politics where science meets government
May 9, 2008
Greg Laden's Blog
Alabama antievolution bill dies NCSE Press Release: House Bill 923 was among the hundreds of bills that died in the Alabama legislature "because they did not pass in the house where they were introduced," the Associated Press (May 7, 2008) reports. The latest in a string of "academic freedom"...
Greg Laden's Blog
Should the official city seal include the Christian Cross? New Internet Poll Ha! Say no more. Here. Pharyngula strikes again....
Greg Laden's Blog
Pledge of Allegiance Suspension: Maybe homeschooling is the better choice in Yahooland, Minnesota Dilworth Minnesota is not far from Fargo. On Thursday, three eighth graders in this small town have been suspended from school because they sat down during the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance....
Stranger Fruit
Another "academic feedom" bill dies on the vine. Not looking good for the cdesign proponentsists and their attempts to weaken science education by proposing "academic freedom" bills. First Florida. Now Alabama....
Mike the Mad Biologist
Creationism and Molecular Evolution What's nuts about creationists is that the molecular evidence for natural selection is incredibly strong, unless you posit a God that likes to deceive people. Or maybe DNA is a Satanic plot.
A Blog Around The Clock
Colleges should not discriminate against Martians and Tralfamadorians Our governor agrees. At least in the print version of this article which has a somehwat different title: "Easley supports college for aliens". I wonder why they changed it for the Web version - is the editorial position that having...
The World's Fair
"Leicester School of Design Considers Name Change" Concerned they look "not so smart" without this new-fangled "Intelligent" modifier. (Or so this joke would have it.)
Framing Science
An Echoing Press: Saturation Coverage of Pope's Visit One of the top four news stories of 2008
Framing Science
The Evidence For and Against a Limbaugh Vote? Influence at the margins...
A Blog Around The Clock
For the Triangle locavores A special issue of The Independent on local food scene: The road to real food Farm to table challenges Farmers' helpers One missing link: organic grains...
The World's Fair
Michael Pollan: Chewed Up and Spit Out "Big claims. Not too much support. Mostly unconvincing."
Uncertain Principles
What's Wrong with "Atom Laser" Why the phrase "atom laser" bugs me, and why it's ironic given the "framing" argument here.
Greg Laden's Blog
No More UN Aid to Burma The first deliver of aid from the UN World Food Programme was stolen by officials from the Burma military Junta. As a result, the shipment of aid into the country by the UN has stopped. This is as earlier reports indicating that the death toll...
May 8, 2008
Greg Laden's Blog
Pastoralism Moooo...
A Blog Around The Clock
Conclusions First! Legislature wants polar bear study: The state Legislature is looking to hire a few good polar bear scientists. The conclusions have already been agreed upon -- researchers just have to fill in the science part. That's how little Johnny Alaska...
DrugMonkey
Criminal Conduct, Free Speech and the College Life (UPDATED) Members of San Diego State University are expressing an interesting attitude in the aftermath of the drug sweep which arrested 75 students of SDSU. According to the initial reporting it is clear that members of an organized drug marketing organization...
Pure Pedantry
Stephen Colbert on Gas Tax Holiday Stephen Colbert skewers as per usual......
Discovering Biology in a Digital World
You tell 'em Arnold! Arnold Schwarzenegger on community colleges
Pure Pedantry
The Gas Tax Holiday as a Symbolic Gesture Bryan Caplan writing in the NYTimes suggests that in spite of making no economic sense whatsoever the gas tax holiday might be a good idea as a symbolic gesture: The first is that the tax holiday is a relatively cheap...
Greg Laden's Blog
Cyclone Nargis: What's happening and how to donate In this May 1, 2008, visible image from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft, Cyclone Nargis is ... a Category one hurricane located 370 miles west of Yangon, Myanmar, moving east-northeast at eight knots.... Fishermen are advised not to venture out...
May 7, 2008
Greg Laden's Blog
The Futility and Frustration of Democracy It is obvious in the United States that we need to replace the executive with a Democrat and add a few senators in the mix, in order to undo 8 years of Republican policy and replace it with four to 8 years of Democratic policy....
Mike the Mad Biologist
Clinton Is in Real Trouble with the Democratic Base Clinton does worse than George "Macacawitz" Allen?
DrugMonkey
Yeah, Yeah, College Kids Take Drugs (snore)....WHAT???!! 75 Arrests? Perennial Playboy Magazine Top-Ten Party School San Diego State University is in the news following the arrest of some of its students on allegations of illicit drug dealing and drug possession. The San Diego Union Tribune is reporting: Federal agents...
The Intersection
Did Nargis Kill 100,000? That's what CNN is suggesting. This puts the catastrophe at tsunami scale. And it suggests that Nargis could rank among the top three or four most deadly cyclones of modern times. My god. Courtesy of Weather Underground, the deadliest cyclones...
Dynamics of Cats
a grain of sand Prof Brad DeLong dislodges an academic grain of sand, and formally requests academic action on the question Prof Yoo. The immediate response is repose. We will see if the talus slope is ever exceeded. Inertia works both ways, even at...
“Yes! That's what we need: a President who, faced with expert opinion says to herself 'I know better'.” waywardcats on On gas and Clinton
