I think a lot of people like to pick on places like Texas because of the very public way in which religion, politics, history, and science have been mixed up in discussions of education and teaching standards. An article I received today in the mail [1] suggests that we shouldn’t […]
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 […]
In late February and early March came periods of devastation for Chile. Those periods came in the form of ” . . . the most severe earthquake experienced by the oldest inhabitant . . . ” as stated in an account of the events. The account continues, “A bad earthquake […]
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 […]
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 […]