Politics
voltagegate | January 15, 2008This is the kind of crap I get in my email:
I blog about ecology therefore I'm one of the morons that watches this sensationalized garbage and considers it a "teaching tool".
pharyngula | January 15, 2008If you've ever wondered how we got from "E pluribus unum" to "In God we trust," there is an explanation. It's all a subversive plot.
drorzel | January 15, 2008Steroid scandals in sports, most particularly baseball, have been dominating sports media for a couple of years now. I thought that there really wasn't anything I could possibly care less about, but the New York Times proved me wrong with an article on steroid use among hip-hop artists.
Actually, the Times story is a report on an investigation by my local paper (I'm so proud), but I read the Times first in the mornings. The Albany Times Union does come through with a handy guide to hip-hop artists accused of using steroids. Look quickly before it goes behind the paywall.
What these stories…
grrlscientist | January 15, 2008tags: empire-building, politics, satire, schoolhouse rock, streaming video
This satire uses the style of "Schoolhouse Rock" to criticize empire-building, especially America's empire building activities. Even though this video has been around for awhile, it is as applicable today as it was when it first came out, unfortunately. [4:17]
oracknows | January 15, 2008Perusing the skeptical medical blogosphere, I came across some rather amusing, but nonetheless informative, videos from the 1950s about medical quackery. There are a number of aspects of these videos that are a bit unsettling to modern viewers, such as the "doctor knows best" paternalism, naïve faith in the AMA and other medical organizations, the utter seriousness, the cheesy reading of lines, and a rah-rah cheerleading for science and technology über alles. On the other hand, as Steve Novella points out, there was a refreshing directness about how the government viewed dubious medical…
evolvingthoughts | January 14, 2008
In an article on the Catholic or otherwise virtues of Harry Potter (didn't we do all this a while back), L'Osservatore Romano has an article claiming that Harry Potter is the wrong kind of hero. Why is that? Not, as you might think, because there are wizards in it - apparently Tolkein is OK. But because
[d]espite several positive values that can be found in the story, at the foundations of this tale is the proposal that of witchcraft as positive, the violent manipulation of things and people thanks to the knowledge of the occult, an advantage of a select few: the ends justify the means…
gregladen | January 14, 2008In this hopeful talk, 2006 TED Prize winner Jehane Noujaim unveils her wish: a global acceptance of diversity, mediated through the power of film. The first step? Getting people to understand each other. In 2003, Noujaim gained access to both sides of the story of the Iraq war for her film Control Room, a dichotomy she illustrates with provocative clips of Al Jazeera journalist Sameer Khader and U.S. press officer Josh Rushing. Noujaim ends by outlining her plans for Pangea Day, an event in which people all over the world can watch the same films at the same time. (Contains strong language.)
gregladen | January 14, 2008In this bracingly honest and funny talk, international security strategist Thomas P.M. Barnett outlines a post-Cold War solution for the foundering US military: Break it in two. He suggests the military re-form into two groups: a Leviathan force, a small group of young and fierce soldiers capable of swift and immediate victories; and an internationally supported network of System Administrators, an older, wiser, more diverse organization that actually has the diplomacy and power it takes to build and maintain peace.
razib | January 14, 2008Ron Bailey at Reason has a long piece where he surveys what the various presidential candidates in regards to their attitudes and beliefs about evolution. He also makes a case for why their beliefs on this topic are important.
drorzel | January 14, 2008Steinn offers an excellent suggestion, after noticing that CNN is soliciting debate questions from random people on the Internet:
Keith over at NASAwatch suggested his reader swamp it with NASA policy questions to try to get one into the actual debate. Scienceblog readers could do the same - send in a lot of good, coherent, concise question on science policy and closely related issues. Lots of questions.
Just do it. Don't talk about it, don't dither.
Pick a question that you think is important and interesting, on science, for this debate, and send it in.
They can still ignore the science…
grrlscientist | January 14, 2008tags: Carnival of Principled Government, blog carnivals
This is a new blog carnival for me, so I am pleased to tell you that the 17th edition of the Carnival of Principled Government is now available for you to read. They included a series of entries that I wrote, along with lots of other stories for you to read.
goodmath | January 14, 2008 After last week's New Hampshire primaries, I've gotten a lot of email requesting my take on the uproar surrounding recounts and voting machines.
For those who haven't heard, there's been some chatter
about cheating in the election. In polls leading up to the election, Barack Obama was
leading by a large margin. But he ended up losing the election to Hillary Clinton by a couple
of percentage points. The argument about fraud centers on the fact that there are two voting
methods used in NH: electronic optical scan machines, and hand-counted paper ballots. In the
districts that used paper…
drorzel | January 14, 2008I've seen a lot of people linking to this exhaustive recounting of Chris Matthews's unhealthy fixation on Hillary Clinton, which leads off with a great quote from this firedoglake post:
I do not care which person is your candidate. I don't care what you think of Hillary Clinton as a potential president. What is being done in the press is akin to a pack of rabid 7th graders trying to haze the nerdy girl in school simply because they can. It has nothing to do with her qualifications -- it has to do with gender, and these lemming pundits think that it's perfectly acceptable because everyone…
clock | January 13, 2008It's rare that an article combines my two interests - in biological clocks and politics. This one does: Circadian rhythms differ for the king and the president:
One is a night owl who likes to do business after midnight. The other is an early-to-bed guy who brags about going to sleep around 9:30 p.m.
Uh-oh.
One of them is King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The other is President Bush.
So what happens when the president comes calling on the king? Call it the battle over bedtime.
What the article fails to mention is that 9pm in Saudi Arabia is NOT 9pm for Bush. He just flew there. His internal…
clock | January 13, 2008...which I totally relate to. Can you guess which candidate they support? If you like one of their signs (e.g., 'Elizabeth For First Lady' one), they have set up a Cafepress store where you can buy them (as well as buttons, stickers and other stuff):
gregladen | January 13, 2008By now you all know about Bill Foster, an outgoing council member in St. Petersburg, Florida, who has very strong creationist leanings. Foster had written a widely cited letter linking Hitler and the Columbine shooters to Darwinism. I thought it would be fair to have the ENTIRE letter written by foster available, rather than allowing this quote mining to go unanswered!
This is a transcription of a PDF file available at the St. Petersburg Times.
The Honorable Nancy N. Bortock, Chairman
All Pinellas County School Boared Members
P.O. Box 2942
Largo, Florida 33779-2942
Re: Evolution…
evolvingthoughts | January 12, 2008
Lawyers shouldn't determine who gets to read what. Religions shouldn't determine who gets to think what. But the worst combination is when religions use lawyers to stop criticism of their actions and beliefs.
Scientology, the money making scam purveyed by the mentally deficient (I can't think of a nicer way to say it), has prevented Andrew Morton's biography of Tom Cruise, the couch and shark jumping actor, from being sold in Australia. This follows similar moves made, by threats of litigation as usual, in the UK.
Now, I don't know whether Morton's biography is a piece of crap or a…
jlynch | January 12, 2008
Just following Razib, Jake, Josh, Bora and Greg (though the latter cheated, trust me).
No surprises here, but your mileage may vary.
razib | January 12, 2008Several other ScienceBloggers have posted their Electoral Compass results. Jake, Josh, Bora and Greg (sort of) have posted there results. Here are mine....