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, […]
Monthly Archives: February 2010
11 posts
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
The President’s budget proposal appeared this week, and funding for scientific research was largely protected from the budget freeze on discretionary spending [1][2]. There are losses, but primarily where it’s especially hard to justify the expenditure (e.g. returning people to the Moon). It’s remarkable when words meet actions, but the […]