Big Picture News, Informed Analysis

Canadian journalist Donna Laframboise. Former National Post & Toronto Star columnist, past vice president of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

School Shootings: Why Fake Numbers Matter

Bad data fuels ill-informed decisions, wastes money, and scares kids.

September 12, 2018

Coercing Your Neighbour Over Plastic Straws

Green activists are in the business of taking away choices.

July 25, 2018

Butter, Cream & Grains of Salt

Peer-reviewed science can be found to support nearly every position.

July 23, 2018

Secretive Blacklists & The Economist Magazine

Reporting on peer review, The Economist misses the elephant in the room – and advocates unjust hiring practices.

July 20, 2018

What the Thai Cave Rescue Teaches Us About Nature

Humans make things safe, clean, and healthy.

July 11, 2018

Oxford University Spreads Fake News

The most reputable publishers imaginable are misinforming the public about basic geology.

July 9, 2018

The ‘Balance of Nature’ Myth

The natural world is more sophisticated than we imagine.

July 4, 2018

What Really Happened 30 Years Ago?

In the climate world, the line between real and fake is strangely murky.

June 25, 2018

Journalists Relied on James Hansen’s Say-So

The media’s climate frenzy was sparked by a scientist who’s research was still unpublished.

June 22, 2018

Laundry Blues & Greens: Part 2

Doing the math on doing the laundry.

June 20, 2018

Laundry Blues & Greens: Part 1

A friend has long complained that her energy efficient, front-load washing machine takes forever.

June 18, 2018

Extinction is Inevitable

Species come and species go. Humanity’s role is smaller than most of us imagine.
 

June 15, 2018

From Carbon Footprint to Plastic Footprint

Polluted waterways are one more reason not to litter. Rather than making this point, greens are demonizing plastic.

June 11, 2018

Ehrlich’s Guide to Being an Intrusive A**hole

People with 8 kids should be told they “surely would not behave that way today.” Those considering a third should be accused of self-indulgence.

June 6, 2018

Why Paul Ehrlich Matters

If it had been within his power to take the steps he insisted were necessary, the human rights abuses would have been horrendous.

June 4, 2018

The Fanatical Paul Ehrlich

Saving the world = demonizing alternative visions

June 1, 2018

Anything Goes When You’re Saving the World

Paul Ehrlich advocated the use of US helicopters so that Indian peasants could be kidnapped & forcibly sterilized.

May 30, 2018

How They Sold ‘The Population Bomb’

Threats of famine, dead children, bombs, nuclear war, and oblivion.

 

May 28, 2018

The Science of Self-Control

Another idea, supposedly confirmed by science, turns out to have little scientific foundation.

May 25, 2018

If You See Something, Say Something

Why Scott Adams thinks we have a moral obligation to praise others.
 

May 23, 2018

Scott Adams on How Failure Can Breed Success

The Dilbert cartoonist remembers what it was like to be a young person from a small town, with few role models and fewer connections.

May 21, 2018

How Much Plastic is Polluting the Ocean?

Peer-reviewed studies, published six months apart, produce wildly different estimates.

May 18, 2018

Coleman Hughes on the ‘Racism Treadmill’

We regularly urge young people to think outside the box. Hughes is doing just that.

May 16, 2018

Is Tomato Soup Good for You?

‘Healthy’ is now being defined in radically different ways, by different interest groups.

May 14, 2018

Eat Your Veggies (With Lots of Butter)

In the low-carb universe, vegetables are served with lots of butter, mayonnaise, and hollandaise.

May 11, 2018

The Most Trusted Canadian Is A Dick

In person, David Suzuki is reportedly foul-mouthed and rude.

May 9, 2018

Totalitarian Thinker David Suzuki

On June 7th, the University of Alberta will lionize someone who rejects freedom of thought.

May 7, 2018

Skin in the Game

Emotionally attached to ideas, some of us have little interest in how they perform in the real world.
 

April 30, 2018

Why is Discrimination Against Asians OK?

Full-fledged racism is being practiced by the very institutions that claim to abhor it.

April 25, 2018

Self-Correcting Science: A Slow & Haphazard Process

The celebrated ability of science to self-correct is accompanied by some major caveats.

April 20, 2018

Perverse Scientific Incentives

There are structural reasons for the low quality of much scientific research.

April 18, 2018

Science is Not Truth

We need to lose our naivete. Many scientific findings are neither crisp nor clear.

April 16, 2018

Climate Change in the Courts

For well-funded green groups (and a growing list of governments), lawyers are weapons and courtrooms are a political battleground.

April 4, 2018

Is Fruit Good for You?

Fruit may be natural, but its sugar content has increased due to selective breeding.

April 2, 2018

First Quarter Report

Since relaunching this blog on January first, I’ve published 38 new posts – including one in Swedish. Please help me continue.

March 30, 2018

Chicken Wings & Potato Skins: My New Health Food

If fat were the villain we’ve been told it is, I should have gained 40 pounds.

March 28, 2018

When Scientific Evidence is Ambiguous, Private Philosophies Matter

Some discoveries are easy to measure and easy to verify. But much of science is about groping in the dark.

March 26, 2018

Exercise Won’t Keep You Slim

People who exercise regularly still gain weight.

March 23, 2018

For Greenpeace, Honesty is Just a Word

Greenpeace tells a court that everyone knows its campaigns are based on opinions & interpretations rather than hard facts.

March 21, 2018

Free Speech Hypocrisy at Greenpeace

Greenpeace thinks people who spread ‘misinformation’ have no right to be heard. Yet, suddenly, it’s waving the free speech flag.

March 19, 2018

Activists Aren’t Always the Good Guys

Green groups are perpetual outrage machines.

March 16, 2018

Forget Left/Right Politics, Read This Book

No thinking person should hold strong climate opinions unless they’ve carefully considered a range of viewpoints.

March 14, 2018

Defining High Blood Pressure

Changing definitions of ‘normal’ blood pressure means more people are coping with drug side effects.

March 12, 2018

Bogus Blood Pressure Readings

Doctors and nurses rarely follow the rules when collecting important info about our health.

March 9, 2018

Medical Flip-Flops

Standard medical practice is often pointless, risky – and a waste of money.  
 

March 7, 2018

Sverige Begår Självmord

I Sverige dog pressfrihet för 25 år sedan.

[Swedish translation of previous post]

March 5, 2018

Swedish for Suicide

Freedom of the press died in Sweden 25 years ago.

March 5, 2018

Muzzling the Tolerant, Celebrating the Intolerant

Journalists think their job is to shame ordinary people into silence lest they say something politically incorrect about the scale and pace of European immigration.

March 2, 2018

Numbers Matter

If 10 times more immigrants turn up than were predicted by government experts, where’s affordable housing supposed to come from?

February 28, 2018

Immigration is a Class Issue

Elites make immigration decisions, while the working class lives with the consequences.

February 26, 2018

Why We Need Jordan Peterson

While the rest of us are playing hopscotch, he’s battling humanity’s demons.

February 23, 2018

Jordan Peterson: Making Me Cry

Mothers have immense power to harm their children.

February 21, 2018

Jordan Peterson: Making Me Laugh

Taking a fresh look at some fundamental moral ideas.

February 19, 2018

Indoctrination 101

Learning to be shrill. Apparently, this is now the goal of higher education.
 

February 16, 2018

Taught to Think Like Censors

Young people are being systematically taught to disdain free speech. And your tax dollars are paying for it.

February 14, 2018

Freedom to Speak, Freedom to Hear

University activists now behave like fascists: stifling unpopular perspectives and denying others the opportunity to hear those perspectives firsthand.

February 12, 2018

Why Fossil Fuels Kick Butt

To be useful, energy must be reliable.

February 9, 2018

Fossil Fuels Save Lives

It is immoral to deny needy people access to fossil fuels because experts have made dire predictions about the future.

February 7, 2018

Don’t Be Prejudiced

Our analysis of fossil fuels needs to be wholistic – not one-sided.
 

February 5, 2018

Experts Suck at Predicting the Future

Being an expert in a particular field doesn’t make you smart about the big picture. 

February 2, 2018

Jordan Peterson: Helping Young Men Reboot Their Lives

Young people are told incessantly that everything they might want to do with their lives harms the planet.

January 31, 2018

Crucial Climate Verdict, Naked Conflict-of-Interest

IPCC scientists routinely evaluate their own work. What could possibly go wrong?

January 29, 2018

Crucial Climate Verdict, Fledgling Evidence

History’s most momentous climate decision was based on research so preliminary it wasn’t published in a scientific journal until seven months later.

January 26, 2018

Unethical Behaviour at the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association didn’t bother to replicate pivotal research before it told the public to change its behaviour. The result was an uncontrolled public health experiment.

January 24, 2018

About That French Paradox

When scientists began believing that high fat diets & heart disease went together, this wasn’t true in 8 European countries.

January 22, 2018

When Government Makes You Fat

After the high-carbohydrate Food Pyramid was introduced, diabetes shot through the roof.

January 19, 2018

Lightweight Climate News

When governments manipulate the news, most journalists fall into line.

January 12, 2018

Politics Always Win

Scientists aren’t in charge of interpreting climate research. They’re cogs in a political machine.
 

January 10, 2018

Dangerous Climate Change: No Smoking Gun

The claim that human activity is triggering a climate apocalypse is based on expert opinion and best estimates.

January 8, 2018

Climate Change is Normal

Insisting that ‘climate change is real’ is like insisting that blood is red.
 

January 5, 2018

Change is Natural

The bees and the butterflies have their own story, their own rhythms.

January 3, 2018

Nature Wants You Dead

The natural world isn’t kind or pristine. We need to stop telling children that disturbing it is sinful.

January 1, 2018

Re-Launching January 1st

This blog is adopting a new format. Posts will appear every Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

December 19, 2017

Science and the Issue of Trust

Many messages emanating from the world of science are entirely bogus.

February 15, 2017

Scientists Object to Intellectual Freedom

Libraries define intellectual freedom as the public’s right to examine all points-of-view. These climate scientists are trying to stifle alternative perspectives. Part 2 of 3.

March 27, 2015

Pachauri’s Sofa

Electronic messages cited in a Delhi police report tell the story of a spirited young woman who effectively lost her job because she wouldn’t let her boss grope her.

March 2, 2015

Rajendra Pachauri’s Resignation Letter

The resignation letter of the IPCC chairman is a two-page love letter to himself – in which he openly admits that saving the planet is his ‘religion’. The world’s most important climate body has not been led by a dispassionate scientist.

February 24, 2015

Fanatics for Mother Gaia

French philosopher Pascal Bruckner says fundamentalist eco activists are steering society in a scary direction.

February 15, 2015

When Journalists Question Catastrophe

Unlike most journalists, Matt Ridley has done PhD-level work in the sciences. He has served as science editor for the Economist. One would think his views on the climate debate deserve a fair hearing. Instead, he is pilloried by climate extremists.

January 21, 2015

Science Doesn’t Always Have Answers

Scientists worthy of respect recognize that it’s possible for two highly-qualified, honourable people to look at the same data and come to different conclusions.

January 20, 2015

Pointless Predictions

The climate crisis is the latest in a long line of predictions about how bad things are going to be in the future. Let’s remember that while scary headlines sell newspapers, journalists have a terrible track record.

January 2, 2015