E Clampus Vitus in the New York Times

That's something I never expected to see.

Promoting Offbeat History Between the Drinks.

Mishaps mark John McCain's record as naval aviator

Does everyone already know about this? It was news to me.

LA Times article; Rolling Stone ("disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty").

via Barry Sussman at Nieman Watchdog

Another thought on why we bury the lede

We bury the lede (aka take our time in getting to the point, aka circumlocute) because that's what we've been socialized to do in conversation, where if we don't, we get tagged with less-than-favorable labels.

The NCFocus staff seems to be averaging one thought a year on this topic; here's last year's.

We lost Russell Towle

Dutch Flat environmentalist, author Towle dies in auto accident - back in early August.

I hadn't known about his blog, North Fork Trails.

What a tragedy.


And it's the 2nd case I know of in 6 months where an elderly driver has inadvertently caused bodily harm to a member of his family. Watch out, folks.

Small town journalism, etc

This is interesting - Sharon Dunwoody explains and compares small vs. large community newspaper coverage of the same story.

I think in the past I have been rather naive.

( Note to fellow techno-luddites: the cognoscenti would put a mini-post like this into a TumbleLog on their sidebar, or just tag it with del.icio.us. )


But since this is growing into more than a mini-post, something else I've been meaning to put up:

Someone recently asked my thoughts on "the strange bedfellows that are being created to promote blogging vs. MSM"; I answered:

In brief, to the extent it's a "vs.": it's exactly akin to the strange bedfellows (students and imams) that joined together to overthrow the Shah of Iran.

It didn't turn out so well for the students.

The trick is to avoid the "vs.", to create a chimaera that takes advantage of the strengths of both. This would require trust - and more importantly, behavior to earn that trust - from both.

(I believe we were both using "bloggers" as shorthand for "people who aren't journalists by training, who have blogs and may do some citizen journalism [and who criticize newspaper coverage...]")

Best of John Mashey, on climate and other science

Update - I've put these into a section at the bottom of Mashey's wikipedia page; so add more links there, not here.

• Aug 2008, How to learn about science (Deltoid)
• Oct 2007, What to do about poor science reporting (Deltoid)
• Oct 2007, History of AGW Consensus (In It for the Gold)

---

Other relevant links -

• Tactic - the Gish gallop (hat tip: Int. J. Inact.)
• Tim Lambert's So what's wrong with Lomborg?

Update on Russ Steele, who says no funding from WFA

Update, a day later: I've asked Russ to come over and submit a comment setting the record straight, if any of this is incorrect.

Update, 4 days later: And I've now also asked Russ to come over and submit a comment saying that this is correct, since I haven't heard from him in response.
------------------

Upon reading this IJI post on The Way of the Astroturf, after watching the new Naomi Oreskes talk on the Western Fuels Association, and after being rebuffed by local denier Russ Steele when I sought to talk to him in person about why our views on climate differ, I called him just now at his home and asked,

"Have you ever received direct or indirect compensation, directly or indirectly, from the Western Fuels Association?"

Russ responded "I haven't received any funding or anything from anybody" - not for his blog, not for his public speaking on climate, or any other such action. And he reported that to his knowledge, the Sierra Environmental Studies Foundation (ncfocus coverage) is only funded by its three board members, except for some donations "which go exclusively to college scholarships for local high school students", and that to his knowledge, the board members don't receive any outside funding that's subsequently funneled through them to SESF.

(Russ, if I got any of this wrong, please set it straight in the comments below. And to be 100% clear, "indirect compensation" includes compensation of any sort - including past and expected future - to family members.)

of course, now I'm thinking of additional questions that I should have asked, but didn't think to. Anyone else have suggestions, put them in the comments...

Why does [name][hyperbolic emotion verb] Hospice?

2012-01-09 update - post removed because it stooped to ad hom personality issues.  My apologies. 

Amy Goodman in Java Johns this morning; am still kicking myself

So Reinette Senum and I were both in Java John's getting our respective caffeine fixes an hour or so ago, and Reinette says "there's Amy Goodman" - and lo, there's Amy Goodman, who spoke in Grass Valley last night. And who comes in, and who Reinette approaches, telling her "You've been an inspiration to me... I'm now running for City Council."

And your silver tongued correspondent chimes in with the oh so informative "yeah, she's going to win"; but do I think to mention, say, Reinette's having put on the community Peak Oil forum? the community Climate Change forum? her role in Step It Up 2007, or in last year's Climate Cafes? her & Kelly's column in The Union? The upcoming weekly Nevada City Saturday morning farmers' market? PowerUp-NC? last December's lightbulb exchange?

and that's probably just scratching the surface.

conundrum

(which has nothing to do with blogging)
How do you go about apologizing to someone for something that they probably didn't even notice, and that - if they didn't - you'd really rather they continued not to notice?

Just a note - smelly drinking water is back

Update, another week later - water is fine again.

Our water started going bad last weekend, I called and left a msg (which might not have been received...) - but last night it was still noticeably off.
For newcomers, a post from 2005 provides background on this problem. Overall, the water has gotten much, much better since that time. Just not for the past week.

Naomi Oreskes talk on history of climate science and of climate contrarianism

Updated May 24 - see below.
Video of UCSD historian of science (and soon to be Provost) Naomi Oreskes talking on The American Denial of Global Warming.

First half is on history of the science of global warming (predictions and results), the 2nd half is on the history of climate change contrarianism and the role of the Marshall Institute.


Tuesday Update, excerpt from caerbannog's comment on another blog:

After the lecture, I asked Dr. Oreskes if Scripps scientists were ever invited to appear on the local conservative talk-radio shows (i.e. Rick Roberts and Rodger Hedgecock). She laughed and replied with an emphatic “no”.
...
I wanted to find out if our local right-wing radio hosts (who have repeatedly scoffed at global-warming) had any interest in hearing what some real experts had to say. Well, Dr. Oreskes made it quite clear that the local conservatives aren’t interested in hearing anything the Scripps folks might have to say regarding the matter.

The fact that even an organization as prestigious as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography cannot get a fair hearing on its own home-town conservative talk-radio shows tells you all you need to know what conservatives think of scientific expertise these days…

__________________

May 24 update: I'd emailed Scripps asking if they could confirm this; their response was more nuanced:

"...we have been approached to debate the media about climate change science, and, in at least once instance I can recall recently, we declined. Being asked to debate is not effective -- it just feeds in to the "uncertainty" framework, which scientists do not support."

On 'debates', see Eriga, quoted here ("I think...you can't win a debate, not only about climate change, but about any reasonably complex scientific issue, with someone who knows what they're doing. ... it's essentially a debate about trust in scientific authority, not about the science itself.")

New weblog template for the New Year

The old one was decrepit, motheaten and shopworn, to put it mildly. Things that once seemed of great import no longer do - I've been bitching about the cuisine in the dining car while the train's headed off a cliff.

Help me to keep my focus on the big stuff, people.
(confidential to my trolls: yes, even you, but please do it face to face.)

Update: RealClimate overview of The Age of Consequences: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Global Climate Change

Gore speech at Nobel ceremony

Transcript and video of Gore’s speech. I beg you - if you're from Planet Earth - watch the video.

The man has a brain, folks, and he's not afraid to use it, to lead the fight to save our home.

From the speech -

We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency - a threat to the survival of our civilization...

...many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: "They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent."

The catastrophe now threatening us is unprecedented - and we often confuse the unprecedented with the improbable.

We must abandon the conceit that individual, isolated, private actions are the answer. They can and do help. But they will not take us far enough without collective action.

It is time we steered by the stars and not by the lights of every passing ship.

But jeez, at the end, what a maroon of an anchorman...
Tuesday update: they've got a different video up now, sans anchorman. Which is a pity - the anchorman's cameo bit at the end spoke volumes about why we're in the mess we're in.

Read this: Scott Ritter lays out U.S.:Iran intentions

Very late updates:
1) much less likely now. ("Iran has no nuke program, U.S. intel says"; publ. Dec 4)
2) Seymour Hersh on Iran NIE, also Dec.4

Bush/Cheney are planning another "elective" war, on Iran, around April 2008. You can do your part: keep shopping.

This Scott Ritter interview is very, very good. Read it.
Ritter points out who's ultimately responsible:

[V]ery few Americans actually function as citizens anymore. What I mean by that are people who invest themselves in this country, people who care, who give a damn. Americans are primarily consumers today, and so long as they continue to wrap themselves in the cocoon of comfort, and the system keeps them walking down a road to the perceived path of prosperity, they don't want to rock the boat. If it doesn't have a direct impact on their day-to-day existence, they simply don't care.

There's a minority of people who do, but the majority of Americans don't. And if the people don't care — and remember, the people are the constituents — if the constituents don't care, then those they elect to higher office won't feel the pressure to change.

And we will get war.

Here's a man who speaks of World War III and the apocalypse and he has his hand on the button and he talks to God. I don't know, if it's a show, its a dangerous show, if its real, we should all be scared to death.

Margaret Atwood's When you open the door of war... from March 2003.

When a door swings open, you never know what will come through it. ...[T]he fortunes of war, being notoriously unpredictable, are ruled by the Goddess of Chance.

A. Hitler: (via)

To initiate a war is always like opening a large door into a dark room. You have no idea what is lurking there.