You think babies are just selfish slugs? Think again. According to researcher Paul Bloom (the article is long, but worth reading in its entirety), they have a capacity for empathy, however rudimentary: Human babies, notably, cry more to the cries … Continue reading →
Remember that ozone hole and all the brouhaha it engendered? Here’s a piece about the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the hole’s opening, and the circumstances of its more-or-less closing. The cause of the thing appeared to be the … Continue reading →
The Gulf oil spill is very disturbing in its scope. Not only did it kill eleven people, but it now threatens the huge fishing industry in the region, not to mention wildlife and beaches that are beautiful and drive the … Continue reading →
Martha Minow, Dean of Harvard Law School, has put another PC nail in the coffin of free speech at that august institution, alma mater of our president. The topic? A private email sent by third year Harvard Law student Stephanie … Continue reading →
…may have overstated the case with the volcano and its effect on airplanes: Flawed computer models may have exaggerated the effects of an Icelandic volcano eruption that has grounded tens of thousands of flights, stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers … Continue reading →
This is not—I repeat, not—an April Fools joke. For quite a while scientists who study global warming have claimed that (and there is just no way to be delicate about this) cow flatulence and excrement—or what this article refers to … Continue reading →
Do people get happier as they get older? I’d like to think so, at least. And if this sort of research can be believed, there’s a fair amount of evidence that it’s true. But it seems to me there’s a … Continue reading →
[NOTE: If you don’t know what the Milgram experiment was, please see this.] Well, I guess it had to happen. The Milgram experiments repeat themselves, the first time as tragedy and later as farce. And is it any surprise that, … Continue reading →
Simon Heffer remarks on the apparent fracture of the Obama in-crowd, and sees it as a sign that things are going very badly indeed for the administration: The descent of Barack Obama’s regime, characterised now by factionalism in the Democratic … Continue reading →
Not having read the research, I can’t say. But my strong hunch is that it’s garbage in, garbage out. It is notoriously difficult to design unbiased research on such a subject.
Continue reading →One would think so, after these startling admissions from Climategate player Phil Jones. Let’s see: the dog ate his hockey-stick data in 1988. His record-keeping in general is “not as good as it should be.” There has been no statistically … Continue reading →
We now have some convincing evidence that abstinence-only sexual education programs for teens, long derided as a counterproductive waste of time, actually work. This is news. This particular study has drawn attention because it is especially well-designed and includes longer … Continue reading →