Science & Society

Great Scott! Climate Change Deniers Accept Models! A recent study of old log books, coupled with the use of computer modelling of ice estimates show that the summer sea ice edge then was further from the land in the Weddell sea but that ice conditions were surprisingly comparable to the present day in other sectors We have analysed observations of the summer sea ice edge from the ship logbooks of explorers such as Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and their contemporaries during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (1897–1917), and in this study we compare these to satellite…

According to a Delta Dental survey out today, American adults overwhelmingly want a little pumpkin at Thanksgiving, it has 36 percent favorability, more than double that of American's next favorite Thanksgiving pie, pecan, which ekes out only 15 percent.   The Delta Dental Plans Association Fall 2016 Survey was conducted between October 18 and October 25, 2016 among a nationally representative sample of 1,009 Americans 18+. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent. Pumpkin pie is most popular in the West (46 percent) but that drops to 30 percent for people in the South. Additionally, 39…

When a tree dies, or when we run across decaying wood in a forest, our first reaction is to think we should remove it. However, the ecology of the forest is such that saproxylic organisms, including fungi and insects, depend on the dead wood that naturally generates the dynamics of the forest. The fact is, however, that there is a real obsession to eliminate it as soon as possible because it seems dirty and like it will attract pests. The biggest problem associated with dead wood is that dead wood plays a very important role in forest life. The forest needs dead trees and decaying wood to…

In the criminal justice community, the community supervision approach known as Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) has generated widespread enthusiasm when it comes to substance use, violations, new arrests, and revocations to prison, but a new study casts doubt that HOPE versus probation as usual (PAU) is doing anything but saving money. In a four-site randomized control trial that tested the effectiveness and replicability of HOPE programs, more than 1500 individuals on probation from communities in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Texas were randomly assigned to either…

Mark Bittman, cookbook guru and former New York Times columnist for those who self-identify as being the latest nutritional trend followers, has had success telling other people how to run their business - but was a giant flop when he actually had to implement his own vegan beliefs. That has led to a sweet teaching gig at Columbia University, which tells you everything you need to know about the quality of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health education you are taking out $72,000 per year in student loans to get. It used to be said, 'those who can't do, teach', but that…

The current crisis in the US/West is of profound significance! This is not a mere economic or environmental crisis; it is not even a mere political crisis. This crisis is about the fundamentals of our social systems’ perception. Especially in a society that follows a democratic doctrine, media belong vitally to the perception apparatus of the social systems. Here is something almost none of you – NONE I say! – properly understand: You may be already aware of that there is a deep problem if the established media and intellectuals, that is precisely those that the society relies on to know…

Environmentalists almost certainly cost Secretary Hillary Clinton the election and now they want to act as a violent alternative to President-elect Trump. President Obama had consistently sided with environmentalists over jobs - an example was the Keystone XL pipeline - despite science and smart policy and that came back to haunt Democrats, who couldn't get back control of the Senate, stayed a minority in the House, and now lost the Presidency. On Keystone XL, State Department scientists, under Sec'y Clinton, had found no environmental  issue (it was, after all, 400 miles of new pipe…

If corporate money controls our politics, as Bernie Sanders and others have claimed, then how did the Republican Party – the reputed party of business – manage to nominate a candidate whom almost no one in Big Business supports? And why have so many been so silent about it? A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reports that not one CEO at a Fortune 100 company has donated to Trump’s campaign, whereas one-third supported Mitt Romney in 2012. Many in business have said privately that they are terrified of a Trump administration and the possibility of trade wars and ballooning deficits,…

In a world where individuals have ranked preferences, it is not possible to create a voting procedure that is guaranteed to yield a fair selection between more than two alternatives. This is a mathematical certainty: in 1951 Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow gave the mathematical proof. The key underlying issue is that individuals who have clear ranked preferences ("I prefer apples over bananas and bananas over cherries") tends to result into groups that have cyclic preferences ("we prefer apples over bananas, bananas over cherries, and cherries over apples"). From a game-theoretical point of…

It is still true that far more men than women have leading roles in many organizations. If you ask women to explain this, as many researchers have, they point to workplace culture as a prime culprit. Many readers will be familiar with the kinds of experiences that frustrate women’s career progress; things like being interrupted or talked over in meetings. But that is old news. Less well known are more subtle trends such as the tendency of men to be promoted on their potential to take on a new role, while women need experience of the role to get the job. This is often called “ability bias”…