Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that it loses itself early and does not find itself any more. --Mark Twain
I spent the last few days at the 5th Netroots Nation, in Las Vegas. As always, the conference has been a whirlwind of political geekery and good, clean fun. This year featured a video address by the President, and Q&A sessions with the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate, not to mention two panels on the use of snark in politics.
My obligations here finished early. I'd been involved with three panel submissions, of which two were approved: one about politicized sciences and the other on politicized education. My colleague Steve Newton took over on the latter panel, organized by Texas Freedom Network and featuring two candidates for Texas State Board of Education as well as TFN's Dan Quinn and the incomparably Michael Bérubé. Both panels went off on Thursday, leaving the rest of the meeting to schmooze.
My panel was the first session of the conference, and featured DailyKos's DemfromCT, aka Greg Dworkin, a doctor who has spent the last few years trying to increase public preparedness around pandemic flu as well as vaccination more generally. He's got a nice post summarizing his talk up at DailyKos, connecting flu preparedness, the importance of the internet and bloggers in reaching out to the public, and the whooping cough epidemic in California being driven by anti-science anti-vaccine beliefs. I spoke about the usual thing, as you can see in the video above. And I was followed by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, co-authors of Merchants of Doubt, a great history of the global warming denial movement. Hopefully the video of the full conversation will be posted soon.
I'd asked the panelists to present a somewhat positive account at least of the science, if not the politics of the issue, on the assumption that we'd have plenty of time in the discussion to cover the bad stuff, and I think that worked out well. During a discussion of the balance between the need for expertise and transparency in communicating science, I managed to work in a mention of #sbFAIL and Pepsiblog, pointing out that they had legitimate experts, but lacked the openness that makes real blogs effective in science communications.
We also talked about science journalism, and about the common theme of all these forms of science denial: a rejection of the value of expertise. Alas that I couldn't show Don McLeroy's famous "Someone has to stand up to experts" rant. Check out good summaries of the panel at Northwest Progressive Institute, ClimateScienceWatch,and Delaware Liberal.
Hopefully I'll figure out how to get my Keynote slides into Slideshare soon, so you can see them in better quality than the video above could capture.
Now I'm off to another conference, and am sending this from the free wireless network at the Las Vegas airport.
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
Bill Clinton spoke to the Netroots Nation conference last night. It's an inspired speech, done without notes and with extemporaneous digressions based on a heckler's call.
Before he s [..] Read complete article
Published 14-Aug-2009 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics Read 8 times. More hits in
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
I know it's been a week since I got back from Netroots Nation, so this is a rather belated report, but I have a good excuse. I was on the road for 4 weeks before NrN, and it's taken me a little while to get caught up again.
Netroots Nation was awesome. It'll be in Las Vegas next year, and should be even better. It'll be the 5th year, returning to the scene of the first convention, ba [..] Read complete article
Published 24-Aug-2009 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics Read 11 times. More hits in
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
Have you registered to attend Netroots Nation yet? It's going to be pretty awesome. There will be dozens of panels, touching on political process and political practice, science, civil liberties, climate change, healthcare, and future of just about any topic you care about. And it won't be out of touch pundits taking on these topics. Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's right hand, will be th [..] Read complete article
Published 25-Jul-2009 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics Read 10 times. More hits in
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
Have you registered to attend Netroots Nation yet? It's going to be pretty awesome. There will be dozens of panels, touching on political process and political practice, science, civil liberties, climate change, healthcare, and future of just about any topic you care about. And it won't be out of touch pundits taking on these topics. Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's right hand, will be th [..] Read complete article
Published 25-Jul-2009 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics Read 9 times. More hits in
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
Netroots Nation is rolling out their panels for the next meeting (August 13-16, Pittsburgh, PA). It's an interesting mix, with more than any one person can handle. If my experience last year is any guide, it'll be a struggle just to keep up, and there will be lots of times when I'll have two or more simultaneous panels I want to attend. I just hope my panel isn't scheduled opposite anything r [..] Read complete article
Published 18-Jun-2009 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics Read 12 times. More hits in
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
I'm super-excited to be attending Netroots Nation in Austin next week. One of the coolest things they're doing is a Q&A with Speaker Pelosi. But I join Nick's concern about the questions people want asked:
For those of you who plan on going to Netroots Nation, or watch Speaker Pelosi's appearance on UStream, I encourage you to go to "Ask the Speaker" and rate the questio [..] Read complete article
Published 10-Jul-2008 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics Read 11 times. More hits in
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
I just saw Paul Krugman wandering the halls of Netroots Nation, looking like a befuddled professor. Incredibly, he was not being swarmed by bloggers. Read the comments on this post... [..] Read complete article
Published 18-Jul-2008 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics Read 13 times. More hits in
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
Nancy Pelosi, speaking at Netroots Nation, says that the title quotation is what she hears in all her travels, wherever she talks to young folks here and abroad.
"Words, not weaponry, are the tools of the new generation," she says. Read the comments on this post... [..] Read complete article
Published 19-Jul-2008 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics Read 0 times. More hits in
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
Al Gore addresses the Netroots Nation:
Nancy Pelosi, and more, below the fold.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... [..] Read complete article
Published 20-Jul-2008 by Thoughts in Chatter Read 15 times. More hits in
Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species. Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that
Before the Netroots Nation panel with Nancy Pelosi, we got a chance to get all our protesting out of our systems.
"Impeach Ron Paul" seemed to be the consensus. Read the comments on this post... [..] Read complete article
Published 19-Jul-2008 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics Read 16 times. More hits in
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Bill Clinton spoke to the Netroots Nation conference last night. It's an inspired speech, done without notes and with extemporaneous digressions based on a heckler's call.
Before he s [..] 
Have you registered to attend Netroots Nation yet? It's going to be pretty awesome. There will be dozens of panels, touching on political process and political practice, science, civil liberties, climate change, healthcare, and future of just about any topic you care about. And it won't be out of touch pundits taking on these topics. Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's right hand, will be th [..] ![Click here to read Voltron Movie Goes Back To The Drawing Board - Voltron Movie Goes Back To The Drawing Board [Hollywood]](http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/04/160x120_voltron.jpg)
Have you registered to attend Netroots Nation yet? It's going to be pretty awesome. There will be dozens of panels, touching on political process and political practice, science, civil liberties, climate change, healthcare, and future of just about any topic you care about. And it won't be out of touch pundits taking on these topics. Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's right hand, will be th [..] 
Al Gore addresses the Netroots Nation:
Nancy Pelosi, and more, below the fold.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... [..] 
