Tonight, CBS 60 Min. - NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake

For details, see the Climate Science Watch post National Security Agency whistleblower Thomas Drake appearing on CBS 60 Minutes May 22 in his first television interview -

"...[Drake] disclosed evidence of multi-billion dollar corruption and mismanagement in the NSA and illegal domestic surveillance...faces retaliatory prosecution under the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers...will be appearing on a special two-hour episode of 60 Minutes..."

Reasons to use a human-powered lawnmower

Why I love human-powered lawnmowers -

• Free exercise
• No unpleasant internal-combustion exhaust fumes
  
• You can mow in early a.m. without irking your neighbors
• and finally...the rote work of it is, somehow, ideal for facilitating rumination (of the cognitive variety, if you lack livestock; or of both types, if you've got them.)
  
  Update: Yow - I had no idea. It turns out that rumination, of the psychological variety, means chewing over upsetting experiences; I'd thought it just meant sifting for pattern & understanding.
  (Which it also does: "to meditate or muse; ponder." (link))
  

Critique my Ben Santer "how to get reliable climate info" intervew, please

Dear reader, I have a favor to ask: I need feedback on this interview, which I'd like to optimize for airing on KVMR. It won't take long, it's only about 6 1/2 minutes.

See over here at my other blog for details, links, feedback so far, etc.

(I've also got material for another Santer piece, and for one or more (equally) short pieces featuring Ken Caldeira; stay tuned.)

Peak Oil's Orlov and Ruppert to speak Sunday, at Green Life Eco Fest; Orlov also Sat.

Yow! From the APPLE email (links added):

Keynote Speakers [at Green Life Eco Fest] Include:

Michael Ruppert authored "Confronting Collapse" and "Crossing the Rubicon". Michael spoke in Grass Valley a few years ago to a sold out crowd at the Vets Hall.

Dmitry Orlov authored "Reinventing Collapse" and "Hold Your Applause"

They are speaking on Sunday May 22nd at 11:00 AM
...
[Judith Kildow will be speaking at 10am Sat.]

Tickets are available at the gate and at the APPLE Center. Adults are $8 and children are free.

Here is Ruppert's flyer for the event.

Orlov says:

"I'll be at the Eco-Fest this Saturday and Sunday. ... I'll be speaking on making the best of your Energy Elves (they are like the old fossil-fueled Energy Slaves except much smaller; I seem to have made my peace with them) on Saturday at 11:15."

If you could ask a climate scientist one question, what would it be?

I've been doing an informal survey on this; what would your question be?

Bridging the chasm between two cultures (New Age and science-aligned)

This May 2004 article (link) by Karla McLaren came up in conversation recently, and is still well worth reading.

Bestiary - Species of the day

Rhinoceros; specifically, the Eugene Ionesco variant thereof.

And actually, it's more like species of the last few years...

National Academy to US.: for heaven's sake, wake up

"The risks associated with doing business as usual are a much greater concern than the risks associated with engaging in ambitious but measured response efforts. This is because many aspects of an 'overly ambitious' policy response could be reversed or otherwise addressed, if needed, through subsequent policy change, whereas adverse changes in the climate system are much more difficult (indeed, on the time scale of our lifetimes, may be impossible) to 'undo.' "

For more: NPR's Top U.S. Scientists To Nation: Global Warming. Really. We Are Not Kidding - or Skeptical Science, National Academy of Sciences on Climate Risk Management - or Climate Progress, National Academy of Sciences slams climate disinformation campaign, flawed media coverage:

...“Many factors complicate and impede public understanding of climate change”:

"Most people rely on secondary sources for information, especially the mass media; and some of these sources are affected by concerted campaigns against policies to limit CO2 emissions, which promote beliefs about climate change that are not well-supported by scientific evidence. U.S. media coverage sometimes presents aspects of climate change that are uncontroversial among the research community as being matters of serious scientific debate. Such factors likely play a role in the increasing polarization of public beliefs about climate change, along lines of political ideology, that has been observed in the United States."

Or see the report itself.

Climate scientists who've been interviewed on KVMR

I want to settle a disagreement, in which I'm pretty sure of my position, but without more data it's hard to be certain. It'd help to have a (much) more complete list, of who's been interviewed about climate science on KVMR in the last several years; if anyone has more info...?

Today (Sat) is Hospitality House Build a Shelter day (music, auction, dunk tank...)

From the email:

For discussing the deficit, 2 simple charts

From James Fallows in the Atlantic:

Productive thinking: Mercier on how to avoid confirmation bias

Don't think alone; and do seek out people who disagree: (link)

"People mostly have a problem with the confirmation bias when they reason on their own, when no one is there to argue against their point of view. What has been observed is that often times, when people reason on their own, they’re unable to arrive at a good solution, at a good belief, or to make a good decision because they will only confirm their initial intuition.

On the other hand, when people are able to discuss their ideas with other people who disagree with them, then the confirmation biases of the different participants will balance each other out, and the group will be able to focus on the best solution. Thus, reasoning works much better in groups. When people reason on their own, it’s very likely that they are going to go down a wrong path. But when they’re actually able to reason together, they are much more likely to reach a correct solution."

KVMR's mission statement, and a Q

KVMR's mission statement:

Meckler/McClintock Tea Party Patriot town hall meeting - talks and Q&A

A report of the on-stage parts of the Tea Party Patriot town hall meeting held last week on Wednesday, April 27, 2011: talks by Mark Meckler and Tom McClintock, followed by a joint Q&A.

Rumination on communication, and how reflective listening can go astray

Belaboring the obvious, 2011.