Posts from — March 2004

“Have you no shame?”

Sept. 11 families disgusted by Bush campaign ads

Families who lost relatives in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks voiced outrage on Thursday at President Bush's first ads of his re-election campaign that use images of the devastated World Trade Center to portray him as the right leader for tumultuous times.

Families are enraged,” said Bill Doyle, 57, of New York, who is active in several Sept. 11 family groups. “What I think is distasteful is that the president is trying to use 9/11 as a springboard for his re-election.”

“It's entirely wrong. He's had 3,500 deaths on his watch, including Iraq, ” said Doyle, whose 25-year-old son Joseph died at the trade center.

[Politics in the Zeros]

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he has no sense of propriety at all. he didn't resolve the issue and he can't resolve it. he can't lead, he doesn't work, and doesn't know. this has been the cheney/rumsfeld presidency, and they are not interested in doing the right thing either.

Parlor Trick. I've just acquired a container of Geneva Magview, which is basically a magnetic suspension in aerosol form. Spray it on the magnetic strip of a Metro fare card or a 3.5″ disk exumed from its plastic housing and–violla–the pattern of… [Matthew G. Kirschenbaum]

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the problem of course is the pattern has no relationship to the meaning of the data, it is just noise unless you are dealing with analog data.

Science reader writes funds for author payments out of reach for non-U.S. scientists. Peter Celec, Open Access and Those Lacking Funds, Science 303(5663), 1467 (5 March 2004). (Access restricted to subscribers.) A Slovakian scientist comments on the lack of funds available to support author publication charges in his country, in contrast to U.S. scientists whom he says can draw upon funding bodies and/or their respective institutions; “I will have to read the articles from PLoS Biology–for free–and try to publish my work in Science or Nature–also for free.” [Open Access News]

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I agree, this was my argument earlier, Open is open, no barriers, but money is barrier technology, it creates and perpetuates classes and distinctions amongst people. By putting the monetary requirement on submission, you create a second class of scientists, and that is bad, because science is supposed to be egalitarian and meritocratic.

Calvinball. Calvinball, as many would claim, is both pre- and post-cursor to Junkyard Sports. I exemplify:

In this episode (one of only ten I was able to find on the remarkable collection of C&H strips found on Calvin and Hobbes at Martijn's) we see the following: [Funlog]

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mmm calvinball…. I'm in the red zone, so you can't tag me until i say the word red, darn!

Philosophers protest Bush's Dismissal of Bioethicists from Presidential Council. Philosophers Arthur Caplan (University of Pennsylvania) and Gerald Dworkin (University of California, Davis) have prepared a letter, signed by some 200 philosophers and bioethicists, protesting the latest political meddling with science and policy by the Bush Administration:

In the absence of any public reasons explaining your action, we write to strongly protest your decision not to reappoint Professors William F. May and Elizabeth Blackburn to your Council on Bioethics. The creation of sound public policy with respect to developments in medicine and the life sciences requires a council that has a diverse set of views and positions. By dismissing those two individuals and appointing new members whose views are likely to closely reflect those of the majority of the council and its chair the credibility of the council is severely compromised. On controversial ethical issues your Council must consist of members with a wide range of opinions in order to provide wise, prudent and effective advice on the many challenges and opportunities presented by advances in biomedicine.

[The Leiter Reports: Editorials, News, Updates]

You can read the Caplan, Dworkin, et al. letter to PResident Bush (.DOC format, sorry). [A blog doesn't need a clever name]

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It wouldn't be so bad, but all they did was appoint more problematic people in an attempt to remove morality and insert religion into science. it is a bad move for everyone.