Blogs / Reality Base

The quest for technology that can detect any lie is still plodding on. But while we may not be able to nail every falsehood, science is helping us tell when someone massages the truth. New Scientist reports that experts are now concocting “spin reading” software programs that analyze a person’s speech, voice, or facial expressions to sniff out his or her level of truthiness.

David Skillicorn, a math and computer science researcher at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, has come up with a particularly timely trick: He developed an algorithm that “evaluates word usage within the text of a conversation or speech to determine when a person ‘presents themselves or their content in a way that does not necessarily reflect what they know to be true.’”

In other words, he created a Spin Detector. Here’s a quick summary of how it works:

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The ScienceDebate2008 project put together 14 questions for the candidates covering all the major bases, including climate change, energy, education, national security, biotech, conservation, and health care. (For a full list, go here.) Earlier this month, Obama submitted his responses. Now McCain has followed suit. Here are some highlights, with a few of our own annotations.

Innovation

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• M.I.T.’s president calls for a major R&D funding increase for alternative energy; the world (hopefully) listens.

• Newsflash: Doctors admit to sometimes acting unprofessional. Good thing they’re only laughing at you while you’re anesthetized, and not handing you prescriptions for a drug they’ve been paid to endorse… oh, wait, never mind.

• Ed Brayton summarizes McCain’s “sex ed-gate” mess.

• And Gristmill offers a breakdown of the “Palin v. Palin” climate change message.

• The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has its say on aerial wolf hunting.

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As any lawyer knows, the difference between “and” and “or” can mean winning a seven-figure award versus having your a case tossed out of court. Or, in this case, millions of dollars for stem cell research versus none at all.

It all started last week, when the Republican Platform Committee approved an amendment to the party platform regarding embryonic stem cell research. The change boiled down to that one crucial word—from “and” to “or”—in the platform’s call for the ban of (emphasis added): “the creation of or experimentation on human embryos for research purposes.”

Which means, essentially, is that if the party has its way, virtually all human embryo research, from freezing embryos at fertilization clinics to the privately-financed creation of new stem-cell lines, will be shut down.

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We’ve seen plenty of official statements and soundbite-ready quotes on science policy from both sides of the presidential race. But there’s still plenty of room to nail down exactly where each of the candidates stand on the most important issues. Enter ScienceDebate2008 and Scientists & Engineers for America, who, along with a group of other science and engineering organizations, put together 14 questions for each candidate. The questions hit all the major bases, including climate change, energy, education, national security, biotech, conservation, and health care. (For a full list, go here.)

The first set of responses, from Obama’s camp, are now online. While a lot of it is straight from the political rhetoric handbook (or from policies his campaign has already laid out publicly), it’s a concise and helpful overview of his stances on science. Here are a few highlights: (more…)

The 2008 conventions are fast approaching, and the host cities—Denver for Democrats followed by Minneapolis/St. Paul for the RNC—are bracing themselves for the mass influx of reporters, supporters, and political insiders. Which leads to the inevitable question: What is each party doing to keep the events environmentally conscious?

For its part, the RNC has sprung into action to keep its energy use and waste to a minimum. The St. Paul Pioneer Press via Politico reports that their efforts will include the following:

[H]ybrid electric trucks delivering soft drinks to the Xcel Energy Center. Almost 300 containers for used cans, bottles, paper and all other things recyclable. A thousand bicycles available for convention-goers to get around the Twin Cities. Recycled desk chairs, cubicles and carpeting. Even 45,000 biodegradable discount cards for visitors.

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