Science, Policy, and Management
tqa | April 20, 2009
Over the last few days, there has been a fair amount of discussion about the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act (HR 669). Some of that has occurred in the comments on my blog post on the subject, and quite a bit more over at GrrlScientist's blog. So far, I haven't seen anything that leads me to change my view that the bill is, on the whole, a good piece of legislation.
There are two main objections that I've seen that I'd like to specifically look at. The first is the possible impact that the bill would have on breeding species for conservation purposes. The second involves the…
tqa | April 15, 2009
GrrlScientist and I are typically on the same side of issues, but this time that's not the case. She is very concerned about some of the implications of a bill that's currently making its way through the House of Representatives, and I think that the same bill is a good one that deserves to pass. The bill in question - House Resolution 669 - is intended to help keep new invasive species from becoming established in the United States.
After reading Grrl's post, I don't think that our disagreement stems from any difference of opinion about the science that's involved. I'm reasonably sure…
tqa | March 25, 2009
The Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch is one of the only reality shows I can watch without rooting for the painful demise of 2/3 of the cast, preferably before the first commercial break. I genuinely enjoy the show, not just because it looks at an interesting job, but because it seems to capture some insights into genuinely interesting people. As someone who is interested in science and how science is used in public policy, though, I'm sometimes a little frustrated that the show doesn't take the opportunity to really get into any of the science or policy issues that are involved in our…
tqa | March 23, 2009
Back in 2005 and 2006, I wrote a few posts about the insanely arbitrary decision making process that the FDA was pretending to use to justify its obviously pre-determined conclusion to restrict the availability of the Plan B "morning after" pill as much as they thought they could get away with. The FDA ultimately decided to deny applications to fully move Plan B to over-the-counter status, but finally accepted a request to waive the prescription requirement for patients 18 years old or older. That was in August of 2006, and that's been the status quo ever since. Until this morning.
Earlier…
tqa | March 21, 2009
If you're looking for a good read this morning, I suggest you pop over to the Washington Post's Opinion pages. Scibling Chris Mooney has an excellent op-ed in there today, in response to George Will's recent climate change denial escapades.
tqa | March 20, 2009
The 2009 State of the Birds report, released yesterday, is not a happy read. Over the last 40 years, bird populations in the United States have not been doing well, as a whole. There are a few hopeful signs here and there - some populations have recovered - but almost 1/3 of the species in America are endangered, threatened, or show signs of significant population declines. That's not good.
As bad as the situation on the US Mainland may be, it pales compared to the situation in Hawai'i. At the moment, 31 species of native Hawaiian birds are Federally listed as endangered or threatened.…
tqa | March 19, 2009
Those of you who followed the recent (and prolonged) saga involving thed anonymous holds that were blocking confirmation of John Holdren (the President's nominee for Science Adviser) and Jane Lubchenco (the NOAA Administrator nominee) will no doubt be relieved to learn that the drama has officially come to an end. The New York Times is reporting that both nominees were confirmed by unanimous consent of the Senate this evening.
Thanks again to everyone who stepped forward to help when politics got in the way.
tqa | March 19, 2009
Update 2: PTWC has cancelled the regional warning. A tsunami was in fact generated, but the waves have been measured and are very small (about 1.5 inches in height).
Updated: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center states that a tsunami was generated by this earthquake. The size of the tsunami is not yet known, and the warning has not been extended to other areas of the Pacific. (Remember,tsunamis can be very small.)
An earthquake tentatively measured by the USGS at magnitude 7.9 has struck Tonga in the South Pacific. It's unknown at this time if the quake has generated a tsunami, but given…
tqa | March 16, 2009
A couple of weeks ago, Interior Secretary Ken "Cowboy Hat" Salazar went ahead with a decision to remove endangered species protections from grey wolves in several western states. The decision in question was first proposed by the Bush Administration, and was extremely controversial. Needless to say, there are quite a few people who are unhappy with Salazar's decision to approve the delisting.
To be honest, I'm not thrilled with it myself. I looked at the issue last year, and there certainly seemed to be some very good reasons to think that the delisting is not a good idea. Salazar's…
tqa | March 12, 2009
The New York Times has just reported that the Senate Commerce Committee held a closed-door, unannounced markup earlier today. During the markup, the Committee unanimously approved both John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco, and both nominations are expected to move to the floor.
According to the Times, both John Rockefeller (the Committee Chair) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (the ranking Republican) say that all holds that they know of have been released, and that the nominees should be confirmed sometime this week.
I'll keep an eye on this story, and let you know if there are any changes. I'd like…
tqa | March 12, 2009
UPDATE - 17:35 CDT: According to the New York Times, all holds are gone as of this afternoon, the Commerce Committee has unanimously approved the two nominees, and they're expected to be confirmed by unanimous consent early next week.
But that's because the holds are still going. And going. And going.
And there's really nothing new to report. So, instead, I'm going to speculate. But business before pleasure:
Please, please, continue to apply pressure to your own Senators and to Majority Leader Harry Reid. I realize that this is getting really old by now. It's probably starting to feel…
tqa | February 26, 2009
Matt "Framing Science" Nisbet has some more advice for scientists on things we shouldn't be saying:
Another frame to avoid is the same type of "war on science" and "restoring science to its rightful place" rhetoric that was used on the campaign trail and in the early days of Obama's administration.
While during the Bush era this public accountability frame justifiably mobilized liberals and many scientists, now that Obama is in office the same message likely alienates Republican segments of the public that the president desperately needs to rally around climate action. The frame provides…
tqa | February 25, 2009
I've already talked about the basic dishonesty Bobby Jindal exhibited when he took a swipe at the mention of "volcano monitoring" in the stimulus - Jindal claimed that there was $140 million in there for "volcano monitoring", when it's actually only one of a number of projects listed under that line - but there's something more important that I didn't discuss. I took a swipe at the messenger, but what about the message? Jindal may be a liar, but that doesn't make him wrong.
He is wrong, of course. He delivered the argument dishonestly, but the argument still fails on the merits. Volcano…
tqa | February 24, 2009As some of you may be aware, over the last couple of weeks Timothy Sandefur and I had a debate on our blogs on the topic of government funding for scientific research. He argued against it; I argued for it. We wrapped up the debate yesterday. If you're interested in taking a look at the whole thing, I've put links to all of the posts in the debate (in chronological order) below the fold.
Sandefur's opening post
Sandefur's reply to some of the comments about his opening post
My reply
Sandefur's second post
My reply
Sandefur's third post
My reply
Sandefur's final post
My concluding thoughts
tqa | February 23, 2009
What Government - at least as we know it - Is.
Timothy Sandefur and I have been debating the proper role of government in funding scientific research for a couple of weeks now. Over the course of the debate, it's become clear to me that he and I do not have a common understanding about what our government actually is, or what the right relationship between the government and the citizens actually is.
Over the years, we humans have tried out more forms of government than you can shake a stick at. In the context of this particular debate, though, whenever we've used the term "government",…
tqa | February 20, 2009
In his opening remarks for the latest entry in our ongoing debate about public financing for science, Timothy Sandefur suggests that after this post, we move on to concluding remarks. That strikes me as a reasonably good idea (and not just because he's generously offered me the last word). We may not have yet reached a point where we're talking past each other, but we're definitely getting dangerously close to that point.
After reading through Tim's latest post, I'm going to respond to his points out of order. I'm going to start out by looking at the more concrete examples that we've been…
tqa | February 17, 2009
A few days ago, Timothy Sandefur posted his second entry in our ongoing debate on the benefits and pitfalls of government funding for the sciences. I've been a bit busy, and I'm just finding time to respond now - I apologize for the delay. While I was doing other things over the weekend, he also posted a response to an article by Steven Quake that I blogged about earlier. This is my response to his rebuttal to my earlier post. I may or may not find the time to reply to his examination of the Quake article later on.
The Internets:
In my first post in the debate, I pointed out that this…
tqa | February 12, 2009
If you've ever wondered what kind of knowledge base is required to become involved at high levels in science and technology policy, you might want to watch a Senate confirmation hearing sometime. Earlier today, Drs. John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco sat down in front of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Dr. Holdren is President Obama's nominee to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) - a job that's better known as the Presidential Science Advisor. Dr. Lubchenco has been selected as the Administrator of the National Ocean and…
tqa | February 10, 2009
Tim Sandefur and I don't agree about the proper role of government when it comes to funding scientific research. He fairly strongly believes that there are many reasons why it's wrong for the government to fund scientific research. Tim's provided a number of reasons to support his belief, and I agreed to use my blog as a platform to make my own case for the involvement of government in science.
In the abstract, many of the reasons that the government should not be involved in funding research sound fairly compelling. Unfortunately, those arguments were made on the internet. At the end of…
tqa | February 9, 2009Timothy Sandefur and I recently wound up arguing the pros and cons of government funding for basic scientific research. We've decided to take our discussion from email to our blogs.
Tim is a libertarian, and it's safe to say that he's not the world's largest fan of government funding for most things, including science. He just posted a detailed explanation of his position at his blog Freespace. I'll be posting a response here sometime tomorrow.
If you're convinced that it's obviously good to have the government fund scientific research, I'd suggest that you go read Tim's post.