Politics
pharyngula | March 5, 2006Josh Rosenau managed to get a few words with Barack Obama. He only had five minutes, but it's interesting stuff—it's too bad there wasn't time for some questions about science or science policy!
tsmith | March 5, 2006Lest those who support the vaccine-autism link accuse me of ignoring this by not jumping on it immediately, I want to briefly point out a new study suggesting autism rates decline as thimerosal has been removed from childhood vaccines. From the press release:
A new study shows that autism may be linked after all to the use of mercury in childhood vaccines, despite government's previous claims to the contrary.
An article in the March 10, 2006 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPandS.org) shows that since mercury was removed from childhood vaccines, the alarming…
drorzel | March 3, 2006Via Matt McIrvin (whose earlier entry on "Nerd Bravado" is also a must-read), the best explanation I've heard so far of the whole "Why are there so few women in scinece?" debate: they got better jobs:
One of my students, we'll call him Bill, in an introductory computer science class said that he wanted to be a biologist when he grew up. What biologists had Bill met? They were all professors at MIT and about half of them had won the Nobel Prize. This is hardly an average sample of people who went to Biology graduate school! Fortunately, Bill was a tall good-looking fellow. He managed to score…
drorzel | March 2, 2006Dennis Overbye writes about popular NASA programs being delayed or cut in order to fund the Moon-and-Mars initiative and support the Space Shuttle/ ISS. Predictably, people who care about actual science are somewhat dismayed-- Gordon Watts serves as a nice example.
Fellow ScienceBlogger Chris Mooney has carved himself out a nice little niche writing about the Republican War on Science, and it would be really nice to be able to lump the warping of NASA in with that. You could even make a decent case, without having to swing too far into tinfoil-hat territory-- some of the missions that are…
pharyngula | March 2, 2006Never mind me, I'm running around with classes and meetings today…here are a few quick links.
The 29th Skeptics' Circle.
The Tildification of Norwegianity.
The Terry Writing Challenge—there's real money involved.
An in-depth interview with PZ Myers.
I and the Bird.
Intelligent Design subverts itself.
An example of the research promise of ID.
Don't trust the NIH.
The Carnival of the Liberals.
pharyngula | March 2, 2006Robert F. Kennedy Jr, what the hell is wrong with you?
I also refuse to pay any attention to the ghastly Huffington Post—it's an example of the worst excesses of left-wing credulity, as represented by that fraud and quack, Deepak Chopra.
pharyngula | March 2, 2006And it's caught on tape. He was briefed the day before Katrina hit, heard Brown say this was "the big one", that it was a bigger threat than Hurricane Andrew was, that there was great risk of loss of life, and that the topping of the levees was of great concern, and then would say with a straight face several days later that he didn't think anyone anticipated the breech of the levees. He assured everyone that they were fully prepared to deal with the disaster.
Liar.
That's our president: a useless, worthless lump who declaims platitudes in response to dire warnings, does nothing, and lies…
pharyngula | March 1, 2006Afghanistan doesn't look pretty, and this cuts awful close to home for a teacher.
Teachers are the main targets. Some have been beheaded, others shot in front of their classes.
The years of fighting the Russians, the subsequent civil war and Taleban rule has produced a "lost generation" in education. International agencies and aid organisations speak of their difficulties in finding qualified people to run projects.
Now another lost generation is being created. The education system of modern Afghanistan is anathema to the Taleban and Islamist extremists because it is inclusive of girls, and…
stcynic | March 1, 2006Yet another study that demonstrates the rank ignorance of the average American when it comes to important matters:
Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half can name at least two members of the cartoon family, according to a survey.
The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five…
pharyngula | March 1, 2006Powerline. Round about these parts, that name is pretty much a synonym for stupid, and I see they're doing a good job of maintaining their reputation. You'd think they'd learn that whenever they step into the domain of science, their level of ignorance is even more palpably apparent than usual.
Their latest embarrassment was prompted by an egregiously idiotic article from Michael Fumento, which catalogs an error-filled collection of so-called biases in science. The assrocket's conclusion?
The moral of the story is that the leading scientific journals have been taken over by liberals who value…
drorzel | February 28, 2006Leonard Pitts has the scoop:
Allow me to share with you an epiphany. I think Fred Phelps is gay.
Not that I'd have any way to know for sure, and not that there's anything wrong with that. But it seems obvious to me that Freddie has spent a little time up on Brokeback Mountain, if you catch my drift. I'm thinking he's secretly into show tunes, interior decorating and man-sized love.
Via Grim Amusements
(Ordinarily, I wouldn't bother passing on this sort of cheap shot, but Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps is such a miserable piece of filth, I'll make an exception.)
stcynic | February 28, 2006As the old song from The Wiz says - you can't win, you can't break even, you can't get out of the game. Via Radley Balko comes this libertarian joke:
Three guys are in a jail cell. They start to talking and find out that they're all gas station owners.
The first one says, "I set my prices at a couple of cents higher than my competitors. I'm in here for price-gouging."
The second one says "I set my prices at a couple of cents lower than my competitors. I'm in here for predatory practices."
The third one says "I set my prices at the same price as my competitors. I'm in here for collusion!"
And…
grrlscientist | February 28, 2006
The 23rd Qualm
Written by a retired minister,
sent to me by a reader.
Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me down paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war,
I will find no exit, for thou art in office.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control,
they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion.
Thou anointest my head with foreign oil.
My health…
pharyngula | February 28, 2006
Followers of that hateful lunatic, Fred Phelps, have been making the news for picketing military funerals in Minnesota. Apparently, because the US tolerates (sorta) homosexuality, they feel that they should hit up random funerals and cuss out the dead for dying for homosexuality. Now our state legislators are considering laws to block that kind of behavior, because it "flies in the face of Minnesota values." The values they're talking about aren't tolerance, though, but simply an opposition to meddling with the military.
Eva makes a very good point: the Republican leadership in this state…
oracknows | February 28, 2006While driving into work this morning, I was a bit disturbed to hear a news report about a speech New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg gave yesterday to a group of dockworkers in Newark who were protesting the proposed takeover of several U.S. ports by a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. Quoth the Senator (parts from my memory and part from this account):
Don't let them tell you that this is just a matter of transfering the title. That's baloney. We wouldn't transfer the title to the Devil, and we're not going to transfer it to Dubai.
The workers erupted in applause at this line.
The…
drorzel | February 27, 2006John Zogby, of the Zogby polling agency gave a talk on campus earlier tonight. I have to say, having heard him speak, that whoever came up with the word "wonk" probably had somebody like Zogby in mind-- he had poll numbers for absolutely everything he talked about, and for every single question he was asked afterwards. I spent a few minutes trying to think of a question that he wouldn't be able to answer with "I did some polling on that...," but didn't come up with anything.
He did have a couple of interesting comments, though, that I'll reproduce here for anyone who's interested:
The one…
pharyngula | February 27, 2006We shouldn't be surprised when the Bush administration jiggers the scientific books:
In short, Oregon State University scientists reported in Science magazine that some logging practices may contribute to forest fires, rather than curbing them as conventional wisdom leads us to believe. The report ran contrary to current federal policy under the Bush administration, and the funding for the research group was suspended.
When reality conflicts with your ideology, it must be reality that's in error.
stcynic | February 27, 2006Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, has an op-ed piece in the NY Times addressing concerns about the takeover of American ports by a UAE-owned company. It's not exactly comforting:
While the United Arab Emirates is deemed by the Bush administration to be an ally in the war on terrorism, we should all have deep concerns about its links to terrorists. Two of the 9/11 hijackers were citizens of the emirates, and some of the money for the attacks came from there. It was one of only three countries in the world that recognized the Taliban regime. And…
grrlscientist | February 26, 2006
Like most Americans, I was losing sleep because I realized that Dick Cheney was roaming the countryside, fully armed and seething with rage while inebriated, with the single-minded goal of murdering innocent domestic quail and guilty lawyers. But then a friend sent me to the Quail Hunting School. This is the same hunting school that Dick Cheney graduated from. The specific advantage of this particular hunting school is it teaches hunters how to do their dirty deeds under real life circumstances instead of under the utopian conditions of hunting while sober.