When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality? @jules_lewis on posterous - 140 characters isn't always enough... Secretive thinktanks are crushing our democracy. Nadine Dorries won't answer it. Lord Lawson won't answer it. Michael Gove won't answer it. But it's a simple question, and if they don't know it's because they don't want to. Where does the money come from? All are connected to groups whose purpose is to change the direction of public life.
None will reveal who funds them. When she attempted to restrict abortion counselling, Nadine Dorries MP was supported by a group called Right to Know. We know that to understand politics and the peddling of influence we must follow the money. There are dozens of groups in the UK which call themselves free-market or conservative thinktanks, but they have a remarkably consistent agenda.
Some of them have a turnover of several million pounds a year, but in most cases that's about all we know. The Kochs and the oil company Exxon have also funded a swarm of thinktanks which, by coincidence, all spontaneously decided that manmade climate change is a myth. Civitas scored 1. Riot control: How can we stop newspapers distorting science? | Science.
Have you heard that the devastating riots across England were caused by a chemical deficiency in the brain? Or that we will soon be able to cure such behaviour with a nasal spray? Over the past two weeks, such news stories have been read by potentially millions of people across many countries on at least three continents. Yet these claims are entirely bogus and we know this because we are part of the team of scientists who did the research on which they were based. Such proliferations of falsehood are dangerous, not only because they misinform the public, but also because they undermine public respect for science and support for the use of taxes to fund it. Our team recently made an interesting discovery: that in a certain part of the brain, the concentration of a neurotransmitter called GABA – which regulates signalling between neurons – is related to a certain type of impulsive personality.
As the riots unfolded, news stories based on our research began appearing. PFI: the conjuring trick exposed | Tom Clark. In a destructive relationship you shut your eyes to problems, dream up plus points, and lie about your motives. As in love, so – it transpires – in infrastructure. But just as Whitehall is rekindling its ruinous romance with private finance, the Treasury select committee last week decided to speak like a true friend, and confronted the interminable excuses. The private finance initiative was devised to get schools, hospitals and roads built without swelling the government's overdraft. Critics discerned a conjuring trick. Instead of the state borrowing, private consortiums did, and then the public paid – at a premium rate. It has often been likened to sticking a mortgage on a credit card; but Whitehall always resisted that charge. It was just too important to flatter the books, especially to Gordon Brown.
In opposition, Tories and Lib Dems aired anxiety about PFI. It finds the temptation to fiddle the figures alive and well. The committee dutifully details every risk management argument. TV Tricks of the Trade -- UK and Ireland version. Wrong Answers in Britain. Once, twice, three times a headline. Hello, is it an accurate headline you're looking for? On the afternoon of Friday 12 August, the BBC tweeted the below: I could pretend that it made me think, wow - that's shocking news! But because it is just way, way, way too far fetched to be remotely believable, it immediately made me think, oh dear, somebody's made a major gaffe.
The previous day (Thursday 11 August), the Department of Health had released the latest A&E performance data, covering Quarter 1 of the 2011/12 financial year (1 April 2011 to 30 June 2011). The previous Government's target was for a four-hour maximum wait in A&E from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. With the change in Government, the 'target' remained. Now that we're in 2011, and a whole new financial year - the first full financial year since the change in Government - we have the Department of Health further distancing themselves from the culture of targets.... by.... well...... by using much more creative language. We don't even have standards. Governing in the private interest? « Alex's Archives. The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.Franklin D Roosevelt Anyone interested in the health and sustainability of liberal democracy should be concerned if the levers of government come under the control of concentrated, sectional interests.
That is the case whether the interest is corporations, the military, trades unions, bureaucrats, or organised religion. By happenstance such situations may result in benign government with a concern for the broader interest. More typically they result in government not for the many but for the few. The merits of pluralism have been much debated. These thoughts crossed my mind at 3.30am this morning as I was enjoying some bonus time awake courtesy of rather too much late night caffeine. Like this: Like Loading... The Daily Mail knowingly and commercially used my photos despite my denying them permission. A few days ago, I snapped a picture in The GAP on Oxford Street: their ALWAYS SKINNY mannequins' legs are not only always skinny, but anorexically/starved so.
I tweeted it, and TwitPic'd one picture. Then Cory BoingBoing'ed it. Then the WashPo emailed, asking permission to reprint, and asked for a quote or two. I said yes. I sent them a further pic, too. Then the Daily Mail got in touch. *On Behalf Of *Alice Taylor *Sent:* 14 August 2011 06:48 *To:* Ariel Ramerez <Ariel.Ramerez@mailonline.com> *Subject:* Fwd: Fwd: skinny model pix Hi Ariel, I can't give the Daily Mail permission to use these pictures conmercially, for free.I'm happy to licence the Daily Mail a commercial usage if it donates a standard picture fee (£250+) to a charity of my choice however.
They came back and said, too expensive: On 14/08/11 22:16, Ariel Ramerez wrote: Hello Alice, Thank you for getting back to me. ...to which I said, oh well - sorry, then it's no. It was acknowledged: Updates to come, I'm sure. 1. 2. 3. Science straight from the source. Graham Lawton, deputy editor, New Scientist magazine A snowy drunk-driving conundrum probes how luck influences the law (Image: Sam Burt Photography) Future Science, Max Brockman's latest collection of essays by frontier researchers, is both thrilling and bewildering MAX BROCKMAN clearly has designs on the family business. While his literary agent father John represents many of the big beasts of science writing - the Richard Dawkinses and Steven Pinkers of this world - Max focuses on nurturing the stars of the future.
This collection of essays follows the blueprint of 2009's What's Next? , in which 19 young scientists had a crack - often a first crack - at popularising their work for a wider audience. But while that volume was deservedly well received (New Scientist, 22 August 2009, p 45), I can't help but think that Brockman Jr has been struck by a curse known in the music business as the "difficult second album". Stop Coddling the Super-Rich. Susan Greenfield and autistic spectrum disorder: was she misrepresented? I have had many emails in response to my open letter to Baroness Greenfield. All but one have been approving. The one exception is an eminent Professor who has chided me for misrepresenting her views. I am reproducing here our unedited email correspondence. I have anonymised the name of the correspondent, as he has not given permission for it to be used, though I will happily break the anonymity if he wishes me to do so, so he can take credit for his arguments.
As a non-celebrity scientist, I would like to get on with my day job and do some data analysis, and so have decided to reproduce the debate here, so that others can pursue it. Please feel free to comment, though please note, I will delete any comments that are off-topic, i.e. those not pertaining to issues around the validity of Greenfield’s claims, and the extent to which they have been misrepresented. From: xxx@xxx.ac.uk Sent: 10 August 2011 13:27 To: Dorothy Bishop Re: Misrepresentation of Greenfield’s article From: Dorothy Bishop. Still irresistible, a working-class hero's finest speech - UK Politics, UK. Many may not have rationalised it. May not even understand, may not be able to articulate it. But they feel it. It therefore conditions and colours their social attitudes. Alienation expresses itself in different ways in different people. It is to be found in what our courts often describe as the criminal antisocial behaviour of a section of the community.
It is expressed by those young people who want to opt out of society, by drop-outs, the so-called maladjusted, those who seek to escape permanently from the reality of society through intoxicants and narcotics. Of course, it would be wrong to say it was the sole reason for these things. Society and its prevailing sense of values leads to another form of alienation. It is easy and tempting to hate such people. Let me give two examples from contemporary experience to illustrate the point. Recently on television I saw an advert. The other illustration is the widespread, implicit acceptance of the concept and term "the rat race". Rob Manuel - Google+ - The Strange Propaganda of the Now Famous Broom Pic I… Top Gear's electric car shows pour petrol over the BBC's standards | George Monbiot | Environment. Jeremy Clarkson test drives the Leaf electric car Photograph: BBC What distinguishes the BBC from the rest of this country's media?
There's the lack of advertising, and the lack of a proprietor with specific business interests to defend. But perhaps the most important factor is its editorial guidelines, which are supposed to ensure that the corporation achieves "the highest standards of due accuracy and impartiality and strive[s] to avoid knowingly and materially misleading our audiences. " Here's a few of the things they say: "Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest. ""We will be rigorous in establishing the truth of the story and well informed when explaining it. Woe betide the producer or presenter who breaches these guidelines.
Take, for example, Top Gear's line on electric cars. Now it's been caught red-handed faking another trial, in this case of the Nissan LEAF. It gets worse. This is dangerous territory. So how does it get away with it? Not the usual suspects, after all. The May referendum on the Alternative Vote is now the stuff of political history. The futility of the referendum campaign has, however, overshadowed the epic political battle which went on to get the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies bill onto the statute book in the first place. In the House of Lords this involved the longest Committee stage for 40 years, as Labour peers participated in a mammoth filibuster.
This led some members of the press to declare Labour’s behaviour ‘dangerous’, accusing Labour peers of turning the Lords into a ‘bear pit of flying insults and political dirty tricks.’ In reality the debate was rather more subdued and dull than this description would suggest but it still demonstrated just how easily the informal conventions and rules of the House of Lords could be broken: All night sittings, and camp beds in the corridors, all horrified the more genteel who considered the tactics to be ‘bringing the house into disrepute’. UK Front Pages Analysis - July 2011. I'm going to try something new and "exciting" - this month.
I've been gathering data from all the front pages of the UK papers. I type up all the words from the front pages that I can clearly read when the front page image is about 230 pixels wide. I also include any main image captions, as the picture is also a big part of the front page punch. The idea is to get a feel for the character of each paper and how it focusses its coverage, based on how it shouts at its audience.
I will try and do this at the end of every month and see what each paper focussed on and found most imperative to sell to its audience. I will try and build on my analysis over the coming months, but to start with I decided to create some word clouds using the software at worditout.com. In case you are unaware, a word cloud builds an image from the most common words used in a store of text; the more common the word, the larger the word appears. At first, I realised I might have a big problem! The Mail: The Express: i: Shapiro: Bygone patriots and the end of political courage.
John Kennedy, right, shown with Lyndon Johnson, recognized gumption was rare in midcentury Washington, Shapiro says. Walter Shapiro: Politicians too worried about polls, fundraising to step up and stand outHe says we need bravery on issues such as taxes, Social Security and military spendingLeaders like Lieberman, Wellstone showed courage to do what was needed, he says Editor's note: Walter Shapiro, who is covering his ninth presidential campaign, is a special correspondent for The New Republic. You can follow him on Twitter at WalterShapiroPD.
Washington (CNN) -- It is impossible to decide whether to giggle or weep over the debt-ceiling crisis. But it also seems fitting to hang crepe over the Capitol as America faces the risk of becoming the first solvent nation ever to default because of the deadlock of democracy. The demolition derby on Capitol Hill makes you wonder about political courage -- and why it has vanished from Congress and the White House. The Washington we dream about. FOI Man Guide No. 1 — FOI Man. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) introduced a right to information held by public authorities which came fully into force in 2005. However, like all rights, it should be used responsibly by those who exercise it. Here, FOI Man, a public sector employee with several years’ experience of advising on and answering FOI and EIR requests, outlines the best way to make sure you get the most out of both regimes without creating unnecessary burdens on public authorities.
Except where otherwise specified below, FOI is used to denote both pieces of legislation. Why should I care? FOI is a right. But should you use that power? And there could be implications further down the road if we don’t use FOI responsibly. It’s really easy to fire off an email asking for information. FOI Man’s Ten Top Tips on Making Responsible and Effective FOI Requests 1.
Or better still, sleep on it. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Other resources you may find useful. In response to Norway attacks, right-wing bloggers suddenly demand nuance - The Plum Line. Posted at 11:18 AM ET, 07/25/2011 Jul 25, 2011 03:18 PM EDT TheWashingtonPost By Adam Serwer American anti-Islam bloggers aren’t to blame for the Norway Massacre.
As the news of terrorist attacks in Oslo broke on Friday, the conservative media were quick to place the blame on al Qaeda even though the details weren’t fully known. At first, it wasn’t unreasonable to reach that conclusion. When the truth became known, Rubin, like many others on the right, tried to downplay the right-wing anti-Muslim ideology driving the alleged shooter. What’s notable about the response by conservatives to the attack is that their primary worry was that the anti-Islam cause might be tarnished. It would be hard to imagine a conservative showing such empathy for Hamas, concluding that while terrorism is evil, they are nevertheless acting out of legitimate concerns about Palestinian suffering. The most telling reaction was from the anti-Muslim bloggers Breivik cited by name in his manifesto.
The coalition is misleading us on housing benefit | Jonathan Mendel and Alexander Holmes. Two Years Later: The Media Response to Death Panels and Why It’s Still Important. How can we corral data to reveal the big picture? | Ben Goldacre. Merkel — populism never takes holidays. A blog about FOI — FOI Man. Nservatives put Dumb and Dumber on the health select committee | Martin Robbins | Science.
The Nagoya Protocol: the first step towards saving the endangered Unicorn?
How to cut the deficit. Back to school for Andrew Green : Philippe Legrain. Readings from news execs. The caveat in paragraph number 19. The Register misrepresents climate science | Science. BREAKING NEWS: MigrationWatch use libel threat to silence criticism from Sally Bercow. Home. Research integrity: Sabotage! This is a news website article about a scientific finding | Martin Robbins | Science. Harper's meeting with Murdoch -- the real story.
Your role in wildlife crime - opinion - 14 September 2010.
Institutional integrity. Cable and Murdoch: it's war. Journalistic integrity. Beyond individual span of time and space. Multiculturalism and Its Discontents. Kenyan government warns public of Miracle Mineral Solutions danger | Martin Robbins | Science. Heresy corner. Sex education, STIs and politicians make a toxic combination | Evan Harris | Science. Inventing a Boogeyman: Today Show Embraces Scare Science, Abandons Truth | Personal Care Truth or Scare. A Beginner's Guide to Skeptical Dickery. What are participants really up to when they complete an online questionnaire?
State schools and selection: The religious and the rational. Twinterland. “Sex Obsessed Leftie Wierdos” « Twinterland. The Myers-Briggs Personality Test. Psychology: Too good to live. Congo's conflict minerals: Clean them up. Mapping Stereotypes by alphadesigner.