Politics/Policy
neurotopia | June 27, 2010Chris Mooney- a man with his heart in the right place and absolutely no idea what do do after that. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy. He's a force for good when dissecting a scientific issue for the public. But Mooney has been trucking out this same "communication" bullshit for a few years now. As usual, nothing much is offered other than "listen to them". I agree, communication is important, and scientists need to listen as much as talk. Ok..... then what? If, as he says, so many people only consider science as a small part of forming their opinions, what makes him think that they'…
neurotopia | September 25, 2008Some people have been noticing erratic behavior from republican nominee John McCain lately. His most recent seems to be slight, but rather odd. Specifically, he appears to have developed ptosis--- a drooping eyelid--- which could of course be related to any number of causes, from an autoimmune attack on cholinergic receptors such as that seen in myasthenia gravis, to diabetes.
Ptosis can also be the result of a brain tumor that affects the oculomotor nerve (cranial nerve III). Sudden development of the condition at old age following multiple bouts of melanoma (which has a penchant for…
neurotopia | September 9, 2008This is one of those things I simply can't fathom. How does a woman pretend to be pro-women and then charge other women for basic forensic services following a rape?
She justifies it as necessary to cut taxes. Which begs the question: how much of a tax burden did sex crimes place on the town of Wasilla?
If your answer is "not much", I simply can't understand how this basic service now becomes the responsibility of the victim, who has to rebuild her life after a traumatic event. (Unless you're one of them thar self-loathin' wimmen who blames the victim, but that's another can 'o' worms…
neurotopia | September 3, 2008McCain is bitching about supposed sexism from Democrats when this is what is being worn by Indiana delegates at the RNC?
What a bunch of bullshit.
By the way, ignore my previous post. That was IRONY, dammit :)
neurotopia | September 3, 2008This is so many degrees of wrong. Start your "so this is how Palin got the job" jokes if you want, but please remember that HER DAUGHTER IS IN THE FREAKIN' PICTURE TOO YOU SICK BASTARDS.
neurotopia | February 21, 2008Abel broke the news on Scienceblogs, where he's been following the events at UCLA for a while now, and Orac has the details on why it matters. UCLA has taken the initiative to protect its researchers and hopefully kicked off a nationwide-- or maybe even global-- campaign to protect scientists and the public from the idiocy of animal rights extremists. Consider this a legal "counter offensive" on behalf of academia, if you will.
Personally, I'm happy as a pig in it's own feces. It's time somebody stood up to these so-called animal rights activists who can't seem to comprehend that people…
neurotopia | February 21, 2008Looks like the Straight Talk Express took a detour through Dependswhatyoumeanby"is"ville.
From the NYT:
Mr. Black said Mr. McCain and Ms. Iseman were friends and nothing more. But in 1999 she began showing up so frequently in his offices and at campaign events that staff members took notice. One recalled asking, "Why is she always around?"
That February, Mr. McCain and Ms. Iseman attended a small fund-raising dinner with several clients at the Miami-area home of a cruise-line executive and then flew back to Washington along with a campaign aide on the corporate jet of one of her clients,…
neurotopia | January 3, 2008I make no secret that I'm pretty liberal, which means I don't generally support the Democrats (especially after spending 8 years as a NC/VA resident, since they ain't always that liberal in those parts). This year I find myself musing over what would be best for the Dems; currently, with about 1/3 of precincts reporting in, the Edwards/Hillary/Obama trio are all receiving about the same support, with the former two around 31% and Obama with a slight edge at 34% or so.
Edwards has always impressed me. I like his populist progressive message after the last 8 years, and I do think it would…
neurotopia | December 6, 2007Intelligent Design is a career-killer. There's just no two ways about it. And not because of how peers treat the ID supporter; they throw their own productivity under the bus, to use Casey Luskin's overworked cliche. We saw the same thing with Behe and Dembski. Behe has published ONE peer-reviewed paper in the last decade-ish. And Dembski... well, does anybody even know where he works these days?
All hyperbole aside, let's look at Gonzalez's publication track record while we keep in mind that tenure committees consider work that comes in after one joins the university to be of prime…
neurotopia | December 5, 2007Phil over at Bad Astronomy has it a bit backwards, but hey it's not his fault. He didn't have to sit through that nightmare of a press conference.
I still stick by my own conclusion too, that by trying to say that Gonzalez's religious freedom has been curtailed, they are admitting ID is religion and not science, which they vehemently denied with the Dover case. I think if this comes to court, that'll be a fun issue to grill them about.
From the press conference, the DI is clearly trying to distance religion from ID. The subject never really came up until a reporter asked about it. Even a…
neurotopia | December 4, 2007Yesterday the Discovery Institute held a press conference at the capitol building in Des Moines, to announce Guillermo Gonzalez's plans to sue Iowa State University over their decision to deny him tenure. Supposedly the lawsuit will be filed pending the rejection of an appeal to the Board of Regents, which is virtually guaranteed simply for the fact that the Regents typically uphold tenure decisions. Joining Casey Luskin, Rob Crowther, Gonzalez's attorneys, and a few other DI folk was state Senator David Hartsuch (R-District 41).
The core of the DI's assertion is that there were "secret…
neurotopia | November 14, 2007Here we see the consequences of social promotion; no, not the practice of advancing students who haven't demonstrated competency in their subject matter, but of inappropriately advancing a concept that hasn't attained scientific credibility.
When said concept, in this case Intelligent Design, is shown to be scientifically vacuous, we send it back to the drawing board. We don't push it along into textbooks and classrooms.
"All of us are smarter than one of us," Hamm said.
In the case of a schoolboard filled with creationists, clearly this does not hold.
neurotopia | September 7, 2007...but for those who suffer from it, "in your head" can be more debilitating than other chronic, painful illnesses. A massive WHO survey study of 60 countries reported that 3.2% of people had depression over the course of a year. Interestingly, though...
This was a bit lower than for asthma (3.3 percent), arthritis (4.1 percent), and angina (4.5 percent), and higher than for diabetes (2.0 percent.)
But the results of a quality-of-life index called the "global mean health score" showed that depression was, by a significant margin, the most difficult to bear.
The most difficult to bear, and…
neurotopia | August 27, 2007Anger abound in the blogosphere at the PRISM organization, or Partnership for Research Integrity in Science and Medicine. As one could guess from reading the braintrust of a guy who worked with ENRON jailbird Jeff Skilling, SPECTRE PRISM is long on rhetoric and completely lacking in data.
When I say lacking, I mean zero. Zip. Zilch. Maybe I missed something, but a perusal of the website failed to yield a single survey or statistic to support PRISM's grandiose claims that...
Policies are being proposed that threaten to introduce undue government intervention in science and scholarly…
neurotopia | December 1, 2006Looks like, once again, when somebody bothers to crunch the numbers those flimsy justifications for abstinence-only programs are found lacking.
"It is remarkable that teens are becoming better contraceptors even as there are efforts afoot to reduce the information and skill-building that they receive about contraception," said Freya L. Sonenstein, a professor and director of the Center for Adolescent Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Truer words have never been spoken.
Only 14 percent of the decline in pregnancy was attributed to reductions in teens' sexual activity,…
neurotopia | November 7, 2006As it stands now, Webb is down 0.5% of the vote to George Felix "Macaca" Allen Jr. with 95% of precincts reporting in. Unfortunately for Macaca, I just checked the VA election results site and the precincts left are all in Webb territory-- Prince William's, Loudon, Richmond City, Newport counties.
I believe that if the results are within 0.5%, there is a mandatory recount in VA. Here's to hoping a non-racist is elected senator in VA tonight, and helps bring a semblance of accountability back to the US Senate.
Along with a few extra bucks to the NIH. Ok so I'm biased.
neurotopia | November 7, 2006Looks like the infamous abortion ban in South Dakota ain't gonna fly with the state's residents.
Opponents of South Dakota's abortion ban are maintaining their lead over those who favor the law.
With 194 of 818 precincts reporting results, 60 percent of voters cast "no" votes, according to results from the Secretary of State's Office.
The ban - which outlaws all abortions except those performed to save the life of a pregnant woman - is a direct challenge to the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
Welcome back to the reality-based community, SD, and here's to…
neurotopia | November 2, 2006Looks like creationist paragon of moral fortitude Kent Hovind might be headed to the slammer.
Kent Hovind is charged with 58 federal counts, including failure to pay $845,000 in employee-related taxes and withholdings.
If found guilty, he faces a maximum of 288 years in prison. His wife, Jo Hovind, faces up to 225 years. Her charges include aiding and abetting her husband with 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements.
Don't drop the soap, Kent.
neurotopia | August 25, 2006Without a doubt, Senator George Allen's gift that keeps on giving. Looking over Mr. Sidarth's numbers in the article, I see further proof that we monkeys are destined to reclaim the planet from you lowly H. sapiens.