Author: Josh Witten

http://www.thefinchandpea.com

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Today is Mary Anning’s birthday. This is a repost of an announcement (21 Dec 2012) of a book recommendation I did for Skeptically Speaking about reading to my daughter about Mary Anning. To this day, she knows the name of one paleontologist, and it is Mary Anning.

I will be providing a quick book review of a book that is very special to my older daughter and me, Rare Treasure: Mary Anning* and Her Remarkable Discoveries by Don Brown, for the Skeptically Speaking “Science Books for Your Gift List” episode. The episode will be available to download at 8PM (ET) tonight (Friday, 21 December 2012)

*The band Artichoke has a fantastic song about Mary Anning that is available to download for free (MP3 – 2.2MB).

UPDATE: According to the producer of Skeptically Speaking, KO Myers, my review comes up at 47:33 in the podcast. While I would be flattered by anyone downloading the podcast only to listen to my two minutes, I would strongly recommend listening to the other reviews, which I hear will include Bug Girl reviewing Spider Silk by Leslie Brunetta & Catherine L. Craig even though spiders aren’t bugs.

Bandelier National Monument

8755876832_11d0034d10_bAs part of the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop, we had the opportunity to visit Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. Bandelier is justifiably famous for its impressive Pueblo ruins. The landscape and vegetation made clear that the environment here swings between extremes – the idea of “average” is almost meaningless. Trees showed evidence of both fire and flood damage. Brown turned suddenly to green for a thin strip around a stream. It is a land of contrasts, of beauty, of life, and of death.

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You may also run into a mule deer or two or four. Continue reading “Bandelier National Monument”

Creative Constraint

We, the attendees* of the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop, talked a lot about how constraints can really foster creativity at the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop. In that case, it focused on the traditional style of a news article, something I have been encouraged to try at least once in my life. So, this discussion has been at the forefront of my mind – or, whichever wrinkle of my brain contains recent memories**.

Marc Maron’s interview with Sam Simon, co-creator of The Simpsons, reminded me of this relationship between creativity and constraint. The Simpsons has been incredibly successful and creative (at least for several seasons, depending on who you ask). Maron and Simon talked about how animation could allow The Simpsons creators to do whatever they wanted. Continue reading “Creative Constraint”

Murder of One

The title of the Counting Crows song from their breakout album, August & Everything After, makes much more sense with the lyrics when you realize that a “murder” is the collective noun for a group of crows. Continue reading “Murder of One”

Insurance Industry: 4 on Dubiosity Scale

Contrary to political posturing, there are more than two positions on the climate change issue. There are political conservatives who accept anthropogenic climate change, but prefer using market forces to address the problem. These individuals rate a 4 on my Dubiosity Scale (1 is the most dubious).

According to an article in the NY Times by Eduardo Porter, the US insurance industry may also rate a 4. It accepts the scientific consensus position, but is reluctant to engage in political squabbles, because the threat of punitive regulation is a bigger risk than increased payouts due to worsening weather:

Yet when I asked Mr. Nutter what the American insurance industry was doing to combat global warming, his answer was surprising: nothing much…Instead, the focus of insurers’ advocacy efforts is zoning rules and disaster mitigation. – Eduardo Porter

Porter summarizes the position of a 4 on the Dubiosity Scale in his last sentence:

And that’s the best hope for those concerned about climate change: that global warming isn’t just devastating for society, but also bad for business. –Eduardo Porter

But, what happens when the issue is so politicized that the market forces are responding to the politics and not the market?