Public trust is something scientists must work hard to maintain. When it comes to science and public policy, the average citizen usually has to trust scientists—whose word he or she has to take on faith almost as much as a religious believer takes the word of a priest. Once that trust is undermined, as it has been in recent years, science becomes a casualty of politics.”
–Cathy Young, When Science Becomes a Casualty of Politics
Regardless of whichever side one is on via-s-vis the whole “global Warming” debate, or if one is sitting on the fence–what the hacked emails reveals is a gross disregard for the scientific method
That is what bothers me the most about this whole story. The talk of “cherry-picking” data, releasing only certain info, etc. it does a great disservice to the scientific method.
CUNY’s got math problem: Report shows many freshmen from city HS fail at basic algebra
How simple are the State exams for students, if by the time they graduate, they can’t even handle basic fractions?
Depressing to say the least….
Wow….just wow!
NAsA is about to start experimenting the effects of cosmic radiation on monkeys.
NASA has been doing similar experiments on mice and rats for a few years now–so this shouldn’t come as much of surprise. (It’s actually really cool how the experiments are set up as well)
Yes, I’ve taken the plunge and gotten a blackberry.
It was time for a new phone anyway…so may as well make the leap up.
Time to go read the manual…
Huge chest of drawers hoisted aboard space station
I think it would be cooler if they had to assemble the drawers a la Ikea style!
Exploding celery..and what it can teach us
Personally, I’d much rather eat the celery pre-explosion, but this is still really cool
This sounds like a promising first step: Six end simulated Mars mission isolation
Now granted, there’s still a lot of other variables to look at (e.g. the effect of a zero-g environment, exposure to cosmic radiation, etc.)
One random thing that came to mind—what would the effects of such a long space mission be on one’s circadian rhythms?
Blood Samples Raise Questions of Privacy
I’m surprised that consent wasn’t required for the States to hold onto these samples. In every sort of trial and/or experiment, informed consent is a must!
Even though the blood was likely stored anynomously, it sorts of seems “unethical” to be doing something like this sans permission.
Something that has long been hypothesized in the field of Sleep Medicine, may actually turn out to be true:
Narcolepsy Is An Autoimmune Disorder, Stanford Researcher Says
Now it’s going to be really interesting to find out how the specified T-cells know to “target” the hypocretin/orexin neurons in the brain.
This is very cool!
Gawker rightfully and nicely digs into the Huffington Post for running this silly article of Jim Carrey’s.
(Warning: reading Carrey’s article could potentially be damaging to one’s intellegence).
Gawker, responds to Carrey in simple terms, saying:
“VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM” is 9/11 Truther hysterical idiocy at its dumbest.
Exactly!
Michael Barrone penned an editiorial column which starts out with the words: “Beware of geeks bearing formulas”
The column goes on to use the formulas used by “quants”, (which helped lead to the subprime problem) as a warning against using such equations to predict climate change and health care policy.
For the latter, I’m not quite sure how one could really use a formula to shape/modulate health care policy. Sure, one can do some epidemiological modeling, but besides that, what use does a forumla have? (Unless this is a discussion of figuring out how to interpret the Medicare fee-schedule…which is a whole different headache).
Does this mean increased usage of formulas like the CMS hospital rating scale? (The silly nature of the scale is another discussion).
Using modeling and equations have thei place, as one tool in a toolbox, but should not be relied upon exclusively.
The Post’s coverstory today is titled “Frank Incensed” and is about a Kosher eatery in Brooklyn caught serving unkosher hot dogs.
Interestinly enough, according to the Post, here’s how the discovery was made:
The Torah tussle began when a longtime patron noticed the unusually plump wiener he bought Monday night at Cheskel’s Shawarma King in Borough Park didn’t fit into a challah roll as usual.
Quite a sense of observation on the patron’s part.
It was after the discovery that things got a bit crazy, and of couse there’s video of what happened next.
However, there appears to be more to the story than what the Post reported. Two Jewish blogs, Voz Iz Neias and Yeshiva World News have much more on the story.
The whole treif food in a Kosher eatery scenario reminds me of something that took place a long time ago (this is 10+ years ago–so there’s probably nothing online) back in Cleveland. There was a Kosher chinese restaurant on Taylor Road that at one point was caught purchasing either non-Kosher meat (or was it fish?) from a company. Needless to say, the restaurant soon shut its doors for good.
The headline says it all: Scientific illiteracy all the rage among the glitterati
Anyone really suprised?
Granted, the “glitterati” in this article also included politicians too (not suprising either)
An article from today’s Plain Dealer: Which retail system is better — queue at each register or one big line? Prof has the answer
Time for the annual classic (in all it’s geeky goodness!):
The Physics of Santa Claus
and of course, equal time for the
No, not necessarily in the sense of a ketogenic of fat-adapted diet.
Rather, a Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon used fat from liposuction patients to fuel his vehicle!
Granted, there’s a bit of illegality involved here (it’s probably illegal to use human medical waste in such a way). What is interesting though, is the mention that some of the major meat/poultry providers are looking to use the extra shmaltz from their plants to fuel their (truck) fleets. Sound pretty cool.
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