Scientists Now Need OK to Consult WHO. Now specific US government scientists can't even be selected to advise
international bodies without approval – the government will choose who
gets to give advice. I wonder whether or not those chosen will have
opinions in line with what the administration wants rather than what
the science says… silly question, isn't it – we already know the
answer.

Scientists Now Need OK to Consult WHO (AP).
AP – Government scientists must now be cleared by a Bush political
appointee before they can lend their expertise to the World Health
Organization, a change that a Democratic lawmaker said fits a pattern
of politicizing science. [Yahoo! News - Science]

[David Harris' Science & Literature]

The continuing degradation of American science by politically appointed hacks. This is beginning to sound like the old Soviet Union where only scientists who had been vetted by the government could speak outside the country, and Nobel prize winners were kept in house arrrest. I wonder what Linus Pauling would do (the only winner of a science Nobel and the Nobel Peace Prize)? [A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Weblog]

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i imagine he would be very disturbed by this sort of things, i know that it disturbs me, and that in the normal human course of events it should disturb everyone. even the possibility of blocking expertise from the world health organization is morally wrong.

Jon Stewart Nails Cheney In An Outright Lie. This is from the June 21, 2004 program. Stewart: “Mr. Vice President, I have to inform you: You're pants are on fire.” Cheney said he never stated that it was “pretty well confirmed” that meetings had taken place between Saddam's Officials and Al Queda members. The Daily Show dug up the Meet the Press coverage from December 9, 2001 that proves otherwise. As a blogger and “traditional” journalist, I always hesitate to throw the word “lie” around unless I can validate my statement. How wonderful that we live in an age where I can present my case and back it… [On Lisa Rein's Radar]

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this is just a small lie, the big lies are the ones that support it.

No more sex for American youths.

AlterNet

AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Condom Wars

Lethal new regulations from President Bush's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, quietly issued with no fanfare last week, complete the right-wing Republicans' goal of gutting HIV-prevention education in the United States. In place of effective, disease-preventing safe-sex education, little will soon remain except failed programs that denounce condom use, while teaching abstinence as the only way to prevent the spread of AIDS. And those abstinence-only programs, researchers say, actually increase the risk of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Reminds me of this billboard.

via Bopuc

[Joi Ito's Web]

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one more example of the replacement of knowledge with ideology…..

Critical Theory – HCI Style. Proceedings of Reflective HCI: Towards a Critical Technical Practice (PDF 2.10 MB)

Alas, no cultural studies – it's a strangely apolitical collection – but plenty of structural, semiotic and aesthetic (?) approaches. And I smiled when I read about usability as an oppressive practice. [Purse Lip Square Jaw]

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worth reading, though perhaps not an example of anything particularly critical.

IRR Call-Up Redux. CNN — Rarely used reservists may go to Iraq A group of Army Reserve soldiers rarely tapped for duty could soon be heading to Iraq, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. The troops, part of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), could be called to fill holes in units deploying to Iraq as… [Outside the Beltway]

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well… here we go again, people did what they were supposed to do, finished under the assumption that it was done, though they knew it coudl be otherwise and are not being greeted by their friendly neighborhood president requiring their service again.