I know I’m trying your goodwill a bit — and it’s long past time I actually wrote something substantive here. But the term will end (this Friday) and I harbor fantasies of some real blogging soon. (Which, I suppose, may qualify me for the description Samuel Johnson applied to the thinking behind a second marriage: the triumph of hope over experience.)
In the meantime, there is a little something that I greatly enjoyed writing and performing, and that some of you might find worth a listen.
That would be my contribution to The Story Collider, one of the leading venues for the new live-story-telling genre. (See, for another example, The Moth, and perhaps the ur-source of this form, This American Life.) The Story Collider hooks all of its performances around some theme of science; my story closed out an evening touching, one way or another, on the notion of discovery.
In that vein, the tale I told is, in part, an account of my discovery of science writing as the thing I had to do. It’s also about fathers, or my father;, the lengths I travelled to understand what he had written; about murder, and coral reefs, and the Philippines, and Isaac Newton, and an apple or two.
Check it out, if you’ve a mind, and fifteen minutes to spare.
Then, if you’re truly a glutton for punishment, there’s this conversation I had on Skeptically Speaking — the excellent Canadian internet radio science strand. We talked a lot of Newton, crime, and money, and it was a lot of fun, at least for me.
Last, this coming Wednesday (day after tomorrow) I’ll be interviewing Penn State’s Michael Mann — climate scientist, target of denialists, and author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars on my monthly gig at Virtually Speaking Science. Internet radio here; Second Life wonderfulness here. 5 p.m EDT; 2 p.m. on the coast I once called home, and archived later at Blog Talk Radio and via iTunes — search/subscribe to the Virtually Speaking Science podcast.
We’ll be talking about what we know, what we think, and what we still need to grasp about the global climate system; about the uncontrolled experiment we are now doing on that system, and what happens when the ordinary life of science confronts opponents for whom the question is not “what is true?” but “what can be argued?” Not to mention what the word “trick” means when it’s used by clever programmers and quantitative problem solvers. Should be interesting; stop by if you’ve a moment/inclination.
Image: Pieter Breughel the Elder, Peasant Wedding, c. 1567
Jewish Steel
Tom, I enjoyed your interview on Skeptically Speaking. I wasn’t surprised that the first question you fielded was on the gold standard. The skepical community, as they style themselves, seems to be inhabited by a fair number of libertarian types.
Here’s my question: Do any of William Chaloner’s fakes survive? Did you ever get to handle any personally? That would be nearly like shaking hands with the man himself, I think.
BGinCHI
A trick is a john who pays.
It’s simple math.
Emdee
Unless there’s some hidden coast in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that’s GMT-1, I don’t see how that’s possible. I think you meant “6 PM PDT, 9PM EDT.”
slag
@Jewish Steel: I have to admire Tom’s response to that question. So many people–even skeptics and scientists–refrain from debunking bullshit that relates to either politics or religion. Sometimes even on their own shows. I like that Tom didn’t hold back in his explanation of how stupid the gold standard is.
Jewish Steel
@slag: Totally.
Does it advance the cause of knowledge to dignify every point of veiw with the same level of respect? I certainly don’t think so. Especially pernicious bullshit like goldbuggery. That tresspassed on beat-down territory and it was a fine thing to hear.
slag
@Jewish Steel:
Exactly. And I’ve been on my soapbox lately about people who will go through the trouble of debunking the most inane shit around (astrology, the Mayan calendar, etc) but who, when confronted with distinct dumbassery about something with actual relevance to our lives (climate change, for instance), will back off almost entirely because, “hey, both sides do it” or whatever. Give me an astrologer who appreciates the dangers presented by climate change over a Republican congressperson any day!
Jewish Steel
@slag: A skeptical podcast I listen to will go to the trouble of letting its listeners know about inane legislation being passed around the country WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING WHICH PARTY THE IS PROPOSING THESE BILLS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
A disengaged listener would get the impression that it’s something called “the government” that was behind all this jackassery. Of course, in every case, it’s one party that is responsible. Give you one guess.
For people who are supposedly so commited to truth-telling, it sure is a glaring omission. Not to mention pure cowardice.
Steeplejack
What is a DEW in this context? “Distant early warning”? I’m hip, but apparently not hip enough.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: I honestly thought it meant Mountain Dew. And I was just missing some sort of context there.
BTW hi!
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
Hey yourself. Been lurking and running behind on the threads, hence not commenting much.
White light beaming your way for surgery on Wednesday.
not motorik
How ’bout you don’t get to post boring art unless you have something substantive to say
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: I’ve been in the same position. Only occasional interjections every now and again but I have been keeping up.
I now await my mother declaring my house a Superfund site on the morrow. It’s not too bad really, but trust me she will. And then while I’m under she’ll sanitize it. She did the exact same thing when my dad got cut open. It’s her therapy.
Sir Nose'D
I listened to your story on The Story Collider last night. Well done!
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Best of luck with the cutting and fixing. Good thoughts and all that…
bob h
Ask Mann about the toll the attacks from the right are taking on him. It must be very stressful to carry on a career and have to fight off these maniacs too.
Tom Levenson
@Jewish Steel: I have handled counterfeits of the era — they are incredibly cool. One was so perfect that the Mint finally chopped it half, revealing its base-metal core, to keep the piece out of circulation. Impossible to know if any of the fakes I saw were Chaloner’s, though.
@Emdee: Ooops. Bad brain bubbles — both time zones and the time wrong. Fixt. now.
@slag: @Jewish Steel: Thanks.
@Steeplejack: Yup, Distant Early Warning. I’m a child of the sixties, born in the late fifties.
@Yutsano: Good luck. Never a good thing to let some white coated stranger come at you with a knife.
@bob h: Will do.
JGabriel
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Tom Levenson @ Top:
Second marriages and lottery tickets.
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Swishalicious
i feel like Tom is always apologizing for not offering something “better” – you’re kicking ass man, no apologies needed! TLev may be my favorite here (or at least a tie with Cole and Comrade DougJ)
S. cerevisiae
Please let Dr. Mann know he has many supporters out there and keep up the good fight against the denialists. A big thank you as well, Dr. Levenson.