Politics
catdynamics | July 1, 2010The office of the Vice President for Research at the Pennsylvania State University has released the conclusions of its inquiry into the "climategate" allegations against Prof. Michael Mann.
After a cracker broke into the e-mail archives at the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University, a prolonged and creative controversy broke out across the media and the blogosphere.
After substantial, and in some cases highly inappropriate, external pressure, Penn State promptly reviewed the issue. The VP for Research synthesized the claimed allegations into four formal charges of possible…
stoat | June 30, 2010More kinjy stuff :-).
Mostly Iraq inquiry publishes legal advice to Blair on war and in particular 30.07.02 Goldsmith advice to Prime Minister re: Iraq.
Hugo regrets that the prevalence of electronic instruments may prevent adequate supplies of piano wire being available. But that is an extreme position.
In case my headline confuses you: yes I think the release is a good idea.
drorzel | June 30, 2010The kerfuffle of the moment in the science blogosphere once again relates to Chris Mooney, who is pretty much a kerfuffle looking for a place to happen at this point. This time around it centers around a Washington Post op-ed that is basically the executive summary of a American Academy of Arts and Sciences paper that is itself the executive summary version of a series of four workshops on science and the public. You can get a reasonable sense of the kerfuffle from the links in Chris's responses to the responses.
I'm currently making one of my intermittent attempts to be a better person--…
j7uy5 | June 30, 2010From Media Matters:
It is difficult to understand how so many errors could be crammed into
one simple chart, merely by accident. It is even harder to
understand how the artist could end up with a straight line, after
incorporating numerous errors, unless it was an done with the intention
of being misleading.
First, (problem #1) the Y-axis does not start at zero. That is a
fairly
common error. Sometimes it is done innocently, and a notice is
posted. For example, "Y-axis does not start at zero, to better
show the change," or something like that. OK. That's minor.
The Fed does the same…
pharyngula | June 30, 2010Ah, the funny cartoon yesterday rankled the libertarian contingent again. I'll explain a few things that will get them fired up even more.
Get over yourselves. Mocking libertarians does not bring me a swarm of traffic -- you're like a tiny swarm of self-important rodents who will natter on endlessly in protest, but most normal people laugh once, shrug, and move on. The major traffic-getter on my site yesterday was a post inviting women to express themselves. If all I cared about was sucking in clicks, I'd do that more often; women matter, libertarians are a negligible blip.
The funniest…
gregladen | June 29, 2010Coleman Steps Aside: Franken is Senator
Let us not forget, Coleman was an absolute jerk during the whole process. And,he was a sucky senator. Subsequent to Franken's establishment in office, he has proven himself equal to the best. Indeed, his lack of experience in elected office in general and the senate in particular is rather hard to detect.
gregladen | June 29, 2010I heard a white male blogger said something, or failed to say something, or whatever. So, let's pile on and verbally pound him for a while! Because, you know, there is nothing worse going on in the world when it comes to buying and selling (with money or votes) women's freedoms!!!
Or is there?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
pharyngula | June 29, 2010You knew it was too good to be true. Julia Gillard has just announced that she is against gay marriage. The honeymoon is over, no more plaudits. At least we still have Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir to admire.
And because it's Gillard, there's a poll. Are Australians always this internet-poll crazy?
Do you agree with the PM?
Yes
28%
No
72%
pharyngula | June 29, 2010The godless Australian PM, Julia Gillard, has sure riled up the pollsters. Here's three polls at once to slam. Start clicking!
Do you care at all about Julia Gillard's lack of religious faith?
* Yes 33.71%
* No 66.29%
Hey, what's the difference between "No" and "Don't care" in this poll? And what does it mean that it will affect their vote? This is a remarkably meaningless and uninterpretable poll.
Will your vote be swayed by Julia Gillard's stance on religion?
* Yes, it will affect my vote 29.35%
* No, I'll still vote the same 45.21%
* Don't care 25.45%
This one is the…
clock | June 29, 2010Last week I went to Philadelphia to a very interesting meeting - a Social Media Summit on Immunization. Sponsored by Immunization Action Coalition, this was a second annual meeting for health-care non-profits, organized (amazingly well, with great attention to detail) by Lisa Randall (and, I am sure, a small army of helpers).
Over a day and a half of the meeting there were two simultaneous sessions at each time slot, but I did not have much opportunity to ponder my choices as I was at the front of the room at three sessions, and participated actively in several others. The style was very '…
clock | June 28, 2010Yesterday, Chris Mooney published an article in Washington Post, If scientists want to educate the public, they should start by listening. It has already received many comments on the site, as well as on Chris' blog posts here and here and here. It will be followed by a longer paper tomorrow, at which time this link will work and you will be able to read it.
The blogosphere has not remained silent, either, with responses by, among others, Orac, Pal MD, Evil Monkey, Isis and P.Z.Myers. Most of them, as I do, agree with the article about 3/4 through, and are, as I am, disappointed in the…
oracknows | June 28, 2010I really hate this.
I really hate having to take a friend to task, but he leaves me little choice. You see, I actually like Chris Mooney. Back in the day, I even even hoisted a pint with him at the Toledo Lounge in D.C., round about the time of the commencement of the whole "framing" kerfuffle that has periodically flared up to engulf ScienceBlogs and the rest of the science blogosphere. We had great fun making fun of everyone's favorite creationist neurosurgeon, particularly his claim that the "design inference" has been "of great value" to medicine and has been a great boon to medical…
catdynamics | June 28, 2010This is what can be done when the political will to do so is there
Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope
100x110m fully steerable, off-axis, active surface radio telescope.
Very nice, very productive.
drorzel | June 28, 2010Josh Rosenau makes an excellent and important point regarding prayer meetings and the Gulf oil spill: that the point is not so much that God will stop the oil gushing into the Gulf, but that religious groups are a key community organization point for getting people together to work on the problem. He puts this into a larger context toward the end of the post, saying things I've said myself numerous times:
Most people attend church for a lot of reasons, and many of those reasons are self-reinforcing. Someone who goes to church with no particular views on theism (pro, con, or agnostic) could…
eklemetti | June 28, 2010News!
The summit crater lake at Gorely in Russia, taken on June 21, 2010. Image courtesy of KVERT.
Eruptions readers have been abuzz about how KVERT will be closing shop (yet again) at the end of June. This would, of course, leave no local monitoring and expertise in the very active Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands in Russia. Right now Shiveluch and Gorely are both showing signs of increased eruption (along with other volcanoes in the arc). In fact, Gorely, which hasn't erupted since 1986, looks primed to have an eruption, with increased tremors, steam-and-gas emissions and a new…
aardvarchaeology | June 28, 2010Californian Roy Zimmerman is a satirical singer in the vein of Tom Lehrer (who endorses him). He recently released his seventh solo album, Real American, and I'm happy to say that Zimmerman has lost none of the brilliance us fans have come to expect.
The disc has 13 tracks of which 3 are spoken political comedy. My favourite is the live-recorded boogie tune "Socialist!", which recalls "I'll Pull Out" from Zimmerman's previous album. It's sung in the voice of a hillbilly Republican who sneers at all the socialists in the audience. They've driven to the gig on public streets, gone to public…
pharyngula | June 28, 2010It's a tiny little island nation in the Indian Ocean, and it sounds like an interesting place. Unfortunately, the people there make it a hellhole.
In the Muslim-majority nation of Maldives, a man stunned an audience during questions and answers period in a lecture given by an Islamic cleric, by stating that he had chosen freedom of conscience not to follow Islam. The man, Mohamed Nazim, was promptly attacked, taken into custody, and has been threatened with death and beheading, or other punishments for choosing his freedom of conscience. Maldives media are reporting that it is the first…
j7uy5 | June 28, 2010Sharron Angle
has said some pretty obtuse things before, but for the most part, I've
resisted the temptation to comment. But
href="http://bigthink.com/ideas/20647">this one is a gem:
The 16-page flier, available
href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/sharron-angles-independent-american-party-anti-gay-flier.php">at
TPMM, accuses gay people (aka "sodomites", "perverts") of
everything from child molestation, to serial murder, to debasing
rodeos, to contaminating the water supply by exuding HIV. Blood libel,
or urine libel, as the case may be.
I don't care about the water…
gregladen | June 26, 2010It is hard to prove, but the evidence certainly leads in that direction.
The former Bachmann campaign official in question is Luke Hellier, previously featured on Quiche Morain here. There is no doubt whatsoever that Hellier's commentary on the Minnesota Democrats Exposed blog, regarding editing of Jim Meffert's Wikipedia entry was dishonest. I had not mentioned this in my earlier post at QM, but Ed Kohler of The Deets clearly and painstakingly documents that Hellier "quote mined" the Wikipedia change log to make it look like a Meffert volunteer was acting inappropriately. It turns out…
grrlscientist | June 26, 2010tags: FuÃball, sports, soccer, futbol, World Cup Soccer, South Africa, FIFA, humor, funny, television, The Daily Show, streaming video
This video explores the local South African opinions about the World Cup -- in one scene, the reporter asks: "What's more African than the subjugation of black people?"
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
World Cup 2010: Into Africa - Goal Diggers
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes
Political Humor
Tea Party