The Orlando Sun-Sentinel carried an op-ed by Paula Dockery on a deceptive solar power amendment on the November ballot. This should be a must-read article for any Florida voter. Ms. Dockery covers the topic quite well, leaving little for me to say, though I’m going to say some things anyway. The first, and most important,… Read More »
I grew up listening to Walter Cronkite giving the evening news. The feeling of trust that some version of what had happened in the country and the world had been delivered was definitely there. I’m stuck in O’Hare and listening to CNN now. Wolf Blitzer interviewed a pair of Trump supporters trying to bolster Trump’s… Read More »
Martin Shkreli, pharmaceutical patent scavenger, did an interview with CBS and defended Mylan Corp’s inflated pricing of their EpiPen product. “This particular drug is a necessity for some people,” Nair said. “Yeah sure, that’s great – but I think important medicine should be expensive because they’re valuable,” said Martin Shkreli. The former pharmaceutical chief gained… Read More »
The Discovery Institute’s Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture has a post celebrating the 20th anniversary of their first closed, ID-only conference, which led to the book, “Mere Creation”. They spend a chunk of the article saying how they have deployed rhetoric to get things done, another chunk complaining that people actually disagreed… Read More »
The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article on the resolution of Erica Kinsman’s Title IX suit against Florida State University (FSU). FSU will pay around $950,000 to settle the suit. Kinsman alleged sexual assault by then FSU football star Jameis Winston, which FSU had famously responded to by finding Winston “not responsible” for the… Read More »
The Discovery Institute got upset that they weren’t allowed a table to promote “intelligent design” at the United Methodist Church’s general conference this year. The DI has been having quite the hissy fit over it, in fact, and has been encouraging people to be outraged about it and write the UMC to try to get… Read More »
Incredibly butt-hurt over Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District almost ten years after their reaming, the Discovery Institute has a series of advent devotionals that they are calling, I kid you not, “Ten Myths About Dover“. Yes, they make the pretense that they are deconstructing myths others have made, but when one reads… Read More »
(This is a copy of my diary on Daily Kos.) Utah state legislator Mike Kennedy (R) weighed in on the argument concerning extending Medicaid coverage. I first saw this content of Kennedy’s statements via a meme on Facebook. Knowing that false memes are a dime a dozen there, I had a look to see if… Read More »
In looking up commentary on net neutrality, I found Kool-Aid chugger Chris Harris. (I was actually looking for “Logan Albright”, and found Harris as an inveterate quoter of Albright.) Amidst a bunch of other hogwash, Harris makes a plea to consider the ISPs: Some dissenters against “Net Neutrality” are most concerned with the free-market implications… Read More »
Earlier this week, President Barack Obama gave a speech laying out strong support for “net neutrality”. Obama called on the FCC to change classification of broadband internet providers to “common carrier” class, meaning that they would be prohibited from privileging — or blocking — particular sorts of traffic passing through their systems. The backlash was… Read More »
NPR some time back had an article on scientists leaving science, mostly because government funding of research has become more like a sweepstakes than a well. I had posted a couple of comments in the following thread, and I’d rather those didn’t get lost, as Google seems not to take note of or index comments… Read More »
The PBS NewsHour this past evening had a guest on from the American Enterprise Institute, one Frederick Hagan. Mr. Hagan apparently is critical of the president and administration concerning the problem of the “Islamic State” (ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh, depending on your outlook) in Iraq. It was all pretty much boiler-plate grousing, with copious “I… Read More »
Back in 2010, I wrote about the sudden unintended acceleration problem (SUAP in the earlier article here, UA in the source I’m about to link) in various Toyota vehicles. Drivers would find their cars accelerating out of their control and braking was unresponsive. People died. Survivors spoke of their unsuccessful attempts to get their car… Read More »
Over on Facebook, Nancy Pearcey responded to a post about young people and deconversion from churches with a modest proposal: let them read apologetics. Age at which people leave the church — Tell me again why youth groups focus on games and goodies instead of majoring on apologetics? One study found that the age at… Read More »
Rick Warren and others sent the most genteel invitation to perpetuate rank discrimination to President Obama this week. It is really quite eloquently stated. It asks that religious groups receiving federal grant money be allowed to continue discriminating against LGBT people, as a waiver from rules that would apply to others receiving those grants. My… Read More »
Disclosure: I am a researcher who worked with NOC at the US Navy Marine Mammal Program. Smithsonian Magazine ran an article by Charles Siebert titled, “The Story of One Whale Who Tried to Bridge the Linguistic Divide Between Animals and Humans”. This was ostensibly about the work Dr. Sam Ridgway and others at the US… Read More »
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s rebooted “Cosmos” series spent a chunk of time relating a version of the life of Giordano Bruno, including his interactions with the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church and subsequent burning at the stake. This has proven unpopular with the heirs of the Inquisition and other nit-pickers. From the Discovery Institute’s “Evolution… Read More »
Kudos to the state of Florida for making healthcare benefits available to all full-time employees this year. That includes full-time “other personnel services” (OPS) employees, who previously got no benefits whatsoever. This could have been postponed one year, but Florida decided to roll it out this year. But the implementation has glitches. To distinguish part-time… Read More »
An article in The Florida Current reports that the Florida legislature has come to an agreement to give career service state employees a raise — the first in almost seven years. Career service workers earning more than $40K a year would see a $1K increase, and those earning less than that would get a $1.4K… Read More »
The Coppedge v. CalTech and JPL case is done, with a final decision handed down by Judge Hiroshige on Wednesday that confirms his preliminary ruling in favor of JPL. There are news reports here and here about the end of the case. Coppedge had sued, claiming wrongful termination, saying that JPL fired him from his… Read More »