Category: General Discussion
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Eisen calls for Elsevier Boycott – but can we all go OA?
Eisen writes Thus, people joining in the new boycott have no excuses not to follow through. There are plenty of viable OA options and it is simply unacceptable for any scientist who decries Elsevier’s actions and believes that the subscription based model is no longer serving science to send a single additional paper to journals…
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End the occupation
No one likes occupiers. They’re like fish and houseguests, they start to stink after a short period of time. And I worry that as time goes on the movement will only have a more and more destructive impact on progressive politics and political discourse. This isn’t to say they can’t be effective, or haven’t been…
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Are liberals really more likely to accept science than conservatives?
Today’s NYT has Thomas Edsall’s What the Left Get’s Right, the follow up piece to last week’s What the Right Get’s Right, and what’s fascinating is how even conservative commentators think liberals get science right more often than conservatives. Or at least they are less likely to view it ideologically: A few conservative concessions to…
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Eisen Busts Rep Carolyn Maloney parroting Elsevier Publishing's defense of the Research Works Act
At It’s not junk Michael Eisen continues to expose the shameless actions of Carolyn Maloney to sell out science for the sake of publishers like Elsevier. As we remarked last week, it seems that very little money is required to buy a representatives favor towards your industry, even if that means acting against the public…
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Is this Product Placement in the Wall Street Journal?
Writing in the Saturday (how to make it look like you’re rich edition) of the Wall Street Journal, Marisa Acocella Marchetto mentions an expensive, branded drug–Nexium–eight times. She even mentions its slogan (“the purple pill”)! As Mark has written elsewhere, it’s moronic to take Nexium because there are cheaper, efficacious alternatives, such as Prilosec, which…
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The New Scientist Debates Denialism
Luckily they don’t make the mistake of actually debating denialists. The feature of last weeks issue, “Age of Denial” is a series of articles by skeptics and one laughable rebuttal, discussing the nature of denialism and tactics to use against it. They do quite a good job covering the basics, starting with Deborah MacKenzie and…
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How do we break this cycle?
I’m open to suggestions. Do we just need to kick our PR departments in the pants? To be fair, often the internets skips that step. H/T TR
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Denialism in the Literature
It’s good news though! A description of the tactics and appropriate response to denialism was published in the European Journal of Public Health by authors Pascal Diethelm and Martin McKee. It’s entitled “Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond?” and I think it does an excellent job explaining the harms of deniailsm, critical…
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Angels and Demons – Feeding our love of conspiracies
Tomorrow Angels and Demons comes to theaters across the country. One in a long series of movies that profits from the idea that underneath our regular, ordinary world, there are powerful forces controlling the scenes. I understand the appeal of these movies, it’s an entertaining concept. A fictional conspiracy engages your intellect, creates a mystery,…
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In a just society payday loans would not exist
Via Lessig and as explained beautifully by Colbert, payday loans are evil. The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The Word – Have Your Cake And Eat It, Too colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest Being a Democrat is no protection from corruption by corporations, as Congressman Gutierrez demonstrates.…