Science & Society

Neil deGrasse Tyson was accused by three women of various acts of sexual misconduct over time. NatGeo and Fox paid for into the sexual assault, harassment, and misconduct allegations made by Dr Katelyn N Allers (inappropriate touching under the clothes), Ashely Watson (sexual harassment ), and Tchiya Amet (acquaintance rape by drugging).  If you are a true fan of his, as much as I was you should support this petition demanding that the full results of their investigation be released.   Furthermore, that in the case of the one criminal act he was accused of whatever they found…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=12217639&ref=twitter Auckland father and lawyer Tim Rainey said the use of essential oils in classrooms could trigger asthma attacks. Photo / Supplied An Auckland primary school has pulled therapeutic diffusers from the classroom after a high court threat from a parent who said the essential oils could trigger asthma attacks. On Wednesday, Milford Primary School on Auckland's North Shore put diffusers in 20 classrooms with oil blends designed to "stop the spread of viruses and keep children focused at school". That evening the school board…

Two days ago I came across this article in Science Codex. Extremist sympathies more likely in white British and UK-born people which took me to the paper itself: Extremism and common mental illness: cross-sectional community survey of White British and Pakistani men and women living in England | The British Journal of Psychiatry which is Open Access and can be viewed in HTML, downloaded as a PDF, and other options. However, I have a strong misgiving. In the sort of psychological questionnaires used in this study, is there not always a danger that the questions may mean something different…

Neil D. Tyson was investigated by Fox and Nat Geo for sexual misconduct, the investigation complete Cosmos and Star Talk will return to the air. This investigation would always have been of limited scope and shows at least he is no Harvey Weinstein or Bill Ayers. A completed investigation by Fox and Nat Geo is not a trial nor does it have to be.  The questions before a corporate investigator are not those that would be in front of a court of civil or criminal law.  Their question is, did Dr. Tyson do anything which could bring liability upon the company?  If not, then they…

The U.S. college admissions scandal, where wealthy elites paid to circumvent an arbitrary entrance scoring system at some privileged schools by gaming it, has already led to lawsuits because the value of a degree from USC, Stanford, Yale and others involved has been devalued, students and their lawyers claim. That may be a good time for a new law specifically targeted at Essay Mills, the inappropriate activities of companies who offer to write student assignments for a fee. As many as one in seven students are using essay-mills but it is a headache for policymakers, who prefer sweeping…

One Launch of NASA’s Space Launch System will cost at least one billion dollars and only be possible once every two years. Space X falcon heavy cost, at most,  150 million dollars per launch.  The Space X starship is in development , but even if it cost twice as much as Falcon Heavy, would still be WAY less expensive than SLS.  For years commercial crew programs had money taken from them and given to Boeing supposedly as part of the private commercial crew program in order to prop up the SLS.   Boeing's Space Launch System (SLS) is NASA’s SLS.   If it wasn’…

First this site has never been used for missile launching. It has only been used for satellites as part of North Korea’s ambitious civilian space program. They want to become one of the few countries able to launch satellites to geostationary orbit. Although it could be used for a missile test, this seems unlikely. One suggestion is that it is to have more things to offer to demolish as part of future negotiations. Other suggestions include signaling impatience with the pace of negotiations, and a chess move to ratchet up pressure on Washington. It is not an attempt to do anything in secret…

Two generations ago, it was normal for kids to play out on the street. But trust in media was high then and sensationalized accounts of kidnappings and white vans and accidents led to helicopter parents worried that their children would be kidnapped.(1) Today, unless there is an organized play date scheduled well in advance, kids are likely to stay indoors. Sports will cause concussions, after all. That has led to kids being isolated and often obese. It may be starting to change. The Mommy Blogger (2) culture that has led to bizarre surges in organic food, the anti-vaccine movement, and the…

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a simple chart of pedestrian deaths is worth 6,227 - that is the number of pedestrian deaths last year, not the length of this article. Last week my wife mentioned that pedestrian deaths have risen a lot, and statistics from Governors Highway Safety Association show that is so, even if it was only 4 percent over the previous year. Though overall traffic deaths are down, pedestrian deaths have been on upswing since 2013. Should you be worried about walking? Not really, the numbers are absolute risk. A 50 percent increase since 2009 is about double…

It is reasonably good news. Kim wanted the US to drop all sanctions in response for dismantling the publicly disclosed plant to make nuclear weapons materials. They weren't ready to do that. The US were willing to drop all sanctions in response to him completely denuclearizing but he wasn't ready to do that. He has a vision but not the same as the US vision but closer than it was a year ago. Trump talked about them knowing the country very well (including nuclear facilities that NK has not disclosed). And that he wasn't willing to do enough. Not a big disagreement. More that they were on the…