Real Sceptic

Blocked By James Delingpole On Twitter

Image from DeSmogBlog

Not a lot of my readers will know that I’m quite active on twitter, despite my near silence on this blog due to a project I’m working on. I often engage other users on twitter, share interesting news and give my own perspective on events. Well, as far as that is possible within 140 characters.

I like engaging other users on twitter, it helps with getting a feel what is being said on subjects and why some are saying it. So it’s not strange that because of this I have exchanges with more known users. As long as everyone is respectful to each other this can be an absolute joy.

And this is where James Delingpole comes into the picture. Read more

Synthetic Biology

Science reporting is hard, and mistakes can be made. But I never expected the BBC could cover a subject this badly.

David Shukman (BBC Science Editor) – Synthetic Biology

Back in March, David Shukman (BBC Science Editor) published a short report on synthetic biology. The reports cast a shadow on the hard work of scientists and implies that synthetic biology is not accepted my the main stream scientific community.

Original video (BBC news at 10 on 28/3/12 15mins in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDGbTxZzr9w
BBC Complaints
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/
Synthetic Biology Explained
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD5uNAMbDaQ
Stab-Bot 5000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=850E10G87lY

Katharine Hayhoe: “..Much of This is Intended to Intimidate.”

Seasons Greetings

It has been a busy month, with for example organizing the 12 hour fundraiser show for the Secular Students Alliance. And now handling all the traffic I got from the shout-out from TheLivingDinosaur. Not to mention a very busy month at work.

It was fun, but a bit draining. So I’m going to celebrate the holidays with my family and friends for some needed rest. But I’ll leave you with a nice seasonal greeting from Fox news:

As winter descends, Fox is keeping with its annual tradition of using snowstorms and cold temperatures to mock global warming. But scientists say climate change could make winter storms stronger and more frequent.

Seasons Greetings From Fox News

Stephen Schneider: Science and Distortion

Stephen Schneider was a professor of Environmental Biology, a great scientist and one incredible science communicator.

The short below was made by Stephen Thomson, a  year in the making, and pays tribute to this scientific and academic important figure.

Professor Schneider will be missed.

Stephen Schneider: Climate Science and Media Distortion

A year in the making, this video pays tribute to a critical scientific and academic figure in postmodern history: the late Climatologist and Stanford Professor Stephen Schneider (1945-2010)

This video was screened before a live audience by Climate One of the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Dec 6, 2011 as the introduction to an event honoring Stephen Schneider and presenting an award in his name to Richard Alley, Professor of Geosciences and Associate of the EMS Environment Institute.

This video will be presented again tomorrow at the AGU (American Geophysicists Union) Conference currently being held in San Francisco.