It’s not just Nate Silver. Certainly Silver’s election math beat-down is the most noteworthy example of science delivering a dope slap to superstition, to “gut feeling,” to magical thinking: “Come on, you knuckleheads.” But reality is striking back everywhere – in some places with a kind of fierce appropriateness that borders on comedy, or tragedy, [...]

In North Carolina, as you well know, we like our science with a side of crazy. The old Flying Burrito Brothers tune says, “The scientists say it’ll all wash away, but we don’t believe them anymore,” and we love our country music here, so we made quite a splash with the legislative nuh-unhs about sea [...]

At the risk of becoming Plugged-In’s “Those crazies are at it again” correspondent, I would like to bring your attention to two noteworthy developments regarding sea level and politics, and then I hope to wash my hands of the topic — with higher sea levels making hand-washing especially convenient, of course. The first concerns the [...]

It’s World Oceans Day today (in North Carolina it’s “No It’s Not!” Day), so the moment seemed opportune for a very brief followup on the Plugged-In post of a week or so ago about the NC state legislature considering a law that would make it all kinds of illegal for you to try to figure [...]