Something terrible is supposed to happen on my birthday in 2012. I don’t put much stock in the predictions of the Mayan calendar, but the world oil shortfall that’s predicted to occur in 2012 probably won’t have many good consequences. We are completely unprepared to transition to a non-fossil fuel based economy, so I can understand why Obama opened so many new areas to offshore drilling.
Teaching teenagers about healthy relationships reduces teen pregnancy. (via OPT) Unfortunately, about the only people who get a decent sex education in the US grow up on a farm.
Thamnolia vermicularis (whiteworm lichen) on Botany Photo of the Day
Obama gives the go-ahead for offshore drilling, reneging on his campaign promise in a bid to get the Republicans to vote for climate change legislation. First of all, a potential three years of oil is NOT worth that much environmental damage. But perhaps more importantly, shouldn’t you wait until you’ve got the votes to hand over the prize?
Girls are outperforming boys in school and some white guys think we should change the system because of it. Lindsay Beyerstein has a spot on analysis of the situation: “Maybe boys are acting out and underperforming because they’ve been taught from an early age that the world should change to suit them.”
A fantastic series of lectures from a Berkeley Biological Anthropology course taught by Terrence Deacon is available online (you can also get it through iTunesU). I’ve been listening to it on my walk to school in the mornings.
Where we are with migraine research: still at something happens and the brainstem (or the CNS) doesn’t like it, but we have some new drug targets.
Early women scientists were awesome, but they sure had to put up with a lot. This description of Wanda G. Bradshaw says a lot about the times – she isn’t even allowed interests separate from her husband.
Including transportation costs would go a long way towards realistically representing housing affordability: 69% of communities are considered affordable using the standard measure of 30% of income, but only 39% are affordable (less than 45% of income) if housing and transportation costs are considered.
A great story demonstrating that the pay gap is alive and well, sexism still has large effects in women’s lives, and that women are just as qualified as men.
I made these pancakes, but with whole wheat flour and extra buttermilk. They will make any day better. I promise.
Compared with the employer-coverage group, peoplein the Medicare group report fewer problems obtaining medicalcare, less financial hardship due to medical bills, and higheroverall satisfaction with their coverage.
Conservatives freaked out about Obama’s speech encouraging kids to work hard in school, calling the action “unprecedented.” I guess they weren’t paying attention during similar speeches given by Reagan and George H. Bush. (Though perhaps if they’d paid better attention in school they would have developed some critical thinking skills and we wouldn’t have to deal with their craziness.) I think the response of the right in this situation is very telling – they disagree with Obama, so they won’t listen to anything he says. This is why Republicans have blocked health care reform at every turn, why Republicans have become the party of “no.” I’m reminded of a child being told something she doesn’t want to hear who covers her ears and yells.
Whether families are spending more than they should according to some moral notion—consuming too much of the world’s resources or buying things they could easily live without—is not the issue at hand. These data give us no clue about the right amount of spending. But they give us powerful evidence that excessive consumption is not why families are going broke. There is no evidence of any “epidemic” of overspending—certainly nothing that could explain a 255 percent increase in the foreclosure rate, a 430 percent increase in the bankruptcy rolls, and a 570 percent increase in credit-card debt. A growing number of families are in terrible financial trouble, but despite the accusations, their frivolity is not to blame.
Fathers with daughters often become more liberal. I’d say that’s good evidence that current conservative policies hurt women. Of course, you could also say that spending too much time with women makes men too “soft.”
Artificial intelligence and robots are getting better faster and faster. This robot has made unique scientific discoveries – from formulating the hypotheses to running experiments. This robot has a biological brain and can learn.
On a related note, computers are doing more and more of the proofs in mathematics.
Dr. Isis writes about the DREAM Act and responds to people who accuse illegal immigrants of stealing our middle class lifestyle:
I would like to apologize on behalf of immigrants everywhere to the American middle class for stealing their jobs. Especially the investment bankers, attorneys, physicians, research scientists, and CEOs who have recently lost their jobs to illegal immigrants.
This guy says he’s got the joy of the lord, but he’s just crazy or scamming people (wait for the sales pitch at the end) or crazy and scamming people. I wonder if the lord has rewarded this woman with his joy after she killed her son for him? Wouldn’t it be great if religious people applied the “outsider test” to their own religions?
Spain is prosecuting Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Douglas Feith, William Haynes, John Yoo, and Jay Bybee for torture at Guantanamo. I only wish we were doing it ourselves.
China refuses to participate in an important awareness raising climate change action in order to celebrate “Serf Liberation Day” – when the Dalai Lama was kicked out of Tibet. Oh propaganda.
There are so many awesome education tools and resources on the internet. Youtube EDU is my new favorite resource. (Did you just call me a nerd for watching lectures on youtube? Because I think this is way nerdier.) Also, I think writing/editing/correcting wikipedia entries for classes is something that should be done more often – especially in grad classes.
PZ has an awesome post up about the chronic underfunding of our nation’s universities and an important admonition for voters:
Why do you keep electing cretins to your legislatures who despise the “intellectual elite”, who think being smart is a sin, who are so short-sighted that they care nothing for investing in strengthening the country in ways that take ten or more years to pay off? Stop it! Your representatives should be people who value education enough to commit to at least maintaining the current meager level of funding, but instead we get chains of ignoramuses who want to demolish the universities…and simultaneously want to control them to support their favorite ideological nonsense, via “academic freedom” bills. This is also a long-term goal: we have to work to restore our government to some level of sanity. It’s been the domain of fools and thieves for far too long.
Science was not taken very seriously at all by the Bush administration, and Obama is working hard to restore scientific integrity in the executive branch. Last week, the White House issued a memorandum as part of its effort to correct the ignorance and manipulation of science to fit ideological goals. It stated that
Political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings and conclusions. If scientific and technological information is developed and used by the Federal Government, it should ordinarily be made available to the public. To the extent permitted by law, there should be transparency in the preparation, identification, and use of scientific and technological information in policymaking. The selection of scientists and technology professionals for positions in the executive branch should be based on their scientific and technological knowledge, credentials, experience, and integrity.
I’m so glad that our country is moving in the right direction on this issue, but like EcoTone points out
This memo should be reassuring to the scientific community. Yet the fact that it was necessary to explicitly state these seemingly obvious expectations is disconcerting.
We have a lot of work to do. It isn’t just isolated species or “sensitive” animals like frogs and salamanders that will go extinct, it’s likely that climate change will render our ecosystems unrecognizable. An administration that listens to what scientists have to say about challenges like climate change is necessary.
This week’s extinct plant was a relative of coffee. Coffea lemblinii sounds like it was lovely plant. According to wikipedia, it was a small, very branched shrub with white flowers growing in the forest understory. I wonder if its fruits were as tasty as those of its more familiar cousin C. arabica?
You’d think that with the disappearance of so many species, we’d be doing more to protect them. But, at least in America, we’ve been doing quite a lot to destroy species. In his last 100 days in office, Bush pushed through a lot of environmentally UN-friendly decisions. Why don’t you write our new and improved president and suggest he undo those dangerous changes?
I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate commerce. — J. Edgar Hoover
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