Politics inhibiting science

 Posted by Doc Opp  Disasters and Tragedies, Europe, Foreign Policy, Israel and Palestine, Middle East  3 Responses »
May 302006
 

The largest academic group in England has called for boycotting the work of Israeli academics because of disagreements with Israeli occupation policy. For the moment, lets leave aside personal beliefs about whether Israeli policy ought to be condemned (and why Israel is singled out as opposed to other countries with considerably worse human rights records).

This means, that if a biochemist makes a discovery about how proteins work, the scientific community should ignore it. If an engineer develops a faster microchip, the designs shouldn’t be published. If an art historian develops an interesting juxtoposition of Arab and Israeli art forms which might be used to promote peace, forget it. Because an academic happens to be working in Israel (and Israel has some of the top universities in the world) they are to be considered persona non grata.

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TVS and Terri

 Posted by Dave  Disasters and Tragedies, Healthcare  9 Responses »
May 292006
 

It appears that a “Permanent Vegatative State” may not be so permanent after all. It’s likely premature to judge the significance of this discovery, but I wonder if Terri Schaivo would have been killed if it had been known the medication could help her become somewhat conscious again. Or would things have stayed the same, since her husband was resolute in forbidding her to have therapy that might have helped her?

I’m biased. I never think she should have died, and that it says sad things about society today that we let her die. Maybe things will change now that we’re beginning to see more evidence that a permanent vegatative state can be temporary.

Xmen thoughts

 Posted by Doc Opp  Bill of Rights, Legal Philosophy, Movies, The Media, U.S. Politics  1 Response »
May 282006
 

First off, X-men III rocks as a movie. I highly recommend it. Great special effects, solid acting, nice plot, and even some deeper issues hidden beneath the surface. So, in honor of the greatest comic book movie franchise of all time I thought I’d tackle one such topic on leftfielder.

At one point in the film, the president says something along the lines of “I fear for democracy in a world where one man can destroy a city”. The president is referring to the fact that there are mutants who can crush a car, or blow up a building with telekinetic powers. But one needn’t posit mutant superpowers to deal with this issue. As technology in real life becomes more advanced and accessible, the next few years will quite possibly bring the potential for a single man with a suitcase nuke, or a bioagent, or a weapon we haven’t yet conceived of to take out a city.
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The Minimum Wage

 Posted by Mike  Poverty, U.S. Politics  7 Responses »
May 242006
 

If the Democrats have any say in the matter (and they do) one of the big issues in the upcoming election cycle will be a minimum wage increase. It has been awhile since the last minimum wage increase, the immigration debate has put the spotlight on the plight of poor workers (not to mention it has forced Democrats to compromise with their union base), and it is a way for them to highlight the supposed “lack of compassion” exhibited by most Republicans. It’s a win issue for them all the way around. But that begs the important question: is it a good idea?
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Interesting promotion

 Posted by Doc Opp  Environment, The Media  4 Responses »
May 242006
 

GM has an interesting promotion that they’ve just introduced. Buy one of their gas guzzlers, and they’ll subsidize the cost of gas so that it is below $2. Having just been in L.A. where gas was $3.30 a gallon, and where people drive 40-50 miles a day this could be a big savings (especially with an SUV like the Chevy Tahoe, which gets 13 mpg). My calculator says that’s about $1500 a year in subsidies, not counting the possibility of gas prices further increasing. Since a Tahoe runs for about $30,000, that amounts to 5% a year of the cost of the car.

All in all, it strikes me as a very expensive business strategy that will come to haunt GM like their current pension program currently does. But it will be interesting to see if its successful…

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