The Supreme Court Has Set Back Diversity In Education
Should your ethnicity determine whether or not you are accepted into college?Of course not, but once upon a time it was. Half a century ago, it certainly made a difference in which schools and universities you could attend. After what was morally obvious was rightfully struck down on legal grounds, discussion then turned to how to fix the problem that remained. The "shackled man" theory holds that if two people are running a race, and one has shackles on their feet, taking the shackles off their feet 100 yards into the race does not suddenly make it fair. They deserve to make up for that lost ground.
23andMe is Monetizing Your DNA The Way Facebook Monetizes “Likes”
If you paid 23andMe to take a look at your DNA, maybe you wanted to know more than why you like cilantro or are related to Genghis Khan, maybe you thought you were advancing science.Well, you are, in the same old way marketers have long advanced science - by selling information about customers. In this case, the DNA information of 1.2 million people, sold to more than 13 drug companies. Genentech paid $10 million to look at the genes of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Now, that's good, it isn't like a Parkinson's treatment is going to come from the government, but 23andMe customers paid to have their DNA info sold to other companies. That is a sucker move.
Forest Products Company Takes Greenpeace To Court For Racketeering
For what seems like decades, it has been open season on scientists and corporations by environmental non-profit corporations and the PR groups they fund to be their hatchet men, like SourceWatch and Mother Jones. Libel? No problem, Lisa Graves at SourceWatch will do it. Spinning stolen funding proposals provided by a fired employee as actual conspiracy events? Mother Jones will oblige.No Mother Jones, Lexus Does Not Control Hockey Game Scores
While watching the Stanley Cup match on Saturday, the first period ended and legendary sportscaster Bob Costas appeared on the screen with the Lexus Intermission Report.It made me chuckle seeing an overt corporate placement because the day before, a blogger at the political website Mother Jones named Tom Philpott had asked me on Twitter what I thought of a new EPA paper on the herbicide atrazine.Be interested to hear thoughts on EPA atrazine report from @HankCampbell and @JonEntine https://t.co/5XGVg0iR7V
Energy Consumption Will Increase 48% By 2040, Led By Countries Exempt From Climate Treaties
Earlier this month, the U.S. Energy Information released a report projecting that by 2040, world energy consumption will have grown by 48% from 2012 levels.That sounds like a terrific advancement for developing nations. We worry about water in other countries, we worry about food, we worry about education and culture. Every single one of those is resolved with affordable energy. Energy is the great equalizer and America's second most important strategic resource after, obviously, food.
Would President Donald Trump Be Good For Science?
In USA Today, Dr. Alex Berezow and I ask what a Trump presidency might mean for science. The reason to ask is obvious; he might win.
And science is one of America’s most important strategic resources. We lead in Nobel prizes and with just five percent of earth’s population we produce over 30 percent of the world’s science.
After Losing In Government, Environmental Groups Embrace The Free Market
Environmental groups, who ordinarily love centralized government and social authoritarian mechanisms to block science and progress, have suddenly embraced the free market - well, when the free market is using social authoritarian mechanisms to block science and progress, anyway.Last year, after review and stalling well beyond believability, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the AquAdvantage salmon, an Atlantic salmon that expresses a gene from a Chinook salmon and grows faster.
3 Reasons EPA Sided With Environmentalists Over Science On Methane
The Obama administration released new limits on methane emissions from oil and gas wells that are even tougher than the industry expected - $530 million more per year than the already high costs. 25 percent more. The government, meanwhile, claims their new regulations will make money because this will stop storms, floods and other consequences of climate change. Yes, a government regulation on methane will change the weather.Dark Money Funded Site PRWatch Says Scientists Are Fronts For Corporations
The political attack site PRWatch, one arm of the dark-money funded group self-named as the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), is run by a former attorney for the Clinton administration which slashed funding for real science in the 1990s (1) while promoting junk environmental claims about ethanol, so it's no surprise CMD hate pro-science groups who don't cater to the environmental scaremongering CMD gets paid to do.Varroa Mites Get A Free Pass In Honeybee Surveys
The Bee Informed Partnership conducts an annual survey of commercial and backyard beekeepers so that they can try and track health and survival rates of honey bee colonies. Though honey bees are just one bee species out of about 27,000, estimates of their implied economic value are around $10 billion annually. A The latest results show that honey bee colonies declined 44 percent during the year spanning April 2015 to April 2016.That sounds alarming, and it is in contrast to studies showing that bee numbers are not in decline, but were instead at a 20-year high last year. (1)
How can the claims be so different? Should we be alarmed or not?