Category Archives: Politics

An Everything But Merger Act?

Posted on September 10, 2009 by dabacon

I have been riveted by yesterday’s re-argument of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission before the United States Supreme Court. I mean who hasn’t? At stake, as they say in media newspeak, is the entire state of campaign finance law … Continue reading →

Posted in Off The Deep End, Politics | 15 Comments

The Great Firewall of Collaboration

Posted on July 16, 2009 by dabacon

A fellow quantum computing researcher of mine recently joined FriendFeed. Along with another researcher we got involved in a discussion about a paper concerning a certain recent claimed “disproof of Bell’s theorem.” (arXiv:0904.4259. What it means to “disprove a theorem” … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Extralusionary Intelligence, Off The Deep End, Politics, Science 2.0 | 11 Comments

New DARPA Director

Posted on July 2, 2009 by dabacon

DARPA, you know the people who invented the internet (“100 geniuses connected by a travel agent”), has a new director: The Department of Defense (DoD) today announced the appointment of Regina E. Dugan as the 19th director of the Defense … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Caltech, Computer Science, Physics, Politics, Science | 4 Comments

Who Will Study the Studiers?

Posted on June 26, 2009 by dabacon

NSF awards $400K in stimulus funding to study the impact of stimulus funding on science. Researchers at the University of Virginia get $199,951 to study the impact of stimulus funding on employment in science and engineering fields, while the University … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Off The Deep End, Politics, Science | 1 Comment

Dear My Senator, Not In My Back Yard

Posted on May 21, 2009 by dabacon

A letter Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 18 Comments

Rep Joe Barton Thinks Oil in Alaska Disproves Global Warming

Posted on April 22, 2009 by dabacon

Okay, well he didn’t exactly say that, but he certainly is a smug son of a gun who asked a grade school question to a Nobel prize winner in physics, apparently expecting a “gotcha” moment (via TPM): Dudes even so … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Off The Deep End, Politics | 25 Comments

Where To Move?

Posted on April 12, 2009 by dabacon

I am always greatly amused by the display of frustration in which one threatens to leave a country if things don’t change. During the end of the first term of Bush the Second, it was common in the United States … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Funny Ha Ha, Politics | 30 Comments

Another Physicist To Washington

Posted on March 25, 2009 by dabacon

A press release from Caltech about Steve Koonin, who was the boss of my bosses during a SURF project and was a student of my undergraduate advisor at Caltech (and also responsible for severe drops in GPAs for many of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Science | 4 Comments

Watch NSF Spend?

Posted on March 3, 2009 by dabacon

The NSF has put up a “recovery” page for the stimulus bill: http://www.nsf.gov/recovery. Interestingly it appears that there is an link to an rss feed for “weekly reports.” These appear to be excel files of the spending done by the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Science | 1 Comment

Earth to Republicans: Curing STDs Would Probably Be a Good Thing

Posted on February 27, 2009 by dabacon

On Morning Edition this morning, there was a story about the annual Conservative Political Action Conference which contained a line which made me guffaw: Representative Paul Ryan: “[rant on spending in stimulus plan]…$400 million dollars to study sexually transmitted diseases!” … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Off The Deep End, Politics, Science | 36 Comments