Tag: science

Women Scientists Were Written Out of History. It’s Margaret Rossiter’s Lifelong Mission to Fix That

The historian has devoted her career to bringing to light the ingenious accomplishments of those who have been forgotten

By Susan Dominus

n 1969, Margaret Rossiter, then 24 years old, was one of the few women enrolled in a graduate program at Yale devoted to the history of science. Every Friday, Rossiter made a point of attending a regular informal gathering of her department’s professors and fellow students. Usually, at those late afternoon meetings, there was beer-drinking, which Rossiter did not mind, but also pipe-smoking, which she did, and joke-making, which she might have enjoyed except that the brand of humor generally escaped her. Even so, she kept showing up, fighting to feel accepted in a mostly male enclave, fearful of being written off in absentia.

During a lull in the conversation at one of those sessions, Rossiter threw out a question to the gathered professors. “Were there ever women scientists?” she asked. The answer she received was absolute: No. Never. None. “It was delivered quite authoritatively,” said Rossiter, now a professor emerita at Cornell University. Someone did mention at least one well-known female scientist, Marie Curie, two-time winner of the Nobel Prize. But the professors dismissed even Curie as merely the helper to her husband, casting him as the real genius behind their breakthroughs. Instead of arguing, though, Rossiter said nothing: “I realized this was not an acceptable subject.”

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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/unheralded-women-scientists-finally-getting-their-due-180973082/

Ethics: Government and Science

Ethics: Government and Science

Gerrymandering Census, Ransomeware, seafood traceability, Pfizer Enbrel Alzheimer, Music linked to suicide

GOP Paid Millions to Gerrymandering Expert Behind Census Citizenship Question

This isn’t getting enough attention: The GOP paid millions to the gerrymandering expert behind the census citizenship question

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/gop-paid-millions-to-gerrymandering-expert-behind-census-citizenship-question/

Tom Hofeller wasn’t just an outsider who happened to push a narrative identical to the Trump administration’s.

Last week brought a bombshell revelation in the fight over a controversial question about citizenship status on the 2020 census: Despite the Trump administration’s insistence that it wants to add the question for better voting rights enforcement rather than political gain, key wording in its legal rationale matches memos written by Tom Hofeller, a Republican gerrymandering expert. Hofeller, who died last summer, wrote that if the 2020 census asked about the citizenship status of respondents, it “would clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats” and “advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.”

Republican Party financial filings with federal regulators add a twist to this backstory: The party’s main political apparatus paid Hofeller more than $2 million for his work. That suggests that Hofeller’s memos weren’t simply independent advocacy for a pet issue, but that he and his work were deeply embedded in the heart of the GOP’s strategic operations.

According to Republican National Committee filings with the Federal Election Commission, from June 2009 until just weeks before his death last August, the GOP’s main political apparatus paid Hofeller just over $2 million for “legal and compliance” work. In fact, from Trump’s inauguration until July 2018, Hofeller was paid $422,000, in what appear to be regular monthly payments of $22,247.

Pennsylvania Senate Democrats paid $700,000 to recover from ransomware attack https://www.zdnet.com/article/pennsylvania-senate-democrats-paid-700000-to-recover-from-ransomware-attack/

Steven Aftergood: Pentagon Cancels Contract for JASON Advisory Panel
https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2019/04/pentagon-jason/

Petya cyber industry loss passes $3bn driven by Merck & silent cyber: PCS – Reinsurance News
https://www.reinsurancene.ws/petya-cyber-industry-loss-passes-3bn-driven-by-merck-silent-cyber-pcs/

ETHICS? ? ? cause they won’t be making any money off of it
Pfizer MADE $2.1 billion in 2018, FROM rheumatoid arthritis therapy Enbrel now faces generic competition. A clinical trial on thousands of patients, which they estimated would cost a measly $80 million but because going off patent so they laid off 300 employees.  Now pushing Xeljanz patent expires in 2025 in the United States and 2028 in Europe. “
https://www.ohio.com/zz/news/20190604/pfizer-had-clues-its-blockbuster-drug-could-prevent-alzheimers-but-kept-it-secret

ETHICS ??  Pfizer also should at least have published its data, making the findings broadly available to researchers. “Of course they should. Why not?’’ said Rudolph E. Tanzi, (617) 726-6845 a leading Alzheimer’s researcher and professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. “It would benefit the scientific community to have that data out there,’’ said Keenan Walker, Ph.D. an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins who is studying how inflammation contributes to Alzheimer’s. “Whether it was positive data or negative data, it gives us more information to make better informed decisions.’’ Find his research here https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.15470

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pfizer-had-clues-its-blockbuster-drug-could-prevent-alzheimers-why-didnt-it-tell-the-world/2019/06/04/9092e08a-7a61-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html

Science

2018 MUSIC  Young heavy metal fans five times more likely to self-harm or attempt suicide  but we all knew this in 1997 !! !! !! !! !!

Brain never stops growing, scientists find, as elderly shown to have same number of new neurons as teens

Ben Sheppard, Head of Partnerships at Streamr, is at Sea Web Seafood Summit  discussing how to turn a flood of supply chain data into reliable information for seafood traceability. https://www.seafoodsummit.org/session/true-facts-or-fake-news-verification-challenges-for-a-data-rich-future/

#no-soap “The M.I.T.-trained chemical engineer who invented AO+ has not showered for the past 12 years.” https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/magazine/my-no-soap-no-shampoo-bacteria-rich-hygiene-experiment.html

 

2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in technology and engineering

2018 K12 NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL)

https://twitter.com/naep_nces

Do U.S. students have the & skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the 21st century? Find out in the newly released NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy Report Card.

Students who are literate in technology and engineering can use, understand, and evaluate technology. They can understand the technological principles and strategies that are needed to develop solutions and achieve goals. This includes students being able to use various technologies to communicate and collaborate.

Technology and engineering skills are an integral part of students’ everyday lives and will be critically important as they continue their educations and enter the workforce. Since technology is also integrated into other subjects, students require strong skills in this area to excel in all aspects of their coursework.

About the assessment
The computer-based assessment, administered to eighth grade public school students nationwide, asks students to complete collaborative, multimedia tasks and solve practical problems based in real-world contexts. It focuses on three major areas:

Technology & Society
Students’ understanding of the effects of technology on society and the natural world, which equips them to grapple with related ethical questions.

Design & Systems
Students’ understanding of engineering design processes, including basic aspects of managing everyday technology such as maintenance and troubleshooting.

Information & Communication Technology
Students’ ability to use technologies for accessing, creating, and communicating information, as well as facilitating creative expression.

ARTS https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/arts_2016/

Report Card 

Achievement Gaps Dashboard

State Profiles

State Performance Compared to the Nation: Data Table
Mathematics, Grade 4
Difference in average scale scores, percentage at or above Basic, percentage at or above Proficient, between all jurisdictions and National public, for All students [TOTAL], 2017

https://www.nagb.gov/naep-results/mathematics/2017-naep-reading-and-math-report.html

latest results

Educational CyberPlayGround Inc. NetHappenings 4.25.19

 

Recycling isn’t about the planet. It’s about profit.
http://inthesetimes.com/article/21850/is-amazon-using-predatory-pricing-in-violation-of-antitrust-laws-monopoly

Antarctica: Thousands of emperor penguin chicks wiped out
The second largest emperor penguin colony in Antarctica disappears, satellite images show.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48041487

‘Death by a thousand cuts’: vast expanse of rainforest lost in 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/25/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-vast-expanse-rainforest-lost-in-2018

‘It’s a groundswell’: the farmers fighting to save the Earth’s soil
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/24/farmers-save-earths-soil-conservation-agriculture

Dare to declare capitalism dead – before it takes us all down with it
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/25/capitalism-economic-system-survival-earth

The kings of capitalism are finally worried about the growing gap between rich and poor
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/24/ray-dalio-jamie-dimon-kings-of-capitalism-concerned

Will we survive the next financial crisis?
https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2019/04/16/global-financial-crisis-000892
This essay has been adapted from FIREFIGHTING by Ben S. Bernanke, Timothy F. Geithner and Henry M. Paulson Jr., published April 16 by Penguin Books.

Is Amazon Violating U.S. Antitrust Laws? This Law Student Thinks He Has Evidence.
Amazon’s reports of low–or zero–profits have long raised suspicions that it’s selling below cost to build a global monopoly.
http://inthesetimes.com/article/21850/is-amazon-using-predatory-pricing-in-violation-of-antitrust-laws-monopoly

Sackler family want to settle opioids lawsuits, lawyer says
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/24/sackler-family-opioid-lawsuit-settle

Source code of Iranian cyber-espionage tools leaked on Telegram
APT34 hacking tools and victim data leaked on a secretive Telegram channel since last month.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/source-code-of-iranian-cyber-espionage-tools-leaked-on-telegram/

Impeachment as Political Strategy
Beyond the imperatives associated with rule of law imperatives, the process would be valuable to expose and weaken Trump and the Republicans for 2020

Corrupt UAW Official Norwood Jewell was a DNC Superdelegate who helped rig the game to keep Bernie Sanders out of the election,  who suddenly retired last year as a vice-president at the United Auto Workers, is the highest-ranking labor official charged in a scheme to tap cash from a job training centre in Detroit that was financed exclusively by Fiat Chrysler, known as FCA. He is still listed as a DNC member on the Michigan Democratic Party’s website with his term set to expire in 2020. the superdelegate process was criticized by Sanders supporters for rigging the contest in Clinton’s favor. Sanders won the Michigan primary 49.8 percent to 47.3 percent, but Clinton earned more delegates.
https://apnews.com/b7a93af32acc41ca8ac115a15ee8dc07

Warren backs plan to get rid of the Electoral College ‘My view is that every vote matters’
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/politics/warren-backs-plan-to-get-rid-of-the-electoral-college

 

The 20-Year-Old Federal Education Provision You’ve Never Heard Of: For Decades, Students Have Had the Right to Transfer Out of ‘Persistently Dangerous’ Schools
https://www.the74million.org/article/the-20-year-old-federal-education-provision-youve-never-heard-of-for-decades-students-have-had-the-right-to-transfer-out-of-persistently-dangerous-schools/

Things Didn’t Go Well When Betsy DeVos Was Confronted With Her Department’s Charter School Fraud
One billion awarded by the federal government’s Charter Schools Program (CSP) went to charter schools that never opened or opened for only brief periods. incidents of financial fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the charter school grant program are likely worse than our first estimate.
Federal Money Wasted on Defunct Charters Is Actually Worse.

#DeleteFacebook your info is breached again and again and again and again and again

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