Open Parachute

Why Don’t We Go To Church?

Ken Perrott • May 26, 2010

• Add new tag,
• agnostic,
• agnosticism,
• atheism,
• belief,
• Christianity,
• creationism,
• culture,
• diversity,
• evolution,
• faith,
• god,
• intelligent design,
• religion,
• Sciblogs

Saw this recently and it immediately thought this would be a great book for my youngest granddaughter. She told me recently that she had been picked on by some of here school friends because she said she believed in evolution. This discussion quickly turned to belief in a god. It ended up with her having [...] … Read More

Sneaky scientists

Ken Perrott • May 24, 2010

• climate change,
• Environment,
• Heartland Institute,
• Microsoft PowerPoint,
• politics,
• Sciblogs

This little snippet from  Michael Tobis (see Scientist Sneaks Science into Heartland Meeting). “Apparently Prof. Scott Denning of Colorado State has tricked the Heartland Institute into accepting a talk entitled “Debunking Common Myths About Global Warming” for their annual conference caucus this year. The joke is on them. It turns out that the presentation is [...] … Read More

The heart of opposition to climate science

Ken Perrott • May 21, 2010

• climate change,
• Competitive Enterprise Institute,
• creationism,
• Environment,
• Fred Singer,
• George C Marshall Institute,
• global warming,
• Heartland Institute,
• New Zealand,
• religion,
• Sciblogs,
• Stephen McIntyre,
• United States

The Heartland Institute’s Fourth International Conference on Climate Change occured this week in Chicago, USA. It was basically a gathering of activists opposed to climate change science and/or political measures to deal with global warming. It’s worth looking at the programme and the list of co-sponsors. These reveal the nature of the political and ideological [...] … Read More

Last chance — almost!

Ken Perrott • May 20, 2010

• astronomy,
• International Space Station,
• NASA,
• Sciblogs,
• space,
• Space Shuttle,
• Space Shuttle Atlantis,
• Sun

With the retirement of NASA’s shuttle fleet later this year we won’t be seeing images like this any more. This shows Image of the solar transit of the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Atlantis 50 minutes before docking last weekend. The last planned trip for Atlantis. Have a look at the full image [...] … Read More

What’s that about global cooling?

Ken Perrott • May 19, 2010

• climate change,
• Environment,
• global warming,
• globalwarming,
• Goddard Institute for Space Studies,
• NASA,
• New York Times,
• Paul Krugman,
• politics,
• Sciblogs

After all the talk about global cooling, or lack of global warming, here’s a nice little graph to illustrate the misuse of statistics. It also illustrates why climate change contrarians and deniers love to start their measurements from 1998. Its from Paul Krugman’s Blog at the New York Times (see How Will They Spin This?). [...] … Read More

Supporting good science communication

Ken Perrott • May 17, 2010

• Brighter Planet,
• climate change,
• Climate Denial Crock of the Week,
• Environment,
• global warming,
• politics,
• Sciblogs,
• YouTube

If you have watched any of the short videos from YouTube channel, Climate Denial Crock of the Week, you will appreciate how good they are. Always well produced they deal with specific arguments made by climate change deniers and contrarians. Well, the author is in a competition for a $5,000 grant. If he wins he [...] … Read More

Monckton and Shimkus get silly together

Ken Perrott • May 12, 2010

• belief,
• Christianity,
• creationism,
• god,
• politics,
• religion,
• Sciblogs

I hope out Parliamentary Committee hearings in New Zealand don’t get this silly. Here’s an argument against climate change made last year to a hearing in the US House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment by Republican John Shimkus via YouTube – Rep. John Shimkus: God decides when the “earth will end”. This was followed [...] … Read More

The Dawkins Delusions

Ken Perrott • May 10, 2010

• Add new tag,
• agnostic,
• agnosticism,
• atheism,
• belief,
• Dawkins,
• faith,
• god,
• God Delusion,
• Jesus,
• New Zealand,
• philosophy,
• religion,
• Religion and Spirituality,
• Richard Dawkins,
• Sciblogs,
• Terry Eagleton

Actually, some people call them the “Dawkins Tantrums.” There’s no doubt about it though – there is a controversy around Richard Dawkins. Just mention his name in the blogosphere and you get all sorts of extreme reactions. Almost always negative. Sure, you will get some, usually milder and more reasonable, positive reactions. After all, he [...] … Read More

Climate change and the integrity of science

Ken Perrott • May 07, 2010

• climate change,
• creationism,
• evolution,
• fossil fuel,
• global warming,
• intelligent design,
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
• politics,
• Sciblogs,
• United States National Academy of Sciences

Here is the lead letter published in today’s issue of Science magazine. It’s signed by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE INTEGRITY OF SCIENCE We are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular. All citizens should [...] … Read More

Natural selection or domestication?

Ken Perrott • May 03, 2010

• Add new tag,
• Cannabis,
• creationism,
• evolution,
• Health,
• Hydroponic,
• intelligent design,
• New Zealand,
• Sciblogs

Image via Wikipedia Apparently scientists from Environmental Science and Research (ESR) have established that cannabis grown in New Zealand is four times stronger than when they last tested 14 years ago ( see Cannabis grown in NZ stronger than ever, study finds). I wonder if this is just an example of evolution by natural selection. [...] … Read More