Social Issues
j7uy5 | July 4, 2006I want to get back to reply to this comment:
Comments
The
Bush administration has not been against science in any conceivable
way. I hate to see people use a lie to push a political cause. I would
ask all those concerned with the advancement of science to stay true to
the calling of using empirically backed reason to further our
understanding of the universe. We should also be more prudent in how we
as scientists enter public discourse. Many scientists today have
resorted to crying wolf instead of laying out clearly what we know and
what we don't. The global warming
debate is one area where…
j7uy5 | July 2, 2006It was pointed out to me after I put up the FUD post, that Steven
Clemons (of the Washington Note) recently posted an
href="http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001502.php">excellent
example of the use of fear-mongering:
June 25, 2006
NATIONAL SECURITY FOR FAMILIES: IT'S
FOR KIDS TOO -- ESPECIALLY KIDS!!
Visit www.FamilySecurityMatters.org
-- a site seemingly devoted to convincing a large cross-section of
Americans that they must fear terrorism -- really fear it, now --
tomorrow -- and in the many years to come. It's high-fear exploitation
of the worst kind candy-coated with…
j7uy5 | July 2, 2006A long time ago,
href="http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/about.php">Grrlscientist
href="http://girlscientist.blogspot.com/2005/06/le-scholar-oblige-another-book-meme.html">tagged
me with a meme. So long ago, in fact, that
ScienceBlogs did not even exist. So it may as well have been
in a galaxy far, far, away.
It was a book meme. There were questions like "how many books
do you own." I finished counting several weeks later, and
started to write it out. Then the file was lost in an
unfortunate incident that we do not need to discuss here. I
never got back to…
j7uy5 | June 30, 2006This is a response to this week's Ask-A-ScienceBlogger question.
I must say, it took a while to come up with a reasonable
answer. I finally settled on environmental policy.
The
rel="tag">Environmental Protection Agency
href="http://www.epa.gov/history/org/origins/first.htm">was
established in 1970, mostly in response to popular concern
about the damage that was accumulating in the environment as a result
of industrial activity. See the EPA page,
href="http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/epa/15b.htm">Why EPA
Was Established, for details.
There are two reasons for choosing…
j7uy5 | June 23, 2006The Washington Post has a mildly interesting
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062201952.html">article
about Douglas M. Duncan, who just dropped out of the gubernatorial race
in Maryland. Reportedly, he was diagnosed as having depression earlier
in the week, then decided to withdraw.
"It's time for me to focus on my health"
The decision was taken as an opportunity to discuss the problem posed
by the illness, the stigma, and the difficulties posed by the decision
to go public with the disclosure.
"There is an enormous amount of stress to…
j7uy5 | June 20, 2006I'm sitting here, wondering why in the world I wrote so much about a
topic that is of no more than passing interest to me. Perhaps
if I keep writing, I will figure it out.
Note: this will not make much sense unless you've already read Janet's
more recent post on the topic of breastfeeding, here:
href="http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2006/06/what_are_the_real_benefits_of.php">What
are the real benefits of breastfeeding? Statisticians weigh in.
You also have to have read the main article she cites, here:
href="http://www.stats.org/stories/breast_feed_nyt_jun_20_06.htm">…
j7uy5 | June 20, 2006Sometimes, when I write about new psychotropic medication coming to
market, I include a comment on the abuse potential. For
example, I've commented before on the relative lack of abuse potential
for
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rozerem" rel="tag">ramelteon
(
href="http://www.rozerem.com/home_c.aspx" rel="tag">Rozerem)
and
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil" rel="tag">modafinil
(
href="http://www.provigil.com/" rel="tag">Provigil).
Usually, I end with a disclaimer: "but some people will abuse
anything."
Despite that universal disclaimer, I really never…
j7uy5 | June 17, 2006The Sunday Times in the UK is reporting on efforts to being criminal
charges against a doctor who claimed that the MMR vaccine caused
autism. Millions of children went unvaccinated, and now the
UK has an outbreak of measles.
Continue below the fold...
href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2230936,00.html">Focus:
How a spurious health scare brought an old killer back
The Sunday Times
June 18, 2006
Brian Deer
As health chiefs last week reported the worst outbreaks of measles
across Britain in 20 years, slow progress was being made in bringing to
justice the…
j7uy5 | June 15, 2006The mission of ScienceBlogs is to have the
href="http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:u_aOpFk1_6IJ:www.seedmediagroup.com/press/releases/SMG_01.25.06.pdf+web+largest+conversation+about+science&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a">Web's
largest conversation about science. I've been
posting here for a week. During that time, I've been trying
to decipher the
href="http://faculty.ircc.edu/faculty/jlett/Article%20on%20Emics%20and%20Etics.htm">emics
and etics of the community and its conversation.
It is apparent that, within this culture, it is important and…
j7uy5 | June 13, 2006I've been working on a longish post that I am not yet happy with.
In the meantime, I am going to post this, just to call
attention to somebody else's work. I guess it also adds a
little local flavor to this blog.
href="http://jackshow.blogs.com/jack/2006/06/interview_bob_o.html">Interview:
Bob O'Neal - 6/13/06
When you are talking about politics these days and say the word
“religious” it usually is followed by the word
“right.” Dr. Bob O’Neal, a
plastic surgeon in Ann Arbor, doesn’t like that. He
is a Christian who thinks his faith has been hijacked and distorted by
extremists,…
j7uy5 | June 9, 2006The ask-a-scienceblogger question for this week was submitted by a
reader, Jake Bryan, who comments on Science Blogs as "chezjake."
"Assuming that time and money were not obstacles,
what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would
you most like to explore? Why?
It did not take long for me to come up with an answer to this.
What I would most like to see researched intensively would
be: alternative energy sources. Continue reading below the
fold...
The reasons? First, I had to pick something outside of my own
discipline. Second, it seems that such a once-in-a-…