choofnagle | March 28, 2009This is one to watch. We might all get to learn more about the Harvard-Industrial Complex.
The Times reports:
Federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena seeking information about the work and statements of three prominent Harvard researchers who have been the focus of a Congressional investigation into conflicts of interest in medicine.
The researchers -- Drs. Joseph Biederman, Thomas Spencer and Timothy E. Wilens -- are named in the subpoena, which was sent on Wednesday to Fletch Trammel, a lawyer who represents state attorneys general in lawsuits that claim makers of antipsychotic drugs…
choofnagle | March 28, 2009Does this article about the Pennsyltucky judge who was sending kids to jail to collect kickbacks from a private prison remind anyone of the Chevy Chase movie called Nothing But Trouble?
denialism | March 21, 2009Congrats to Chris Mooney for getting his rebuttal to George Will published in the Washington Post. And kudos to the post for allowing his serious factual answer to an article composed entirely of crank arguments and lies (they also published a rebuttal from WMO Secretary General Michel Jarraud dealing with the lies in Will's article)
Mooney does an excellent job, and points out the frank dishonesty not just regarding the sea ice data (the only point the obtuse Ombudsman would even talk about), but also how every other argument in the entire article represents flawed rhetoric. In particular…
denialism | March 19, 2009We're closing in on the final moments. All the med students have gathered in the old med school auditorium at UVA. Per tradition, we all carry a dollar bill for a pool, with the last person to receive their envelope getting the pot (we get called randomly).
Results around 12, I'll keep updating this post.
11:35 NBC 29 is here for their yearly match coverage. And the room is full of babies! A family event except for the covert drinking.
11:40 The dean is here with a sack of letters. Progress.... He says we're the best class ever! Take that all you alumni!
11:45 One of our…
denialism | March 19, 2009In two hours I find out where I've matched and will spend my residency. It's a special day for medical students, and may be the one day a year they really, universally cut loose. Much more than graduation, match feels like the culmination of years of hard work.
I'll put up a post at around 12 saying where I ended up. If you're curious about the process see our other posts on the match Choosing a Medical Specialty I, II, III, and IV.
denialism | March 14, 2009It's come time to lie about science again - this time about the reality of embryonic stem cell pluripotency - and some of the old lies are coming back out of the storage shed. For instance, Andrew Breitbart on Real Time last night, and in a video from (liar for Jesus) Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, I've heard about how adult stem cells have cured or treated 72 diseases. Oh and embryonic stem cells, they've cured none. It's been a while since we've seen this adult stem cell nonsense.
I had to jog my memory for a minute, I knew this was a lie, but it had been so long since I…
denialism | March 13, 2009Check out all three parts. Jon takes Cramer out behind the woodshed and indicts the whole financial/journalism failure at CNBC.
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The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1
Daily Show Full EpisodesImportant Things w/ Demetri Martin
Political HumorJim Cramer
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The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 2
Daily Show Full EpisodesImportant Things w/ Demetri Martin
Political HumorJim Cramer
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The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 3
Daily…
denialism | March 11, 2009Brought to us by The Onion San Francisco Historians Condemn 1906 Earthquake Deniers:
The 1906 Earthquake Deniers, a group reviled by Californians and scholars alike, held three days of lectures and roundtable discussions over what they call a "century-long hoax" of exaggerated seismic activity in the Bay area, and part of a conspiracy to bring the World's Fair to San Francisco in 1915. Historians protested the conference, saying the organization's statements denying any major seismic activity in 1906 are reprehensible and out of line with all available geologic data from the time.
...
"If an…
denialism | March 11, 2009His choices are interesting but I think he hits the highlights. After all he has fake experts Pat Michaels and Steve Milloy, and of course Christopher Monckton. I might disagree with the inclusion of a nobody like Sarah Palin. She's a twit more than a real purveyor of disinformation like Marc Morano, or S. Fred Singer. He has included Inhofe so I guess that's Morano-inclusive.
What do you guys think? Any glaring omissions?
And check out my piece at the Guardian on how to spot a climate change denialist.
denialism | March 9, 2009President Obama has lifted the ban on embryonic stem cell research enacted by Bush, but I'm left feeling that this intervention came many years too late.
Pledging that his administration will "make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology," President Obama on Monday lifted the Bush administration's strict limits on human embryonic stem cell research.
...
But Mr. Obama went on to say that the majority of Americans "have come to a consensus that we should pursue this research; that the potential it offers is great, and with proper guidelines and strict oversight the perils can be…
denialism | March 9, 2009I have just finished taking my last major exam of medical school - Step 2 of the boards (including Step 2 Clinical Skills, or CS, which costs 1200 bucks, requires you to travel to one of a few cities in the country hosting it, and is sealed by a EULA that forbids me from talking about what the test was like), and am winding down my medschool career in the next few weeks. It's about 2 weeks from Match Day (the 19th), when I'll find out for sure where I will spend the next 5 or so years of my life. I'll be sure to have a post up a little after noon that day when I find out what the answer is…
choofnagle | March 5, 2009Who cares about moral hazard anymore! AEI, Cato, where are you when we need you?
It goes something like this: A group of companies that chose to put lead in children's toys, or to offshore their operations to countries with poor manufacturing controls in order to save money, are now upset that their schemes are going to cost them money. The government has the audacity to do something about this crisis, and guess what, it costs the industry money! Maybe they should have incorporated the costs of lead when they decided to offshore!
Joseph Pereira of the Journal reports:
Makers of children'…
denialism | March 1, 2009Is he being purposefully obtuse? Once again the ombudsman decides to defend George Will, but only on a single point.
A key paragraph, aimed at those who believe in man-made global warming, asserted: "According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979."
Bizarrely, he acknowledges Will was wrong:
It said that while global sea ice areas are "near or slightly lower than those observed in late 1979," sea ice area in the Northern Hemisphere is "almost one million sq. km below" the levels of late 1979. That's roughly the size…
denialism | February 26, 2009And I breathe a sigh of relief. Working nights my schedule is a tad goofy, but I wake up today to see this guy describing the changes in the new budget:
This is Peter Orszag the new director of the Office of Management and Budget. He is a nerd and I instantly like him. I was not surprised to find he used to be a blogger.
It was especially refreshing because for too long our government has been run by this guy:
In particular I agree with their emphasis on health care as a necessary element for creating a viable modern economy. America has to compete with other countries that provide…
denialism | February 23, 2009It's almost like a bad Yakov Smirnoff joke, "In America you test therapies in animals before giving them to humans, in Russia..." All I can do is wonder, what were they thinking? Injecting stem cells into a kid's spinal fluid to correct a genetic disorder? Are they insane?
Stem cells, in particular embryonic and fetal stem cells, are useful because they represent cells that are less differentiated than the cells that are working at specific functions throughout your body. Another result of being stem cells is that they are able to divide and proliferate without differentiating or…
choofnagle | February 22, 2009Phillip Reese and Andrew McIntosh of the Sacramento Bee report:
If you give to a charity over the phone, there's a growing likelihood that most of your donation will go to the telemarketer instead, according to a Bee analysis of state records.
More than a third of California charity telemarketing campaigns sent less than 20 cents on the dollar to the charities during 2007, the most recent year on record. Those campaigns and a smaller number of charity auctions and concerts raised $93 million for commercial fundraisers, and just $3 million for the charities.
There are some eye-popping numbers…
choofnagle | February 21, 2009The San Francisco Chronicle reports that four young people have been arrested on suspicion that they harassed UCB and UC Santa Cruz animal researchers under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.
It is clear from the reporting that law enforcement is taking this issue seriously. The FBI and seven other law enforcement agencies were involved, and effort was coordinated through the Joint Terrorism Task Force. From the press release and reporting, it looks as though agents were following these activists in public places, and filmed them using publicly-available computer terminals. Even DNA was…
denialism | February 20, 2009I'm heartened to see a broad disgust with George Will's lies about climate science. After all it's pretty extraordinary when a major syndicated columnist repeats a lie about science, not once, not twice but three times despite being corrected.
PZ wishes he too could just make up his own facts, and Mike too is pleased the disgust is moving beyond the scientific community. Carl Zimmer at the Loom covers the broad mistakes made in the essay, and TPM documents how it was almost all lies. Mark Kleimen has caught on to the fact that in the end, this is just another conspiracy theory on par with…
choofnagle | February 20, 2009If you are socking money away in offshore banks, pay attention to this man's expression. He's saying, you're screwed.
Yes, taxpaying citizens, you can rejoice, because tax cheats across the country are having panic attacks. They're thinking about refiling their tax returns, or going to the IRS to beg forgiveness with a check to cover past taxes and potential fines. Some are evening thinking about sailing away from this great country. Good riddance.
As part of a 9/11 trend that requires banks to collect more information about their clients, and the fact that our government needs money,…