Is it fair to apply the noble term "skeptic" to your everyday run-of-the-mill climate change denier in the House, Senate, or family member who spends too much time parked in front of a wide screen TV stuck on Fox News? Science Guy Bill Nye and a few other notable scientists say absolutely not!
The science advocacy group says that the terms "skeptic" and "denier" have been wrongly conflated in the press. "Proper skepticism promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. It is foundational to the scientific method. Denial, on the other hand, is the a priori rejection of ideas without objective consideration," writes the group, which also includes Nobel Prize winner Harold Kroto and Ann Druyan, who helped create both Cosmos TV series and was the wife of the late Carl Sagan. ... [A] statement from Nye says ... "As scientific skeptics, we are well aware of political efforts to undermine climate science by those who deny reality but do not engage in scientific research or consider evidence that their deeply held opinions are wrong. The most appropriate word to describe the behavior of those individuals is 'denial."
- So it turns out there really is a modern, robust harebrained movement to thwart the insidious commie plot to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids, aka remove fluoride from drinking water, which has had all too sad and predictable consequences.
- As far as I can tell, the dreaded CRombnibus bill passed this week doesn't screw over science too much. It cuts the EPA, again, and inserts a poison pill on everything from risk corridors in Obamacare to the DC voter referendum on legal pot, but doesn't harm science too much.
- Budding science writers and veteran writers of all stripes: this diary by akadjian on the growing ability to self publish, print and ship books on demand, is well worth reading.
- Sadly, we'll be saying goodbye to several anti-science shills in the new year. Rep. Paul evolution-is-a-lie- from-the-pit-of-hell Broun (R-GA) will no longer grace the House or sit on the science committee. We'll also be bidding Michelle Bachmann (R-Grifter) a fond farewell. These anti-science clowns were annoying to say the least, but from a science-political blogger's perspective, they were a veritable golden goose of hilarity.
- There's some grand planetary science ahead in the New Year. NASA's New Horizons Mission to Pluto will soon have better images than anything ever taken and NASA's ion-powered Dawn will be closing in on the mysterious dwarf planet Ceres. Both are beginning in March-April!
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