As a physician in private practice who left an academic job at a top 10 university 20 years ago because I thought the whole process was incredibly corrupt here are my observations: 1. Bias - i think hanson has a point here. 2. Big science/NIH and the distortions it creates: correct 3. complex systems are not very easy or amenable to analyse. I would like to add that a part of the problem is also that there are way too many MD's at academic programs. Most of them (not all) are mediocre and lazy. Hired mainly because faculty physicians do not like to dirty there hands on patients. They make less but they are a lot less procuctive than even their low pay (as an example the volume that we deal with in our practice requires 3-4 times as many physicians in an academic medical center. The salary differential is not 3- 4 times. The point I make is that the majority of so called academic ophysicians are basically low capability seat warmers. They realize that in order to get their next promotion they need to generate a volume of papers. Volume not quantity. So they generate volume. They have neither the skill sets or training or analytic reasoning to adequately do science. This corrupt endeavor is facilltated by a profusion of journals who need studies to feed tem. so garbage in garbage out. In my field, i come across 1-2 studies every couple of years where the right question and methodology was used. and where there is a semblance of realtionship between resuts and conclusions. Most times there is no basis for making the conclusions made from tha data presented. Bottom line- stupid people will publish stupid shit. So what is a physician who wants to do the right thing to do? my suggestion is that you have to go to time honored emiricism. ie if you are observant and intellectually analytical and curious. you take a study and see if it is consistant with your own clinical observations and physiologic understanding (and if need be biases). your clinical intuition, if you will. Ther worst offender in this culture of cargo-cult science are the professional associations and their so called consensus statements. Sounds neanderthal i know and i would not have had this answer 5-10 years ago, but i get progressively jaded as years go by

as long as the taxpayer doesnt have to foot the bill 
( and imho there is no reason that asssisted reproductive tyechnologies should be paid for by anyone other than the recepient of the ivf or whatever) 
but as long as patient is paying for treatment independently-denying her care is patronizing , paternalistic, presumptuous and frankly bordering on fascist. 
most task forces i have worked with are comprised ofegocentric hubristic morons who are not smart enough to comprehend the limits of their knowledge or wisdom. 
in general ethics task forces compound those sins exponentially.

Jay Cost has explored somewhat similar stuff 
 
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2009/01/

Glad someone is talking about this, it completely infuriates me when in a social situation some moron starts talking about hunger in america.  
 
Yeah they are so hungry that they are morbidly obese. 
Or perhaps they are stiil hungry after a 3500 cal meal.

The science is wrong  
and the morality is misplaced

gene berman: 
 
Thank you for saying it so well 
 
I generally just say that the AGW guys are plotting genocide against the third world and should be charged with crimes against humanity. 
 
I think you said it better

not ghee 
 
most affluent indians ( myself included) consume very little ghee. 
 
the problem is that the diet which is vegeterian or even if meat eating is replete with carbs. 
 
know any other culture which will routinely eat potatoes with bread and consider it a complete meal. 
 
plus 
pretty much everything is fried 
 
poor quality protein in diet contributes too. Dal's ( lentils/ legumes) are the main source of protein. poor bioavailability, deficient is essential amino acids. 
 
but basically TOO much carbs. 
 
so the moment calories become adequate, central obesity ensues. 
 
Just to give perspective- many years ago i tried to go a modified high prot low carb diet. couldnt sustin it- not because i got tired of it but, there was no way to avoid carbs in social situations

ohn Emerson -- Penn State just launched an investigation into Michael Mann: 
 
a whitewash ??? 
or for real

I do not know anyone in my acquaintance who doesnt belive in a god/ life force/ whatever 
besides my kids 
 
but then i live in a strange microcosm - south asian indian expat in america 
had a few friends from school and college who were simillarly minded. 
 
but that was about it 
 
I rellay think the hardwiring hypothesis makes total sense. While i have no data i would bet that a sunstantial number of those who sample as atheists - will cluster into various new age perversions like paganism, gaia, etc

The problem is that the further you delay the pain the more intense the debt and the attendent pain is when we have to wean ourselves of the teat of this debt. 
 
here is a link to a guy who is talking sense, and was remarkably prescient in 2006: 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G3Qefbt0n4

darynr  
You can check the numbers for yourself in the previous link to the AP data, but there has been no change in the percent of all tests that received a score of 4 or 5 -- there have not been more and more smarties piling into AP classrooms, at least not since 1988. Therefore, everyone who deserved to be there was already there.  
 
I don't follow this argument. Maybe I'm missing something. 
 
If the percentages remain the same but the total number of students has increased it must mean that more people are getting 4s and 5s than they did in 1988. 
 
There are a few possibilities  
1)Some people who wouldn't have gotten high scores in 1988 are getting them now. 
2)Some of the new people do deserve to be there 
3)A combination of reasons 1) and 2) 
 
He/ she has voiced my thoughts exactly. 
 
My daughter is just graduating from HS and going to Harvard and my son is a sophmore in hs taking amongst other BC calc. I am pretty involved with what they do at school. While i cannot comment on calculus etc -too many years since i last studied in Hs myself,-the general comment i have about stuff like history and economics ( subjects i am completely self educated in - having never taken courses in HS - grew up in India - diff system)is that the stuff is too easy. If a 50 yr old w no formal eduacation in the subject can geta 5 level score, the test and instruction have been or always were dumbed down. 
 
I feel the basic trend is everywhere. I am a physician and feel that passing boards too has been dumbed to the point of no return as well. 
 
There is a real societal problem with this: and that is that for the potential employeror /future college, there is no good way of separating the grain from the chaffe. this is bad because it inherently causes misallocation of precious societal resources. 
 
I would also like to add, there is and will be in the foreseeable future a need for the " low IQ" kind of manual labor jobs. Robotics is not going to make this go away- in fact the opposite- in the words of a AI guy whose article i read a long time ago- What we thought would be easy is mind numbingly hard and what we thought would be hard is turning out to be surprisingly easy. 
 
in short it is more than likely that tech will eliminate white collar jobs at a much higher rate that than it will eliminate your friendly neighborhood plumber or mason.  
 
So the pool of people who would have been successful plumbers, go and do a 4 yr degree course at the local JC/ state school, and spend most of their time playing beer pong and getting into debt taking completely useless courses, requiring neither intellegence or effort. When these young people graduate they feel themselves overqualified for being a mason or assembly line worker or whatever. And in addition are saddle
More....

Gnxp is in exalted company tho! MLB.com was also blocked, However NFL.com, NBA.com and PGA.com are not blocked, must be all those orgys at Wrigley Field.

The latter is what I blame, in part, for the rash, foolish attack on Iraq. 
 
say more 
 
yes, that should be interesting

albatross: 
 
right on! 
 
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/322/7283/376

I think that the > 145 types are just perceived as wierd and boring and geeky to the 100- 115 types. I have also encountered them ( < 115) finding some astonishingly bright people as dumb... I think the reason is that for these two groups their CPU's just process information very differently. So for a 105 Iq hottie, the guy w iq 145 is just plain dumb coz the day to day social interactions of modern life 105 to 125 is asset, beyond that is increasing levels of social misfitdom. With high IQ women, it is evn worse, How many guys w iq 105 do you know who would feel comfortable w IQ 145 women. 
 
And clearly in modern day western society, there is no economic advantage to a very high iq.

The law as practiced has become a 21st century version of a "hold up". Unless the blogger has the resources to spend upwards of $ 300/hr for counsel, he/she is screwed.  
 
A letterb from a lawyer is the proverbial gun to your head, the easy way out for a lone blogger is to capitulate.

http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2002/06/stamler0602.html

When they are talking about "high levels of oxygen in their blood" what exactly are they talking about? 
 
Depending on your perspective, this could refer to pO2, oxygen saturation, O2 carrying capacity, tissue O2 delivery (probabely) and most likely one needs to look at all and their interelationships to get to a meaningful conclusion. 
 
I find the relationship to NO very interesting. The early evolution of the hemoglobin molecule was partly in response to the challenges faced in its carriage of nitric oxide.

There's quite a bit of politics within science itself  
 
not to be a nit picker - there is politics within academia--- "science" to me is a more of an abstraction. 
 
Maybe I am being naive!

excuse the bad typing skills they are only eclipsed by my bad handwriting.

Matt: 
 
As someone whose main/only professional exposure to the academic scientific community was in academic medicine - i would like to qualify that maybe my experiences were unique to the medical academic community. My experience was that the so-called scientists was horrific, the guys with the grants were always the salesmen- charlatan's. The Department Chairman's main job was money laundering. And science a;lways took a back seat to good ole boyism and nepotism. and everything was always about money NOT intellectual curiosity. 
 
I left after 4 years on the "paper trail"- luckily medicine offers you honest alternatives- practice. I actually get to publish every now and then - but the study is designed around a question that interests me, within the framework of the resources i have available. And they have all got published. I am not beholden to grants or to publish or perish. 
 
I don't know whether I am/was the naive one, or you are, or the both of us are. But demogouegery is not the preserve of salesmen and politicians.

outmarriage rates would be lower in the future as the pool of potential spouses born in the USA increases 
 
You bet! 
I live in a hyper affluent suburban community, where 20- 25 % of the population is brown. (It has its advantages and disadvantages)Ghetto-ization is rampant and moving forwards at a breakneck pace. My teenage daughters' Indian american friends ( thankfully not her) have this subculture that comprises heavy doses of bollywood, bhangra pop, Zee Tv etc etc etc. At school most of the indian kids socialize almost exclusively with other indian kids. Frankly, it is the wierdest fucking thing I have seen. Kids, who cannot correctly pronounce their own name - lip synching and dancing to Bollywood song and dance shit,as their preffered form of socialization and entertainment. It is indeed a very distinct subculture emerging and rapidly.