Archive for February, 2010

Feb 23 2010

When values meet data

Published by steve under Politics, Science

NPR ran a timely story tonight about how people with different value systems will interpret the same information differently [1]. Social scientists are applying these observations to understand reactions to vaccination and climate change data.
The story offered explanations but few ideas. For instance, there was this cautionary tale:
So, should climate scientists hire, say, Newt Gingrich [...]

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Feb 22 2010

Thy will be done

Published by steve under Politics, Science

Updated on 2/25/2010: some of the language needed editing for clarity.
Updated on 2/23/2010: added discussion of the current state of the medieval warming period, and whether it was actually a global phenomenon.
George Will’s opinion piece in today’s Washington Post serves as a textbook example of the current argument against acting on climate science. If [...]

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Feb 22 2010

Don’t be a science jerk

Published by steve under Life, Politics, Science

Of late, I’ve written some things in my blog that, upon reflection, make me a science jerk. For instance, in my recent discussion of media coverage of the climate science mistakes uncovered in the last four months, I pretty much made it sound like anybody who doubts climate science is an idiot and should suck [...]

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Feb 22 2010

Scholarship

Published by steve under Faculty Life, Life, Politics, Science

Athletics at SMU can raised quite heated responses from members of the SMU academic community. This response is rooted in many things, but primarily a perception that student athletes are expected, or themselves expect, to achieve less in the academic realm than their non-athlete peers. Setting aside the reality for a moment, which is always [...]

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Feb 22 2010

Healthcare: birthday edition

Published by steve under Life, Politics

While attending my nephews’ birthday party this weekend, I was told a horrific anecdote by one of my family members. Their employer recently bought a larger retail space not far from their original building. The employer relocated to the larger building and merged departments and personnel. In the process, they’ve changed health care plans, forcing [...]

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Feb 18 2010

Headlines wagging science?

Published by steve under Science

This was buried in the third paragraph of a Fox News story on climate change and the questions about some of the results reported by the British MET office and used in IPCC reports [1]:
Although the errors did not alter the bigger picture on climate change, they were seized upon as a further sign [...]

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Feb 15 2010

A lonely stretch of beach

Published by steve under Politics, Science

What do autism and climate change have in common? They are two sides of the same coin. On one side, you have autism, vaccines, and a single study from 1998 that was long touted as evidence of a link between the two. On the other side, you have climate-change deniers arguing that climate science is [...]

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Feb 11 2010

Confusing weather with climate

Published by steve under Science

I couldn’t have said it better:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

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Feb 11 2010

Snowball Fight!

Published by steve under Random

Check it out:
http://www.smudailymustang.com/?p=21706
I promise you, they are excellent students, every one. They work hard, and they play hard.

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Feb 11 2010

Snow crash

Published by steve under Faculty Life, Life

I’m told this doesn’t happen very often, and when it does it isn’t usually this bad. Today, it snowed several inches in Dallas and the surrounding areas. This caused the expected knot of traffic, accidents, people doing generally stupid things that work great on dry pavement and terribly under low-friction conditions. The snow was heavy, [...]

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