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Republicans Are Still Too New to the Anti-Vax Ecosystem To Have A Hugh Fudenberg

Republicans Are Still Too New to the Anti-Vax Ecosystem To Have A Hugh Fudenberg

Jan 18 2024 | comment(s)

Republicans are still pretty new to the anti-vax ecosystem. Sure, decades ago there were some religious fundamentalists who denied vaccines, but when progressive states like California, Washington, and Oregon led the nation by far - the California coast actually had more arbitrary school kid exemptions than the entire US combined - more conservative states like Mississippi and Alabama had vaccines for kids at nearly 100 percent.
The Biden Administration Needs To Fund The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978

The Biden Administration Needs To Fund The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978

Jan 18 2024 | comment(s)

The US Department of Agriculture believes that foreign countries may own up to 40,000,000 acres of farm land.

No one really knows despite the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 requiring it. 
Electric Car Sales Are Plummeting Due To Reduced Subsidies - Cold Weather Will Make Sales Worse

Electric Car Sales Are Plummeting Due To Reduced Subsidies - Cold Weather Will Make Sales Worse

Jan 17 2024 | comment(s)

Like most of the Biden economic initiatives during his first term, the Inflation Reduction Act, along with trillions of dollars of other subsidies, were primarily geared toward wealthy elites.

If you want to buy a fancy electric car, government, using taxes and fees on poor people, will pay you to do so. They pay car companies to make them and mandate car companies had to make them.
California Democrats Vow To Help Prevent Childhood Obesity With More Government - By Banning Sports

California Democrats Vow To Help Prevent Childhood Obesity With More Government - By Banning Sports

Jan 17 2024 | comment(s)

California Democrats: Childhood obesity is up, we need more government regulations to protect people from themselves.

Also California Democrats: Let's start by banning sports for kids.

By the end of this month, California Democrats will decide if they should ban youth football. Sports are dangerous. It's for the children.
Suspect Correlation: Epidemiologists Link IVF To BMI Of Kids

Suspect Correlation: Epidemiologists Link IVF To BMI Of Kids

Jan 17 2024 | comment(s)

A population-based cohort study sought to examine a controversial epidemiological claim about assisted reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization and the body mass index (BMI) of children.
Federal Scientists Did Not Say Marijuana Is Medicine, Epidemiologists Did

Federal Scientists Did Not Say Marijuana Is Medicine, Epidemiologists Did

Jan 16 2024 | comment(s)

Marijuana industry trade groups are ecstatic that a Department of Health and Human Services report  stated there is one indication that medical marijuana is legitimate.

But news outlets reporting that federal scientists are saying medical marijuana is legitimate are doing the public a disservice; it was not scientists, it was epidemiologists, and the review was of papers where people anecdotally said it helped them feel less pain.


American Academy Of Pediatrics: Lied About Vaccines And Autism, Kids Walking To School, And Now GMOs

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Lied About Vaccines And Autism, Kids Walking To School, And Now GMOs

Jan 16 2024 | comment(s)

It is an unfortunate reality in America that medical societies have an outsized influence on government policy.
Thermodynamic Parameters Can Influence The Outcome Of An Experiment

Thermodynamic Parameters Can Influence The Outcome Of An Experiment

Jan 15 2024 | comment(s)

When you are making a model it is common to make assumptions about the physical systems often assume that measurable features of the system. Temperature or chemical potential can be specified. The real world is messier than that, and uncertainty is unavoidable. Temperatures fluctuate, instruments malfunction, the environment interferes, and systems evolve over time.

Statistical physics address the uncertainty about the state of a system that arises when that system interacts with its environment but a new paper says that uncertainty in the thermodynamic parameters themselves — built into equations that govern the energetic behavior of the system — may also influence the outcome of an experiment.
The Harvard Anti-Semitism Controversy Also Revealed The Scholarship Cancer Inside Academia

The Harvard Anti-Semitism Controversy Also Revealed The Scholarship Cancer Inside Academia

Jan 15 2024 | comment(s)

University of Kentucky political science Professor Stephen Voss, who was plagiarized by Harvard President Claudine Gay, said it was no big deal. It was even expected she would use his work without attribution? He seems to think so. “It would have been quite natural for her to borrow ideas from me."

He didn't tell me that personally. I instead cited the source. Like you are supposed to do. It ain't that hard. She could have done it but did not, and yet he has no issue with that. He seems to be more upset that her plagiarism is going to lead to more investigations of humanities scholars' academic work, including by people 'not qualified' to do so.
Resilience: Debunking The Debunker

Resilience: Debunking The Debunker

Jan 15 2024 | comment(s)

Sarah Green Carmichael, in a Bloomberg News item titled “You don’t need more resilience, you need friends, and money” debunks the business gurus who tell us all resilience comes from inside us. Sarah’s thesis is that our environments determine our resilience, or at least can shield us from the traumas that necessitate resilience.

Statistical Methods For Fundamental Science Course Starts Tomorrow

Statistical Methods For Fundamental Science Course Starts Tomorrow

Jan 14 2024 | comment(s)

From tomorrow onwards (once or twice a week until February 5), I will be giving an online course on the topic of "Statistical Methods for Fundamental Science" for the INSTATS organization. This is a 5-day, 15-hour set of lectures that I put together to suit the needs of students and researchers who work in any scientific discipline, who wish to improve their understanding and practice of statistical methods for data analysis.
There’s DEI, And Then There’s DEI

There’s DEI, And Then There’s DEI

Jan 12 2024 | comment(s)

A job interview, some years back, at No Name University (NNU). I was the candidate. The diversity question, pitched right on schedule. The surprise was who asked it. Of the seven search committee members (plus the search firm rep) only one was a person of color, and guess who they stuck with asking the diversity question? A clear signal I would not want to work at their institution, but I gave it my best game anyway.

Forget 25% Of Their Fleet By 2024, Hertz Is Now Dumping 20,000 Electric Cars

Forget 25% Of Their Fleet By 2024, Hertz Is Now Dumping 20,000 Electric Cars

Jan 11 2024 | comment(s)

With the Biden administration throwing taxpayer money at wealthy elites, manufacturers, and companies willing to roll the dice on electric cars, Hertz enthusiastically gushed that they were going to be 25 percent electric by this year.

Instead, they have decided to sell 20,000 of them and go back to gas engines.
Tianeptine And Other Supplements Have Gotten An FDA Free Pass For 30 Years - It's Time For That To End

Tianeptine And Other Supplements Have Gotten An FDA Free Pass For 30 Years - It's Time For That To End

Jan 11 2024 | comment(s)

Politics is about trade-offs. Perhaps a reason President Biden isn't better-regarded is because if Congress didn't give him what he wanted, he circumvents them with agencies he controls, such as OSHA with vaccine mandates, the CDC with rent control, and EPA to ban safe weedkillers and pesticides.

He can take a page out of Presidents Clinton and Bush 43 on how to do better if he wins again this fall.
Rural Areas Need A 'Doctors Without Borders' Initiative From Wealthy Physicians In Cities

Rural Areas Need A 'Doctors Without Borders' Initiative From Wealthy Physicians In Cities

Jan 10 2024 | comment(s)

If a doctor declares that they are going to another country on vacation to provide free medical care, they get a great deal of social currency from that. Ask a San Francisco doctor to travel to rural California to do the same and you'll be dismissed.
Did Iron Man Just Create The Ozempic Fad Of 2024, Beta Blockers?

Did Iron Man Just Create The Ozempic Fad Of 2024, Beta Blockers?

Jan 08 2024 | comment(s)

During yesterday's Golden Globes acceptance speech for best supporting actor, Robert Downey Jr. ("Oppenheimer") seemed to be referencing stage fright when he said "Yeah, yeah, I took a beta-blocker so this will be a breeze." 

Let's ignore that he is pretending he has stage fright, and certainly that accepting an award would give him high blood pressure or heart palpitations, and discuss what we know it really means; celebrities have jumped on the beta blocker fad for social anxiety or depression. Unlike fentanyl or xanax, no one will judge you if you keel over while on beta blockers. No one is worried your propranolol habit is out of hand.
Common Core On The Ropes - California Brings Back Cursive Writing In Schools

Common Core On The Ropes - California Brings Back Cursive Writing In Schools

Jan 08 2024 | comment(s)

Presidents Obama and Bush are good friends now, but they wouldn't be in President Bush held a grudge. While campaigning in 2007 and 2008, Senator Obama laid every cultural crime at the feet of the outgoing Republican. And when the housing crisis hit, and he made the economy worse with a stimulus package for government union employees just as President Biden did in 2021, President Obama blamed Bush - even though Bush warned in 2005 that forcing banks to justify why they turned down a mortgage while insuring bad housing loans, at the demand of Democrats, is what led to the housing bubble.
Harry Potter Is The Top Selling Game Of 2023

Harry Potter Is The Top Selling Game Of 2023

Jan 08 2024 | comment(s)

Even though author JK Rowling controversially believes that being a woman might be more than a state of mind, people bought "Hogwarts Legacy" in droves last year. It was the top-selling game, beating out new entries in the popular "Call of Duty" and "Diablo" franchises.

That is if current trends from November held up. December can be a real confounder because "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III" came out in November - and quickly rose to the number two spot. It could have beat Harry Potter but we won't know until Activision releases its numbers. Also impressive was "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom", because it was only available on one platform, the Nintendo Switch, while Harry Potter was also available on Xbox, Playstation, and PC.
What Is And Is Not Plagiarism In Scientific Papers? Neri Oxman And Claudine Gay Did Nothing Seriously Wrong. A Basic Guide To Citation.

What Is And Is Not Plagiarism In Scientific Papers? Neri Oxman And Claudine Gay Did Nothing Seriously Wrong. A Basic Guide To Citation.

Jan 08 2024 | comment(s)

The online discourse of our time has come to the issue of plagiarism. Now Claudine Gay and Neri Oxman of Harvard and MIT have been accused of plagiarism for what are basically political reasons. Gay was president of Harvard and did not condemn students who protest against Israels actions in Gaza in ways that may cross a line into anti-semitism. A man named Bill Ackman a billionaire donor to Harvard is the husband of Neri Oxman so others have gone after her. In both of these cases what is being called Plagiarism is not plagiarism. Both of them are innocent of that and are at worst guilty of sloppy citation.

According to Websters Dictionary.
plagiarized; plagiarizing

The Economics You Were Taught? Dead.

The Economics You Were Taught? Dead.

Jan 05 2024 | comment(s)

This is a companion piece to “Enough: Toward A Sustainable Economics” 

https://www.science20.com/fred_phillips/enough_toward_a_sustainable_economics-256755.