Links 2/14/11

Posted on February 14, 2011 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science:
Fear and Its Consequences: Why States Should Get Tough with Vaccinations
If you love nature, move to the city
New antibiotics: Not many and fewer all the time
Researchers are punks: The fields of science and punk rock share some surprising similarities, according to the people who love both (I’m more of an old-school ska/rockabilly guy myself)
Other:
No Pension, No Chance
It’s Not Personal
Buried by Bad Mortgages
Discover The Network Out To Crush Our Public Workers
Americans love government spending — when you start to talk specifics
World’s Only Superpower Has 32 Legislators Living Out of Their DC Offices (it’s the Spiro Agnew aspect of the whole thing…)
Metro’s future rides on Saturday night

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3 Responses to Links 2/14/11

  1. Min says:
    February 14, 2011 at 5:28 pm

    In “It’s Not Personal”, Daniel Gros states:
    “At negative net national savings, the U.S. is eating into its capital stock instead of adding to it. This cannot go on for long without sapping the recovery and putting the American economy at the mercy of international capital markets.”
    He should have added that, to allow national savings to grow, the Federal gov’t should increase the deficit. He really should have, because we really, really need to increase our savings. Show us the money!

  2. film izle says:
    February 15, 2011 at 2:56 am

    I mean, really?? I’m a scientist, and just reading that even made *my* eyes glaze over. If one thing they’re trying to convey is the importance and relevance of the scientist’s research to GQ readers, what percentage of the readers are really going to walk away with a deeper understanding of what Dr. Jamieson does by reading that description? It would have been a small thing to ask each participant to submit a layman-friendly version of their research (their “elevator talk” description, for example) for GQ to include.
    Finally–one of the “scientists” is Dr. Oz. What is he doing in there? One, I would think he’s already well-known enough; why not save that spot for another scientist? Two, yes, I know he’s actually done research and published, and is on the faculty at Columbia. Fantastic. He’s also a serious woo peddler, who has even featured everyone’s favorite “alternative” doc, Joseph Mercola, on his talk show, and discussed how vaccines may be playing a role in autism and allergies (despite mounds of evidence to the contrary). This seems to completely contradict their goal of “research funding as a national priority,” since Oz is often (and Mercola is always) highly critical of “mainstream medicine.” I really don’t understand his inclusion, and think it’s to the detriment of the rest of the campaign.

  3. JasonTD says:
    February 15, 2011 at 9:40 am

    He should have added that, to allow national savings to grow, the Federal gov’t should increase the deficit. He really should have, because we really, really need to increase our savings.

    Min,
    You seem to have missed the part where he said [emphasis mine]:

    But what matters for a country is not only how much households save, but the national savings rate, i.e., the sum of savings of households, the corporate sector and the government.

    He points out that the net savings rate for the whole U.S. is actually negative, a situation matched only by Greece and Portugal in the OECD.
    Granted, in some analysis not at all what conservatives want to acknowledge, he points out that the positive household savings rate in the U.S. is mostly in the upper incomes while the middle and lower classes are actually less able to save than before.

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