Policy
rskloot | February 7, 2009The new stimulus package includes serious cuts to science funding (like nixing 100% of the National Science Foundation's $$). This -- as an old family friend of mine used to say -- is in the forefront of the not good. Details here. Contact folks to voice opposition here.
rskloot | February 5, 2009The Department of Justice has withdrawn its proposed ADA regulations that would have banned the use of assistance monkeys, birds, miniature horses, etc.  This was in response to a memo from Obama's Chief of Staff directing all agencies to hold off on any new regulations until they could be reviewed and approved by Obama's administration.  So for now, the ADA definition of service animal remains as it has been since it's original creation, which means it still includes all species of animals.  One commenter here pointed out that for those concerned about this issue, now would be a good…
rskloot | February 3, 2009A few hours ago, Joe Biden swore in the new head of the Department of Justice -- the first African American Attorney General in history.  This is the man who will be deciding, among other things, the future of guide miniature horses and assistance parrots. Culture Dish will be watching to see what he does with the proposed revisions to the ADA.
In other news, the new semester just started and like a moron, I didn't write a few posts ahead of time to put up during the first week of classes. Â Still figuring out that whole scheduling-posts thing out. Â Getting on it though.
rskloot | January 20, 2009As part of my ongoing follow up to my recent New York Times Magazine story about the use of non-canine service animals and the DOJ's efforts to ban them: I've been saying for a few weeks that the currently proposed species ban might not become law if it wasn't approved before Bush left office. And, well, it turns out that the sweeping DOJ changes to the Americans With Disabilities Act were the only regulations under review by the OMB that weren't approved before Obama was inaugurated as president today ...
What this means for the Americans With Disabilities Act and the proposed species ban…
rskloot | January 17, 2009A quick post as part of my ongoing follow up to my recent New York Times Magazine story about the use of non-canine service animals and the DOJ's efforts to ban them: There's an interesting discussion going on about how limiting service animal species also limits religious freedom ...
In the interesting comments thread of this blog post, a woman named Mona Ramouni explains that she is currently in the process of having a miniature horse trained as her guide because her religious faith makes it so she can't use a guide dog. Here's an excerpt of her comments:
"I am a Muslim, and we believe…
drorzel | January 14, 2009A few years ago, the after-dinner speaker at the DAMOP conference banquet was Presidential Science Advisor John Marburger. As I wrote at the time, I think it's safe to say that he didn't make a positive impression on the audience. It also sparked a rather lively discussion afterwards, that some people speculated was the reason for the veiled threats we got the next year.
The Corporate Masters have just published an exclusive post-election interview with Marburger. I read it with some interest, mostly to see if it would change my impression of him.
I have to say, it didn't. Not only does he…
rskloot | January 9, 2009In a display of stunningly bad timing given all the comments people have been posting here in recent days, the entire ScienceBlogs network will be down from 1pm today until sometime Saturday (or whenever they're done) for a system upgrade. I won't be able to post, and readers won't be able to comment, until the system is back online (alas). If there's some pressing breaking news while this network is down, I'll post it on my old blog here. But I doubt that will happen. Please check back in a day or so to post your comments or, if you simply can't wait, you can email them to me via the…
rskloot | January 8, 2009As part of ongoing follow up on my story in this week's New York Times Magazine, I've been posting about a Department of Justice document leaked to me with the wording of their proposal to ban all non-canine service animals. Yesterday I posted the DOJ's rationale behind the species ban. I've since gotten several emails asking whether the leaked DOJ documents contained language banning the use of psychiatric service animals as well. It doesn't. Here, below the jump, is the DOJ's new proposed service animal definition:
"The Department's final rule defines "service animal" as "any dog that…
rskloot | January 7, 2009Yesterday, as part of ongoing follow up on my story in this week's New York Times Magazine, I posted about a Department of Justice document leaked to me with the wording of their proposal to ban all non-canine service animals. Below the jump, for those interested, I've pasted an excerpt from that proposal, which is not yet public. It outlines the arguments the DOJ heard for and against the species ban during this summer's public hearings, plus the DOJ's responses, and its final ruling on the issue.
Bottom line:
"The Department agrees with commenters' views that limiting the number and…
rskloot | January 6, 2009NEWSFLASH: In this weekend's New York Times Magazine, I reported that the Department of Justice had proposed a ban on guide miniature horses, service monkeys, and other non-canine assistance animals (brief overview of the story and legal issues here, several follow up posts here). In my story, I mentioned that no one knew whether the DOJ had removed the species ban from their proposal after the public hearings this summer.
I just got a leaked version of the latest DOJ regulations, and the agency has in fact made the species ban more restrictive. The DOJ's initial proposal would have…
rskloot | January 6, 2009The first service monkey, Jack the SignalmanI'll be posting a few more follow ups to my recent NY Times Magazine article, Creature Comforts, today and tomorrow (earlier ones here and here). Then, I promise, I'll post about something other than animals. But for now, the history of service monkeys:
The other day a reader pointed me to what must be the first documented service monkey, Jack the Signalman, a baboon that dates back to the 1800s. His story is pretty amazing (thanks, Carter!).
I didn't have room in my article to include as much information as I'd hoped about the history of…
rskloot | January 3, 2009Debby has a restriction on her license that says she can't operate a car without her assistance monkey presentIn the coming days, I'll continue posting follow ups to my story, Creature Comforts, which is running in tomorrow's New York Times Magazine. Since yesterday's follow up post, and my interview on NPR's Day-to-Day, I've gotten many emails from readers with questions. I answered some of them in the comments thread of yesterday's post (which you should check out if you haven't seen it -- fun photos! video footage of Panda the guide horse!). Below I've tackled a few common questions,…
rskloot | January 2, 2009Update: Culture Dish's feed is now live! (Thanks Sb folks!) To subscribe to this blog, just click this link for RSS feed or subscribe to get Culture Dish via email by clicking here. Also: I'll be on NPR's Day-to-Day today talking about Creature Comforts. The show airs at 1pm eastern time. You can listen to it live online here, or anytime after 3pm ET on NPR's site. Stay tuned for more updates.
rskloot | December 31, 2008Skloot interviewing Richard the Assistance MonkeyThe New York Times just posted my latest feature, "Creature Comforts."
I've posted photos, videos and links below, but first, the gist of the story: When people think of service animals, they think guide dogs for the blind. But today it's monkeys for quadriplegia and agoraphobia, guide miniature horses, a goat for muscular dystrophy, parrots for psychosis and any number of animals for anxiety, including cats, ferrets, pigs, at least one iguana and a duck. They've been showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because…
illconsidered | December 5, 2008The following article is a guest post by H. E. Taylor, who you might recognize as the one who graciously provides us with the weekly GW news roundups. Enjoy!
Prospects for Change in Canadian Climate Policy
In short, the prospects are bleak and are likely to be driven from the United States. Let me explain.
Those of you living elsewhere may have noticed during all the Obama razzmatazz that a Canadian election was called in September and held in October. These are the results from Elections Canada.Party MPs Votes Popular VoteBloc Québécois 50 1,379,565 10.0% Conservative 143 5,205,334 37.6…
drorzel | December 5, 2008A few days ago, I complained again about the relative lack of science books in the New York Times "Notable Books of 2008" list. Yesterday, one of the big stories was CNN axing its entire science unit, such as it was, which drew comments from lots of blogs (and more whose links I can't be bothered to track down).
I'm probably the only one who thinks this, but in my opinion, these two are related. I'm not saying one caused the other, but that they're both symptoms of the same thing: the broad lack of respect for science among educated people. (Which I've ranted about before.)
One of the…
illconsidered | September 29, 2008The following article is a guest post by H. E. Taylor, who you might recognize as the one who graciously provides us with the weekly GW news roundups. Enjoy!
The New AgeAn Argument for Geo-engineeringIf you study civilizations of the past which have collapsed [1, 2, 3, 4], a curious fact emerges. Look at Rome, Sumeria, the old kingdom of Egypt, the lowland classic Maya, the Olmec, the Huari Empire of the central Andes, the Chacoan and Hohokam of southwestern America, the Minoans, the Harrapans of the Indus valley, Easter Island. These cultures all had different religions, different economic…
tsmith | September 26, 2008Well, you certainly can't fault Obama for aiming high. Via satellite, Obama announced at yesterday's Clinton Global Initiative forum that he would provide support to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015--a lofty goal, but is it even close to attainable?
Obama provided the basics of his plan here, laying out why he feels this is such an important goal:
Malaria needlessly kills 900,000 people each year. In Africa, a child dies from a mosquito bite every thirty seconds. Beyond this devastating human toll, malaria undermines the economic potential of local economies and overwhelms public…
illconsidered | July 10, 2008Roger Pielke Jr is back at his own teapot, blogging up a tempest or two again. Whether you agree with his points or not, he usually makes for provocative reading and comment threads can be very entertaining and informing. I have not hung around there for quite a while but will pay more attention from now on I think.
Anyway, this post is about his post from last Wednesday, titled "Climate Science and National Interests" - rather more general than its actual subject.
His implicaion would seem to be there is some hypocrisy on the part of the usual climate change activists and the IPCC but not…
tsmith | March 11, 2008 After Karl Rove's appearance here Sunday night, Laurie Garrett's talk on Monday was downright uneventful--despite a talk which included discussion of AIDS, abortion, and welfare, among other things.
Garrett, for anyone who may be unfamiliar, is currently a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. She's the author of The Coming Plague and Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. She's reported on infectious disease and global health for almost 30 years, writing for a variety of publications in addition to her own books. Her talk last night…