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Archive for the ‘Science’ Category

December 20th, 2011 - 4:46 pm § in Religion, Science

Climate Denial as Humor

As an intellectual, I am embarrassed but must admit I enjoy the humor of Sasha Baron Cohen. So imagine my glee at learning that the most prominent climate denier in Britain, Lord Christopher “Monckton” is yet another creation of Mr. Cohen. For those of you unfamiliar with “Monc[...]

December 15th, 2011 - 2:46 pm § in Hypocrisy, Politics, Schools & Colleges, Science

NIH budget maintained at the price of loss of student tuition support.

Congress Would Raise NIH Spending and Maintain Maximum Pell Grant, but at a Cost By Kelly Field Washington Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced a spending bill for the remainder of the current fiscal year that would increase funds for the National Institutes of Health by 1 per[...]

December 4th, 2011 - 10:29 pm § in Hypocrisy, Schools & Colleges, Science

Cambridge Univ. Press.: Pay to read articles just like renting movies!

By Jennifer Howard Chronicle of Higher Education, November 30, 2011, read at permalink. Will researchers pay for short-term access to journal articles? Cambridge University Press is about to find out. The publisher has just announced a rental program for articles from the more than 280 peer-reviewed[...]

December 1st, 2011 - 11:27 am § in Science, The Ave Scene, UW

Has WASTATE benefited from its tobacco money?

Cutting-edge research is whittled by state Over at Crosscut, John Stang bemoans the fact that less money than expected has gone into Chris Gregoire’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund.   grew out of the tobacco settlement with big hopes for promoting health and jobs in Washington. Stang’s ar[...]

November 14th, 2011 - 8:51 pm § in America, Schools & Colleges, Science

What If This Is The Future?

Excerpts from post by Jon Evans on Tech Crunch. There is something odd going on. While millions of long-term unemployed fight desperately to tread water, technology’s handmaidens — software engineers — are minting money like bailed-out bankers. The New York Times chimes in: “technology is qu[...]

November 8th, 2011 - 11:51 am § in Politics, Schools & Colleges, Science

Our mismatch between the skills required for available jobs and individuals with those skills is growing faster than all but one other state, Delaware.

The Magic of “Computational Thinking” Training  More Folks Who Can Get Jobs? In response to OPED at the Seattle Times.  Rosemary McAuliffe, State Senator  and Ed Lazowska , UW Prof. pof Computer Science Like evangelicals of the past, Senator . McAuliffe and Professor Lazowska, have a [...]

November 7th, 2011 - 9:46 pm § in Misc., Politics, Science

Another New Journal Challenges Elsevier’s Monopoly on Biology.

Royal Society to launch into the great wide open By Paul Jump  Times Higher Education Top researchers in biology have yet another publishing option following the launch of a major open-access journal by the Royal Society. Open Biology, which will cover all areas with a molecular or cellular element[...]

October 31st, 2011 - 6:35 am § in America, Schools & Colleges, Science, UW

Will Congress Cut Salaries For UW School of Medicine Faculty?

The Scientist reports that the House draft of a budget for the NIH would cut the maximun salary for a Principal Investigator  (PI) by 17%, from  $199,700 to $165,300.  This cut would have its most obvious effect on federal support for MD scientists.  Because salaries for MDs are much higher t[...]

October 29th, 2011 - 9:17 am § in America, Science

No Free Lunch, No Cheap Drugs

Xconomy News: Weston, MA-based Biogen Idec, the largest maker of injectable treatments for multiple sclerosis, met its goals in a second clinical trial for an oral pill to treat the disease. The pill reduced flare-ups by 44 percent when taken twice per day, and by 51 percent if taken three times a[...]

October 13th, 2011 - 11:09 am § in Science, The Ave Scene, UW

The AVE Scene: Why Marcie Stillman is Wrong About SLU

Over at Crosscut Marcie Sillman has an intriguing history of Seattle as a city of innovation.  Here is a taste of what she covers: Boeing Nirvana Amazon Microsoft Starbucks Slate Immunex I found the list somewhat sad.  For example SEALAND and United Parcel, both of which loom hugely in today̵[...]