General Science OK, so Ares works 28 Oct 2009 I’m not proud. Well, not too proud. I admit I was wrong about the Ares 1-X – it seemed to work fine without excessive vibration and probably will work as a human rated booster. I still would have liked to see a shuttle derived main core, but given that time… Continue Reading
General Science Science eats its seed corn 28 Oct 2009 An essay in PLoS Biology observes that the state of granting in science is having a chilling effect on research, by selecting for a lack of originality and allowing too short a time frame to plan and undertake research. As a result, scientists are dropping out of doing science altogether… Continue Reading
Administrative Travel Diary 5 12 Oct 2009 So, here I am in Oxford, about to go and explore. The conference in Göttingen was absolutely marvellous. I met many interesting people (below the fold I tell you about a few). My only objection was that there was too much data! I’m a philosopher, Jim, not a scientist. Actually,… Continue Reading
Biology Psychiatric Tales 23 Sep 2009 This comic book, which is on psychiatry in general, looks very good. Click here for an eleven page excerpt on schizophrenia. I can vouch for the accuracy of this: I once had a staff member fall victim to the disorder and my manager behaved like she was a potential ax… Continue Reading
General Science Sensible information on the US Health Care debate 6 Sep 2009 I’ve been critical of New Scientist a bit, lately, so it is with great pleasure that I can link to this informative and sensible video. [brightcove vid=30583310001&exp3=2227271001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=981571807&w=300&h=225] Continue Reading
Epistemology Tautology 7: Conclusions 6 Sep 2009 So to finish, I will repeat the conclusion, and then make some comments on Fodor’s attack on “Darwinism”. Here is the complete series: The tautology problem Tautology 1a: corrections Tautology 1b: Butler Tautology 2: The problem arises Tautology 3: The problem spreads Tautology 4: What is a tautology? Tautology 5a:… Continue Reading
General Science Krugman on Keynes – how economists screwed up 5 Sep 2009 Paul Krugman has a thoroughly fascinating and interesting article in the NYT, in which he excoriates neo-classical economics and defends Keynes. What I find most interesting is that it doesn’t seem to me that we really can predict economics beyond a few truisms like “regulate as much as you need… Continue Reading
Australian stuff Musgrave on vaccine denialism 4 Sep 2009 Ian Musgrave has a smackdown of the false claims and, let’s face it, criminal lies by the antivaxxers in Australia here. Since Ian always knows whereof he speaks, it is a useful and educational post. About a decade ago, a medical researcher at the place I worked, who also practised… Continue Reading
General Science The difference between astrology and astronomy 20 Aug 2009 … about 50 IQ points: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4F5z8cVux0&hl=en&fs=1&] Continue Reading
Ecology and Biodiversity Opinion and facts on climate change 1 Aug 2009 Although this is an Opinion column in the Sydney Morning Herald, it is not. This is. Or rather the global warming deniers that it parodies are peddling nothing but devoutly hoped for opinions. Oops: Hat tip Deltoid Continue Reading