scientificactivist

As ScienceBlogs approaches its 500,000th comment, The Scientific Activist just passed a milestone of its own: its 1,000th comment since joining ScienceBlogs. In the spirit of the occasion, then, I'd like to thank everyone who has commented on the blog--whether regularly or just once--but special…

Is this what we've come to after six and a half years of a Bush White House? From a Wired Science blog post about Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns' resignation: But what the heck -- by all appearances, Johanns wasn't grossly corrupt, didn't hand out more corporate freebies than you'd expect from…

While thousands march today in protest of modern day racial injustice, it's pretty difficult to not be aware of the Jena Six. Certainly all of the Democratic presidential candidates are. Apparently, though, staying up to date on current events isn't a prerequisite for the Republicans. Asked about…

There's been quite a bit of blogging lately about HIV denialism, so I thought I would take this opportunity to write a little bit about HIV denialism in South Africa--a subject that gets mentioned pretty often is rarely discussed in much detail. I spoke about this topic in my talk on Wednesday,…

Via A Blog Around the Clock comes news that the Senate will be voting on mandatory public access to NIH research later this month (on September 28, apparently). Such a bill has already passed the House (in July 2007). The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is urging citizens to contact their Senators…

Earlier this year, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article for The New Yorker called "Open Secrets" in which he discussed the distinction between two types of problems: what he called "puzzles", which are simpler, and "mysteries", which are more complex. Building on the work of national security expert…

Last year, I recounted my personal experience on September 11, 2001, and I offered some commentary about what that day--and the events of the ensuing year--meant to me and to American politics in general. I've reposted my 9/11 story again this year, below. (11 September 2006) When I was a freshman…

The following email was recently sent out to members of Magdalen College at the University of Oxford: Sometime between last Wednesday, 5th, and yesterday Sunday 9th, about two and a half tons of lead roofing was stripped from the top of the building on the outside of the deer park (at the southern…

The following is a transcript of the remarks I delivered to the Texas Aggie Democrats at Texas A&M University on September 5, 2007 (and I've added some links). I start out talking a little bit about the work I did in the organization when I was a student there, but I eventually get into the…

This one is for my readers at Texas A&M University. I'm currently visiting Texas for a couple of weeks, and I'll be speaking at the first meeting of the semester of the Texas Aggie Democrats this Wednesday, 5 September, at 8:30 pm in Rudder 502. I'll be talking a bit about the Democratic Party…

This is about the only appropriate response to the absurdity of the the anti-open access organization PRISM. A commenter on the last post pointed me to PISD, the Partnership for Integrity in Scientific Dis-semination: The Partnership for Integrity in Scientific Dis-semination was established by a…

This is all over the blogosphere already, but since I occasionally blog about open access issues, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the controversy over a new anti-open access organization called PRISM. The go-to post on this topic is at A Blog Around the Clock, where Bora is collecting…

Or, at least that's what I thought when I read this article from Saturday's Guardian: Universities and medical schools have been criticised for increasing the number of animals used in research by more than 50% since 1996 while industry has reduced its procedures by 20% over the same period.…

Wait... is that smoke coming out of the upstairs window? Uh oh. That can't be good.... Wait for it.... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!! Whoa! Pretty cool, huh? It's not every day--in Oxford…

They're dropping like flies now. In another blow to the Bush Administration, The New York Times reports that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will announce his resignation later has announced his resignation (update) today... and it's about damn time. Senator Charles Schumer puts it lightly:…

In response to Michael Skube's freewheelingly critical opinion piece about the blogosphere in Sunday's LA Times, the paper has published a response entitled "The journalism that bloggers actually do" by Jay Rosen, NYU journalism professor and PressThink blogger, via its online Blowback feature.…

On Sunday, the LA Times published an uninformed opinion piece by Michael Skube blasting the blog culture. A Blog Around the Clock has a nice wrap-up, and Jay Rosen is currently soliciting examples of good reporting by blogs over at PressThink for a formal response. Tara Smith of Aetiology has…

Although he took some flack for a similar stance in last month's CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential Debate (see video at bottom of post), Barack Obama has an opinion piece published in The Miami Herald today in which he stresses the need for bilateral talks with Cuba and promises to "grant Cuban…

Although the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP or CHIP) passed in both the House and the Senate earlier this month, the Bush Administration has once again decided that it prefers to preempt the Democratic process. President Bush had already promised to veto the…

Via Deep Sea News, I came across a story from Tuesday's LA Times about recent corporate and fashion-industry efforts to ween Americans off of bottled water. With Americans currently throwing away 38 billion plastic water bottles each year (that's over 100 bottles per American!), it's a cause that…

This just in: even the devil incarnate has had enough. From Reuters: WASHINGTON - Karl Rove, a political adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush and a lightning rod for anger among Democrats, will leave the White House at the end of this month, Rove told the Wall Street Journal. "I just think it…

Last week, I attended a seminar at the Oxford Internet Institute presented by J. Ignacio Criado and entitled "Political Blogging in Campaign and Political Communication: Political Leadership 2.0?" (see my announcement and the event's abstract here). My impressions are mixed, particularly in…

August 9, 2007, will go down in history as a great day for global warming denialism. On Wednesday, the 8th, well-known global warming denialist Steve McIntyre published a post on his blog about NASA finding a flaw in some of its temperature data that led to a minor reordering of the list of the…

Geez, Congressman Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) sure is a busy guy. Since I mentioned his fundraising scam for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)--the "Congressional Order of Merit"--last month, myriad new reports of Cole's activities have emerged. For proof, just check out the…

This one is for my readers in Oxford. The Oxford Internet Institute is hosting what could be a semi-relevant and interesting talk this Wednesday at noon. Here are the details: Title: Political Blogging in Campaign and Political Communication: Campaigning for Political Leadership 2.0? Speaker: J…

After the House passed its expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program on Wednesday, the Senate passed its version late Thursday. Although the House version passed along party lines, against strong Republican opposition, the Senate version enjoyed more bipartisan support, passing 68-31 (…

Here's some good news from Congress, where the House of Representatives yesterday passed HR 3162, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007. This is the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP or SCHIP) that I've been blogging about recently. For more…

If we learned anything from the Atlas of Creation, it's that we can refute any evidence, regardless of how scientifically sound it is, just by putting a red X across it and writing "FALSE". Jeremiah McNichols reflects on this at his blog Think In Pictures... and then he takes it one step further…

To keep my readers better informed, I've added a Google News RSS feed to the sidebar of the blog. It's currently located just under the search form, although I may move it later. It should deliver the latest headlines from the intersection of science and politics, so hopefully most of the entries…

Today's New York Times includes a profile of drug safety advocate Dr. Steven E. Nissen by medical business writer Stephanie Saul: His questioning of the safety of the Avandia diabetes medication in late May, for example, prompted a federal safety alert and led to a sales decline of about 30 percent…