Good morning,

First off, it’s not “the Union” who “can do better” at writing blog posts – as I’ve pointed out, it’s not AGU writing this blog. It’s me, an individual Earth scientist with his own quirks, […]

I think you make a couple of really good points here. My counterpoint, for the sake of advancing the conversation:

1) You’re right that the language can be perceived as offensive to those whose beliefs are being […]

Yes, it was supported by SOLARIS.
GigaPanning is making really big pictures (GIGApixel PANoramas) with a special robotic camera and stitching software. Try exploring the images to see what I mean — they “zoom in” […]

Right – but one of the limitations of science is that you can’t prove a negative. I cannot conclusively demonstrate that prayer was 100% ineffective in the case of the Moore tornado. But can anyone conclusively […]

Thanks Ron. That’s certainly the way I intended my comments. It’s interesting to me that the readership split cleanly into the “he’s insulting people” group and the “he’s attempting to debunk an idea” camp.

I don’t represent AGU in what I write here. Here’s an excerpt from the AGU Blogosphere’s “About” page:

The independent bloggers have complete editorial freedom, both the topics they cover and the way they […]

Thank you for the feedback. I view it this way: in science, we can criticize ideas directly and clearly without criticizing those who generate those ideas (our colleagues). One could take offense at these […]

So how can they “use our prayers?” I’m sure you’re right about the second part: they can use our emotional support, but is “use our prayers” basically synonymous with them using “any emotional support?” If not, […]

Thanks for chiming in.

I make no claims as to whether any prayer-makers did X, Y, or Z. I have no information about their actions beyond praying. If they did something useful as well, that’s great. Nowhere do I […]

Thanks for expressing your viewpoint. I’m sorry you found it insensitive, as I’m really pretty upset over the whole thing. You should bear in mnd that this IS a personal blog, and that in no way do I represent the […]

Devonian.

Yep!