Word has reached me[1] that, “me that the most notorious creationist on the Ohio State Board of Education, Deborah Owens Fink, has a challenger in the Novemeber 7th election.” For the politically inclined out there, some information: The challenger is former Ohio congressman Tom Sawyer. She is asking for help from the other Citizens for… Continue reading Get Out the Vote in Ohio
Category: Politics
Ethics of Death
Over at Retrospectacle, Shelley has decided to ask us all a nice, simple, uncontroversial question: “Are you for or against the death penalty, or (if its conditional), in what cases? Furthermore, do you believe that societies that sanction war are hypocritical for opposing the death penalty?” Yeesh. Actually, though, this is relatively easy to answer.… Continue reading Ethics of Death
Relativity and Tiananmen Square
there’s a fascinating article in the TimeS this morning about Chinese physicist Xu Liangying, a man who has led an interesting life, to say the least: The first time he was purged, Xu Liangying was 27, an up-and-coming physicist, philosopher and historian and a veteran of the Communist underground. He had to divorce his wife,… Continue reading Relativity and Tiananmen Square
Stephen Colbert Is the News
I don’t usually post YouTube links and that sort of thing, because I figure everybody else in the world has watched them before I get there, but this clip of the Colbert Report is too good not to link. He gets right in the metaphorical face of a couple of morning shows that have done… Continue reading Stephen Colbert Is the News
Nuclear Power and Security
Scientific Curmudgeon John Horgan reads calls for more nuclear power and offers a slightly different objection to nuclear power than most people: Five years ago, I might have considered climbing aboard this bandwagon, even though Indian Point has an imperfect safety record, but not any more. In fact, I want to whack the neo-nukers and… Continue reading Nuclear Power and Security
International Blog Against Racism Week
This week has been dubbed “International Blog Against Racism Week” by some folks over on LiveJournal, with the goal being to have lots of people, well, blog about issues related to race. It’s not likely to save the world, but it’s a noble enough cause, and deserves a mention. There’s some good stuff over there–… Continue reading International Blog Against Racism Week
Physicists in the Culture War
This month’s Physics Today has an article by Murray Peshkin on “Addressing the Public About Science and Religion”, that is both a nice change of pace (as physicists don’t do much of that sort of thing), and a reminder of why a lot of physicists don’t do that sort of thing. It’s not that he… Continue reading Physicists in the Culture War
Classic Edition: Video Killed the Rhetoric Star
Poking through the archives to find some old physics posts to fill space while I’m away from the keyboard, I realize that back in 2002, I wrote a lot more about politics than I do now.This is largely because most of what I wrote about politics back then makes me cringe now. And, in fact,… Continue reading Classic Edition: Video Killed the Rhetoric Star
The Plight of Upstate
The Dean Dad has some interesting comments regarding this depressing New York Times article about the departure of young adults from Upstate New York: From 1990 to 2004, the number of 25-to-34-year-old residents in the 52 counties north of Rockland and Putnam declined by more than 25 percent. In 13 counties that include cities like… Continue reading The Plight of Upstate
Politics and Academics
The esteemed Dr. Free-Ride has a post about politics responding to Sean Carroll’s recap of Yearly Kos. Both of them say things about the practice of politics that nicely encapsulate why I’m not a political activist– I’m too much of an academic: