While on vacation in California, I was having a discussion with my wife (an atmospheric scientist), and a friend (an archaeologist). I am a Developmental Geneticist. So we were three scientists from three very disparate fields. I have been a scientist for 20 years. My wife for much shorter time and my friend for much, much longer. So we come at it from different chronological perspectives.

And one thing we each have encountered is the huge lack in science of the reporting of negative results. There is a perception in science that one must prove your hypothesis correct or it is not worth reporting. So when someone posits a hypothesis and DISPROVES it (which is common and healthy in science) they cannot publish it until it can be paired with related positive data. That often doesn't happen for years and sometimes is never published if the work goes in a different direction. This, of course, leads to many people repeating the same negative data over and over because they are unaware that it has already been disproven already by many other researchers.

This can be quite a waste of time and resources.  read more »

WFP some time back made a whole lot of noise about opposing Bloomberg's Putsch. Then they quickly shut up about it. Maybe they quickly realized they could make more money joining Bloomberg's trained surrender monkeys than standing up for working families.

Earlier when someone told me Bloomberg was trying to buy the WFP endorsement I said that although WFP loves to be bought, I think even they will be beyond Bloomberg's money. Seems I was wrong. WFP first kissed corrupt Party Boss Vito Lopez's ass and now are puckering up for Bloomberg's posterior. Got this forwarded to me from several sources, but it was picked up by No Power Grab before I saw it:  read more »

I just came from a wonderful talk by Nobel Prize winner Marty Chalfie at the conference I am attending at UCLA (the International C. elegans meeting...more commonly called "the worm meeting"). Hearing a talk from a recent Nobel Prize winner is always wonderful, because they usually still have a sense of wonder at not just their own accomplishments but the fact that their accomplishments are part of a flow of science that depends on past efforts and has meaning in the context of future accomplishments by hundreds of other scientists. I have to say hearing from people who have gotten their Nobel Prizes a long time ago is often less inspiring because they have come to terms with greatness and take it for granted. New Nobel Prize winners have not and so their perspective is generally most inspiring.  read more »

Spent most of 7th Heaven wandering around with Jacob and meeting politicians. Ran into Josh Skaller, Bob Zuckerman, John Heyer (all friendly and friendly with eachother despite being opponents for the same City Council seat...hear that Brad Lander? People can be in opposition without being snippy), Ken Diamondstone, Jo Anne Simon (both running for City Council) and Norman Siegel (running for Public Advocate). I heard John Liu (Comptroller) came by and was met with considerable enthusiasm. I saw David Yassky (local weasel), but I honestly avoided him. Probably to his relief.

I did not see a lot of people I expected to see. Where was Bill de Blasio? All his campaign did was post signs on lamp posts--illegally, I might add. When John Liu was in the neighborhood last weekend he put up signs but took them down when he left. Bill de Blasio simply left his signs up, contrary to the law and, in my book, showing disrespect for the neighborhood. And where was Steve Levin? I guess he has given up on Park Slope? Given how much Park Slope dislikes Levin's boss, Vito Lopez, perhaps that is wise.

But I met one person I didn't know about. Eugene Myrick is running for Brooklyn Borough President against Angry Clown and homophobe supporter Marty Markowitz (see also here for the Angry Clown story). Here is Eugene Myrick's video:

 read more »

The 504 Democrats are a NYC-wide Democratic club focused on disabled rights. I came across a partial list of their 2009 endorsements (the full list is not up on their site at this point). These endorsements are for three city council candidates I have been supporting for some time now. The 504 Democrats have endorsed:

Council District 25 (Queens): Daniel Dromm (Daniel Dromm has also received the endorsements of Stonewall Democrats, the United Federation of Teachers, and ChangeNYC, among others)

Council District 3 (Manhattan): Yetta Kurland (Yetta Kurland has also gotten the endorsements of Downtown Independent Democrats, ChangeNYC, and the New York Blade, among others)

Council District 33: (Brooklyn): Jo Anne Simon (Jo Anne Simon has also gotten the endorsements of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, ChangeNYC, and Lambda Independent Democrats, among others)

I find it interesting that, at least on these three races, Change NYC, 504 Democrats, and I all agree.

Here is the mission statement of 504 Demorats:

The 504 Democratic Club is a New York City-based coalition of Democrats working towards inclusion of people with disabilities in the political and social fabric of society. Club members hail from all five boroughs, reaching across every conceivable line to include a richly diverse group of people with disabilities, public officials, friends and family who support the concepts set forth in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.