SecularCafe - Politics & World Events

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Secular Café: US Congress Declares War on Peer Review

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

US Congress Declares War on Peer Review

May 1st 2013, 22:17

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencein...criteri-1.html

Quote:

The new chair of the House of Representatives science committee has drafted a bill that, in effect, would replace peer review at the National Science Foundation (NSF) with a set of funding criteria chosen by Congress. For good measure, it would also set in motion a process to determine whether the same criteria should be adopted by every other federal science agency.

The legislation, being worked up by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), represents the latest—and bluntest—attack on NSF by congressional Republicans seeking to halt what they believe is frivolous and wasteful research being funded in the social sciences. Last month, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) successfully attached language to a 2013 spending bill that prohibits NSF from funding any political science research for the rest of the fiscal year unless its director certifies that it pertains to economic development or national security. Smith's draft bill, called the "High Quality Research Act," would apply similar language to NSF's entire research portfolio across all the disciplines that it supports.

ScienceInsider has obtained a copy of the legislation, labeled "Discussion Draft" and dated 18 April, which has begun to circulate among members of Congress and science lobbyists. In effect, the proposed bill would force NSF to adopt three criteria in judging every grant. Specifically, the draft would require the NSF director to post on NSF's Web site, prior to any award, a declaration that certifies the research is:

1) "… in the interests of the United States to advance the national health, prosperity, or welfare, and to secure the national defense by promoting the progress of science;

2) "… the finest quality, is groundbreaking, and answers questions or solves problems that are of utmost importance to society at large; and

3) "… not duplicative of other research projects being funded by the Foundation or other Federal science agencies."

NSF's current guidelines ask reviewers to consider the "intellectual merit" of a proposed research project as well as its "broader impacts" on the scientific community and society.

In short, he wants politicians, not scientists, to decide what the NSF funds and what it doesn't. He has his sights especially set on the social sciences, which he has described as "useless" and "unpatriotic", but anyone who relies on NSF grants is going to be affected, and the proposed criteria are all atrocious and unscientific. Only the second is less so, but (a) the NSF already requires this and (b) peers in a scientific discipline are far more qualified to judge novelty and importance than a Congressional committee. It's extremely similar to the Trofim Lysenko-inspired legislation that nearly destroyed Soviet science research prior to Stalin's death. Lysenko similarly attempted to destroy peer review and replace it with government directives, though in his case it was due to alleged anti-Communist academic activity making peer review injurious to the interests of the state. Similar methodology here, though, and it would have the same effect if it succeeds. I'd like to think that the bill has no hope of succeeding, but the passage of the spending bill mentioned in the article, just a few months ago, proves that it isn't just Republicans who are anti-science. It's our leaders, period. Dark times.

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Secular Café: Eurozone problems

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Eurozone problems

May 1st 2013, 16:35

No good news

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...ds-closer.html

Quote:

David Owen, from Jefferies Fixed Income, said the mix of falling inflation and an ageing population risks pulling the eurozone into a "liquidity trap" where the self-correcting mechanisms of the economy break down. "This looks strikingly similar to Japan 15 or so years ago," he said.

Mr Owen said the ECB cannot just "sit back and do nothing this week" at its meeting on Thursday, and may ultimately have to launch full-blown quantitative easing.

Most analysts expect the ECB to cut rates a quarter point to 0.5pc but there is broad consent that this will do little to alleviate the credit crunch for smaller firms in Spain, Italy and Portugal, where borrowing costs are two to three times higher than costs for North European rivals...

...Mr Christensen said the ECB may delay rate cuts this week to offset the retreat from fiscal austerity in Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands, deeming their job to hold the feet of recalcitrant governments to the fire. "No doubt the Bundesbank is screaming about this," he said.

Italy became the latest country to rebel against EMU policy regime this week when the new premier Enrico Letta lashed out at "death by austerity" and vowed to revoke a string of tax rises.

Mr Letta flew to Berlin on Tuesday to explain the country's U-turn to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She took a cautious line at the joint press conference, saying Italy had made "considerable" strides to reform its economy, but also said that "every country must play its part" in restoring order to the eurozone.

The greater rift is with Paris, after the French Socialist Party lashed out at the Chancellor in a vituperative attack, blaming the deep social and economic crisis in Europe on the "selfish intransigence of Mrs Merkel, who thinks of nothing but the deposits of German savers, the trade balance recorded by Berlin and her electoral future"...

...The Free Democrat Party (FDP) in Mrs Merkel's coalition has fanned the flames with a counter-attack, deriding France as a basket case with an economy in deep decline. It accused Paris of clinging to a coddled welfare model with a state sector near 56pc of GDP that is unfit for the rising challenge from China, India and the emerging world.

Secular Café: The town being run by UKIP

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

The town being run by UKIP

May 1st 2013, 17:17

I didn't know this had happened. As the article says, after the imminent elections they may be a lot more UKIP running local government.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...n-8599144.html

Secular Café: A Religion of Peace?

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

A Religion of Peace?

May 1st 2013, 09:13

What is it with these people? Islamic moderates declare Islam to be a religion of peace and tolerance and yet:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22248500

It is so, so tempting to slip into "rant" mode but what good would that do?

Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Secular Café: CNN Pretends Tent on Sidewalk is a Prison

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

CNN Pretends Tent on Sidewalk is a Prison

Apr 30th 2013, 19:25

CNN pretends tent on sidewalk is bombing suspect's prison cell

Sometimes you read the paper, and you think, "This would be funny... if it were in the Onion." And then you weep for humanity

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Secular Café: Swiss banks under fire

Secular Café

For serious discussion of politics, political news, policy, political theory and economics and events happening round the world

Swiss banks under fire

Apr 30th 2013, 12:23

Everyone in Switzerland is aware of the power of the banks.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-896689.html

Mind you, this is what is currently firing up German interest in Swiss banks:

http://www.economist.com/news/europe...ce-uli-uli-uli

Quote:

ULRICH HOENESS is one of Germany’s football greats, up there with Franz Beckenbauer, with whom he won a World Cup in 1974 and many titles for Bayern Munich, their club. A Swabian butcher’s son with blond curls, “Uli” was lean, clever and fast. And he was good at life. When a knee injury ended his career in 1979, he became Bayern’s manager, leading the team where he is still president to decades of success. He has survived a plane crash and run a thriving sausage business. Growing paunchier over the years, he remained earthy and became a moral voice in German sport and society. Politicians couldn’t be photographed enough with him.

And now he may face prison. For over a decade, it has emerged, Mr Hoeness had a bank account in Switzerland that he hid from the German tax authorities. He seems to have counted on a German-Swiss agreement that would have kept such account holders anonymous while settling their back taxes through transfers between the governments. But when the leftist parties in Germany’s upper house killed that deal last year, he came clean. In January, he turned himself in, paying more than €3m ($3.9m) in back taxes.