tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21071125558822849482011-07-28T14:57:43.454-04:00Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comBlogger111100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-11701471751519783622010-06-13T16:44:00.003-04:002010-06-13T16:53:05.810-04:00

Please note that I am pulling up my stakes at this blog and re-locating to http://chrissasaki.wordpress.com. If you've been enjoying my posts here, I hope you'll follow me to my new address where I'm welcoming everyone with a new posting. It's about a talk I attended recently at the 2009 conference of the Canadian Science Writers Association. James Hoggan talked about his new book, Climate

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-52285935065867121532010-03-10T17:57:00.006-05:002010-03-10T18:19:52.957-05:00

To many in the research community, last week's federal budget cut to the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmosphere Sciences is a sign that the Harper government is "skeptical of climate-change science and hostile to those who provide evidence that aggressive action must be taken to avert catastrophic global warming." (http://tgam.ca/JaU) As a result of the cut, scientists have begun to shut

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-5342334733824517012010-02-10T14:05:00.005-05:002010-02-10T14:53:30.879-05:00

In February, 2004, a lone kayaker paddling through an Arkansas swamp spotted a magnificent black and white bird. According to the kayaker, it was an Ivory-billed woodpecker, referred to as the “Lord God Bird” because that’s what everyone says when they see it: “Lord God!” The woodpecker had been considered extinct in the U.S. and the sighting was the first in decades. It triggered a fascinating

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-42537763190905949022009-12-22T10:17:00.005-05:002009-12-27T20:51:19.117-05:00

In dark rocky caverns, the cave glow worm catches insects the way an angler catches fish. The worm hangs dozens of silk threads from the cave ceiling like fishing lines from a boat. The threads can be up to 20 inches long, and are covered with droplets of the worm’s sticky mucous. When an insect flies too close, it’s caught by the line. The worm reels in its catch and enjoys its meal.Like an

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-80911376464106475372009-08-31T16:25:00.002-04:002009-08-31T16:33:52.978-04:00

Jack gave a wild whoop and leapt down to the pale sand. At once the platform was full of noise and excitement, scramblings, screams and laughter. The assembly shredded away and became a discursive and random scatter from the palms to the water and away along the beach, beyond night-sight.The dispersed figures had come together on the sand and were a dense black mass that revolved. They were

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-39122011007838646402009-08-10T15:01:00.014-04:002009-08-12T14:03:07.468-04:00

On Sunday, August 9 ’09, CBC Radio broadcast a story on their early morning program, Fresh Air, about the explosion at the Sunrise Propane depot in North Toronto a year ago. The blast resulted in the deaths of two people. At the time and ever since, many people have described the low death toll as a miracle. The depot was in the vicinity of residential homes on Murray Road and, as you can see

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-66071082412541696632009-06-24T01:30:00.005-04:002009-07-27T20:42:35.004-04:00

A friend recently wrote on his blog (www.craphammer.ca) about his concern for the many tweeters he was following in Iran in the wake of that country's contested election. A reply was posted in response that included this statement: "Who is to say that half the people you are following are even real people--and not a 30 year old jackass getting kicks out of how many people are following him?"

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-89243979349006493422009-05-20T00:42:00.006-04:002009-05-20T14:37:49.516-04:00

In February, 2004, a lone kayaker was paddling through a swamp in the Big Woods region of Arkansas when he spotted a magnificent black and white bird. It was an ivory-billed woodpecker, referred to as the “Lord God Bird” because that’s what everyone says when they see it: “Lord God!” The woodpecker was considered extinct in the U.S. and hadn’t been seen in decades.The documentary, Ghost Bird, in

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-72629152322198560882009-05-03T23:06:00.004-04:002009-05-20T01:02:07.961-04:00

So, Gary Goodyear, Canada’s minister of state for science and technology, thinks his views on evolution are “irrelevant”. When asked in an interview whether he believed in Darwin's big idea, the minister refused to answer, saying that his religious beliefs had nothing to do with government policy.As a tax-paying voter, I think it’s very relevant—particularly if, as many suspect, Goodyear is a

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-3045797967791993462009-05-03T20:18:00.001-04:002009-05-08T08:43:11.755-04:00

During the October 7, 2008 U.S. Presidential Townhall Debate in Nashville, Senator John McCain claimed that Barack Obama “voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork-barrel earmark projects—including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois. My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?"A $3 million “overhead projector”!? Okay, I’ve been

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2107112555882284948.post-200960462314166852009-05-03T20:13:00.003-04:002009-05-20T00:53:57.060-04:00

Have the Raelians and Clonaid created the first human clone? Is baby “Eve” for real?Who cares? The question of the truth of this claim is an uninteresting one that we shouldn’t waste time on. Clonaid is a “company” created by a cult called the Raelians, a group believing that humans were created by extraterrestrials 25,000 years ago. Clonaid has no scientific credibility and, thus, it is

Chris Sasakinoreply@blogger.com