choofnagle

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December 5, 2008
I was tickled today to see a full-page ad running in the Times (Page A13) asking readers to reject the "Mob Veto." What mob veto? The gay mob veto! The gays are engaging in "violence and intimidation" against the Mormons because of their support for Proposition 8 (California's gay marriage ban…
November 18, 2008
Earlier today, we learned that when faced with a regulatory deadline to test your products for lead, a good course of action is to lobby to delay or reverse the requirement. This afternoon, we learn the best course of action when your highly-profitable drug is about to lose patent protection. We'…
November 18, 2008
So you operate a toy company and along the way, you probably offshored your production to China to save money. And now that Americans have awakened to the obvious problems with your business plan, you want to still sell your toys to the public without testing them for lead. Your options: 1) sell…
November 18, 2008
I never thought I'd see this. But here it is in all its glory. When I used to live in Georgia and drive past huge billboards that read "I heard that! -- God," or "You're Welcome --God," I imagined the day when atheist billboards would appear. I always wanted to buy a billboard that simply read…
November 16, 2008
On Nov. 16th at 9:50 Pacific, the answer remains no, but this site will help us keep track of this important issue after Jan. 20.
November 9, 2008
Sciblings are discussing the ethics of anonymity all over Scienceblogs. I want to pose a different question: practically speaking, is anonymity even possible? Consider: 1) There is no standard definition for what is anonymous or anonymized. For instance, AOL released a putatively anonymous…
November 8, 2008
I have a love-hate relationship with credit and charge cards. They're incredibly convenient, but my few puritan instincts tell me that they're the spawn of satan. And the fees! The fees! No, not the ones for paying your bill late, or for paying your bill on time over the phone, balance transfer…
November 8, 2008
I am enjoying the news post election, because what was once news media "liberal bias" about Sarah Palin is now simply common sense. Even more fun is the frank conversation about the conservative movement. Today's Journal has a must read by Mark Lilla on how the very conservatives who valued…
November 6, 2008
A group in San Francisco managed to get a measure on the city ballot that would rename our Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant to the "George W. Bush Sewage Plant." I thought this a supremely bad idea. Such a move (like protesting the Marine Core in Berkeley) would invite a conservative…
November 5, 2008
Here in California, the Mormons poured millions into an initiative constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, after the California Supreme Court found a right to marry in the State's Constitution. Proposition 8 looks like it has passed. Currently, it's 52-48 in favor, with 95% of the vote…
November 4, 2008
The Times' Amanda Schaffer covers a retrospective of public health posters on display at the National Academies until December 19th, 2008. The catalog (pdf) is online. My favorite: It reads: "No home remedy or quack doctor ever cured syphilis or gonorrhea. See your doctor or local health officer…
November 3, 2008
The Journal reports the obvious under the headlines "Tainting of Milk Is Open Secret in China" and "Milk Routinely Spiked in China:" Before melamine-laced milk killed and sickened Chinese babies and led to recalls around the world, the routine spiking of milk with illicit substances was an open…
October 31, 2008
Jezebel proclaims: Dov Charney May Be More of a Scumbag than Anyone Realized, and I agree if the reporting on a sexual harassment case, Mary Nelson v. American Apparel, rings true (the opinion is unpublished, and I haven't obtained a copy yet). Charney is the founder of American Apparel, and has…
October 30, 2008
In the last days of the Bush Administration, expect it to engage in lots of rulemaking. Many businesses will seek new rules for their industries now, fearing that less favorable outcomes will occur if they chance it with the Obama Administration. This business-initiated regulation will seek "…
October 25, 2008
I keep on hearing that the political polls are inaccurate because pollsters do not call wireless phones. I commission polls at UC Berkeley and we call wireless phones. Seems like a no brainer to me. So, I've never quite understood why professional polling firms wouldn't call cell phones. (I'm an…
October 24, 2008
In reading a law review last week, I saw a footnote to a booked called Cyberselfish, A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High-Tech. Intrigued, I purchased it immediately and have been reading it the law few nights. The author, Paulina Borsook, wrote for Wired and yet was…
October 22, 2008
Libertarians hold dear the idea of the uberman consumer, the hyperrational, fully formed autonomous being that springs from the womb to take good decisions in the marketplace. But when one reads marketing literature, a different consumer is encountered. Often this consumer is an object to be…
October 21, 2008
In years as working as a privacy advocate, I developed the theme that the private sector, particularly marketing companies, was an equal threat to information privacy as the government. After all, the largest providers of personal information to the government now are big marketing companies, like…
October 21, 2008
There are many problems with political spam email. Perhaps the most well known one is that Congress, in passing the CAN-SPAM Act, decided to exempt political messages from any forms of legal accountability. And so the only practical limit on political spam is the public's willingness to shame…
October 17, 2008
So, here it is. Titled "Berkeley's Big People," it is installed along I-80, so those of you driving north of San Francisco will probably see it, as it is 30 feet tall and visible from a mile away. Given the landscape of "free speech," it would have been much more appropriate to have erected a…
October 16, 2008
We have not played with the Denialists' Deck of Cards for some time! Let's pick them up again, because the economic downturn gives all sorts of businesses the opportunity to play the "Bear Market" card. Stephen Power brings it in today's Wall Street Journal: "We know something needs to be done [to…
October 11, 2008
It seems as though officials have been arguing forever about whether to erect an anti-suicide net along the Golden Gate Bridge. On Friday, the bridge directors voted 14-1 in favor of creating such a net: ...the stainless-steel net system, which would be placed 20 feet below the deck, and would…
October 10, 2008
Gautam Naik covers an interesting development in Switzerland. Scientists there must now justify the ethics of genetic research on plants: Dr. Keller recently sought government permission to do a field trial of genetically modified wheat that has been bred to resist a fungus. He first had to debate…
September 30, 2008
The Times is running a series of articles today that cover the basics on woo, wooish thought, and one of my favorite subjects, pre-pure-food regulation impure food. Not much new here for Sciencebloggers, but these are good resources to help individuals think through the bogus claims we see so…
September 27, 2008
Why? Well, among other things, for hating billboards. Max Colchester of the Wall Street Journal reports: On Friday, Alex Baret plans to board a train to central Paris, pull out a can of spray paint and deface a billboard, as he has done every last Friday of the month for more than two years. The…
September 27, 2008
I had the opportunity to see Felicity Barringer, the New York Times correspondent, speak on the "The Dangers of Environmental Parables" at University of Wyoming's Consumer Issues Conference. Barringer argued that simple parables, such as the greed-versus-good stories present in the seminal Silent…
September 20, 2008
Here's a bit of a surprise. In California, our Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. Opponents quickly arranged a ballot proposition to reverse the ban. Support for the ban has been slipping, from almost 50% earlier in the year, to 42% in July, and now to 38% in the latest Field Poll. Mark…
September 19, 2008
Friends, many of you know the miraculous benefits of Hoofnagle Brand All-Natural Pb®. Well, I am writing to tell you that today I am filing a suit against a wide range of ayurvedic herbal supplements providers for using the active ingredient of Pb® and its sister product, As33® without licensing…
September 17, 2008
The Journal reports this morning that: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned imports of more than 30 generic drugs made by India's Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., citing concerns about the safety of the company's production practices. The ban affects low-cost versions of popular medicines such as…
September 17, 2008
Yesterday, I posted about the rabid, pro-free-market rhetoric present in Washington, DC over the past decade. When Congress had the opportunity to consider privacy laws that would limit marketing of financial products, it chose to side with bank lobbyists, who invoked the idea of the "miracle of…