Sam Harris on Self Defense

Sam Harris has an excellent post up on his blog titled "The Truth about Violence: 3 Principles of Self Defense."

I realize this is a rather difficult subject for some to deal with and can be emotionally troublesome, but I feel that reading such material is important.  It's better to be safe than sorry.  His post is a combination of myth busting and common sense and makes for excellent reading.

"Why would you want to study rocks?" Part 4: History

I've long been fascinated by history.  In spite of my strong leaning toward the sciences when I was trying to find my path through life I seriously considered majoring in classical studies for a time.  I dreamt of spending my life studying Greece, Rome and other ancient civilizations in their prime, of reading and translating the great dramatists, philosophers, and poets and sharing their gifts with the world.  Given that I do not have a gift for languages my near decision to enter that career path is quite significant.

"Why would you want to study rocks?" Part 3: Variety

I've always found this comic by xkcd rather amusing.  To a geologist, the whole 'purity' argument that goes on amongst certain subsets of scientists seems so...wrongheaded.  We pride ourselves on research methods and areas of study that are derived from a large number of more basic fields and don't give a damn about how 'pure' our field is.

DOI whistle-blower fired.

I normally try to avoid writing on environmental and political issues, and this isn't really my beat anyway, but this issue is too important to let go.  Scientific American has reported on a hydrologist that was fired from his position as scientific-integrity officer for the Bureau of Reclamation because he noted that some of the materials that were to be presented to the public as evidence of the need to remove four dams along the Klamath river painted an inaccurately optimistic picture of the results of removing these dams.  Let's take a look:

"Why would you want to study rocks?" Part 2: The Little Things

In part one of this series I put the big picture on display.  This time I'll be focusing on smaller things that make geology interesting.

A wonderful post.

Dana Hunter has a wonderful post up at her blog about why she doesn't bother blogging much about atheism and why the natural world is a beautiful, fascinating place without the inclusion of the supernatural.  It mirrors my thoughts on these issues exactly and it is beautifully written.  Go read it.