I apparently don’t read Jonah Lehrer enough, because I only just now discovered a explanation he floated years ago for the problems with science journalism: academic science journals try to control how science news is released, which pushes journalists towards rushed, superficial stories about science. The evidence from other branches of journalism makes me suspect [...]
Monthly Archives: November 2009
Old Jonah Lehrer on science journalism: it’s the damn journals
Posted by Chris Hallquist on November 24, 2009
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Why Fight Club is better than Choke (review)
Posted by Chris Hallquist on November 23, 2009
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Lots of writers put out a great novel early in their career and go downhill from there. The reasons are hard to pinpoint, admitting of only the most general explanations: Maybe it’s because humans are only allotted one book’s worth of truly good ideas for fiction, and after that it’s repeat yourself or dip into [...]
Ed: “Our mere existence is offensive”
Posted by Chris Hallquist on November 23, 2009
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Ed Brayton highlights a case of people claiming to be offended by ads that say “Not Religious? You’re not alone.” He rightly points out that taking offense at such ads basically amounts to being offended by the existence of people who aren’t believers. Though my initial reason for wanting to link was just to track [...]
Climate non-scandal
Posted by Chris Hallquist on November 22, 2009
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Did you hear about the big scandal where private e-mail exchanges show climate scientists suppressing skepticism of global warming? Turns out the e-mails were actually a discussion of how to deal with a case of probable fraud. (Via Mike Haubrich’s Facebook feed.) This surprises me more than it should–perhaps because I’m less used to following [...]
Why is the atheist movement so white and male?
Posted by Chris Hallquist on November 20, 2009
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This is an issue that gets kicked around in atheist blogs from time to time; a recent post by PZ raises it specifically with regards to the big names: The Big Catches to bring in to an atheist meeting are people like Dawkins and Dennett and Hitchens — people who deserve their popularity and their [...]