The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Science

  • Bush Hates Reality

    I’m ever so shocked to see this report by Henry Waxman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In brief:

    the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming

    Yeah. No big surprise. Now if only somebody in the Congress would do something instead of hanging around like a bunch of neutered puppies. America goes through all the effort and trouble to give the Democrats the Congress and then they sit around with their thumbs up their butts.

  • James Watson: Victim of Politics

    Yesterday, I alluded to racist statements made by James Watson, regarding the inability of africans to measure up to other persons in the intelligence arena.

    Today, I see that he has been suspended from “the administrative responsibilities” of his posting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, due to the board’s “disagreeing with the comments…”

    This is a travesty. James Watson is a renowned scientist, and a dope. But being a dope isn’t illegal, and if we expect non-dopes to be able to present opinions without them being trashed perfuctorily, the dopes have to be allowed the same privilege.

    I have no personal knowledge of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, but I doubt that if Dr. Watson were merely a ranking scientist (rather than the head of the lab) that he would have been suspended from his job. Thus, politics. The board cannot permit a person with undeniable scientific gravitas to say stupid things in public. I think a better approach would be to insist that Dr. Watson present the evidence for his case, and if that cannot be found, then insist he back off on his racist comments. Cold Spring Harbor could advertise to the world that they are such a powerful scientific organization, they don’t hold stupid comments against even their most visible members.

    Or they could just drag him out at dawn and shoot him in the career. Whichever.

  • Making my Wife Blow Up…

    …by citing blogs that cite studies that decry modern feminism.

    “Women are better at finding doughnuts than men.”

  • Reshelving Non-Scientific Books

    gacked from Pharyngula

    Biologist Helping Bookstores has a quest. He reshelves books without a science theme to parts of the book store he feels appropriate.

    I’m of two minds about this. My first mind thinks that he’s right; Michael Behe does not belong in the science section any more than Harry Potter does. My other mind thinks that he’s making the bookstore employees’ life a lot more difficult. It’s not up to them (in the chain stores, mind) where the books are shelved. It all comes out of the computer. Thusly, A Brave New World is in Literature, while Laurel K. Hamilton’s books are in Fantasy (Science Fiction and Pornography are more appropriate, respectively).

    This is discussed in detail in the comments on BhB’s site. Especially this posting about reshelving in Barnes and Noble.

  • Biofuel Alternative to Ethanol

    The University of Wisonsin, Madison (great campus) has announced that researchers have been able to derive a fuel source from plant sugars. This fuel has a higher energy density than ethanol, with lower energy requirements for production. This is a good thing, because (some argue) ethanol has a nearly 1:1 energy return. For every erg of energy you get out of ethanol during transportation, you have to put an erg in during production. Compare that to a 25:1 return from gasoline, and you’ll see why I don’t think ethanol is a viable alternative fuel source. Sure, it could subsitute for gasoline, but we will require 25 times more energy production elsewhere, and currently that means more natural gas, oil, or coal burning. Not a good solution. Of course, if we went thoroughly nuclear in our electric generation, we would eliminate a large percentage of primary generation greenhouse gas emissions at the same time we were providing enough surplus energy to produce a less-than-cost-effective fuel. But that is another post.

  • Competing Crossword Puzzles

    This link, as provided by the grand offices of Pharyngula, takes you to a demonstration of the differences between science and creationism/”intelligent design”. A well put-together metaphor for a complex topic.

  • I Don't Qualify, But if I Did…

    …the following would be my badges.

    Quackery
    Appliances
    Sexual Harrassment
    Ice with Ice
    Ice with Dry Ice
    Ice with Liquid Nitrogen
    Tadpole
    Electric Shock
    I like to blow shit up
    Linear Regression!
    I burn Things
    I know how to Burn Things
    I know why Things Burn
    I have set Myself on Fire (inadvertently)
    I have worked with industrial acids

    I say I don’t qualify as a science communicator because: it causes problems in the my workplace; I have neither the skill nor the experience to be a good science advocate. Therefore I cannot claim the required “talking science” badge.

    I do what I can when people spout strange things. And, I tend to read a lot of esoteric articles, so I try to bring the less media-concentrated science to light with the people around me.