3 November 2017 02:51 in Uncategorized by Dan Satterfield
We’ve reached a sad state when this explanation needs to be written at the beginning of a scientific paper: Introduction The story goes like this: tens of thousands of commercial airliners a day are deliberately spraying some kind of mixture of toxic chemicals—either across the United States or possibly globally—in what would amount to one of the largest covert operations ever. The scheme has been going on for years, perhaps …
Tags: Chemtrails, Climate Change, featured, science education
29 April 2016 01:45 in Uncategorized by Dan Satterfield
My friend Ed Maibach at George Mason Univ. emailed me some interesting abstracts today that show how overwhelming the consensus is on climate change among scientists working in the field. Researchers like Ed and Dr. Oreskes (among others) have shown that the consensus now is nearly unanimous among those in the field. The belief that scientists are divided over the question must be the greatest scientific myth in the United …
Tags: Climate Change, featured
25 November 2015 07:02 in Uncategorized by Dan Satterfield
The letter below was sent to Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, one of the top science denier’s in Congress, who happens to chair the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. That’s right, I said the chair of the science committee is one of the top science deniers in the Congress. That’s scary enough, but his attack on Dr. Tom Karl, the head of the NOAA National Climate Information Center, is …
7 November 2015 08:41 in Uncategorized by Dan Satterfield
Last month, I wrote a two-part post last month about the psychology behind science denial. I thought it worth sharing, because understanding how your brain makes massive judgement errors can lead to fewer of them! Now, Joe Hanson at It’s OK To Be Smart has produced a great video that summarizes the psychology of science denial, and it’s really worth watching. While at a weather conference in Oklahoma City last …
Tags: Climate Change, featured, science denial
13 October 2015 04:29 in Uncategorized by Dan Satterfield
This is part two, please read part one first here. It’s really true. Understanding just four concepts, involving how we filter information, can improve your critical thinking skills. I saved number four for last, and it’s by far the most fascinating. It’s called authoritarianism, and some of the most interesting research on it has been done by Dr. Bob Altemeyer, a psychologist at the Univ. of Manitoba. What if I …
1 September 2013 05:14 in Uncategorized by Dan Satterfield
Critical thinking is harder than you think. Our minds are actually predisposed against it, but learning to reason is a necessity if you want to make good decisions. Failing to learn the basic skills of critical thought can be expensive, or even lead to making youtube videos like the ones I am interspersing through this blog post! Here are three things that IMHO will make you a better critical thinker. …
Tags: featured, Science, science education
28 February 2009 02:43 in General, History, Science by Dan Satterfield
I have wanted to write this post for some time now. It is basically a list of things you know are true, but aren’t. You may very well know most of them, but I’d wager there will be at least one that you are surprised about. Fact: The hottest layer of the atmosphere is the Mesosphere. Not really true, if you use the average Joe’s definition of hot! Temps. in …