The Republican brain … on science


The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science — and Reality by Chris Mooney
Publisher Wiley; available on Kindle

During the darkest days of the Bush era, science writer Chris Mooney made a big splash in the publishing world with his first book detailing the Republican war on science. This month his newest effort, what could be nicknamed the Republican brain on science, hit the shelves. In it you will find Mooney is a stickler for detail, always important in any book on science, especially one with a bold title. But this is no clinical read, the book is a blast right off the bat, framing the main subject marvelously in the juiciest claims and tastier bits of conservative pseudoscientific lore readers here have come to lovingly know and ridicule. [Read more…]

NASA seeking lower cost ideas for planetary science and exploration

The Martian countryside in the Utopian Plain as seen by Viking. New analysis of the Viking data suggests microbes may be living just beneath the surface. Image 1976 NASA/JPL

Because of recently announced budget targets and a potentially exciting new look at old data, NASA is looking for low cost ways to continue exploring Mars and other parts of the solar system. It’s a shame for our nation and species they have to think this way, but that’s the real world in all its raw glory: [Read more…]

Romney may just be dumber than we think

Maybe it’s like a zoo lion; they get so used to easy living their once honed reflexes grow dull. Romney, the quintessential political animal, may have suffered a similar fate thanks to kowtowing conservative media that goes out of its way to indulge him and big bucks to paper over any remaining stupidity. Whatever, speaking at the NRA, Mitt Romney dove headlong right back into the ovary wars attacking the President and the ACA: [Read more…]

New analysis of old data finds evidence for living microbes on Mars

Carl Sagan standing next to a model of the Viking Lander. Click image for background on Viking.

The question of whether there is life on other planets took a fresh turn this week as new analysis of old data collected by the Viking Landers in 1976 found signs of extant microbes on Mars. Back in the day one test yielded promising results, but another experiment found no organic compounds consistent with life, so mission scientists assumed the former was a simple oxidizing reaction and not a biological one. That’s where the new analysis comes in: [Read more…]

Colbert breaks down the eleventy-billion dimensional chess reverse democratic war on women

The flap over Hilary Rosen is a reminder of the reality bending power that comes with having your own media dedicated to keeping the ignorant in the dark. In the space of a few minutes a CNN pundit was morphed into a member of the Obama administration, if not Obama himself, and her comment the most vicious attack on America and apple pie since the Haymarket bombing. The ensuing circus shut down the right-wing blogosphere for several hours as they dreamed of having a foil to fend off a recent record of serial attacks on women’s’ rights. If not for a North Korean missile launch and tweet too far by the Catholic League disparaging adoptive parents, it might be going full tilt still.

Romneycare turns six in the Bay State

It’s true that politicians will twist themselves into supple shapes to appeal to voters. But Romney’s contortions so far have already been unprecedented. In classic baby-eating conservative form, Romney’s best acrobatics may still be ahead, because one of the the biggest challenge he faces concerns Romney’s most effective and humane work as a political animal: the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform package which turned six years-old today. This is only a problem because today’s religious-right dominated conservative movement cannot abide decency and humanity married to good government in any way, shape, or form, and especially when The Enemy might get credit for saving thousands of US lives and sparing thousands more endless misery. [Read more…]

Chapelle’s Best

We’re no doubt going to be treated to a full on freak out jamboree in the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case over the next few weeks. In case you were stuck inside a wormhole, Zimmerman is in custody and has been charged with 2nd degree murder (and The Twitter is a’hopp’n). Above is one the best example of Dave Chapelle’s subtle and yet acerbic take on racism; as the black White Supremacist Clayton Bigsby.