The technology community in the US ain't what it used to be, argues Judy Estrin, a technology entrepreneur and former Chief Technology Officer of Cisco. She is the author of Closing the Innovation Gap, and she's arguing that "we have a national innovation deficit."

Why is it so hard to find national Republican leaders who don't espouse creationism? Why does opposition to the very successful science of modern biology have to be part of today's definition of a conservative? When you hear that someone is a creationist and a politician, it's a safe bet today that this person is a Republican. Why is a major American political party in the 21st century so in bed with one of the most anti-intellectual movements out there? U.S. Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin on teaching creationism to public school children of all faiths (or none):

Via Cosmic Variance I see that it's blogger book-list time again. Cocktail Party Physics gets us started with a list of the best popular science books. Great science books are always neglected in lists of the world's best books, so browse these lists for a smorgasborg of the best science writing out there. Here's my contribution, which is based on two main criteria - the quality of the prose, and the substance of the science. A good science book should effectively convey the ideas involved in the story, or something about how science itself works as seen through the life of a successful scientist. The list does not include many old books - for some reason, popular science books can quickly seem very dated.

Along with chimps, orangutans, elephants, and dolphins, some birds are smart enough to recognize themselves in the mirror. We're naturally inclined to think of mammals as the creatures most likely to have a developed sense of self, but it turns out that magpies are also quite self-aware. How do you know when an animal recognizes itself in the mirror? You need some way to tell whether an animal thinks a mirror image is another animal, or whether the animal recognizes itself. Researchers get at this problem by marking the animal in some way and watching how it behaves. In this case, a group of German researchers stuck a yellow sticker on the bird, in a place where the bird would only notice the sticker when looking in a mirror: Image from Prior, et. al, PLoS Biology 6(8): e202 The test birds, seeing the sticker in the mirror image, frequently started searching their own bodies for the mark - a sign that these birds knew they were looking at an image of themselves. These results add to the evidence that, like some mammals, certain bird species have brains that can carry out more complex cognitive functions. Most animals don't have much use for the kind of self-awareness exhibited in this mirror test. But self-awareness can be useful, the German researchers argue: in the social environment of these birds, more self-aware individuals might be better at using past experience to predict the behavior of other birds in their social group.

This piece is a little old, and is ostensibly about Presidential candidates, but the advice applies to anyone with a 'wired' job who needs to think, including scientists and science writers:

In London, Obama and [British Conservative Leader] Cameron commiserated about their days, which are arranged in 15-minute intervals of crisis. They react, but they never have time to reflect. Cameron said he tried to not let aides "chalk up" his schedule with too many commitments. Obama's solution was to set aside time to let his brain work during his mid-August vacation. "The most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you're doing is thinking," he said...

The problem is becoming especially acute in science.