Category Archives: Politics

happy deadline everyone!

Posted on October 16, 2013 by aram

The main proof in one of my QIP submissions has developed a giant hole. Hopefully the US Congress does a better job with its own, somewhat higher stakes, deadline. In many ways their job is easier. They can just submit … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Politics | 4 Comments

Victory!

Posted on November 6, 2012 by aram

On this historic occasion, let me take this opportunity to congratulate tonight’s winner: Nate Silver, of the Mathematics Party. No words yet on a concession speech from the opposition. Fans will be pleased to know that Nate is now on … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Politics, Statistics | 5 Comments

Is science on trial in Italy?

Posted on October 22, 2012 by sflammia

Big news from Italy today, where a regional court has ruled that six Italian scientists (and one ex-government official) are guilty of multiple manslaughter for the deaths of 309 people that were killed in the L’Aquila earthquake in 2009. The reaction … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Science | 7 Comments

Randomized Governance

Posted on February 12, 2012 by sflammia

What if instead of electing our representatives in government, we simply chose them at random? A new Rasmussen poll asked 1,000 likely voters exactly this question. Turns out, 43% thought that a random choice of people from the phonebook would … Continue reading →

Posted in Funny Ha Ha, Politics | 19 Comments

A Federal Mandate for Open Science

Posted on February 9, 2012 by sflammia

Witness the birth of the Federal Research Public Access Act: “The Federal Research Public Access Act will encourage broader collaboration among scholars in the scientific community by permitting widespread dissemination of research findings.  Promoting greater collaboration will inevitably lead to … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Science, Politics, Science 2.0, Scientific Publishing, Society | 2 Comments

Could Elsevier shut down arxiv.org?

Posted on January 1, 2012 by aram

They haven’t yet, but they are supporting SOPA, a bill that attempts to roll back Web 2.0 by making it easy to shut down entire sites like wikipedia and craigslist if they contain any user-submitted infringing material. (Here is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Computers, Economics, Open Science, Politics, Scientific Publishing | 9 Comments

More cracks in the theory of relativity?

Posted on December 24, 2011 by sflammia

When the OPERA collaboration announced their result that they had observed neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light, it rocked the entire physics community. However, despite the high statistical certainty of the claim, any sober physicist knew that the possibility … Continue reading →

Posted in Funny Ha Ha, Off The Deep End, Physics Bastardizations, Politics | 7 Comments

Balancing the Budget, One NSF Grant at a Time

Posted on December 8, 2010 by dabacon

Now THIS is the kind of idea we pay our Republican house representatives to come up with. A website where we can go through NSF grants and identify the ones we think should not be funded, balancing the budget, one … Continue reading →

Posted in Off The Deep End, Politics, Science | 4 Comments

Good and Bad News on the U.S. Deficit

Posted on November 22, 2010 by dabacon

Warning politics to follow! Politics with questionable data sources! Recently the New York Times made a very cool web application in which you could select different methods for closing the deficit (which they break down into a short term 2015 … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

Climate Change Emails Scandal of a Physicist Kind

Posted on December 10, 2009 by dabacon

Ha, well, not nearly the soap opera that is the “University of East Anglia” emails, but fun to watch, nonetheless. A letter from American Physical Society president Cherry Murray: Dear APS Member: Recently, you may have received an unsolicited email … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 10 Comments