Science & Society

Blaming Hurricane Sandy On Global Warming Was Good Politics- But Terrible Science

Which esteemed body does not like any attribution of hurricanes to global warming? ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Dec 4 2012 - 1:45pm

Back On The Market

AUCKLAND, NZ – This week, I missed Wednesday. Normally, the perils of crossing the International Date Line en route to field sites don’t bother me. After all, who really minds missing the middle of the working week? But this time, Wednesday’s absence bothe ...

Article - Holly Moeller - Nov 16 2012 - 12:30am

Rousseaunian Social Contract? Hobbes And The Fragility Of The Welfare State

A new annual analysis has again attempted to determine whether society can achieve something similar to the a Rousseaunian social contract. In order to do this, the economists carried out an experiment that reproduced in a laboratory setting some of the im ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 19 2012 - 11:25am

Fracking: Conservation Groups Debate Doing Something Positive

When you think of modern conservation groups, you probably think of fundraising campaigns designed to scare people into giving money. They latch onto the latest doomsday cause, whether it has a science basis or not. What you don't often think of are c ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Nov 25 2012 - 10:53am

Millennials Are Independent- Unless It Means Doing Laundry

Marketing people follow predictable patterns; in order to sell something it either needs to scare people or make them feel good.  "This ain't your father's" X is a timeless perceptual classic, meaning it is not old-fashioned and conserv ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 26 2012 - 6:53pm

If An Artificial Intelligence Read 2.5 Million News Articles, What Would It Learn?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms recently parsed 2.5 million articles from 498 different English-language (online) news outlets over a period of ten months and created data about what was contained.  Could AI qualitatively give people more interest ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 26 2012 - 2:00pm

As Big Pharma And Government Research Dwindles, Venture Capital May Be Back In Fashion

What do you get when you combine onerous government regulations that have increased exponentially, experimental climates that mean lots of products just may not work, and if they do work you get a product that will only be yours for a few years and during ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 26 2012 - 7:42pm

Genetic Literacy Project On Neo-Eugenics

Eugenics, once discredited as part of the first wave of social authoritarian progressives that trampled free will for women, handicapped people and minorities, is attempting a 21st century comeback.  ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Nov 30 2012 - 2:07pm

Big Pharma Doing More For Access To Medicine In Developing Countries Than Two Years Ago

The newest Access to Medicine Index, which ranks pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to medicine in developing countries, shows that the industry, led by GlaxoSmithKline, is doing more than critics claim. The Access to Medicine Ind ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 28 2012 - 10:28am

Sometimes Helping Customers Looks Like Corruption

In California, there is mandatory smog testing.  It isn't really meaningful, the worst polluters are actually exempt and the system has even led to a special class of smog testing company- test only shops- which means they won't be able to fix t ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 1 2012 - 6:36pm