I'll just let this one speak for itself:

http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/a-to-z-guide-to-political.html

Anyone who wants to get a start on understanding the current state of the global-warming controversy, is advised to check out this article in Salon by Joseph Romm, which starts out by stating that there is not really a "consensus" on global warming -- just "well-tested science and real-world observations." (Yes, dorsai, this means you too.)

The science ( Read more... )

I'm not sure what Michael Gerson is trying to accomplish in his latest Washington Post column, "The Eugenics Temptation". It's so badly written, and his assertions so poorly backed up (when they're backed up at all), that one wonders why he even bothered. I guess he couldn't grapple with a real issue, and trotted out another another disposable ( Read more... )

New Apartheid for 'Dwarf' Planets?!
Was the Vote Rigged?!
A Shaken World Asks: 'Who Killed Pluto?' Film at Eleven...The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the official naming body for astronomy since 1919, have voted, in their 10-day General Assembly in Prague, to reclassify Pluto as a "dwarf planet," not a "proper" planet like Earth, Mercury ( Read more... )

Listening to FM radio the other night, I heard what has to be the least convincing anti-pot ad ever (so far): First we hear a voice of someone who is trying to talk around either a huge object in his mouth, or a severely broken jaw. Then another voice explains what this unfortunate sod is trying to say: apparently his friends had persuaded him to ( Read more... )

According to the New york Times (via NASAWatch, which has some interesting links on this subject), George Deutsch (stunning job qualifications here) has resigned as ideological policeman for NASA scientists, apparently for lying on his resume about graduating from Texas A&M. Or for doing something so stupid and embarrassing that his bosses had to ( Read more... )

According to this New York Times article (free registration may be required), political appointees are exercising an alarming degree of control over the content of information published by NASA, and even over media access to NASA scientists.

A week after NASA's top climate scientist complained that the space agency's public-affairs office was ( Read more... )

From TruthOut via Pharyngula, thanks to vatoengland: Howard Dean has flatly said that creationism intelligent design is nothing more than a religious belief disguised as a scientific theory. ( Quote behind the Cut )

The Discovery Institute, those wonderful folks who are trying to pretend there's some sort of controversy about the validity of the theory of evolution, boast a list of 400 scientists voicing doubts about the theory and saying that certain life-forms are simply too complex to have evolved without a "guiding intelligence," or a "designer," or a " ( Read more... )

This just in, from Salon's "Wires" page:

July 29,2005 | WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Friday threw his support behind House-passed legislation to expand federal financing for human embryonic stem cell research, breaking with President Bush and religious conservatives in a move that could impact his prospects for seeking the ( Read more... )