Politics
catdynamics | February 27, 2013Sequestration begins on Friday, and this time for real... it is, ironically, Hubble Space Telescope Proposal Deadline Day, but then everyday is a Proposal Day.
I'm guessing that this year the "Hubble Constant" will decrease.
The Agencies are now revealing their plans to deal with sequester.
As you recall the amount is $83 billion from the current fiscal year's budget.
We are almost half way through the current fiscal year.
There is not actually a budget yet for the current fiscal year, the US is operating on a Continuing Resolution through to late March, and if a budget is actually approved,…
catdynamics | February 26, 2013Time magazine just ran an article "Cosmic Fuggedaboudit: Dark Matter May Not Exist At All" - a revisit of the MOND hypothesis.
The story keys off the recent article by Ibata on the Andromeda dwarf galaxies (sub) arXiv pdf, and here is the full ApJ article on arXiv.
Independent of these recent developments, it highlights the continued persistence of the notion that maybe Cold Dark Matter needs to be revisited.
Sean had good discussion of the issues over at Cosmic Variance last year, and recently Kroupa started a blog, the The Dark Matter Crisis, now at scilogs.com/the-dark-matter-crisis/
For…
illconsidered | February 19, 2013This is not directly climate related, but it does pertain to the media and its abject failure to take its responsibilities towards democracy more seriously. Via The Huffington Post, I read these strong words from an angry press towards a secretive Whitehouse Administration:
Speaking on behalf of the White House Correspondents Association, I can say a broad cross section of our members from print, radio, online and TV have today expressed extreme frustration to me about having absolutely no access to the President of the United States this entire weekend. There is a very simple but important…
illconsidered | February 14, 2013So it is about one year ago that Peter Gleick exposed the too-ashamed-to-admit-it donors of the science denialist industry flack Heartland Organization. Michael Tobis has a very comprehensive run-down and analysis of the event over on P3, I recommend it, especially if you need to get up to speed on what I am talking about.
My only comment on the whole morality play aspect of it is that the question "do the ends justify the means" does not have a one size fits all answer. I have always been a bit puzzled by the seemingly unquestioned moral hammer that question gets used as. Clearly we all…
jdupuis | February 4, 2013Jonathan Fetter-Vorm's Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb is a real gem of a graphic novel, yet another stunning exemplar of what is possible with the graphic novel format.
As I've often said, there are basically two kinds of science graphic novels -- those that use the format to illustrate the same content as a textbook would have on the theory that anything illustrated must be more accessible and enjoyable. And those that use the graphic novel format to its fullest, finding a new way to bring science to a mass audience. The latter, of course, if preferable. But I have to…
oracknows | February 3, 2013If I've pointed it out once, I've pointed it out a thousand times. Naturopathy is a cornucopia of almost every quackery you can think of. Be it homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, applied kinesiology, anthroposophical medicine, reflexology, craniosacral therapy, Bowen Technique, and pretty much any other form of unscientific or prescientific medicine that you can imagine, it's hard to think of a single form of pseudoscientific medicine and quackery that naturopathy doesn't embrace or at least tolerate. Indeed, as I've retorted before to apologists for naturopathy who…
pharyngula | February 1, 2013Have you seen Missourie House Bill 291? Wow, it's pushing intelligent design, um, boldly. Like a gibbon that just sat down in a pool of sriracha sauce in a big tub of feces, that kind of "boldly".
It starts by defining evolution in one paragraph, and by evolution we mean just common descent. It says nothing specific about mechanisms or evidence, and is most concerned that evolution denies "operation of any intelligence, supernatural event, God or theistic figure". And then we get 12 paragraphs defining Intelligent Design, which consist mainly of pointing to biological processes and phenomena…
pharyngula | January 31, 2013Oh gob, the stupidity. The latest wave of anti-choice legislation is based on one trivial premise: it's got a heartbeat! You can't kill it if its heart is beating! So stupid bills have been flitting about in the Ohio, Mississippi, Wyoming, Arkansas, and North Dakota legislatures trying to redefine human life as beginning at the instant that a heartbeat can be detected. Here's Wyoming's story, for instance:
About two weeks ago, state Rep. Kendell Kroeker (R) introduced a measure to supersede the medical definition of viability. Current state law says abortions are prohibited after a fetus has…
denialism | January 30, 2013Go by and check out Matt's second response on gun control.
I think this response is a good argument. After all, my arguments are correlative. It is impossible to do randomized controlled trials on whole countries after all.
I would ask a few questions in response to this rebuttal, however. Matt, what do you think about about data that demonstrates, within our own country, higher gun prevalence correlates with higher homicide, independent of other risk factors? Can we really dismiss the potential impact of federal gun laws using local gun laws as an example? Its pretty clear from…
denialism | January 28, 2013I was bewildered by this LA times article over the weekend describing the latest tactic of the DOMA defenders planning to argue before the Supreme Court, that is, that marriage is necessary for heterosexuals only because of the possibility of accidental child bearing.
Marriage should be limited to unions of a man and a woman because they alone can "produce unplanned and unintended offspring," opponents of gay marriage have told the Supreme Court.
By contrast, when same-sex couples decide to have children, "substantial advance planning is required," said Paul D. Clement, a lawyer for House…
denialism | January 17, 2013I was curious to see what kind of defense Matt would put on against my suggestion of additional regulations to address the problem of gun violence and homicide in the US, and I was a bit disappointed to see that the response is largely a "no problem" argument. I had actually come into this debate thinking that both of us at least acknowledge that the US has a problem with gun homicide, but it appears as though I'll have to backtrack a bit. So, starting with the "no problem" argument, I will describe why it is bogus, why the US does have a problem with firearm homicides (I can't believe that…
denialism | January 16, 2013Matt has posted his first response in the gun control debate, expect my rejoinder by Thursday or Friday after we have time to process the President's announcement this morning on gun control.
gregladen | January 15, 2013I was a graduate student in Harvard’s Anthropology Department, which meant I had no funding. I was in the final writing stage of my thesis, and the problem I had was that teaching interesting biological anthropology (which I could do full time if I wanted) was too distracting from the mundane yet mentally challenging task of writing a PhD thesis. So, I got a job as a secretary at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Since I was able to follow instructions and was also not intimidated by Big Scary Professors as most temps were, I quickly rose through the ranks and became Richard…
catdynamics | January 13, 2013astropixie has running update on the Siding Spring Observatory Fire in Warrumbungle National Park in Australia.
PS: Day After the Fire update from astropixie - telescopes mostly ok, astronomy facilities not so much
#ClimateChange
catdynamics | January 10, 2013The James Webb Space Telescope is large, overbudget and in a category of its own.
Literally.
And now stirring over some controversy as the reality of science funding starts smacking scientists in the face.
Last year, as I'm, sure you remember, the JWST funding line was take out of the Astrophysics Division and segregated in its own division, a funding maneuver that has been used before for large overruning projects.
This, incidentally, brutally exposed how tight the space science budgets have been squeezed, partly through overruns, partly through tough little missions hanging on longer than…
gregladen | January 10, 2013We shall not be moved. ..."
Fifty five of us jammed in a bus designed to hold fourty people plus a driver, rolling down Highway 90 from Upstate New York to Chicago. As a teenager (just turned 15), I was thrilled to be going to Chicago to attend the Fight Back Conference, a thinly disguised Communist Party meeting. I was going, in part for Keith, the young African American kid (about 12 years old) who was shot in the back by a state trooper just under a year earlier. Keith was driving a mo-ped down the toll road, on the shoulder, where he shouldn't have been. It appears that he did not…
drorzel | January 5, 2013I started following Chris Stedman on Twitter thanks to a recommendation from Josh Rosenau citing him as someone who promotes atheism without being contemptous of religious people. He was, indeed, a source of religion-and-politics material that I found congenial, and when I noticed he was flogging a forthcoming book, I picked up a copy, which I just got around to reading.
I'm a little hesitant to review this at all here on ScienceBlogs, given past history. I've pretty much completely withdrawn from culture-war blogging, finding it more aggravating than useful, and these days just about the…
esiegel | December 30, 2012"When you're a little kid you're a bit of everything; scientist, philosopher, artist. Sometimes it seems like growing up is giving these things up one at a time." -Kevin Arnold, The Wonder Years
Like many who grew up around the same time I did, The Wonder Years was one of my favorite shows, putting on display much of the awkwardness, anxiety, hope and powerlessness that comes along with being a pre-teen/teenager in this world. And like many, I had a secret crush on Winnie Cooper, played by Danica McKellar. To accompany this post, with a modern twist, here's the Easy Star All-Stars singing…
stoat | December 23, 2012 You recognise the image, no doubt. And before I go any further I should say that both the image and the title are unfair. But they came irresistibly to my mind anyway.
The context is a link and comment I recently posted to facebook, viz:
Andrew Mitchell: the 'toxic' smears aimed at destroying my party and me [Torygraph]
Having the police federation forcing the Tory whip to resign was appalling (I don't much like our politicians, but I'm absolutely opposed to the police getting to choose those they like). But at least there is starting to be some comeback http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/…
gregladen | December 23, 2012I've been lucky. Becoming a secularist and atheist and, to some extent, activist in those areas (though I quickly add my activisms is mostly in other areas) was not to hard. Hey, this very morning Minnesota Atheists had a show on what you do for Christmas and other holidays as a non-believer, and asked for contributions. Even though I was asked directly a few times by the producers, I ended up providing nothing because I've got nothing; What do we do for Christmas? Try to eat the cookies very slowly, unwrap the presents very quickly. It is just not that interesting.
Sure, I get harassed…