Category Archives: Politics

Great News for Science

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I just heard about Steve Chu being nominated for Energy Secretary, and see that I’m late to the party (Uncertain Principles, Cosmic Variance, and elsewhere in the blogohedron, I’m sure)

(As with Chad and Sean, I’ve met him; we sat next to each other at dinner one evening at the Frequency Standards and Metrology Symposium at St. Andrews in 2001.)

Having someone who, along with being a Nobel laureate, has the pedigree of running a national lab and someone with actual experience doing lab experiments is a fantastic thing. This is not someone who is being appointed under the sort of “he ran the FAA, so he can certainly run Energy” career-bureaucrat mentality. This is someone who isn’t going to be confused into thinking that hydrogen is an energy source, or that generators using hydrino reactions will solve our foreign oil dependence.

Moving Forward

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Auto Bailouts and the Innovators Dilemna (sic)

By investing in an old idea, and the old guard of the U.S. auto industry, we slow the next wave of change from happening. We enable thousands of people to believe their old ways and skills are still viable, instead of motivating them to seek out new skills, products, or roles that have a chance at thriving in the decade and the next.

When you’ve been successful with an idea for years, an idea you’ve put your life into, its hard to recognize it’s time to pull the plug. Odds are high you’ll need someone else to pull the plug for you.

Related: giving retention bonuses to executives at the banks and other institutions the taxpayers are bailing out. Why? Because you’re worried you might have to hire a replacement who’s incompetent?

Disrupting the Spacetime Continuum

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If only I were Michael J. Fox, a letter I would send back in time.

Letter to an Older Scientist

I see that you were funded throughout your career by the National Science Foundation. So while some researchers at well funded schools have access to your paper, the amusing thing is that the people who paid for your work, also known as tax payers, don’t have access to your work. A public good that’s no longer public, because somehow the academic community has decided to let a company charge way too much for work they did not perform.

Class is in Session

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The List: Five Physics Lessons for Obama

Everyone expects the U.S. president to know the difference between Sunni and Shiite, or understand the causes of the financial meltdown. But in today’s high-tech world, many critical issues have more to do with electrons than economics. Here are five short physics lessons for President-elect Obama from the author of Physics for Future Presidents.

The article does a decent job of pointing out the gaps between conventional wisdom and the actual science, especially nuggets like

It’s true that after 300 years, nuclear waste is still about 100 times more radioactive than the original uranium that was removed from the earth. But even this isn’t as scary as it sounds. If the waste is stored underground in such a way that there’s only a 10 percent chance that 10 percent of it will leak—which should be more than doable—the risk will be no worse than if we had never mined the uranium in the first place.

Regarding space —

Explain to the public that putting humans in space is not only very dangerous; it usually slows the advance of science. If the public just wants the adventure, then let them know that that is the real purpose.

I think there is value in the adventure, and the engagement of kids in getting them interested in science. The “wow” factor when the shuttle astronauts dropped by for a visit was significant. It’s a question of whether it’s worth the expense, and in the reality of finite budgets, what’s more important. Alka-Seltzer tablet reactions in zero-g are cool, but are they billion-dollar cool? No, probably not.

I think the article glosses over the connection between global warming and energy independence, though — there are certainly initiatives that can attack both at once — and the global warming section flirts with a “tu quoque” fallacy.

Yes, it is true that the United States is responsible for one fourth of past global warming. However, U.S. emissions are growing relatively slowly today.

So why are we so worried? It’s the rapidly growing greenhouse gas emissions of the developing world.

Is slowly growing emissions good enough, from the perspective of either reversing warming or setting an example? I don’t thinks so. I’m not sure how well a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do policy plays out. Reduced dependence on foreign oil and a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions are both achievable, and needs to be done in parallel with getting developing nations to follow suit.

I Know the Election's Over …

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but there’s this

Mayor In Russia Says He Can See Sarah Palin Showering From His House

Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, has said that she can see Russia from her house. Across the Bering Strait in Provideniya Bay sits the town of Provideniya, Russia and its mayor Dimitri Andropov. He says that he can see Palin showering from HIS house. “And it is very nice.”

Gettin' Wired: Your Civic Duty

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Voting-day giveaways. Krispy Kreme giving away free donuts. Ben & Jerry’s giving away free ice cream (between 5 and 8 p.m.) and Starbucks giving out free coffee. Ostensibly to those sporting “I voted” stickers.

However …

Handy said there is a federal statute that prohibits any reward for voting.
Starbucks’ good deed can be perceived as paying someone to vote, and that’s illegal, Handy said.
“The way it is written, it expressly prohibits giving any kind of gift,” Handy said.
Handy said the intent of the statute is aimed at special interest groups trying to influence who and how people vote.
To fix the situation, Starbucks had agreed to give a tall cup of coffee to anyone who asks on Election Day.

But how is a Starbucks to know that you’ve already gotten a free coffee at another location? Or a donut, or ice cream? Shoot, a feller could have a pretty good time in Vegas with all that stuff! Just stay below the lethal dose.

Pollin', Pollin', Pollin', Rawhide!

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Don’t try to understand this
Just knock, ring and canvass
Soon we’ll be votin’ high and wide

Obama Takes Lead in Galactic Polls

M83, known sometimes as the “Southern Pinwheel”, is a more complicated case, as its electoral votes are divided following Interstellar Congressional districts. The rural regions continue to hold out for McCain, with disaffected liberals in the more tech-heavy globular clusters opting to vote Nader in protest.

The Politics of Physics. Or is it The Physics of Politics?

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McCain’s Cosmological Breakthrough: Unreality Is Expanding

Gov. Sarah Palin, campaigning, she said, in “real America,” which apparently includes part of North Carolina, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, calling for a media investigation to determine whether Americans are real or not, and today, McCain all-around best surrogate Nancy Pfotenhauer (pronounced — Foe-Ten-How-er, like proton power), said that parts of the state of Virginia, heretofore universally assumed to be in America, were not, in fact, in the country.

Extra dimensions can apparently account for the “unreal America”

I find this especially interesting, because, according to the article, I live in the place that is “real America” but is in danger of becoming “unreal” when we collapse the wave function in November.

If you think that’s special, then think about this. Pfotenhauer said that she lives in a place called Oakton, Va. Oakton is located in Fairfax County. Pfotenhauer implied that the country was part of “real America” because it was open to the possibility of electing John McCain. Here’s the problem: Fairfax County, like its neighbors, are in the process of turning colors. (We can detect this with a special version of a mass spectrometer called a “ballot box.”)

Heh. Oakton’s about 8 miles away. I’ve never noticed any changes when I’ve driven in that direction.

via physics and physicists

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Since we’re on the topic of politics anyway, check out Ian’s Lessons from the Cold War: understanding ideologies over at Quantum Moxie.

I believe the hatred that has slowly taken the place of respectful disagreement between the “left” and “right” has its origins in the inability of either side to comprehend the other side’s motivation. Some might say it is an unwillingness rather than an inability and the truth is likely a mixture of both. But, quite clearly, there are times when there is simply an inability, for whatever reason, to grasp a motivating principle if it is so entirely foreign to us.

I certainly have observed people from both sides that simply hate the other side, no matter what. Which is really dangerous, because then nobody will listen to each other, but is also self-defeating, because you become a hypocrite for decrying behavior when the opponent does it, but not when your friend does.

I ran across an example just today, in what was an otherwise much more reasonable discussion about why an electrical transmission project in California is a bad idea, and an entreaty to do something about it if you live there.

You can also, if you choose, point out that Arnold has a good record on environmental issues (which, I am pained to report, he really does, for a Republican) and that he has a chance to keep that record intact here.

Why does it pain you to report this? It’s almost as if the poster wants to hate him, and is upset that this is preventing him from doing so. This is part of the problem outlined above.

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And finally, a few tidbits

This resonated with me in the recent endorsements of Obama by the Chicago Tribune

We know first-hand that Obama seeks out and listens carefully and respectfully to people who disagree with him.

This would be a welcome change from the current administration.

And, finally, Yes

The To-Do List

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The Big To-Do List–Scientific Challenges Facing the Next President

This month marks the 50th anniversary of NASA, which was launched a year after the Soviet Union lofted Sputnik into orbit, a feat that threatened to accelerate the communist rival’s lead over the U.S. in spaceflight technology. It’s probably fair to ask whether any U.S. president might once again be in a position to respond to such a huge scientific and technological challenge.