A climate scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology, Dr. Judith Curry, abruptly resigned last week citing “craziness in the field of climate science” and the politicization of academia. Via her blog, Climate Etc.: Effective January 1, I have resigned my tenured faculty position at Georgia Tech…. Technically, my resignation is a retirement event, since I
READ MOREA 14-page report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has concluded that during last year’s election campaign Russia tried “to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency” and promote the candidacy of Donald Trump. The report is a non-classified version of a
READ MOREOn January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published a little pamphlet known as Common Sense. The pamphlet would become one of the many sparks lighting the fire for the American Revolution. Thomas Paine made any number of important and influential comments in his little book including the following: “Men who look upon themselves born to reign,
READ MORENational Geographic, the magazine that recently ran a cover story on the most influential figures in ancient history but left out Moses and Jesus, is now trying its hand at gender theory. Its new cover story is entitled “How Science is Helping Us Understand the Gender Revolution.” Finally, a scientist is going to tell us
READ MOREUnless I miss my guess, many of us have never been huge fans of textbooks. They’re boring. Impersonal. And as a new study published in Current Psychology reports, textbooks may also be… biased. Researchers Christopher Ferguson, Jeffrey Brown, and Amanda Torres set out to explore this bias specifically in regard to the basic psychology textbooks
READ MOREThe Trump victory, and the general disaster for Democrats this year, was the victory of ignorance, critics moan. Writing in Foreign Policy, Georgetown’s Jason Brennan called it “the dance of the dunces” and wrote that “Trump owes his victory to the uninformed.” New York Times columnist Neil Irwin noted the unprecedented list of inexperts and
READ MOREMy first feeling for Meryl Streep was embarrassment. The three-time Oscar-winner’s speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday brought to mind a cocktail reception I once attended. A nice young woman couldn’t resist injecting politics into polite conversation in mixed company. It was awkward for everyone but her. People politely smiled, much like the actors
READ MOREThis fall my 5-year-old daughter will go off to kindergarten. I’ve known this day was coming for years, but somehow I still managed to be wholly unprepared for the event. By “unprepared”, I’m not talking about the sadness that naturally accompanies these periodic reminders that one’s child must eventually grow up, but about the decision
READ MOREThis week, twenty states began implementing minimum wage increases that were passed during 2016. As the country waits to see how these increased wages this will affect the economy, the U.S. territories have already provided us with a grim example. After the 2007 Fair Minimum Wage Act was passed, each of the fifty states was required to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour in 2006,
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