Category Archives: Science And Society

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Space, Technology and Society

“Progressive” Bioconservatives

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Thoughts on the strange political bedfellows of bioethics, from Ron Bailey:

These progressive bioconservatives fear that the rich and powerful will use technology, especially biotech, to outcompete and oppress the poor and weak. In their view, human dignity depends on human equality. It turns out that “the party of science” really is just the old-fashioned “party of equality,” science be damned (unless its findings conform to egalitarian ideology). Left-wing biocons seem to believe that protecting human dignity requires the rich and poor to remain equally diseased, disabled, and dead.

It’s always amazing to me to see the people who claim to be the “party of science” so fundamentally in denial of human nature. But of course, if they recognized it, their entire ideology falls apart. But this conflict is one more reason we need to expand off planet.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

That Fake Heartland Memo

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…is looking faker by the minute.

I think that Megan is being a little too optimistic here:

Unfortunately, I’d imagine that this is still a sizeable set of people, and it will be hard to identify the author. I suspect that it will be easier to do if the climate-bloggers–who may well know this person as a commenter or correspondent–get involved in trying to find out who muddied the story by perpetrating a fraud on their sites.

Certainly, if I were in their shoes, I’d want to expose this person, so that they could refocus on the legitimate documents, and put to rest doubts about their integrity in this matter. But I’m not going to hold my breath.

Culinary, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Creeping Totalitarianism

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Thoughts from Lileks on school lunches:

I’m trying to think of a situation in which it’s permissible for a government official – not a school employee, even, but someone representing an agency outside the school – ask my daughter what she had for breakfast, then send me a letter informing me I have fed her the wrong thing, and must correct my ways. I can’t even imagine a state official demanding to look in her lunch to see if it conforms with national standards. If this is true . .

A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.

The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the agent who was inspecting all lunch boxes in her More at Four classroom that day.

The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day care centers — to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.

And I say “if,” because years of getting collar-hot over this or that, only to find out that the situation was 17% less objectionable, which converted the situation from Ridiculous State Imposition to Idiotic Overreach Compounded by Misunderstanding and Mulish Defensiveness. But it seems to be holding up.

If this happened to us I would have to have a conversation with some people. Her lunch is simple: a piece of whole-wheat bread, a slice of bologna, half a slice of cheese, a bag of grapes, a ration of almonds, and a Roarin’ Waters pouch of flavored fluid with no sugar. It doesn’t have a vegetable because she wouldn’t eat it. In the case of this kid, the school made her a new lunch that included a vegetable, and she didn’t try it, either. You can lead a kid to watercress, but you cannot make them them eat.

There are two issues here. First, the overreach in general of having a bureaucrat police the contents of lunches brought from home. But the second is that junk science involved. There is abundant evidence that grain is not good for everyone (and perhaps not really for anyone), and yet the federal government demands that it be included in every meal. So even if one thinks that it’s acceptable for the government to act as a nanny food policeman, the law they enforce should conform to actual healthy nutrition, rather than the discredited food pyramid. As Glenn says, we used to have a remedy for this sort of thing that’s unfortunately gone out of fashion. It involves hot thick hydrocarbons and bird coverings.

Political Commentary, Science And Society

Obesity

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Are we entering an epigenetic spiral of it?

The relatively new fields of epigenetics and nutrigenomics are showing that changes in gene expression can be produced by environmental mechanisms. Could rising levels of obesity alter our genes, and, in turn, could these obesity-favoring alterations be passed on to future generations?

OK, I’m a little confused. Isn’t there a difference between the gene expression and the gene itself? Are they really saying that the environment can change the genes in a way that makes the trait acquired as a result of the environment heritable? That is, are they saying that Lamarck may have been onto something?

[Update a few minutes later]

Just a coincidence, I’m sure, but amusing that this story came out two days before Darwin Day.

And of course, Darwin was born on exactly the same day as Abraham Lincoln, in 1809. In fact, in protest of “President’s” Day, which trivializes the memory of both Washington and Lincoln, I think I’ll go put out the flag.

Science And Society, Weird

My Cat Drives Me Crazy

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She does, actually, with her willful refusal to pee in a litter box, but it may be literally true as well:

It’s almost impossible to hear about Flegr’s research without wondering whether you’re infected—especially if, like me, you’re a cat owner, favor very rare meat, and identify even a little bit with your Toxo sex stereotype. So before coming to Prague, I’d gotten tested for the parasite, but I didn’t yet know the results. It seemed a good time to see what his intuition would tell me. “Can you guess from observing someone whether they have the parasite—myself, for example?,” I ask.

“No,” he says, “the parasite’s effects on personality are very subtle.” If, as a woman, you were introverted before being infected, he says, the parasite won’t turn you into a raving extrovert. It might just make you a little less introverted. “I’m very typical of Toxoplasma males,” he continues. “But I don’t know whether my personality traits have anything to do with the infection. It’s impossible to say for any one individual. You usually need about 50 people who are infected and 50 who are not, in order to see a statistically significant difference. The vast majority of people will have no idea they’re infected.”

A long, but fascinating article.