Search Content

Displaying results 84001 - 84050 of 87950

A Fine Speech

No, I'm not referring to Bush's State of the Union, but Senator James Webb's response. What's interesting is how hard he hit the economics: There are two areas where our respective parties have largely stood in contradiction, and I want to take a few minutes to address them tonight. The first relates to how we see the health of our economy - how we measure it, and how we ensure that its benefits are properly shared among all Americans.... When one looks at the health of our economy, it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The…

Fundamentalists and Global Warming: Different Tune, Same Beat

So those who oppose global warming are using the same strategy as the creationists: teach the 'controversy.' This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert "An Inconvenient Truth." After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sex education complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesday placed what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consists largely of a computer presentation by former Vice President Al Gore recounting…

The American Swastika: Aren't Black People Southerners Too?

Over at the News Blog, Steve Gilliard links to a post about the idiocy of a public high school in Kentucky that is displaying a Confederate flag* in the school cafeteria (Kentucky was never a Confederate state: eastern Kentucky, in particular, was staunchly pro-Union). In the comments at the News Blog, one commenter left an excellent reminder of what 'the Unpleasantness Between the States' [/snark> was really about (italics mine): Why the hell are we flying flags from the Confederacy? Have we forgotten what the Civil War was? During the Civil War nearly 200,000 men died in action, more…

A Letter About Cefquinome Use in Agriculture

I've posted before about the possible approval of cefquinome in agriculture, and why this is a stupid thing to even consider. So some colleagues and I got cranky and wrote a letter to the FDA. Here's the letter: Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D. Acting Commissioner U.S. Food and Drug Administration 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville MD 20857-000 Dear Acting Commissioner von Eschenbach, We are writing to support the recommendation of the VMAC to reject and not approve the use of cefquinome, a fourth-generation cephalosporin antibiotic, for use in animal agriculture. One area that is critical in…

Microbiologists Overwhelmingly Oppose Bioterrorism Funding

Most microbiologists, you know, the experts , are not very thrilled with the emphasis being placed on bioterrorism. Inspired by Tara's post on the Bioshield initiative, I'm reposting this from the old site. This week, leading microbiologists are sending an open letter to NIH stating that the politically-based emphasis on bioterrorism is starving other areas of research. For some time now, I've thought that we've been too concerned with bioterrorism, particularly when good ol' influenza regularly kills 32,000 37,000 people per year (that's one World Trade Center per month for those of you…

Insane About Iran

At this point, one has to wonder if there are any sane people left in the Bush Administration. In the New Yorker, Sy Hersh describes the run up to the next war: A former intelligence officer said, "We told Israel, 'Look, if you guys have to go, we're behind you all the way. But we think it should be sooner rather than later--the longer you wait, the less time we [the U.S.] have to evaluate and plan for Iran before Bush gets out of office.' " And regarding intelligence, it's the same old song: The Pentagon consultant told me that intelligence about Hezbollah and Iran is being mishandled by…

Maybe I'm an Extremist?

Joe Klein was very angry last week at 'uncivil' bloggers, and in a storming fit of something that kinda looks like anger, only wimpier, came up with a list of attributes belonging to "left-wing extremists." I've gone through the list and added my own commentary. Klein's list: A left-wing extremist exhibits many, but not necessarily all, of the following attributes: --believes the United States is a fundamentally negative force in the world. Nope. --believes that American imperialism is the primary cause of Islamic radicalism. I think it is one cause. That's why cluster is in the word…

"How Do You Ask a Man To Be the Last Man To Die For a Mistake?"-the WaPo Edition

It's about time someone told the warmongers on the Washington Post editorial board to go fuck themselves. In the words of Democratic congressman David Obey: Speaker, yesterday a number of members on the Republican side of the aisle sought to belittle the legislation before us because in addition to funding the needs of the troops in Iraq it contains money to address a number of domestic priorities. To ridicule that legislation, they suggested -- they tried to belittle items such as funding for levees in New Orleans and agriculture disaster payments . And in that they have been joined by…

Selection for height genes?

Three papers on genome wide association studies & height. Identification of ten loci associated with height highlights new biological pathways in human growth, Genome-wide association analysis identifies 20 loci that influence adult height and Many sequence variants affecting diversity of adult human height. Dan MacArthur hits the major point: ScienceDaily puts a positive spin on the story ("Scientists are beginning to develop a clearer picture of what makes some people stand head and shoulders above the rest"), but the real story is this: despite the massive scale of these studies,…

Political fictions & Social Darwinism

Charles Johnson argues that Richard Dawkins has mischaracterized Herbert Spencer: First, Spencer was not a Social Darwinist. He was not, in fact, a Darwinist at all; he published his most famous work on evolution and society, Social Statics, in 1851, eight years before Charles Darwin first published On the Origin of Species. His ideas about evolution, especially as applied to society, were Lamarckian, rather than Darwinian; which is not ultimately that surprising, since he came up with them independently of Darwinian evolutionary theory, and before that even existed in published form. Second…

What genetics tells us about human psychology

I've commented on the African American Lives series a few times. One thing I've said in other threads is that these massively more data rich ancestry analysis tests aren't going to tell you anything you don't already know in 99% of the cases. That doesn't mean that it's not worth it to get tested, but if the kit costs you hundreds or thousands of dollars, most people are really better off passing I think. When these tests get down to the $10-20 range then I'll be sanguine if a friend of mine starts mooting the possibility of purchasing a kit. By analogy, I wouldn't get worked up over a $…

Why We Aren't All in This Together: The Middle Class' Lack of Economic Agency

I think one reason that the Obama adminstration (including the preznit) don't comprehend the level of anger about the economy is that many of them dwell in a world where they possess economic agency, whereas too many people do not. John Lanchester writes (italics mine): From the worm's-eye perspective which most of us inhabit, the general feeling about this new turn in the economic crisis is one of bewilderment. I've encountered this in Iceland and in Ireland and in the UK: a sense of alienation and incomprehension and done-unto-ness. People feel they have very little economic or political…

Lead Poisoning, Crime, and Academic Performance

Last week, James Q. Wilson, writing in The Wall Street Journal, described several of the factors that have led to a sustained decrease in crime. One reason is increased incarceration: One obvious answer is that many more people are in prison than in the past. Experts differ on the size of the effect, but I think that William Spelman and Steven Levitt have it about right in believing that greater incarceration can explain about one-quarter or more of the crime decline. Yes, many thoughtful observers think that we put too many offenders in prison for too long. For some criminals, such as low-…

A Necessary Element of Education 'Reform': Getting Students to Show Up

Before one worries about how teachers are performing, it would seem that getting children to attend school regularly would be an important first step, which is a reason one Floridian teacher opposed teacher student testing: When Florida proposed strict accountability measures, teachers, parents and administrators pushed back. They argued that the proposed system -- basing renewal of teacher contracts and at least half their raises on how well students did on standardized tests -- would hold them responsible for factors in students' lives beyond their control. "I am not a puppet master; I can'…

The Economic Impact of Genomics-and Research As a Whole

The Wall Street Journal reports an estimate of the economic impact of the Human Genome Project (italics mine): Of the $3.8 billion federal funding for the human-genome project, $2.8 billion originated at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the rest at the Department of Energy. That $3.8 billion, along with subsequent capital provided by the government and the private sector, generated a total return of roughly $49 billion in direct and indirect federal tax revenues over the last two decades or so. (The $3.8 billion is worth about $5.6 billion in constant 2010 dollars.) Over the same…

The Worst Way to Combat Prostitution: Make Prostitutes 'Sex Offenders'

We read about "the dumbest-ass things that any state could possibly do" according to one retired New Orleans judge to prevent prostitution: In their neighborhoods, they are sometimes taunted with dirty looks and jeers. Their pictures hang on the walls of local community centers where their children and grandchildren play. And their names and addresses are listed in newspapers and mailed out on postcards to everyone in the neighborhood. Landing a job or even finding a landlord willing to give them a place to stay is a challenge. These women wear a scarlet letter -- rather, 11 letters --…

Yes, We Should Have National Universities

Noahpinion recognizes a problem that probably familiar to readers with kids in high school--the high cost of college: While college enrollment rates are up a little over 50% since 1980, the price of college is up by over 1000%. What this points to is a supply shortage... More people want to go to college (probably because of the higher college wage premium), but the supply of high-quality colleges simply isn't that big. People are flocking to for-profit colleges because there just isn't room at public ones. And since there are good theoretical as well as empirical reasons to believe that for-…

Can Biologists Admit We Are Wrong? Dunno. But We Will Say Other Biologists Are Wrong

Because we are human after all. Jason Collins at Evolving Economics, in response to my post about one economist's misunderstanding of biology, asks a very good question: On the flip side, did Dawkins or Gould (or their respective supporters) ever concede to the other side that they were wrong and substantially change their world view? I agree with Razib about what happened: My own attitude is that both Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould retreated from maximalist positions when it came to the gradualism vs. punctuated equilibrium arguments of the 1970s substantively. But rhetorically they…

Overplaying "AIDS genes"

Brandom Keim at Wired says Genes Don't Explain African AIDS Epidemic: Seen in the wrong light, the numbers could present Africa's AIDS tragedy as a biological inevitability. Several press accounts do exactly that. The New York Times credits the mutation for "explaining why the disease is more common there than expected." Reuters says it could "help explain why AIDS has hit Africa harder than all other parts of the world," as this can't be fully rooted in "sexual behavior and other social factors." The Guardian says it "may go some way" to explaining the African prevalence of AIDS. And the…

The Don McLeroy of Israel

I'm getting a flood of email from Israel. As one correspondent explains, Israel maintains three kinds of state-supported schools: one kind for the ultra-orthodox, because the state has always fostered freakishly fanatical ignorance among the lunatic subset, and these schools teach no science at all; a fully secular system, particularly in higher education, because Jews have also had a strong scholarly tradition, and Israel depends on material strategies for its survival, and these schools teach science very well; and a general intermediate kind of school where religion may be taught but…

A map of the mind....

Reader Mengu Gulmen emailed me about our exchange in regards to how we view the development of the mind: Mengu: Every decision we make, everything we do and say, is based on the previous experiences we've had [all we did, all we have learned from our schools and our families and friends and internet and .... Myself: This sounds close to tabula rasa. See the cognitive revolution for why I disagree. Mengu then sent me this link, and stated: Our neurodevelopment is closely related with our experiences (what our 'sensors' provide us) throughout our lives. So our thoughts are shaped according…

Chimps more evolved?

The times has a mildly stupid article up, Chimps are ahead of humans in the great evolutionary race, which just goes to show that the people writing the headlines often have no comprehension skills, or just don't bother reading more than the first paragraph of a story. As confused as the article is it contradicts such a stark assertion. Here's the important point: They found 154 human genes that showed evidence of the rapid positive selection that marks out adaptive traits, but 233 chimp genes with the same qualities. Read the article with great caution, some of the sentences are very…

The multilevels of religion

I read Evolution for Everyone, and I was struck by how much David S. Wilson discussed religion. First, he seems to praise The Templeton Foundation quite a bit, in part because of their generous funding of his research. This isn't to say that he has any illusions about the nature of their interests, but he isn't an idealist about taking money to explore the questions which interest him. Wilson has to know that this is going to be come in for some scrutiny and no doubt some will denounce him for cavorting with the religious. That being said, Wilson is definitely not a Richard Dawkins style…

String Theory → Theology

I enjoyed the recent Blogging Heads dialogue between John Horgan and George Johnson, in part because I could follow the whole thing without falling asleep. But the comments about string theory were really over the top and kind of disturbing. I enjoyed Lee Smolin's jeremiad against string theory, The Trouble With Physics,1 but at least he acknowledged that his own camp was in a definite minority. In the exchange Horgan deems string theory "pseudoscience" and analogizes it to theology. You'd expect the author of The End of Science and The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies…

The Lefty sensibility?

Yesterday I watched Will Wilkinson and Ezra Klein on Blogging Heads. Will, as many of you will know, is a pragmatic libertarian (oh, they exist), while Ezra is a liberal. I was struck by (somewhat appalled in fact) by Ezra's irritation and contempt for the philosophical nerdiness of many libertarians. Ezra's emphasis on the empirical and the proximate, on a narrow sui generis fixation on a sequence of finite policies was set against a more expansive and theoretically scaffolded conception of the Good Life which Will seemed to be promoting (even a question of the nature of the Good Life).…

The season needs no reason

Below I spoke of historical perspective, while earlier I referred to Christmas as "universal pagan wine poured into a particular Christian chalice." I thought I might elaborate upon this. First, the cultural and historical origins of Christmas are multi-textured. Though Christians assert "Jesus is the reason for the season," a more precise formulation might be that "Jesus became the reason for the season in the minds of some." This is important. It is not without rationale that Christian groups like the Jehovah Witnesses reject Christmas, it is not a scriptural festival. Its emergence in…

Thank Jumala for Finnish record keeping!

You might not be able to do controlled experiments on humans for evolutionary biological purposes (not only is it unethical, the leisurely rate of human reproduction doesn't make it viable for cranking out Ph.D.s), but you can analyze our pedigrees! Scientific American has a long article, What Finnish Grandmothers Reveal about Human Evolution, about Virpi Lummaa's research program. It's a "sexy" one, I've blogged her research several times, it has pretty deep appeal, focusing on humans & evolution. For you religion haters out there, I do have to point out that it is enabled by the…

Nick Wade on recent evolution human in The New York Times

Humans Have Spread Globally, and Evolved Locally (The New York Times): No one yet knows to what extent natural selection for local conditions may have forced the populations on each continent down different evolutionary tracks. But those tracks could turn out to be somewhat parallel. At least some of the evolutionary changes now emerging have clearly been convergent, meaning that natural selection has made use of the different mutations available in each population to accomplish the same adaptation. This is the case with lactose tolerance in European and African peoples and with pale skin in…

...and twins!

Update: John Hawks has more. Male twins reduce fitness of female co-twins in humans: Here we investigate the effects of being gestated with a male co-twin for daughter lifetime reproductive success, and the fitness consequences for mothers of producing mixed-sex twins in preindustrial (1734-1888) Finns. We show that daughters born with a male co-twin have reduced lifetime reproductive success compared to those born with a female co-twin. This reduction arises because such daughters have decreased probabilities of marrying as well as reduced fecundity. Mothers who produce opposite-sex twins…

Group selection & the bugs

The emergence of a superorganism through intergroup competition: Surveys of insect societies have revealed four key, recurring organizational trends: (i) The most elaborated cooperation occurs in groups of relatives. (ii) Cooperation is typically more elaborate in species with large colony sizes than in species with small colony sizes, the latter exhibiting greater internal reproductive conflict and lesser morphological and behavioral specialization. (iii) Within a species, per capita brood output typically declines as colony size increases. (iv). The ecological factors of resource patchiness…

What Good Is Science Bloging?

I've been meaning to get to this question that ScienceBlogling Steinn asks: giving a talk on blogging at Harvard tends to make one think, in particular, what is the use of science blogging, and why are economists so good at blogging.... but, has science blogging done any good? I can think of science policy issues where blogging has made a contribution, and the general spread of information and communication done by blogs has probably had some impact, but has any actual science been directly impacted by blogs, or discussion on blogs? I am hard pressed to think of concrete examples. What is…

Hilzoy's Response to Wilson's On Biology and Morality

Hilzoy has a very interesting take on E.O. Wilson's essay "On Biology and Morality": He takes the view that morality is a human contrivance to imply that we can answer moral questions only by understanding the biology behind our moral sentiments. It is worth noticing the implications of this argument. If we could not conduct any inquiry whose object is a human contrivance without inquiring into its biological roots, we would be unable to balance our checkbooks or figure out winning moves in chess without first understanding the selection processes that led us to engage in these activities --…

A Defense of Nuclear Power As a Second Best Option

In light of the nuclear power plant partial meltdowns in Japan, there are calls for not expanding the U.S. nuclear power plant capacity, and even shutting down existing plants. What bothers me about this is that there is no discussion of how we make up the energy production shortfall--I'll get to energy conservation in a bit. As the U.S. begins the 21st century, we still are generating most of our power by lighting things on fire: oil, gas, and coal. While renewable energy (which despite its name still has some CO2 footprint) could pick up some slack, given our dysfunctional political…

The Developing World Needs Plumbing, Not Just Vaccines

I've always thought that if Bill Gates really wanted to make his mark, he should build sewer systems in the developing world (and provide endowments to maintain them). Because I'm getting tired of reading excellent articles like this: The recent outbreaks of cholera in Haiti, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe suggest that our current global action plans against cholera are failing. This issue contains two important articles that will help inform our discussions on ways to respond to the global cholera situation. Cholera is a severely dehydrating illness caused by Vibrio cholerae, a Gram-negative…

Why the State of the Union Leaves Me Depressed

I mean both the speech and the actual state. Amanda Marcotte wrote something that resonated with me: But we're a nation that's given up. At the end of the day, we're a country where people will circle a parking lot for 15 minutes to avoid 2 more minutes of walking. Facing up to that sort of thing while making public policy requires spine, and that's something we've got on short supply. So, instead we concede the argument and let the worst instincts of the country take over, while kicking the hippies that have the nerve to want something better. Sometimes I feel like America is just in a…

Primary Care Physicians and Universal Healthcare

In the midst of every bout of interest in healthcare, there's always mention of primary care physicians who serve as 'gatekeepers' of healthcare. While it makes sense, there's one catch--you have to have enough primary care physicians: But there's one important ingredient missing from that equation -- enough primary care doctors to take care of all these newly insured people. And the big reason behind the lack of primary care docs is the fact they get paid shit -- relatively speaking. Unlike the rest of the civilized world, physicians in the US are rarely salaried employees. With rare…

Dems Play FISA Right (Again?!)

It took them long enough, but the Democrats finally are making parliamentary maneuvers work for them, not against them. Regarding FISA, they've boxed the Republicans into a corner where Republicans would have to affirmatively argue that granting telecoms retroactive immunity would be a good idea--an unenviable job, if there were ever one. Here's how they did it (italics mine): The RESTORE Act, H.R. 3773, passed the House last year without including retroactive amnesty for the telecom companies and sent it on to the Senate. When the Senate took up the issue, it opted not to deal with H.R.…

Blue Dog Dem Kent Conrad Isn't a 'Moderate', He's a Radical Ideologue

Stupidly, Democrats have never pushed back against the idea that a hard-line deficit reduction hawk is a 'moderate', which I think might be what leads an astute political observer like Steve Benen to describe Senator (D-ND) Kent Conrad as a "moderate." To me, a moderate is someone who attempts to synthesize and find the balance among several objectives that may contradict with each other: while I think limiting the stimulus package was stupid fiscal policy, arguably that's a 'moderate' policy, in that there is an attempt to balance out different concerns (of course, if moderation becomes…

When Insurers Come Between a Thirteen Year-Old Type I Diabetic and Her Doctor

Over at the Great Orange Satan, I came across a post by a father of a type I diabetic (type I diabetes is an auto-immune disorder wherein a person can not produce insulin, and needs regular injections). To anyone who is familiar with type I diabetes, it's terrifying: maintaining blood glucose 'control' (i.e., keeping blood glucose within the 'normal' range) is an integral part of your daily life. There is the possibility of having too much blood glucose (too little insulin), which, over the long term, is very bad for your health (the effects mimic those typically associated with type II…

How Krugman Is Wrong About "Centrist" Democrats

I'm wary of criticizing Paul Krugman. I'm a firm believer in the DeLong Rules of Krugman, which can be paraphrased very simply: Don't disagree with Paul Krugman. Re-read rule #1, you fucking moron. Nonetheless, I think Krugman, in an otherwise excellent column, misstates the motivations behind the 'centrist' Democrats opposition to the public option for healthcare: Yes, some of the balking senators receive large campaign contributions from the medical-industrial complex -- but who in politics doesn't? If I had to guess, I'd say that what's really going on is that relatively conservative…

The Fitness Cost of Resistance Could Be...

...the signal peptide? Interesting. I'll start at the beginning. One of the few bright spots regarding the problem of antibiotic resistance is that resistance typically infers a fitness cost to the bacterium, at least initially. In other words, the resistant strain usually grows slower than a nearly identical sensitive strain*. While compensatory mutations can lower or eradicate this 'cost of resistance', it is thought that resistance can't increase initially without favorable selective conditions--antibiotic use--due to the cost of resistance. We'll need a little background about…

Lance Mannion on Republican Free-Riding

Having just returned from the Tea Bugger/Palin rally on the Boston Common (abridged version: It's just the same shitheads that have been making the rest of us miserable for the last thirty years, only with a new name), I came across this superb post by Lance Mannion (italics original, boldface mine): Grammer doesn't live as if he believes in his own political views.... Grammer doesn't live anything like a Republican-approved lifestyle. He lives the life of the sort of big city liberal Republicans affect to despise. And as far as I know he's quite happy with that life and has no plans to…

NIH Takes Back Some Control of Its Grant Portfolio

Before I got into genomics, I spent some time in science and health policy. On a couple occasions, I was invited to participate in a round table/white paper thingee where we were supposed to offer suggestions to NIH and other funding agencies. We would make recommendations, program officers would agree with those recommendations, and then reviewers would... fund the same old shit. That's why I've advocated more specific RFAs that allow NIH to set targeted priorities: My experience has been that with very targeted calls for proposals, there are far fewer proposals submitted, and it's much…

Should You Get a Ph.D.?

Over at Sciencewomen, a reader, who is considering a Ph.D. program, asks: I have a Masters in Biology (from a 5 year BS/MS program) and for the past 4 years I've been working as a lab manager/technician. I have my own research project(s) in addition to keeping track of ordering/equipment maintenance/mouse breeding/etc. All-in-all it's a sweet gig and I could see myself doing this or something similar for most of my career. The problem is that there seems to be this culture in biology that one has to get a PhD, and my competitive side kind of feels the need to get one mostly just to show that…

What Level of Proof Does the Ag Lobby Want for MRSA?

The Ethicurean has a superb interview with author Maryn McKenna about MRSA and agriculture. In the interview, the following question about MRSA transmission was asked: But isn't the industry saying that there's no definitive evidence linking MRSA in pigs to MRSA in humans? It depends on your standards of evidence. MRSA ST398 has been found colonizing pig farms and pig farmers in the US, Canada, and in the European Union. You can argue about how prevalent it is -- it's easy to cast doubt on whether it is common, because not very many studies have been done. But you can't argue that it is…

Politics Can Be Practiced Well: Shifting the Overton Window

By way of Howie Klein comes this explanation of what makes a successful politician--and what gets in the way: It goes, "I am not part of the political establishment. I am not a career politician. Trust me, because I am a successful business owner and can run government better." That's not much of a sales pitch. As much as they proclaim they do not want to be a career politician, that is exactly want they want to be. They are bold faced lairs. If you don't [to] want to be a career politician don't run for office. You are obviously lacking the convictions of your beliefs to fight for what you…

The Price of Sequencing Versus the Cost

So, Nature Reviews Genetics has an article, "Computational solutions to large-scale data management and analysis", which claims the following in the abstract (italics mine): Today we can generate hundreds of gigabases of DNA and RNA sequencing data in a week for less than US$5,000. The astonishing rate of data generation by these low-cost, high-throughput technologies in genomics is being matched by that of other technologies, such as real-time imaging and mass spectrometry-based flow cytometry. Success in the life sciences will depend on our ability to properly interpret the large-scale,…

Are Wage Cuts Also 'Structural'?

A phrase that has entered the political lexicon recently is 'structural unemployment', which means that the unemployment were seeing is not due to a recessionary (or depressionary*) downturn, but represents job loss due to a fundamental restructuring of the economy. In the NY Times, we find an article about wage cuts (italics mine): Local and state governments, as well as some companies, are squeezing their employees to work the same amount for less money in cost-saving measures that are often described as a last-ditch effort to avoid layoffs.... Pay cuts are appearing most frequently among…

Food Stamps Versus Educational 'Reform': Ketchup As a Vegetable for the 21st Century

I'm surprised that this revelation by Democratic Congressman David Obey hasn't received more attention. Basically, the House Democrats went to the wall for education and managed to get $10 billion to prevent teacher layoffs and an additional $5 billion for Pell Grants. To do so, they had to cut Obama's educational 'reform' program, Race to the Top, by about fifteen percent. This is the same so-called reform bill that screwed over Massachusetts' schools and that also weakened science education. What was the Obama administration's response? According to Obey (italics mine): The secretary…

Why Democrats Should Call Republicans' Bluff on the Looming Debt Default Conflict

The largest political battle, barring something really stupid coming along, in the next few months will be over the attempt to raise the federal debt limit. While it sounds boring, it's critical to every budget item, including science funding. Without increasing the federal debt limit, the U.S. would default on its debt (as well as be unable to pay for all of the allocated federal spending). Keep in mind this federal debt limit is absolutely artificial: since the U.S. has a sovereign and fiat currency, this is a self-imposed constraint. We could set the debt limit to any amount or even…