Politics
ddobbs | April 24, 2009
via Nicholson cartoons
Veteran, author, and blogger Kelly Williams, who was there, ponders what torture does to the torturers:
There have been lots of questions raised -- about the history and effectiveness of these techniques, the impact on those tortured, the larger foreign policy implications -- all of which are important considerations. There is, however, one aspect of the conversation that I believe has been neglected: What does this do to those committing the acts?
[snip]
Some of those who participated in the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment (please check out that site -- it is totally…
oracknows | April 23, 2009Better late than never, given that DrugMonkey has already been all over this. Unfortunately, there was another serious outbreak of antivaccine idiocy over at HuffPo that I felt I had to deal with before this:
Embedded video from CNN Video
It was a great day indeed. For far too long, animal rights terrorists have intimidated reesarchers into silence. According to the L.A. Times:
Competing rallies at UCLA today over the controversial issue of animal research are peaceful so far, with supporters of the research appearing to outnumber opponents by more than 10 to 1.
About 400 people,…
clock | April 23, 2009So they say.
I guess even the government is not interested in saving the newspaper business....eh!
Q1: why did they subscribe every employee? Couldn't they buy one copy and put it in the waiting room at the reception desk, or at the water cooler, or in the dining hall? Or, well, they could have come up with some kind of a video-rental store, but for books/newspapers/magazines. Oh, wait!
Q2: why don't they introduce this brand new technology to all their employees? It is called a computer and it can be used to get into a set of tubes called the Internet, where one can go on something called…
sa smith | April 23, 2009That was close.
HB 1326, aka 'Politicians against baby murder and for hot pancakes' was vetoed by Gov. Henry last night. This morning the House voted to override the veto 68-26... But the override only got 26 votes in the Senate. They needed 32.
So us evil Nazi scientists can officially "KILL TEH BAAAAABBYS!" in OK, and I wont be getting a misdemeanor for infanticide this year.
*sad*
However the Christbots in OK are now having seizures, which has cheered me up immensely.
Lisa Billy is concerned that scientists are now going to roam dark alleys, preying on 'poor minority women' to get their…
palmd | April 23, 2009I'm no expert on interrogation. From what I've read, most of these experts find torture to be a modality with minimal utility, but I'm sure there are those who want to keep it around. My personal opinion is that it is horridly immoral, and rather difficult to justify. The "ticking bomb" scenario is vanishingly rare, and I'm sure out in the field, certain things are done from time to time without government approval. It is important to separate what the government overlooks, and what the government explicitly endorses. Still, these are issues for someone else.
What bothers me is all this…
gregladen | April 23, 2009Al Franken is about to be seated as the Junior Senator from Minnesota after a long and costly battle between loser Norm Coleman and Senator Franken. Al won the election by just a few hundred votes, and three of those votes are mine.
So, we have me and about 100 other people just like me to thank for overthrowing the Coleman Regime. Let this be a lesson to all of you who have the opportunity to vote and do not, or who have the opportunity to go out and work for a few hours for a candidate but do not. You are missing out.
How did I get three (or maybe more) votes for Al? Well, one of them…
jrosenhouse | April 23, 2009Browsing through S. T. Joshi's book Atheism: A Reader (Prometheus Books, 2000) I came across an excerpt from H. L. Mencken's writing from the Scopes' trial. It contained the following quote:
Once more, alas, I find myself unable to follow the best Liberal thought. What the World's contention amounts to, at bottom, is simply the doctrine that a man engaged in combat with superstition should be very polite to superstition. This, I fear, is nonsense. The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever…
amillikan | April 23, 2009
Hundreds of research supporters rallied on UCLA's campus Wednesday to protest acts of terrorism directed at scientists by animal rights activists. The event, organized by the UCLA chapter of Pro-Test, a group founded in Oxford, England to support animal testing for the pursuit of science, drew an estimated 800 people to the rally. A simultaneous anti-research rally only drew about 30 people. For continued discussion on the rally, ScienceBlogger DrugMonkey has an open discussion thread on his blog.
Related ScienceBlogs Posts:
Scientists and Supporters Rally Against Animal Rights Extremism at…
aardvarchaeology | April 23, 2009As a scholar working in an abstruse subject I live a life largely divorced from what concerns most people. We have no newspaper subscription. I really don't have much of a clue. But I am aware of the poor state of the world economy. Now, how has it affected me so far?
The only effect of the financial crisis on my life that I am aware of is that the mortgage my wife and I took out in December is absurdly cheap. We currently pay less per month to live in a 114 sqm house than we did last year to live in a 80 sqm apartment.
In the long run, it seems the crisis will have both good and bad effects…
ddobbs | April 22, 2009
As the comments and correspondence about my PTSD story and posts accrue, I've been pondering ways to pull out some of the most interesting, powerful, and affecting. I finally decided to just start posting some, sometimes with commentary, sometimes without. This is a story of many different colors and textures.
I'll start with this excerpt from a long, eloquent blog response to my story about PTSD at Scientific American by Kayla Williams, a vet of the Iraq War who blogs at VetVoice. Williams is accumulating quite a strong run of posts there, including posts on torture, being a woman veteran…
sa smith | April 22, 2009Poor Brad Henry.
Oklahomas Democratic governor.
Fairly rational dude, always willing to go to bat for the scientific community in this state.
Tonight he is vetoing the 'UR KILLIN TEH BABBYS!' bill, which would make stem-cell research illegal in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, the House/Senate have the votes to override his veto, effectively making OK scientists who win federally approved and funded grants (or privately donated $$) criminals.
Plus side: According to this 'BABBYS! WONT SOMEONE TINK OF TEH BABBYS!' bill, stem-cell research will only be a misdemeanor.
A misdemeanor.
For 'KILLEN BABBYS…
pontiff | April 22, 2009Okay, well he didn't exactly say that, but he certainly is a smug son of a gun who asked a grade school question to a Nobel prize winner in physics, apparently expecting a "gotcha" moment (via TPM):
Dudes even so proud of himself that he (or his staff) posted this video on his YouTube page.
BEDEVERE: Exactly. So, logically...
VILLAGER #1: If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,... she's made of wood.
BEDEVERE: And therefore?
VILLAGER #2: A witch!
Then again, what should you expect for someone who produced this:
Wind is God's way of balancing heat. Wind is the way you shift heat from areas…
gregladen | April 22, 2009Norm Coleman has requested a more "leisurely" (as the Star Tribune calls it) schedule for his recount appeal. What is more leisurely? The Coleman team would like oral arguments to begin no sooner than mid-May, and easily later than that.
source
Clearly, the hypothesis that Norm Coleman is simply playing a delaying game stands, still, unrejected.
catdynamics | April 22, 2009Official, from IMF...
global economic prospects suck
IMF report: Global Prospects and Policies (pdf large)
they predict economic growth in the US in the second half of 2010...
IF good policies for recovery are implemented, and recovery in first half of 2011 if poor policies are implemented
hmmm...
recovery in the third half of next year!
oil prices are projected somewhere between $20 and $160 per barrel.
That is what we call confident economic forecasting!
Forward Looking Cliff Diving (click to embiggen)
h/t CR of course
tqa | April 22, 2009
Unless you've been asleep for the last couple of days, you've probably heard that our government apparently wiretapped a member of Congress a few years back. According to the reports, the National Security Agency captured Representative Jane Harman (D-CA) engaging in a quid-pro-quo agreement with a pro-Israeli lobbyist where Harman would try to get the government to go easy on some accused Israeli spies, while the lobbyist would work to get Harman appointed to chair the Intelligence Committee.
Harman has vigorously denied the reports, and there's been a great deal of speculation about the…
pharyngula | April 22, 2009This is an old, tired joke that has just been posted on the site of a right-wing moron's radio show. I have heard it quite a few times before, usually by smug nitwits who think they've delivered a knock-out themselves.
A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU.
One day the professor shocked the class when he came in, looked to the ceiling, and flatly stated, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this…
clock | April 21, 2009The UCLA Pro-Test is tomorrow. If you live there - go. If not, prepare yourself for inevitable discussions - online and offline - by getting informed. And my fellow science bloggers have certainly provided plenty of food for thought on the issue of use of animals in research.
First, you have to read Janet Stemwedel's ongoing series (5 parts so far, but more are coming) about the potential for dialogue between the two (or more) sides:
Impediments to dialogue about animal research (part 1).:
Now, maybe it's the case that everyone who cares at all has staked out a position on the use of animals…
amillikan | April 21, 2009
Following through with President Obama's executive order issued March 9, Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells (link to PDF), the NIH has released a draft of guidelines revising the NIH's position on how it may fund "responsible, scientifically worthy human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cell research." The funding only extends to human embryonic stem cells derived from embryos created in excess at fertility clinics. ScienceBlogger Nick Anthis from The Scientific Activist views the creation of these guidelines as a "significant…
gregladen | April 21, 2009The Star Tribune reports that Norm Coleman has filed an appeal with the Minnesota Supreme Court. He did so late Monday. I believe this is nine days after the lower judicial panel's decision, which places this appeal just under the deadline. Clearly, Coleman has a strategy in mind that has little to do with the advancement of Democracy or the representation of Minnesotans. He should be ashamed of himself. But he appears to lack that emotion. Perhaps he was knocked on the head as a kid or something.
catdynamics | April 20, 2009guy in Bergen NorwayNew Jersey claims to have leaked results of the stress tests for the top 19 US banks
it is curious, scary if true
I am not vouching for this site, just pointing
that will teach me to do quick posts late at night, eh...?