Monday Bristlecone Blogging

On June 2nd, 1972, William D. Ruckelshaus, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, issued an order effectively ending the agricultural use of DDT in the US. Thirty-five years later, that order is still the subject of fierce controversy. One claim often made by proponents of renewed DDT use is that Ruckelshaus’ decision was capricious and… Continue reading Ruckelshaus, Sweeney and DDT

While I’m reporting news that shouldn’t surprise anybody … this just in! An alert reader[1] reports that Steven Milloy has discovered Zbigniew Jaworowski! Startlingly, Milloy concludes that Jaworowski casts doubt on anthropogenic global warming! But that’s not all. Are you sitting down? Fox News got the scoop! Enough of that; my sarcasmic center is saturating.… Continue reading Milloy parrots Jaworowski: dog bites man yet again.

I will say this for US Sen. James Inhofe (R-Exxon): his relentlessly ideological view of science isolates him from the world, but at least that isolation is so robust and seamless that there’s not much risk of reality intruding and causing him to frighten the horses by saying something rational. Even his moments of most… Continue reading Inhofe Asks NSF Director to Warp Time: So What Else is New?

To those who have asked me (or would have, if you’d thought of it), your eyes filled with hope and voices cracking ever so slightly, “Jim Bob Boy, will you ever post again on climate change?” I can only say, “Soon, dear hearts, soon.” In the meantime, we have another shameless detour, this time compounding… Continue reading Another detour

God, I love Boulder! As if it were not enough that this place is blessed with a perfect climate, heart-filling scenery, a lifetime’s worth of outdoor activities, an educated and tolerant populace, a great university and the NCAR library (happiest place on earth), we also enjoy the highest density of wacky beliefs per capita in… Continue reading It’s not easy being indigo.

This is about something I learned nine years ago, and about how different the Web has made the world since then. In 1996, I was introduced to a product known as Blue-Green Algae. BGA, as I’ll call it, was presented as the nutritional supplement that would fix all the damage caused by our modern, nutrient-poor… Continue reading Blue-Green Algae and the Unbearable Importance of Linking

A recent comment by Skeptico in response to my earlier post on Oscillococcinum has forced me to re-think the whole homeopathy[1] thing: Of course, by doing nothing at all they would still “enjoy all the benefits of homoeopathy”. With the added advantage that the fees would also be reduced to a homeopathic magnitude. Well, yeah,… Continue reading Shaken, not stirred.