March 31, 2010
Category: Policy and Politics
A parliamentary inquiry found no wrongdoing by scientists at the University of East Anglia. At issue were emails stolen from the university and offered as evidence of improper behavior by climate scientists: The committee's report entitled The disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, said the focus on Jones and the CRU in the row about the hacked emails had been "largely misplaced" and that "on accusations relating to freedom of information, we consider that much of the responsibility should lie with UEA, not CRU". In evidence to the inquiry, Jones admitted...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:04 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 30, 2010
Category: Policy and Politics
Shorter Bruce Chapman, Disco. 'tute bossman: Church Suffers for Past Appeasement: For 40 years, the Catholic Church has covered up rape by priests, with responsibility for the coverup reaching Cardinal Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI. If only the licentious '60s and its culture of psychotherapy hadn't stopped people from taking responsibility, and prevented the few bad apples from spoiling the reputation of all the priests who never raped any children. But the real victim is Pope Ratzinger, who is being wrongly being held responsible for the actions he and the godly men he supervises undertook in order to preserve...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:57 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
In a monumental step towards bringing sanity to biotech patents, a court ruled that a patent granted for the sequence of a gene associated with breast cancer was invalid. Basically, Myriad Genetics held a patent on the use of the sequence of BRCA1 and BRCA2, genes with alleles associated with high risk of breast cancer. Thanks to its patent, Myriad was the only company able to make tests for these alleles, and medical societies like the Association for Molecular Pathology, the American College of Medical Genetics, the American Society for Clinical Pathology, and the College of American Pathologists filed suit...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:06 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 29, 2010
Category: Policy and Politics
First, who knew that the Boston Herald would run a story about the New York archbishop? And if they did, that the story would involve the archbishop defending the pope against the sex abuse furor: New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan was greeted with applause after … defending Pope Benedict XVI against suggestions he aided coverups of reports of child abuse. … The leader of the nation’s second-largest diocese urged his congregation to pray for the pope, saying he was suffering some of the same unjust accusations once faced by Jesus.Who knew that Jesus hid reports of his apostles raping young...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 2:46 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
The New York Times issues an Apology for suggesting that political dynasties are political dynasties: In 1994, Philip Bowring, a contributor to the International Herald Tribune’s op-ed page, agreed as part of an undertaking with the leaders of the government of Singapore that he would not say or imply that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had attained his position through nepotism practiced by his father Lee Kuan Yew. In a February 15, 2010, article, Mr. Bowring nonetheless included these two men in a list of Asian political dynasties, which may have been understood by readers to infer that the younger...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:55 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 26, 2010
Category: Policy and Politics
When the Senate can operate as the Founders meant – allowing simple majorities to pass legislation – things move tolerably fast. The House passed Affordable Care late on Sunday, the Senate passed the reconciliation sidecar (with small amendments) on Wednesday, and the House just passed the amended sidecar. This makes Affordable Care more affordable, strips out some bad deals inserted to secure Senate passage, and – as a bonus – reforms the inequitable student loan system so that less money goes to banks and more stays in the pockets of students and their families. Pretty good work for a week. In that...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:35 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 25, 2010
Category: Creationism
This morning the Templeton Foundation announced the winner of the Templeton Prize: Francisco Ayala, a former priest and current biologist who testified against creation science in the '80s and now continues to demolish "intelligent design" – the madness that creation science became. In the comments to PZ's grudging acknowledgment of the wisdom of the choice, Bill Farrell anticipates the creationist response: Ohhhhhh, Ayala has been "mean" to Stephen Meyer over "Signature." Send in the attack gerbil, Disco Tute!And while Casey himself has yet to reply, David Klinghoffer has sallied forth to inveigh against the horrors of Francisco Ayala's being mean...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:34 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
Republicans in the U.S. Senate continue their campaign to make you poor and sick: “They got health care,” [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell [R-KY] told POLITICO with a mischievous glint in his eye. “We’ll see whether that’s a gift worth receiving.” Here's the thing about McConnell. Since graduating law school (from a state-funded university, naturally), he's always been a government employee, getting free medical coverage from taxpayers. First, his abortive military career (he washed out because of a medical problem, treated on your dime). Then his time as a Capitol Hill intern and again as "the Jefferson County Judge/Executive, the...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:03 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 22, 2010
Category: Culture Wars
Casey Luskin, Disco. DJ and legal eagle sparrow asks "When Is it Appropriate to Challenge the [scientific] 'Consensus'?" Simple answer: When you can make a convincing scientific argument. Casey disagrees, joining Jay Richards – Prodigal Son of the Disco. 'Tute – in arguing that: we must carefully examine the scientific, sociological, rhetorical, and political dynamics of a debate to determine if the consensus deserves our assent, or our skepticism.This actually combines several errors. First, one can be skeptical of something which deserves assent, and indeed to which one does assent. Skepticism of a claim is not the same as rejection of...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 11:09 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Creationism
It's like he's been reading my mind. He's even nearly re-derived Intelligent Falling. But upside down!...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 6:36 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
