Month: February 2009

Open Government Highlights: 1000 points of data

Kenneth Duberstein, who was the White House Chief of Staff from 1988-1989 had a very interesting Op-Ed piece in the New York Times Feb 23 (Op-Ed Contributor – 1,000 Points of Data – NYTimes.com). In it he calls for the US Government to allow for all citizens to assess the State of the Union themselves:

What we need now is a Web-based system for measuring our changing society with key national indicators — in a free, public, easy-to-use form. Ideally, it would be run by the nonpartisan National Academy of Sciences, which would ensure it has the best quality of information and is kept up to date. The system would enable us to offer in one place statistical information that we spend billions of dollars collecting but that is now underused and undervalued.

Noting that this idea is possibly going to be a reality, he writes:

Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Michael Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, plan to soon introduce a bill that would allocate about $7.5 million a year for such a comprehensive database of key national indicators, and the idea already has wide bipartisan support.

Duberstein further states

Great steps forward in American history occur at moments when our deeply held values are reaffirmed in the face of changing realities. Such a moment is at hand. We need a shared frame of reference that will enable us to practice collective accountability.

I think this is a stellar idea. Access to information is critical for our future. Good to see this notion getting more and more support throughout the government.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Darwin in Davis

Since this is kind of a Davis thing too I am cross posting it from my work blog.

Well, this has been a good week for me in Davis in terms of things in which I am interested. First, the Tour of California started in Davis and then tonight we had a Darwin celebration (with cake and talks) in a movie theater in downtown. The three talks were by Rick Grosberg, who gave a good background on Darwin the person, Mau Stanton who talked about Evolution and Society and me, who talked about Uses of Evolution. The shindig was sponsored by the Center for Population Biology and funded by the Storer Endowment. And it was organized by Angus Chandler and Dena Grossenbacher and possibly some others. And the theater was packed to the gills. Food. Folks. And Fun. And I owe some thanks to folks who responded to my FriendFeed posting asking about other examples of Uses of Evolution.

Here are some pics …

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Also see

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Darwin Celebration in Davis

Well, this has been a good week for me in Davis in terms of things in which I am interested. First, the Tour of California started in Davis and then tonight we had a Darwin celebration (with cake and talks) in a movie theater in downtown. The three talks were by Rick Grosberg, who gave a good background on Darwin the person, Mau Stanton who talked about Evolution and Society and me, who talked about Uses of Evolution. The shindig was sponsored by the Center for Population Biology and funded by the Storer Endowment. And it was organized by Angus Chandler and Dena Grossenbacher and possibly some others. And the theater was packed to the gills. Food. Folks. And Fun. And I owe some thanks to folks who responded to my FriendFeed posting asking about other examples of Uses of Evolution.

Here are some pics …

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Also see

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Bad evolution puns award #1: Cod in the act of evolution

Sure – we are celebrating Darwin this month and through the year. But one negative of evolution in general is that it seems particularly ripe for puns, and bad ones at that. So I am starting a new award here – the Bad Evolution Puns Award. And the first winner is the Boston Globe for their new article “Cod in the act of evolution” by Murray Carpenter.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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My favorite evolution stuff 1. 1900 Darwin Post Card

Just starting a new thread here — my favorite evolution stuff.  And here is one.  It is a post card that I found inside a 1880s version of Origin of Species that I bought at a used book store.  The book was part of a collection from Ellison A. Smith which was being sold at a used book store in Georgetown many years ago.  I bought a bunch of old evolution books and inside many of them were post cards advertising portraits of some of the authors.  Here is one — advertising a portrait of Darwin.  Wish I had the portrait …

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Is boycotting the right way to deal with anti-evolution sentiment?

Adam Nossiter in the New York Times is reporting that the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) has decided to in essence boycott New Orleans as a site for a future conference. They are doing this in response to a bill passed last year by Louisiana that is considered by many to be a hidden way to introduce religion into scientific teaching (the Times says the bill “allows teachers to “use supplemental textbooks” in the classroom to “help students critique and review scientific theories.”). The SICB wrote a letter to Governor Jindal saying

“It is the firm opinion of S.I.C.B.’s leadership that this law undermines the integrity of science and science education in Louisiana,” 

and

“The S.I.C.B. leadership could not support New Orleans as our meeting venue because of the official position of the state in weakening science education and specifically attacking evolution in science curricula,” “As scientists, it is our responsibility to oppose anti-science initiatives.”

I note that they are going to hold their meeting in Salt Lake City instead, which at least in regard to science evolution and science education and state policy, is a bit better (e.g.,the Utah State Board of Education has made it clear it supports teaching evolution (see here)).

Along with the letter, a group called the Loiuisiana Coalition for Science has issued a press release saying that the state is “reaping what is sowed” by passing the bill.

So the question I have been asking myself is – is a boycott the right thing to do here? I am not sure. On the one hand, I commend SICB for taking a public action that is more than just words. I think it is pretty clear that this bill was designed as a backdoor way to allow religion beliefs to shape what is taught in public school science classes, which is sad. In response to this, I think scientists should do something more than just say this is a bad idea so at least SICB did something.

On the other hand, a boycott is perhaps a bit extreme and comes with many complications. In many cases, engagement is probably a better strategy. It is ironic in a way for a science group to be taking a George Bush-esque approach to dealing with disagreement. I guess I lean away from the boycott step not because it seems completely wrong, but because it seems a bit premature. Perhaps AICB could have held the conference there and organized a series of public discussion about science teaching. And on top of that they could have made a small contribution to a community that has been really hit hard recently.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Boston University adopts Open Access policy

Just saw a nice story about BU adopting an Open Access policy.

See the BU Today article

Some detail with some nice quotes in support of OA:

Boston University took a giant step towards greater access to academic scholarship and research on February 11, when the University Council voted to support an open access system that would make scholarly work of the faculty and staff available online to anyone, for free, as long as the authors are credited and the scholarship is not used for profit.
…
“Open access will really highlight the tremendous productivity of our faculty,” says Millen. “Among the more important things needed to make it work is a collaboration between the libraries and our faculty to get their research onto the Web. It’s not an inconsequential task.”

….
“This vote sends a very strong message of support for open and free exchange of scholarly work,” says Hudson. “Open access means that the results of research and scholarship can be made open and freely accessible to anyone. It really has increased the potential to showcase the research and scholarship of the University in ways that have
not been evident to people.”

Hat tip to Tom Tullius …

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Some pics from the Tour in Davis

Well, it was really really really wet out there but tons of people were out in Davis nevertheless. I got some pics — although my phone cam was not working great in the pouring rain. Anyway – here they are, including one of Floyd Landis ..

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

Tour of California before the start in Davis
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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Here comes the tour (of California) — Davis is going big —

Very excited that the Tour of California is starting in Davis this year (for Stage 1 on Sunday). It should be a good stage — from Davis to Santa Rosa.

And there are many many big names in the tour this year – even more than last year. In particular of course is Lance Armstrong. I have been a big fan of Lance for many many years — since I encountered him in Palo Alto when I was a grad. student. He had just won the World Championship and was in town to sing autographs and hang out at Wheelsmith, the best bike shop in the area. I was just getting into cycling and was going to Wheelsmith for some other reason and there was Lance. I got him to sign a few things and then thought, what would be coolest would be if he signed my favorite T-shirt (which I am wearing in the picture here). And he made my day by saying “Cool shirt” and asking where I got it.

Anyway — it is going to be a big big day in Davis tomorrow with Lance Armstrong, and a whole gaggle of big time cyclists here in the best biking town in the country.

And here are some links related to the race …

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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