Comments on: I've got your missing links right here (9 April 2011) http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/04/09/ive-got-your-missing-links-right-here-9-april-2011/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:00:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: snurp http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/04/09/ive-got-your-missing-links-right-here-9-april-2011/#comment-11350 snurp Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:25:33 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/?p=4276#comment-11350 My own reading of the student "objecting" to Craig Venter as commencement speaker is that the article is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. I skimmed some previous articles, and they seem to be mostly in the same vein, such as suggesting that women allow their boyfriends to sleep with the hotter girls in their sororities as a Valentine's Day present. It looks like her series, or whatever you call it, is called "Blondes Know Better," so I'm guessing she's writing as a parody of the blonde sorority girl stereotype. Hard to tell though - Poe's Law holds. My own reading of the student “objecting” to Craig Venter as commencement speaker is that the article is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. I skimmed some previous articles, and they seem to be mostly in the same vein, such as suggesting that women allow their boyfriends to sleep with the hotter girls in their sororities as a Valentine’s Day present. It looks like her series, or whatever you call it, is called “Blondes Know Better,” so I’m guessing she’s writing as a parody of the blonde sorority girl stereotype.

Hard to tell though – Poe’s Law holds.

]]> By: Walter S. Andriuzzi http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/04/09/ive-got-your-missing-links-right-here-9-april-2011/#comment-11349 Walter S. Andriuzzi Sat, 09 Apr 2011 17:20:43 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/?p=4276#comment-11349 > George Monbiot [...] shouts “Citation needed” at the anti-nuclear industry Fair enough. But when human health and long-term environmental processes may be in danger, the precautionary principle must rule. When things are unknown, scepticism is good but caution is even better That being said, green conspirationists and in general people who speaks with almost religious confidence of things on which scientific knowledge is especially lacking (like Beppe Grillo in Italy - never heard of him? Don't worry, you're not missing anything really) are quite a nuisance, so even though I don't share his view on nuclear energy, I say long live Monbiot The Nature editorial on low-dose radiations is an equally strong case for good scientific scepticism > Maryn McKenna on NDM-1 in New Delhi water and sewage And so long to those Western morons who think health problems in exotic countries aren't their business The not-so-carnivorous plants and the unhappy virologist's wife articles are cool too, Jerry Coyne's comment on the Templeton prize is simply right, the Crowdsourced taxonomy link doesn't work, the poor wombat story is alas just the tip of the iceberg, I am indeed an highly efficient "short sleeper" but only when lack is sleep comes together with lot of alcohol (really), the flower romance stuff is nerd genius, the article on self-replicating RNA is worth of your top 13 (or 14) in my opinion, if only for the potential scientific importance of the thing, and I can't wait to return to the UK and say “I’d call you a c**t but you lack the warmth and depth” to someone. No comment on the Italian google sentence > George Monbiot [...] shouts “Citation needed” at the anti-nuclear industry
Fair enough. But when human health and long-term environmental processes may be in danger, the precautionary principle must rule. When things are unknown, scepticism is good but caution is even better
That being said, green conspirationists and in general people who speaks with almost religious confidence of things on which scientific knowledge is especially lacking (like Beppe Grillo in Italy – never heard of him? Don’t worry, you’re not missing anything really) are quite a nuisance, so even though I don’t share his view on nuclear energy, I say long live Monbiot

The Nature editorial on low-dose radiations is an equally strong case for good scientific scepticism

> Maryn McKenna on NDM-1 in New Delhi water and sewage
And so long to those Western morons who think health problems in exotic countries aren’t their business

The not-so-carnivorous plants and the unhappy virologist’s wife articles are cool too, Jerry Coyne’s comment on the Templeton prize is simply right, the Crowdsourced taxonomy link doesn’t work, the poor wombat story is alas just the tip of the iceberg, I am indeed an highly efficient “short sleeper” but only when lack is sleep comes together with lot of alcohol (really), the flower romance stuff is nerd genius, the article on self-replicating RNA is worth of your top 13 (or 14) in my opinion, if only for the potential scientific importance of the thing, and I can’t wait to return to the UK and say “I’d call you a c**t but you lack the warmth and depth” to someone. No comment on the Italian google sentence

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