Policy
cwilcox | May 1, 2011Osama Bin Laden is dead. At least, that's what we've been told, and I tend to believe such things.
But how do they know it's him? Well, they have the visual evidence and the body, for one. But to be certain it's not a look-a-like, the government has taken steps above and beyond to make sure they've got who they think they have: DNA analysis.
Now, I'm not entirely sure what DNA analysis has been done, but I can say this for certain - whatever method they used could be completed in a matter of hours given a lab ready to go and focused solely on this. Using commonplace PCR methods - which, for…
mikethemadbiologist | April 30, 2011Links for you. Science:
More deconstruction of the "tyranny" of excessive reviewer demands for more experiments
Armadillos Can Transmit Leprosy to Humans, Federal Researchers Confirm
Other:
Female physicians make less money than male doctors, here's why (truly, no good deed goes unpunished)
Health reform will drive up ER visits, like it did in Massachusetts (Romneycare beats no care, but it still sucks)
Policy in an age of post-truth politics (while I don't buy the notion that we're in some 'new era', the political strategy is dead on target)
A Book Store. That's Right. Book, Singular.
The…
mikethemadbiologist | April 29, 2011Gave a talk today. Think it went well. Celebrating with links! Science:
Sciparenting and expectations
Fire ants assemble into living waterproof rafts
Ancient DNA: Curse of the Pharaoh's DNA
Other:
Ohio Republicans unhappy Republicans did what Republicans do
Don't leave the city. (Sadly, I think the author will be right)
Boomarang-rang
It's A Tradition
Deportation Halted for Some Students as Lawmakers Seek New Policy (sometimes we manage to stop sucking)
Risk Springs Eternal
Canada's Health Care: An Alternate Universe
The Special Doctor-Patient Relationship
mikethemadbiologist | April 28, 2011Over the last couple of weeks, Chris Mooney has written several interesting posts and articles about how human cognition affects the incorporation of evidence, especially scientific evidence (e.g., global warming) and what that means for politics. At the back of my mind have been nagging issues of the assumptions Mooney has been making. The assumptions have been crystallized by a post by Timothy Burke. I'm not sure that voters are as irrational as Mooney makes them out to be--overall, I think they're far more 'low information' and focused on a few reasonable, if not perfect and sometimes…
mikethemadbiologist | April 27, 2011It feels like spring. It is spring! Let's celebrate with some links. Science:
Great editorial response to the Jumbotron ad (responding to anti-vaxxers)
Climate Policy Failure, and Laying Blame
Is Reasoning Built for Winning Arguments, Rather Than Finding Truth?
The @nytimes missed a great chance to suggest what astronauts can do as NASA changes: go deep, into the ocean that is (great idea)
Other:
Inside the GOP's Fact-Free Nation
"Only 2%": Contraceptive use rampant among Catholic women, according to report critical of bishops (the comments are priceless, not in a good way)
Washington…
drorzel | April 27, 2011
The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science
As someone who blogs about science and occasionally about politics, I am contractually obligated to link to this article. Fortunately, it's also good and interesting.
(tags: psychology science politics neuroscience climate vaccine culture society cog-sci medicine magazines)
The Non-Science That Explains What's Wrong with Science Explaining Non-Belief in Science « Easily Distracted
"I have a lot of complicated misgivings about the implications of this overall approach in its reconsideration of the public sphere, deliberative processes, the act…
drorzel | April 22, 2011I intended to do a big book-sales post today, but our DSL modem may be dead, so there was no Internet in Chateau Steelypips this morning, and I forgot to copy the relevant files onto a thumb drive, so it will have to wait. Maybe this afternoon.
In lieu of that, here's some other stuff on shale gas drilling in the Northeast, following on Tuesday's post:
-- It's always nice to have my half-assed writing about economic issues supported, even indirectly, by people who know something about the subject writing similar things. Thus, Felix Salmon on cost-benefit analyses of oil drilling:
Under…
mikethemadbiologist | April 17, 2011Over the past couple of months, there has been a spate of articles celebrating cities that are getting rid of their urban highways. The Christian Science Monitor had an article discussing New Haven's urban reclamation efforts. NPR reported the following:
How did this happen? After all, this is the country that always saw roads as a sign of progress.
Now, taking down freeways has gone mainstream. Cities as diverse as New Haven, New Orleans and Seattle are either doing it or talking about it. The chief motivation seems to be money...
This is the city planner's dream: Take out an underused…
mikethemadbiologist | April 16, 2011I always say, that when it comes to policies, people have to like this crap. That is, your policies have to make people's lives better. And they don't want to hear about the methodological details, the ins and outs. Like most people, when their cars breakdown, they want to take it to the mechanic, get back, put the key in, and have the engine turn over. Most don't care how the car was fixed--they don't care about that (some do, and that's ok too). With that, I bring you Blue Texan who reminds us of this (italics mine):
But more broadly, the notion that Democrats lost the 2010 midterms…
mikethemadbiologist | April 15, 2011There's been a lot of back-and-forth in the Democratic bloggysphere about whether the budget deal is a good or a bad deal. While the political maneuvering, framing of issues, and so on matters--matters greatly--the discussion seems to have ignored the actual consequences of many of the stated budget cuts. And macroeconomic effects are important too, but many programs actually do important, critical stuff. Think Progress gives us some examples:
Here are just some of the cuts included in the deal, which should be voted on by the end of the week:
- Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for…
mikethemadbiologist | April 8, 2011Tom Hayden reminds us of two costs of the Libyan war*:
If the US gets lucky this time, Power will be vindicated. It's possible that US airpower can protect opposition ground forces on the road to Tripoli until Qaddafi's regime collapses from within. Even then, the US will have to take part in an unpredictable occupation of Libya until a new set of governing institutions are created, a process that might take months or years. The cost will climb into the billions in deficit spending while the budget crisis worsens at home. Any triumphant new US allies, like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group,…
bioephemera | April 3, 2011Tomorrow morning, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hear arguments in the appeal of Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - better known as the Myriad gene patent case.* It has the patent and genetic blogospheres in a bit of a tizzy, and the mainstream media is picking up on it too. See, for example, this Atlantic article by Andrew Cohen, this Nature.com editorial by my friend Shobita Parthasarathy, and even a "Spectator's Guide to the Myriad Oral Argument" by Genomics Law Report -- which has a dedicated icon and…
tfk | April 2, 2011NationalJournal.com - Six of Ten Political Insiders Believe Public Is Ill-Informed:
When it comes to policy, the political class doesn't have a lot of faith in the public's IQ. In the latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll, a solid majority of political operatives â 59 percent â said the public didn't "know enough about the issues facing Washington to form wise opinions about what should be done." There was a sharp partisan difference between the two parties: By more than a 2-to-1 margin, Democratic Insiders believed the public didn't "know enough," while a slight majority of…
mikethemadbiologist | March 17, 2011I think a lot of people misunderstand what the real corrupting force in federal politics is. It's not campaign contributions, but the desire to have a cushy retirement--something I pointed out two years ago:
It's simple: it's about life after politics. One of the dirty secrets about many, if not most, congressmen and senators is that they like Washington, D.C., rhetoric notwithstanding. They want to stay in town after they leave (or lose) office. Once you've tasted the Capital of the Free World, do you really want to go back to Pierre, South Dakota? (Tom Daschle comes to mind...). It's…
kbonham | March 14, 2011Tomorrow, as part of the @ASBMB "Hill Day," I'm headed to capitol hill to meet with my congressman and my senators (or more likely their staff) in order to plead for science funding. If you pay any attention to politics, you know that congress has been locked in budget battles for months, and since government grants account for the vast majority of basic science research have a pretty large stake in this fight.
One Republican proposal out of the house (that was defeated in the senate) cut over $1 billion of NIH spending. I doubt this is out of malice, but when trying to reduce spending when…
cmonforton | March 3, 2011Editors of The (WV) Charleston Gazette had perfect timing. On the morning of a congressional oversight hearing on the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) performance, their front page featured an article by reporter Ken Ward Jr. about incomplete inspections and inadequate enforcement actions in 2009 in at least 25 of the agency's field offices. In "Report details MSHA lapses prior to disaster," Ward describes a previously unpublished letter sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee just two weeks before the Upper Big Branch disaster. The letter summarized…
mikethemadbiologist | February 28, 2011There's been so much lunacy these last couple of weeks that it's hard to keep track of it all. In case you haven't heard, an assistant attorney general in Indiana (whose state reps have also fled like Wisconsin's) was fired for tweeting this vile hatemongering:
On Saturday night, when Mother Jones staffers tweeted a report that riot police might soon sweep demonstrators out of the Wisconsin capitol building--something that didn't end up happening--one Twitter user sent out a chilling public response: "Use live ammunition."
From my own Twitter account, I confronted the user, JCCentCom. He…
mikethemadbiologist | February 26, 2011For today, anyway. Brad DeLong is the only one out there who is as flummoxed, not to mention frustrated, as I am about the complete lack of responsiveness by the political system to nine percent U3 unemployment, and one out of six U.S. workers being un- or underemployed. DeLong nails it (italics mine):
There is a line of argument that I do not understand -- even though it is made by economists I respect. It is that our current labor-market depression was baked in the cake from the moment that Alan Greenspan decided to keep interest rates low in the early 2000s, declining to stop would-be…
drorzel | February 26, 2011
Go To Hellman: HarperCollins and the Suspension of eBook Disbelief
"A good business requires a good story. The customer needs to understand the story of how the business can help solve a problem or deliver a benefit. There are many ways of telling a business story. Some stories are utilitarian; others are romantic or inspiring. Many stories require the consumer's willing suspension of disbelief. This isn't dishonesty, but the customer has to benefit broadly from a business's services and not be harmed by bits of the story that aren't really true. Macs sometimes crash. Facebook sometimes…
drorzel | February 22, 2011I grew up in Broome County, NY, down by the PA border, and my parents still live in scenic Whitney Point. Broome County is one of the areas affected by a huge environmental controversy, because it sits on top of the northern bit of the Marcellus Shale formation, which contains huge amounts of natural gas. For years, this has been deemed too difficult and expensive to extract, but gas prices and drilling technology, specifically hydraulic fracture drilling where they pump large amounts of water down the hole to break up the rock and let the gas escape, have moved to a place where it's…