purepedantry | September 18, 2008A recent report questions the wisdom of an outright ban on bushmeat sales:
The report from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), based in Bogor, Indonesia, suggests instead that the bushmeat trade should be regulated, with hunting allowed for relatively common, fast-reproducing species such as duikers (a small antelope) and rodents, whereas endangered species, such as primates, should continue to be protected.
CIFOR is one of 15 international research centres funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research -- a partnership of governments,…
purepedantry | September 18, 2008As we witness the self-destruction of portions of our financial institutions, many of us have been ask ourselves: what the hell is going on?
University of Chicago economists, Doug Diamond and Anil Kashyap, have a Q&A at the Freakonomics blog to answer some questions. One important question is why the Fed chose to bail out Bear Stearns but not Lehman Brother:
When Bear was rescued, the Fed created a new lending facility to help provide bridge financing to other investment banks. The new lending arrangement was proposed precisely because there were concerns that Lehman and other banks…
purepedantry | September 17, 2008USA Today prints a (sort of) joke job description for the next generation of doctors:
Idealistic Generation X/Y overachievers with low- to mid-six-figure student loans to work in imploding health care system currently subject to runaway entitlement spending. Future salary to be subject to government whim and guaranteed not to keep up with inflation. Will be subject to unreasonable expectations of patients and held responsible for less-than-perfect outcomes by consumer advocates and trial lawyers. Must be able to work 70-80 hours per week, not including on-call duties, and place family…
purepedantry | September 17, 2008Apparently, some people think that the name "Large Hadron Collider" fails to capture the terrific grandeur of the device's mission. The Royal Society of Chemistry had a contest to pick an newer, better name, but the winning name proved to be "Halo." No way can they call it that. That name is so copyrighted that angels are getting sued.
Over at Wired Science, they are running a web vote about alternative names for it. Go over and offer your suggestions.
My favorite: "Atom Smasher +5, Holy Avenger" by Gary Gygax
Hmmm...I always thought that Jennifer was a cute name. Hadron colliders are…
purepedantry | September 17, 2008It is speculation time. My roommate and I were watching a story this morning on CNN by Sanjay Gupta about how astronauts lose bone mass while in space. One of the limitations with space travel is that because of the absence of gravity, your bones steadily deteriorate. Load bearing exercise is required for bone maintenance.
To compensate for this, the people at NASA have all manner of contrivances to let the astronauts do load bearing exercise. Read the story. There is even a vertically oriented treadmill.
Anyway, this story stimulated a discussion between my roommate and me about how…
purepedantry | September 17, 2008An Israeli town has come up with an aggressive method to fight uncollected dog poop: DNA IDing the "originator."
An Israeli city is using DNA analysis of dog droppings to reward and punish pet owners.
Under a six-month trial programme launched this week, the city of Petah Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv, is asking dog owners to take their animal to a municipal veterinarian, who then swabs its mouth and collects DNA.
The city will use the DNA database it is building to match faeces to a registered dog and identify its owner.
I am as disgusted with the stray poop as the next guy, but this seems…
kcontreary | September 17, 2008Scienceblogs is heading toward its one-millionth reader comment, and to celebrate bloggers are throwing millionth-comment parties all across the globe. The London edition will be held on Saturday, September 20th at the Calthorpe Arms. Starting from 7:00 PM, readers in the London area can join Nick, Mo, Selva, and myself for a few pints and some good conversation. We've got $100 a pop to put behind the bar for some drinks and sandwiches, so if you want to be sure to get a drink on Scienceblogs, come early!
No RSVP necessary, but if you want to let me know you're coming, drop me a line or…
purepedantry | September 16, 2008Both candidates have answered the questions about scientific issues posed by the ScienceDebate2008. You can read their answers side by side here.
Several comments in no particular order:
McCain mentions ending earmarks in reference to supporting scientific funding. How are those two even related?
Obama is much more specific than McCain with respect to innovation policy -- he promises to double basic research funding whereas McCain promises increases. Obama seems to understand the specific issue of scientific funding in relation to inflation better. They both seem to get the association…
purepedantry | September 12, 2008Philosopher Thomas Nagel, writing in the journal Philosophy and Public Affairs, criticizes the exclusion of Intelligent Design from science classes on the grounds that evolutionary science too rests on an assumption: the naturalistic assumption. He argues that both evolution based on natural selection and ID have untestable assumptions.
Frankly, I think that Nagel is wrong partly because he doesn't understand the people pushing ID and partly because he doesn't understand science. With respect to the first, he seems to give the IDers like Michael Behe credit as honest brokers pushing a…
purepedantry | September 11, 2008The New England Journal of Medicine compares the candidates visions for health care reform. (Hat-tip: PalMD)
On John McCain:
The McCain campaign emphasizes key advantages of this approach. First, the current tax exclusion disproportionately benefits higher-income Americans, since its value depends on a worker's tax bracket. Providing an equal credit to all Americans is a fairer allocation of federal revenues, and since the credit is refundable, even those who do not pay taxes would qualify for federal payments. Second, the tax exclusion benefits only persons with employer-sponsored insurance…
purepedantry | September 10, 2008Now -- via this useful website -- you can check whether the activation of the Large Hadron has destroyed the Earth.
Go ahead...click it...you know you want to...
purepedantry | September 10, 2008From Russell Roberts at Cafe Hayek:
There are two ways to reduce the connection between politicians and money. One is to reduce the role of money. The other is to reduce the role of politicians. I choose the latter. I contend that reducing the role of money of politics in order to make politics more honest is like trying to make airplanes safer by reducing the role of gravity. Let's get money out of politics by making politicians less powerful.
purepedantry | September 10, 2008Inside Higher Ed describes a study of complete rates for PhD students broken down by race/ethnicity, gender, whether the student is international or domestic, and by discipline. Here is the key chart:
Cumulative Completion Rates for Students Starting Ph.D. Programs, 1992-3 Through 1994-5
Group
By Year 5
By Year 6
By Year 7
By Year 8
By Year 9
By Year 10
Gender
--Male
24%
39%
48%
53%
57%
58%
--Female
16%
30%
41%
47%
52%
55%
Race/Ethnicity
--African American
16%
25%
34%
40%
44%
47%
--Asian…
purepedantry | September 9, 2008Over at Economics of Contempt, there is an argument that liberal media bias has to exist because there is evidence that partisanship changes the way that our brains process information. (This is not his only evidence, but it is part of it.)
Now, I don't want to get into a discussion about the existence or nonexistence of a liberal (or conservative) media bias. What I take issue with is the particular study that Economics of Contempt cites as evidence of this bias. I think that he is misapplying the results of that study.
Economics of Contempt cites the results of Westen et al. 2006.…
purepedantry | September 6, 2008OMG! This is the best commercial ever.
Check out this commercial for epMotion automated pippeting machines by Eppendorf.
Who says that pipette commercials can't be funny...and strangely sexual. And like many drug commercials, the actual function of the product seems to be largely irrelevant.
purepedantry | September 4, 2008Kara asked whether this article about the sudden death of young men when arrested by police is for real.
The article details data presented before the European Society of Cardiology concerning 60 unexplained deaths over 10 years in Spain. The individuals were all relatively young men that were taken into police custody. The reports from these cases show no previous history of cardiovascular disease. They believe they can rule out mistreatment or drug use from the autopsies as well.
The author of the study, Manuel Martinez Selles, argues that this sudden death may represent a new syndrome…
kcontreary | September 3, 2008Okay, Jake or anyone else out there with medical training--is this for real? Apparently there may be a new syndrome whereby young men suddenly and inexplicably die following police arrest. The phenomenon is being compared to a similar one wherein wild animals up and die upon capture, and may have something to do with a surge of stress hormones called catecholamines into the bloodstream.
The research is being done in Spain. No deaths considered in this investigation were supposed to be due to mistreatment, but if this is at all indicative of how Spanish police bring people into custody,…
purepedantry | September 3, 2008I don't want to get into the issue of whether the nuclear storage site at Yucca Mountain is a good idea. (The folks over at SEA know a whole lot more about the subject than I do.) My gut instinct is that the whole thing will cost a fortune -- and likely much more than the estimates -- but if we are committed to carbon-free power, then we must be prepared to make sacrifices.
However, it is satisfying to see that a final decision about whether to build the thing is proceeding speedily along:
After twenty years of study by more than 2,000 scientists and engineers about the feasibility of…
purepedantry | September 2, 2008Too good.
What do atheists yell during sex? Stephen Colbert asks Lori Lippman Brown, director of Secular Coalition for America.
purepedantry | September 2, 2008In honor of the opening of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Michigan State University graduate student Kate McAlpine has an LHC rap on YouTube. The best part: the science is dead on.
Hat-tip: NPR