Politics
oracknows | June 29, 2009This is just a brief followup to my post this morning about yesterday's NYT article on cancer research. An excellent discussion of the NYT article can be found here (and is well worth reading in its entirety). In it, Jim Hu did something I should have done, namely check the CRISP database in addition to PubMed. A couple of key points follow about the examples cited in the NYT article.
Regarding Dennis Slamon:
I hate to criticize Dennis Slamon, because the HER2 to Herceptin story is a great one. But the image one gets of his research program being saved by a friend from Revlon while the NCI…
illconsidered | June 29, 2009(The following is offered as an amusing example of how reality sometimes seems to have a sense of homour:)
My wife is from the Czech Republic and was mentioning to me her family's worries about the recent flooding (they are not in immediate danger). I google-news'ed it and went to the first hit, an AP article, that mentioned among the rest of it that there have been several major floods in the last 10 or fifteen years.
She mentioned that Czech never had these kids of events when she was growing up. I mentioned that increased flooding is an expected consequence of climate change in many…
razib | June 29, 2009I don't post much on contemporary politics, mostly because I don't have much value-add, but also because so much of it from the blogosphere is simply a critique of the mainstream press. In fact I think the mainstream press is essential and invaluable in many domains. The current crisis in print journalism is going to cause problems because these organizations serve as primary sources for many webloggers on abstruse or specialized topics. Who do you think puts bread on Carl Zimmer's table?
But, I do believe that almost all "political analysis" and "commentary" in the mainstream media can be,…
oracknows | June 29, 2009A couple of weeks ago, NEWSWEEK science columnist Sharon Begley wrote an article entitled From Bench To Bedside: Academia slows the search for cures. It was a rather poorly argued bit of polemic, backed up only with anecdotes that came across as sour grapes by scientists whose grant proposals the NIH had decided not to fund, and based on many misconceptions she had regarding basic science versus translational research, journal impact factors, and how journals actually determine what they will publish. Not suprisingly, Begley's article caught flak from others, including Mike the Mad Biologist…
grrlscientist | June 28, 2009tags: science, god, religion, creationism, humor, funny, satire, Edward Current, streaming video
In this video, we learn that the know-it-alls who dreamed up the Big Bang and evolution don't know what they're talking about. Edward Current proves this with a few simple science experiments. (ps, sorry about the picture quality. I thought 'white balance' had something to do with banning immigrants.) [5:05]
pontiff | June 26, 2009NSF awards $400K in stimulus funding to study the impact of stimulus funding on science.
Researchers at the University of Virginia get $199,951 to study the impact of stimulus funding on employment in science and engineering fields, while the University of Michigan receives $199,988 to develop a database of the investments in and outcomes of social science projects funded by the ARRA.
But no one is asking the real question. Who will study the impact of funding these two groups on science? Huh?
drorzel | June 26, 2009Chris Mooney has an explanation of the "accommodationist" position that deserves better than to be buried in a Links Dump:
I don't see a need to pry into how each individual is dealing with these complicated and personal matters of constructing a coherent worldview. Rather, from a political and public perspective, I want them all to integrate modern science into that worldview. And, from a civil libertarian perspective, I don't want their religion telling me what to do. (Especially interfering with my access to alcohol on Sundays!)
Insofar as I'm an accommodationist, then, it's not because I…
catdynamics | June 25, 2009Icelander responds to housing and car loan crisis in classical style
for a berserker
from IceNews
and he did it on independence day.
I keep telling you, Iceland is just way ahead of everyone else!
RUV news item
Article in visir.is
ok, here it is in english from icenews
with video
60 something, lost house and car to the bank, had the demolition professionally videotaped, when he faced eviction.
He had also apparently defrauded a family of 10 million ISK on a deal for a pre-fab house.
clearing away the debris,
estimated value was about 50 million ISK.
h/t Iceland Weather Report
sciencepunk | June 25, 2009Today the motion for creating a dedicated committee to oversee science policy across Government was discussed in Parliament. Good news, we're getting it back. The Campaign for Science & Engineering had this to say:
The Campaign for Science & Engineering (CaSE) warmly welcomed the House of Commons' decision to establish the Science and Technology Committee. CaSE lobbied for it to be established following the merger of DIUS and BIS. In today's debate Phil Willis MP commended CaSE's efforts to bring back the Science and Technology Committee.
Commenting Nick Dusic, CaSE's Director, said…
oracknows | June 24, 2009The other day, I came across an update on the Daniel Hauser saga. Specifically, I commented about how he is not only undergoing the chemotherapy ordered by his doctors. As you may recall, Hauser is a 13-year-old boy who, after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and undergoing one round of chemotherapy, refused to undergo any more. His mother supported him, and ultimately a judge had to order Daniel's parents to make sure that he underwent standard therapy for his very curable form of cancer. Daniel's mother Colleen took off with him shortly afterward, rumored to be heading for Tijuana.…
pharyngula | June 24, 2009Some people have asked for a thread to laugh over the latest Republican hypocrite: Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, often considered a likely Republican candidate for president, has been caught with his pants down. He had an affair with an Argentinian mistress, and lied to his staff and public about his prolonged absence, saying he was hiking the Appalachian trail.
I hope it was an awesome six days in Argentina. It's cost him his political career, his marriage, and his credibility. Maybe he and John Edwards should get together and form…
esiegel | June 24, 2009There is a long history of oppression of women on many fronts in our society. Socially, politically, economically, and legally, among others. There are a number of very good bloggers here who often address gender issues, and I'm not typically one of them.
But two things happened to me yesterday that brings up a gender issue that nobody speaks about: a man's rights in an unplanned pregnancy. I reconnected with an old friend on facebook who had knocked up his (much younger) girlfriend a few years ago, and didn't want a kid. She wanted to keep it, putting him in a catch-22. Either he could…
ddobbs | June 24, 2009Nate Silver makes George Will clear:
Will's argument is apparently this: The government does not need to make a profit and will have greater leverage with providers; therefore it will deliver the same service for less money. That's unfair!
Is this really the best argument that one of the most prominent intellectual conservatives can mount against the public option?
Post is a bit longish for tweetish attention spans -- but a great exposure of the real objection to public plans (Congressional conflicts of interest notwithstanding), and of why no real competition exists in the insurance…
aardvarchaeology | June 23, 2009If president Sarkozy really believes that Muslim women are subservient to male members of their families, then he shouldn't try to regulate their clothing. He should draw the full consequences of his beliefs and forbid Muslim women to vote in French elections. If, on the other hand, he believes that these women are autonomous enough to vote independently of their husbands and fathers, then he should let them dress as they please.
Via Mathias Klang.
illconsidered | June 23, 2009James Hansen was arrested today for trespassing at a protest against mountaintop removal coal mining in Coal River Valley, West Virginia.
Today Top Climate Scientist James Hansen and Actress Daryl Hannah were Arrested in Effort to Stop Mountaintop Removal
Also arrested was former Representative Ken Hechler, Michael Brune of Rainforest Action Network, Goldman Winner Judy Bonds and more than a dozen Appalachian residents and allies
Protest on the heels of Obama administration's new policy on the destructive coal mining practice
The question is: does this diminish his scientific integrity or…
drorzel | June 23, 2009Chris Mooney has found new digs, and, revitalized by the more congenial atmosphere, has been taking up the science vs. religion fight again. Yesterday, he had a post asking what can be done to get moderate scientists more involved in the argument over whether science and religion can coexist:
At the same time, though, let's face it-in the science blogosphere, we don't hear a lot from the "silent majority." Rather, and admittedly with some important exceptions, we hear from the New Atheists.
Yet I am arguing on behalf of the silent majority, and that is what keeps me going. So my question is…
ejohnson | June 23, 2009
As the field of health care changes, so do its most staid institutions. Since its reorganization in 1900, the American Medical Association (AMA) served as a body of powerful political influence during the 20th century. But as Revere of Effect Measure and Joseph of The Corpus Callosum explain, membership in the AMA began declining with the advent of Medicare and corporate health care--its pull with legislators became less relevant to practicing physicians. Now, the AMA has released a statement of opposition to the public health care option in President Obama's health care reform plan, leading…
ddobbs | June 23, 2009
I can't claim to be 'objective' or neutral on health-care reform -- but who can? Everybody needs health care, some more than others. I need it less than most, as my family and I are, knock on wood, generally blessed with good health. Even so, we laid out $18K last year for health care, still owe money -- and no one in the family ever entered an ER, got a scan, received a prescription costing more than $100, or got admitted to a hospital. And we're among the lucky ones who can (supposedly) afford insurance. (We pay $10K for a plan with a $5K deductible.) This is one of several reasons I'm…
choofnagle | June 22, 2009David Rivkin and Lee Casey consider this question in today's Journal, explaining that the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence limits the government's power to unduly burden choices about healthcare:
It is, of course, difficult to imagine choices more "central to personal dignity and autonomy" than measures to be taken for the prevention and treatment of disease -- measures that may be essential to preserve or extend life itself. Indeed, when the overwhelming moral issues that surround the abortion question are stripped away, what is left is a medical procedure determined to be "necessary"…
gregladen | June 22, 2009Republican Congressperson Dan Burton calls for a Plexiglas shield to be built over the congressional chamber to protect the congresspeople from attack. This is the same guy who carried out the famous and embarrassing reconstruction of Vince Foster's suicide:
Burton gained attention for re-enacting the alleged crime in his backyard with his own pistol and a pumpkin standing in for Foster's head. After hearings into Democratic fundraising (see section below) began, a Democratic National Committee staffer appeared in a pumpkin suit with a button that read, "Don't shoot."
wikipedia