How the Park51 Lower Manhattan Community Center Project Gives Lie to the "Liberal Media Bias" Meme

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Tuesday August 17, 2010 · 5:16 AM PDT

2010/08/17 · 05:16

I've long felt that, as a whole, the media was biased towards sensationalism, not liberalism. The media needs to drive people towards them, and by blowing up non-stories out of proportion, many of them drive readership / viewer-ship. This is not an absolute blanket statement, of course - there are outfits, such as the New York Times, that for the most part care about getting it right rather than generating a story for the sake of generating a story. And, we all know about Faux News hides behind the "fair and balanced" slogan while being anything but fair and not at all balanced. Opinion writers and commentators do seem to be more free to call it like it is, but as a whole, the media does seem to be in the business of generating a story for the sake of having a story.

I'm writing this, and what's below the fold, mostly as a way in which to consolidate some thoughts and lines of evidence to use in debates against conservatives who take it as established fact that the media is in fact a big liberal conspiracy. I have actually seen some conservatives claim that the liberal media is covering up some aspects of the Park51 Lower Manhattan Community Center Project story, which is alternatively sad and amusing for the complete lack of proof for their opinions.

chparadise

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Thursday July 29, 2010 · 6:30 AM PDT

2010/07/29 · 06:30

Aside: Haven't logged in in over 2 months, due to move / etc. However, it's given me a chance to catch up on book reading, and I've started reading through a lot of books relating to climate, science, etc.

I'm going to occasionally post one-paragraph reviews of books I've gone through, and hopefully one or two recommendations will be helpful to people.

This time through, four reviews.

The Republican War on Science (Chris Mooney, 8/10)
Climate Change: Picturing the Science (Gavin Schmidt and Joshua Wolfe, 9.5/10)
Merchants of Doubt (Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, 8.5/10)
Furies of Calderon (Jim Butcher, 8/10) (for pleasure - good series!)

chparadise

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Sunday April 11, 2010 · 2:17 AM PDT

2010/04/11 · 02:17

I'll keep this one fairly short...

Just an appreciation, really, for those who practice modern medicine, from the paramedics to the surgeons, etc.

I had a nice, happy day today until I went to go to bed. Then I saw that I had messages on my cell.

Turns out my dad had a serious heart attack.

chparadise

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Wednesday April 07, 2010 · 7:41 PM PDT

2010/04/07 · 19:41

This is the second part in what will be an occasional series focusing on chemistry, by drawing examples to real-world issues where chemical concepts are easily seen.

This is also a follow-up to my first diary (carbon isotope fun), where I talked about how carbon isotopes are used in my field to identify structures, they're used to date samples via carbon-14 dating, and they provide the "smoking gun" for proving that the extra CO2 in the atmosphere is from human burning of fossil fuels.

In this post I'll address a couple issues that came up in the last diary (some answers were provided in comments, but I'm bringing them to the forefront now), and I'm including another couple of examples that I wasn't aware of or completely blanked on.

My next new topic will be radiochemistry, and I'll likely split that into two diaries over the weekend, since I've found a LOT of information.

chparadise

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Saturday April 03, 2010 · 1:11 PM PDT

2010/04/03 · 13:11

Brief introduction: from time to time, I'm going to post a diary based on my own field (organic chemistry), where I explain the chemistry behind something of importance beyond chemistry. My inspiration behind all of these posts is the book "Chemistry in Context", which is a general chemistry text specifically targeted towards people who will never need to take any chemistry again. I was a teaching assistant for several semesters for a course that uses this book.

Anyways, today's topic is carbon isotopes. Among the uses of carbon isotopes are:
Proving that the extra CO2 in the atmosphere is man-made
Carbon NMR (short)
Carbon Dating
Catching athletes who are cheating (pharmaceutically, not Tiger Woods-like)

Join me below the fold for more!

Update: Make sure you catch profh's comment downthread for another major use of carbon isotopes that I completely blanked on.

chparadise

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Thursday March 25, 2010 · 8:20 AM PDT

2010/03/25 · 08:20

This one's short, but picked it up on CNN.

Gates eases ban on gays in the military.

chparadise

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Wednesday March 24, 2010 · 6:59 PM PDT

2010/03/24 · 18:59

Simple diary, simple question, simple poll.

With the current GOP obstructionism, it seems likely to me that even for popular and (should be) simple legislation, things could turn into a street fight. So, I figure I'd ask the question:

What should be the next "big push" for Obama?

Poll

91 votes Show Results

Where should Obama push hardest next?

91 votes Vote Now!

Where should Obama push hardest next?

Finance reform

29 votes

Climate change / energy

14 votes

DADT

3 votes

Jobs, jobs, jobs

31 votes

Immigration

7 votes

"Other"

5 votes

Pie for all.

2 votes

Not to be forgotten: Dealing with Climate Change

chparadise

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Monday March 22, 2010 · 11:17 AM PDT

2010/03/22 · 11:17

While the focus has (rightfully) been on HCR, climate change news hasn't been fully dead. In fact, it may have been easy to miss a couple notes:

2010 is very likely to be the hottest year on record. This was predicted based on the presence of a modest El Nino and as I've shown below the fold, the prediction's so far been borne out.

Skeptical Science and other sites are being targeted for hacks.

NASA has another paper coming out that the last decade was damn hot.

Join me for figures and more below the jump.

chparadise

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Tuesday March 09, 2010 · 4:47 PM PST

2010/03/09 · 16:47

the IPCC revelations regarding the Himalayan glacier melt and the "climategate" emails have been discussed around here so much that they hardly need an introduction. And, before all of this stuff came out, I was a firm believer in the science of global warming and the actuality of global warming and climate change.

And, after these revelations and a few others, I'll admit. They changed my views on global warming.

How did they change them?

chparadise

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Thursday March 04, 2010 · 7:39 PM PST

2010/03/04 · 19:39

With the right-wing propaganda machine making all these claims about how climate scientists lie, yada blah, it struck me: they wouldn't know actual lying scientists if they saw them. Being in organic chemistry, and it being a fairly small community, the entire community has seen a few scattered examples of actual lying scientists, and I thought I'd share.

I expect that scientists in other fields have seen their own examples of lying scientists that are stories that are well-known within their own fields but completely unknown outside of the field, and I'd be interested to hear those stories, too.

chparadise

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Wednesday March 03, 2010 · 3:33 PM PST

2010/03/03 · 15:33

Inspired by a post at climateprogress. The overlap between Joe Romm's post and my post ends at the inspiration :).

I'm just a regular old scientist, toiling away in anonymity. When I screw up, my boss may or may not chew me out, but all in all, even if I hit the absolute peak of my profession in the future, very few people will have ever heard of me.

This is in sharp contrast to how I imagine life is now for climate scientists, who must live a completely different life, as a direct result of the politization of their work. I know some real climate scientists post on these forums, so I'd be interested to see if I have my guesses right.

Poll

36 votes Show Results

Would you want to be a climate scientist?

36 votes Vote Now!

Would you want to be a climate scientist?

Yes!

9 votes

No, they put up with too much

9 votes

Pie

8 votes

The pie option makes no sense in this poll

10 votes

Rangel stepping down...temporarily...

chparadise

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Tuesday March 02, 2010 · 7:22 PM PST

2010/03/02 · 19:22

Just saw this on MSNBC online

Rangel to give up gavel

Caveat: it's temporary.

A bit more and my own take under the cut.

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How the Park51 Lower Manhattan Community Center Project Gives Lie to the "Liberal Media Bias" Meme

One-Paragraph Book Reviews

An appreciation for modern medicine and the nurses, doctors, and paramedics who practice it

Carbon Isotope fun part two: it's even more powerful than I knew

How we know the extra CO2 is man-made and other carbon isotope fun

Quick Hit News: Gates already easing ban on gays in military

What should be the next "big push"?

Not to be forgotten: Dealing with Climate Change

How the Climate Emails and IPCC Revelations Changed My Views on Climate Change

Actual Lying Scientists: A few Chemistry Examples

Anonymous scientist trying to imagine being a climate scientist

Rangel stepping down...temporarily...