Random Thoughts

In 2011 I wrote a book with Dr. Alex Berezow of RealClearScience in which we noted the common cause among the anti-vaccine, anti-energy, and anti-GMO communities. They shared common beliefs about distrust of science and I made a challenge; I said if I drew a radius around a Whole Foods, I could predict with high accuracy how those people with those beliefs voted. It was a sound methodology. The head of Whole Foods at the time was a conservative capitalist, he knew exactly who anti-science beliefs sold to, and he only put stores where they matched up. In the 2008 election, 80 percent of…

Anti-science activists are having a field day on social media, happy that a poorly designed study can let them claim that human sperm is being damaged by modern pesticides, even though the study found nothing of the kind.  Nothing new there, it's how groups like US Right To Know and their parent, Organic Consumers Association, earn money from their clients. But the paper even made its way into a real article in a real paper in Australia, and since I was giving a private class for scientists who want to do outreach this week I used the article to show how journalists who don't understand…

On Kevin Hart, Eddie Murphy could show him what an apology for past anit-gay jokes looks like.  Eddie Murphy managed to do this  in nineteen-hundred and ninety-six.  Kevin Hart never ever did apologize at all. Perhaps the defenders of Hart  don't get the issue with what he said.  There are actual Jokes, like what Eddie said.  Then there is saying "I'd hit a "gay" person, a child no less, ha ha ha."  Kevin Hart Joked about wanting to beat up his son if he did something that looked "gay".  (Often citing examples that could be read as gender variance…

Update: Comments from the gentleman who took the video and a different trans lady with an interesting take on the whole incident. Video showing a self-identified transgender woman having a moment after being misgendered has gone viral and this raises some important issues. The issue is one of genuine presentation, civility, and having realistic expectations. In my opinion while civil rights cannot depend on how a person looks humans are visual creatures.  Transgender people need to accept this and learn to work with this fact.  Not trying to pass necessarily but trying to genuinely…

As useless as this post may be, I wish to write here a few impressions from my trip to the island of Bali, Indonesia. Why, this is my blog, not a newsletter. So it makes perfect sense to use it as a receptacle of my free-wandering thoughts and experiences, every now and then. I took a British flight on December 23, which brought me from Venice to Heathrow, and from there to Doha and finally Denpasar, the largest city in Bali, located in its southern tip. About the trip I can report the following bits: - My experience at the Heathrow airport confirms it is the worst airport of a European…

Predicting the future is an inherently risky business.  However, based on available data there are a few things we can say will or likely will happen in 2019. Ranging from astronomy to physics and technology here are my three predictions.  These are based on available and linked information and my learned analysis. Human Space Flight From American Soil   Space X working with NASA will launch a crewed dragon space craft  but not when they say they will.  The first flight will go off more or less as planned.  The point of that flight is to look for any bugs in the…

Organic Consumers Association has opened a new front in their culture war against science - now they say organic food itself is too science-y. Don't they represent organic farmers? No. Unlike Organic Trade Association, the mainstream trade group created to help organic corporations gain market share, Organic Consumers Association is a fringe group that was created to tear down science they oppose on ideological grounds. They just wrap themselves in the flag of the burgeoning organic movement. They are not for anything, they are instead against any science a client will pay them to be against…

It's been a while since I last discussed something personal in this column. The reason is not that I changed my mind with respect to being open and freely share my ideas, experiences, and personal life things here - I have long argued that if a blog is not personal, it is not interesting, and I stand by that assessment. Rather, the reason of my not talking much about myself and my personal / work life is the good old one: lack of time. If I have time to write an article, I try to do it on a subject which I suppose will be more interesting to the readers of this site. Hence physics,…

At insect size, miniature superheroes Ant-Man and The Wasp should be dead in minutes. Since they did not train on the top of Mt. Everest, they would be unable to overcome the atmospheric density they would have to face at tiny size, and that's without getting into the metabolism issues. Ant-Man clearly didn't have a lot of scientific thought that went into him when he was created by a combination of Stan Lee and his brother Larry Lieber, plus artist Jack Kirby. But superheroes are big science business now. Billions and billions of dollars in box office will do that. They even have their own…

These allegations are NOT a conspiracy to “get a left wing man” or punish Neil D Tyson for his stance of climate change.  Allow me to fill in the blank of how this story got to press.   Many media outlets have thought it worth mentioning that Patheos, which focuses on spirituality host the blog of David G McAfee pursued these allegations.  In internet forums there are rumbles that this is a hit job done on someone who speaks against Trump.  Let me tell how this story was broke and debunk those insinuations once and for all.    Furthermore, note, anyone…