With his usual flair for the written word, science writer Chris Mooney has posted a few cogent observations on the YKC science panel. He frames it perfectly in a wider context of how denial and ignorance of science and method have infected every aspect of the miserable powers-that-be, with all too predictable results:
HuffPo -- The reason for this development is simple: our reality-challenged president. George W. Bush and others in his administration have repeatedly ignored fact and expert analysis ... So it has fallen to those of us who oppose the direction the country has been heading to simultaneously champion a way of thinking that would have averted so many blunders and disasters: empirical thinking. Scientific thinking. Critical thinking. ... At its core, it's a world view that is humble about what we know and don't know, flexible about what we do and don't decide to do, and open about admitting past mistakes and listening to contrary opinion. In short, it's the utter opposite of Bush's stubborn, inflexible, unwavering certainty about everything.
Based on the rest of his lively recap, all I can say to panelists Ed Brayton, Sean Carroll, and Tara Smith, photoblogger Lindsey Beyerstein, and onsite technical advisor Unstable Isotope, is a big Thank You! for doing YKC '07 proud -- and somehow making me appear to be a halfway competent control freak in the bargain.