ethics
purepedantry | June 26, 2006Janet has been discussing why scientists are reluctant to discuss ethics in science. One of her arguments is that scientists feel that the majority of ethical standards are being imposed from the outside rather than being adopted internally.
So here is an idea. Being a MD-PhD, I am a culture strattler. One of the things that I have noticed about medical culture is that in medical culture there is what I would call an occupational ethics -- a set of standards that have been debated and generally accepted -- for doctors. We take lots of classes about how to deal ethically with a variety of…
grrlscientist | June 21, 2006An informed public and open debate is vital to a healthy democracy, but they depend upon free access to the facts. A free and fair media is indispensable to democracy because they are the only institution that can regularly question the president and other public officials. However, not everyone thinks that the American media has been doing their job recently. One of those people is Helen Thomas.
Thomas is a journalist who has covered Washington news for more than 60 years. In her new book, Watchdogs of Democracy? The waning Washington press corps and how it has failed the public (NYC:…
chaoticutopia | June 15, 2006I'd planned to spend the day discussing ancient rock art, but this isn't how I wanted to start. Earlier this month in Fruita, Colorado (located on the I-70 corridor on the western slope) a group of graduating high school seniors took a can of spray paint and marked their legacy on a couple of rocks outside of town. Kids will be kids, right? The trouble is, they weren't the first to leave a legacy on those rocks. Someone else had left their mark there, about a thousand years before.
Petroglyphs and pictograms, left by a people known collectively as the Fremont Culture, are scattered across…
grrlscientist | May 8, 2006More news from Medgadget regarding those misbehavin' blog boyz, BlogBurst, who are apparently in cahoots with several of our nation's newspapers who ought to know better .. tsk, tsk.
Dear Blogger:
[The] Nation's leading newspapers continue to profiteer, together with BlogBurst service, from an intellectual capital produced by bloggers. In addition, they continue a shameful practice of hot-linking images from bloggers' servers. In essence, newspapers are stealing (!) other peoples' bandwidth.
Spread the message and let your readers know!
Thanks!
EditorsMedgadget
grrlscientist | May 5, 2006I received this email from the editors of Medgadget.com, regarding the situation that exists with BlogBurst, which is apparently a rather shady organization. If you are a member of BlogBurst, you will definitely want to read this. If you are considering joining BlogBurst (or any blog listing service), you should be aware of a few things before you do so;
Dear Bloggers,
We, the editors of Medgadget.com have noticed a trend that may negatively affect the blogosphere, and felt we should address it to you.
Recently, an operation called BlogBurst (blogburst.com) of the Pluck Corporation began…
grrlscientist | May 4, 2006[Whistle-blower: Bruce Crowley of the Burke Museum.
Photo: Mary Levin/University of Washington]
With every day that passes, more people become aware of exactly who writes this blog. My true identity has been revealed publically twice this week alone, and the week is only halfway over. True, I should have been more obsessively secretive, as I was in the beginning, but I originally thought that my words and ideas had intrinsic value, and that value was independent from my identity. I was wrong. It's true that some of my colleagues are supportive and I am truly grateful to them for that, but…
grrlscientist | February 1, 2006tags: Environment, tsunami, earthquake, Indonesia, Mangrove, Shrimp Farming
Note: Originally published on 2 January 2005. Nominated for the 2005 Koufax Award for "Best Individual Post".
Indonesian Mangrove.
All the survivors agreed that 26 December 2004 was an idyllic morning, indeed, it was a perfect morning, in spite of the earthquake. This earthquake was triggered within an interval of a few seconds when the Indian tectonic plate suddenly plunged 20 meters (60 feet) under the Burmese tectonic plate along the Sunda Trench. This submarine jolt caused the Burmese plate and the lands…