An independent review of the climate research at East Anglia University has turned up no malfeasance [1]. The center of the Climate-gate controversy, I’ve been waiting patiently to see how this review went. Importantly, the report concludes that researchers need to spend more time working closely with statisticians to make […]
Politics
277 posts
There is one more study that is of interest in testing the hypothesis that big government is bad for America. While there appears to be no negative effect of the physical size of government on incomes [1], there is the potential that government spending has a negative impact on incomes. […]
Updated 3/20/2010: added a reference for the median family income data. Corrected the table of trends, removing an incorrect cell-by-cell normalization (division by the number of years over which the slope was measured). Slope is ALREADY in units of “per year,” so an additional division was not needed. This in […]
The new textbook standards being pursued by the Texas state board of education are still in motion, despite the rejection of some of the nuttier board members in recent elections. This was expected. The work that has gone on for so long has too much momentum to just be reversed. […]
Today, while driving to Milwaukee for a return flight to Dallas, Jodi and I heard on “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” about a bill in the California State Assembly aimed at creating a “No Cuss Week” in March [1]. The idea was inspired by the creation of a “No Cussing […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]