Links 5/30/13

Posted on May 30, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science:

Tides and doldrums in science communication
The Evidence on GMO Safety
Finally! Independent Testing Of Rossi’s E-Cat Cold Fusion Device: Maybe The World Will Change After All
The Real Reason Kids Aren’t Getting Vaccines
Biotech’s bull run starts to look frothy
basic research wackaloonery

Other:

New Jersey at risk of implementing untested VAM-like teacher evaluation model
Things Fall Apart: In ‘The Unwinding,’ George Packer Aims for Dos Passos, Comes Up Sub-Gladwell
Mike Bloomberg’s group will keep hitting red state Dems over guns
Adjunct or Starving Artist? cShould an M.F.A. trying to make it in her field accept an adjunct teaching job or take a break from academe? (the choice really seems to be between starving artist and starving adjunct)
Obama to Senate: Obstruct This
Why Nerds Are Unpopular (old, but worth reading)
Memorial Day
Lessons of the New Gun Politics
What It Don’t Get I Can’t Use: The Development Case For Cash
Why Society Still Needs Feminism
The Core Reason for the Humanities Crisis
An American in Tokyo
Meet Your Wingnut Congresscritter: Vicky Hartzler

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3 Responses to Links 5/30/13

  1. Bayesian Bouffant, FCD says:
    May 30, 2013 at 8:27 pm

    Finally! Independent Testing Of Rossi’s E-Cat Cold Fusion Device: Maybe The World Will Change After All
    Very briefly, LENR, otherwise called cold fusion, is a technique that generates energy through low temperature (far lower than hot fusion temperatures which are in the range of tens off thousands of degrees) reactions that are not chemical.

    This guy needs to expand his vocabulary, and learn how to use words like “allegedly.”
    Given the likelihood of fakery, a technologically literate magician would have been a good idea.

    They were fed by a TRIAC power regulator device which interrupted each phase periodically, in order to modulate power input with an industrial trade secret waveform. This procedure, needed to properly activate the E-Cat HT charge, had no bearing whatsoever on the power consumption of the device, which remained constant throughout the test.

    1) Measuring power from complex waveforms is tricky.
    2) Power consumption? This device consumes power? The greatest power source the world has ever known, and all he is doing is pumping in electrically-powered heat and measuring temperature?

    but unless this is one of the most elaborate hoaxes in scientific history

    This guy seems pretty gullible. I wouldn’t trust him to know the history of elaborate scientific hoaxes.

  2. Tiercelet says:
    May 31, 2013 at 1:13 pm

    “The Evidence on GMO Safety” is yet another example of scientists on GMO topics completely missing the point. The problem isn’t whether or not having salmon genes in your Wheaties gives you teh cancerz, but rather:

    1) GMO crops tend to get loose and cross-pollinate with non-GMO stocks and contaminate non-GMO fields: http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2013/05/rogue-monsanto-wheat-sprouts-oregon
    2) The patent/IP legal regime with which Monsanto has co-evolved is incredibly evil to farmers.
    3) GMO use is a big driver toward agricultural monoculture and the embrittlement of our food system due to resistance. Roundup-Ready crops (the main GMO) are a giant experiment, sadly successful, in induced herbicide resistance; something similar’s happening with the Bt trait for insect pests.

    It doesn’t matter if it’s safer than aspartame and tastier than unicorn bacon. The risk has never been biological damage to the individual consumer, but rather ecological damage to the larger environment.

    (And on that 2010 report of reduced pesticide/herbicide usage: it’s come back up since.)

  3. Pingback: Followers of Developments in the LENR Marketplace | COLD FUSION NOW!

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