Tag Archives: science

Anti-Fact Ideology Confronts Reality: Is It a Teachable Moment?

Does the Nate Silver experience provide a teachable moment for Fox News viewers? Recall Silver was pilloried by the right-wing because his analysis demonstrated that President Obama had over a 90% probability of winning the election. In the Fox News anti-fact … Continue reading

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Conservative Discontent with Science is not Attributable to the Uneducated but to Rising Distrust among Educated Conservatives

A new study in the American Sociological Review confirms the hypothesis that conservatives in the U.S. exhibit increasing levels of distrust of science. What is more surprising is that the logistic regression analysis demonstrates that educated conservatives are becoming less confident … Continue reading

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Debunking the Conspiracy Theory of Rigged Unemployment Rates

Update: I have corrected the number of times the unemployment rate has changed 0.30% points since the original post. The count moved from five times to eight times. __________________________________________ Conspiracy theorists are having a manic attack on the Bureau of Labor … Continue reading

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Quote of the Day

“In God we trust; all others must bring data.” (W. Edwards Deming)

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The Top 10 (Unwise) Reasons Not to Get a Flu Shot This Year!

Top 10 (Unwise) Reasons Not to Get a Flu Shot This Year I’m feeling incredibly lucky this year. The vaccine is inexpensive so it probably doesn’t work. I’m not afraid of body aches…or headaches…or sore throats…or dangerously high fevers…and I … Continue reading

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Obama and Romney to Answer 14 Key Science Questions

A group of organizations and individuals are calling for a presidential campaign debate between President Obama and Governor Romney. In addition, they have submitted issue questions  relating to science to the candidates and the results will be published. The following … Continue reading

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Predicting the Outcome of the 2012 Presidential Election

Most of us are interested in forecasts. What will the stock market look like in 6 months? What’s the weather going to be when we go on vacation? The list goes on but one area that’s getting a lot of … Continue reading

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If Science Told You the Odds of What Just Happened with Temperature Was 1 in 1,594,323 Would It Matter?

NOAA has calculated the odds for what has happened to temperatures during the past year: “During the June 2011-June 2012 period, each of the 13 consecutive months ranked among the warmest third of their historical distribution for the first time … Continue reading

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If Adopted and Implemented, Texas GOP Platform on Critical Thinking is Inimical to Modern Civilization

Earlier I posted that the 2012 Texas GOP platform calls for the repeal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The platform in question has another flapdoodle: opposition to teaching higher order thinking skills or critical thinking skills! Here’s the … Continue reading

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Are Conservatives More Distrustful of Science?

In 2005 Chris Mooney in The Republican War on Science asserted that conservatives have increasingly been distrustful of science. This distrust emanates from two groups within the conservative movement, the religious right and transnational corporations.The religious right, according to Mooney, … Continue reading

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