Major science journals issue science journalists with press releases about papers that they think will make a splash and give them embargoed advance copies of the articles so that journalists can research them and write their articles with the understanding that the articles won’t be published until the journal is released. [Read more…]
In reading Lawrence Wright’s book on Scientology titled Going Clear (that I reviewed earlier) one thing that struck me was the organization’s determination to acquire real estate in major cities. [Read more…]
If there is one thing that really makes my blood boil, it is smug, rich people coming up with arguments as to why people who are barely surviving on what they earn should not be paid more. These people are disgusting human beings. I honestly cannot understand how you can be so lacking in basic human decency that you think that it is actually a good thing for people to live in constant anxiety about how to make ends meet. The fact that children are also among those affected does not seem to bother them in the least. [Read more…]
A few mornings ago I dropped into my neighborhood bank. I rarely go in anymore, now that online banking and ATMs are available and was courteously and pleasantly treated as always by the tellers. I was shocked later in the day to see this report (via Pharyngula) that about a third of bank tellers now depend on some form of public assistance to make ends meet. It is yet another example of the galloping divergence between the few haves and the many have-nots in the US. [Read more…]
Coming from the world of science, I tend to look at questions empirically, asking what data exists that sheds light on the problem and whether we can find causal relationships. But when it comes to political questions, while they may still be empirical questions, very often we have at most correlations and as a result there may be only political answers. [Read more…]
It seems like every year, I keep forgetting to start the war on Christmas and before I realize it, there are only a few days left for me to destroy the holiday. But then I realized that there are some Christians who specialize in finding some event somewhere that enables them to conjure up how the godless are oppressing them and express righteous indignation over it. [Read more…]
Now everyone (almost) sings the praises of Nelson Mandela. Sagar Jethani takes a walk down memory lane to see what some of them were saying back in the 1980’s when he was denounced as a Communist and terrorist and when the Republican party was split, with some opposing his release from prison or putting any pressure on South Africa. [Read more…]
Cartoonist Jen Sorenson anticipates the future if, as feared, cell phones are soon allowed on airplanes. [Read more…]
The Chinese president on a visit to the United States told a group of people that he met on the street that they needed to challenge their government and change the status quo, and that people’s privacy must be respected if they are to breathe free. [Read more…]
A new paper has looked into the question of whether the masses of particles change with time. That this may be an issue may have not occurred to people (at least it had not occurred to me) but when you think about it, it is a valid concern: Are the masses of particles the same now as they were at the beginning of the universe? [Read more…]