Science in Bizarro Land
thusspakezuska | July 9, 2007Remember that fascinating study that almost certainly applied to females? Jake at Pure Pedantry has a very interesting analysis to offer on it.
I do like the way he deconstructs the statistics and delineates the difference between statistically significant and practically significant. However, he missed the boat on the gender issue. He, too, talks about eldest children, as if all children were male. This is very annoying.
I would really like it if people would be clear about when they are talking about research that was done only on men and research results that apply only to men.…
thusspakezuska | June 22, 2007The New York Times reports today on a study published today in two papers in Science (Science 22 June 2007: Vol. 316. no. 5832, p. 1717) and Intelligence: "Research Finds Firstborns Gain The Higher I.Q."
The study could settle more than half a century of scientific debate! Frank J. Sulloway, psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, says
"I consider these two papers the most important publications to come out in this field in 70 years; it's a dream come true...there was some room for doubt about this effect before, but that room has now been eliminated"
!!!!!
Get this:
The…
thusspakezuska | June 13, 2007You may recall that Senator Sam Brownback, erstwhile Presidential candidate, recently wrote a NYTimes op-ed expounding on his raising of the arm during a presidential debate in response to the now-infamous "who doesn't believe in evolution" question. I'm grateful to Page 3.14 for alerting me to Jerry Coyne's article Don't Know Much Biology written in response to Senator Sam Brownback.
I am generally a fan of Jerry Coyne, and this piece is as well-written as anything of his. But on this I think he misses the mark, as do many scientists who criticize the ID brigade, some of my Sciblings…
thusspakezuska | February 5, 2007Low on cash? Need to repay student loans? Not bothered by morals or respect for reality? Then the American Enterprise Institute has a deal for you!
... according to an article in The Guardian, a British newspaper [the AEI], a right-leaning think tank that has received more than $1.6-million from Exxon Mobil, wrote letters to scientists asking for essays that "thoughtfully explore the limitations of climate model outputs," The Guardian reported.
All you have to do is write a "critical review" of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Serve up a little truthiness and $10,000…
thusspakezuska | December 13, 2006Today marks the debut of guest-blogger Cynthia Burack at TSZ. A professor at the Ohio State University, Cynthia is a political scientist who tools are feminist political theory and political psychology. We have worked together in the past on several projects, including work on group dynamics and resistance to diversity (see sidebar, NWSA Journal article) and on evaluating STEM department websites for diversity. What follows, however, is entirely Cynthia's work. I am grateful that she has allowed me to present it here. I think it is very important for all scientists to hear.
Zuska has…
thusspakezuska | August 31, 2006Possessing, as I do, numerous credentials that allow me to pontificate in an authoritative fashion** upon the significance, meaning, and import of global warming, I, James S. Robbins, am here to tell you the truth.
Who gives a rat's ass about global warming? We here in the U.S., and our neighbors in Canada, will be just fine, and really, who else counts? I mean, if you don't care about massive species extinctions, and the disappearance of entire island nations, there's really not a whole lot else to worry about. You lose a little shoreline here, you gain a little over there. We'll bulid…