Reality is always more complicated than you think.
Profile
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
Jake is joined periodically by two wonderful guest bloggers: Kara Contreary and Kate Seip. See the About Page.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own or those of my co-bloggers. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments we currently attend.
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Politics:
Not really a fan of Jonah Goldberg, but damn this is funny: It's been rumored that McClellan was hired by the Bush White House to appeal to a specific sub-constituency: pasty middle-aged men with a thumbless grasp of the English...
Posted on May 30, 2008 9:02 PM • 4 Comments •
Boo on you, Barack and Hillary. Others have this subject amply covered, but I wanted to note that Barack and Hillary have both jumped on the anti-vaccinationist bandwagon. The bandwagon is getting crowded what with McCain already being on it....
Posted on April 23, 2008 3:59 PM • 2 Comments •
This is Megan McArdle on Cindy McCain's gaffe. She passed recipes from the Food Network off as her own: The honorable thing to do is attribute, of course, but the McCain team still seems to be intent on pretending that...
Posted on April 17, 2008 5:12 PM • 4 Comments •
Scientists and Engineers for America is hold a workshop on May 10th to train scientists to run for public office. The workshop features Congressman and former physicist Vern Ehlers. Here is the registration page. It isn't open yet, but if...
Posted on March 27, 2008 12:22 PM • 2 Comments •
I nearly aerosolized Diet Pepsi all over my computer screen when I read this: It a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that "there's strong evidence" that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once in...
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Posted on March 3, 2008 2:56 PM • 10 Comments •
Jay Cost at RCP uses a prisoner's dilemma game to show why the absense of institutional structures is likely to yield a socially inefficient result in the Democratic primaries. He looks at the super delegates' behavior in terms of what...
Posted on February 29, 2008 10:01 AM • 0 Comments •
(Keeping in the promised theme of having rants on Fridays, here is rant number one. For those of you who are offended...well...I am going to have to say that it is Friday. The weekend is coming, and frankly I couldn't...
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Posted on January 4, 2008 9:37 AM • 28 Comments •
Whoa. Check out the Senate Judiciary Committee testimony by Former Justice Department Deputy James Comey. Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales accosted John Ashcroft in his ICU bed to get him to change his mind the legality of the Administration's dosmestic...
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Posted on May 16, 2007 9:14 AM • 2 Comments •
I was reading the article that is currently was on the Buzz in Scienceblogs. It is about President Bush issuing an executive order to the bureaucracy curtailing the use of guidance statements and insisting that political appointees evaluate the costs...
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Posted on February 2, 2007 12:00 PM • 3 Comments •
Will we really be going Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton? Michael Barone had this story in the WSJ on the emerging tendency towards political dynasty in American politics: Not that anyone assumes that family members are all alike. It would not do for candidate...
Posted on January 29, 2007 2:17 PM • 3 Comments •
I have to admit I was a little skeptical of this argument, but it is growing on me. Basically, he is saying that executives are paid ungodly amounts because people are willing to pay them that. If it isn't my...
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Posted on January 23, 2007 11:35 AM • 10 Comments •
Michael Barone argues in his column that one of the problems with our political process is the way in which we pick our President: The single most glaring defect in our mostly admirable political system is the presidential selection process....
Posted on January 22, 2007 9:59 AM • 0 Comments •
Daniel Kahneman and Johnathan Renshon, writing in Foreign Policy, put forward a fascinating thesis that because of the way human beings are organized psychologically we are prone to be more hawkish. Basically the thrust of their argument is that social...
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Posted on January 8, 2007 11:27 AM • 4 Comments •
Wired Magazine has the Foot-in-Mouth Awards for 2006. My personal favorite: "They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's...
Posted on December 28, 2006 10:47 AM • 1 Comments •
Benjamin Zycher, fellow at the Manhattan Institute, questions of the wisdom of allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies. Actually what I don't like about this debate is that is called "negotiating" drug prices. There is no negotiation that...
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Posted on November 29, 2006 3:44 PM • 4 Comments •
Paul Tough, writing in the NYTimes, has an excellent long article about the challenges in teaching underprivileged and minority children. I was talking to my parents about this issue over break. I am from Denver -- though I went to...
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Posted on November 29, 2006 10:22 AM • 10 Comments •
I have a bunch of articles on politics here that I have been perusing. Free Exchange has a post on the moral benefits of growth. One of them is that it is prerequisite to the creation of jobs that allow...
Posted on November 27, 2006 11:41 PM • 0 Comments •
Not cool, Egypt: Police in Cairo have detained a blogger whose posts have been critical of the Egyptian government. Rami Siyam, who blogs under the name of Ayyoub, was detained along with three friends after leaving the house of a...
Posted on November 20, 2006 11:33 PM • 1 Comments •
Not to have too much levity about electoral irregularities, but this is just funny: In some areas of Indiana and Ohio, computer problems meant polling stations did not open on time, with voters being turned away, or given paper ballots....
Posted on November 7, 2006 9:21 PM • 0 Comments •
George Will summarizes the races of interest in the upcoming election: Four years ago all eight Mountain West states -- Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming -- had Republican governors. If Democrat Bill Ritter wins Colorado's...
Posted on November 5, 2006 11:07 PM • 0 Comments •
Whatever you think about Michael Barone's personal views, he knows more about the history of American politics than any man alive. Here is an article he wrote in the WSJ about the history of party changes in Congress during second-term...
Posted on November 1, 2006 9:39 PM • 5 Comments •
Here is just a brief appeal to go out and vote. Particularly if you are young person, there is a lot out there about which we should care. Politicians will never listen to us unless we can convince them that...
Posted on November 1, 2006 9:35 PM • 3 Comments •
