As you have no doubt seen by now, if you read any of the other blogs on ScienceBlogs, the Science Debate 2008 group has gotten Barack Obama to answer their 14 questions on science issues. John McCain has apparently promised answers at some point in the future. The answers are, well, pretty much what you… Continue reading Obama on Science
Category: Politics
Convention Blogging, Physics Style
Well, OK, there aren’t any graphs, so it’s not real Physics Style, but Physics Today has been blogging the Democratic National Convention, talking in detail about the science content. Start with this post, and move forward in time. They apparently have somebody lined up to file reports from the Republican convention next week, as well.… Continue reading Convention Blogging, Physics Style
Speech
I departed from my policy of getting convention news only via Daily Show reruns last night, and watched Obama’s big acceptance speech. You can find substantive commentary elsewhere, and endless reams of wankery about whether he did what he “needed” to do, blah, blah, blah. My main thought watching it was “Boy, it would sure… Continue reading Speech
The Google Image Index of Emotional Maturity
For reasons that really aren’t important, I found myself doing some Google Image searches for pictures of political leaders, and I was struck by how many of the top results were caricatures. It occurred to me that you could probably say something about the collective emotional age of the Internet by looking at the distribution… Continue reading The Google Image Index of Emotional Maturity
Modest Proposals Regarding Underage Drinking
The recent news about the Amethyst Initiative, in which a number of college and university presidents are calling for a lowering of the drinking age from 21, has sparked a bunch of discussion. Jake Young and Mark Kleiman have good contributions. There are two main arguments against lowering the drinking age: 1) Raising the drinking… Continue reading Modest Proposals Regarding Underage Drinking
Tell Me a Story
Via Alex, WNYC’s Radiolab podcast features a wonderful commencement address by Robert Krulwich to the Caltech class of 2008, making the case for the importance of telling stories about science to the general public. This fits in wonderfully with what I said last week about science popularization. He comes at it from a different angle… Continue reading Tell Me a Story
The Consequences of Poor Science Popularization
You may be wondering whether the recent spate of blogging about science in popular media and peer review (by the way, you should definitely read Janet’s two posts on these issues) has any connection to my talk next month at the Science in the 21st Century workshop. Yes, yes it does– I figure that I’m… Continue reading The Consequences of Poor Science Popularization
Self-Esteem Is Not the Problem With Science Education
Arts & Letters Daily sent me to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education with the headline How Our Culture Keeps Students Out of Science. “Hey,” I thought, “Good to see this issue getting some more attention.” And, indeed, the article starts off well enough, with a decent statement of the problems in science… Continue reading Self-Esteem Is Not the Problem With Science Education
What Humanists Think
Last weekend’s post, The Innumeracy of Intellectuals, has been lightly edited and re-printed at Inside Higher Ed, where it should be read by a larger audience of humanities types. They allow comments, so it will be interesting to see what gets said about it there. I may have some additional comments on the issue later,… Continue reading What Humanists Think
Failing Schools: Better Than Nothing
You know, my opinion of “No Child Left Behind” style attempts to measure “failing” schools is as low as anybody’s, but even I think this new Ohio State study sounds ridiculous: Up to three-quarters of U.S. schools deemed failing based on achievement test scores would receive passing grades if evaluated using a less biased measure,… Continue reading Failing Schools: Better Than Nothing