Nobody has to start supporting a carbon tax or "wearing hemp shoes," but any rational person with a brain in his or her head ought to "if not fully believe that human beings are warming the planet by releasing greenhouse gases, at least recognize that this is what the data seem to suggest and that it...
Category: climate
Nobody has to start supporting a carbon tax or "wearing hemp shoes," but any rational person with a brain in his or her head ought to "if not fully believe that human beings are warming the planet by releasing greenhouse gases, at least recognize that this is what the data seem to suggest and that it is what the vast majority of scientists who study weather believe is the case."
That's the conclusion of an evidently exasperated Matthew Herper at Forbes, who doesn't expect this to put an end to the political fighting, but does allow us "to start aiming our fiery furnace of a political system at actually solving our problems." Fight over a carbon tax, a pipeline, or composting, but at least admit the facts, he argues.
He then lists some of the main objections he...
One of the pleasures of working for the Tracker is that it's a perfect excuse to sit down in the morning and "read in," sampling the morning's stories, without that voice in your ear that says "Stop fooling around and get to work!"
Here are a few things I noted this morning:
...One of the pleasures of working for the Tracker is that it's a perfect excuse to sit down in the morning and "read in," sampling the morning's stories, without that voice in your ear that says "Stop fooling around and get to work!"
Here are a few things I noted this morning:
Insurance woes
We've read plenty about the difficulties of jousting with insurance companies to get reimbursement for medical care, but I liked a story in Science Times by a Suleika Jaouad, a young woman who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at 22. She's now 24, and she talks about her dealings with insurance companies with a wide-eyed innocence that reminds us, once again, how much financial burden serious illness puts on families who have insurance. "...
9Aug 2012
The news was straightforward and dramatic: July was the hottest month recorded in the lower 48 states since record-keeping began in 1895.
"...
The news was straightforward and dramatic: July was the hottest month recorded in the lower 48 states since record-keeping began in 1895.
"July thereby dethroned July 1936, which had set the record at 77.4 degrees," wrote Joanna M. Foster in The New York Times. This July clocked in at an average temperature of 77.6 degrees. Foster got the context right: "A vast majority of scientists agree that such events will become ever more common as the planet warms," she wrote, while explaining that it was difficult to tie human-induced climate change to any specific weather pattern.
Seth Borenstein at the AP ...
Is ADHD a legit psychiatric diagnosis, or a label psychiatrists and drug companies have slapped on rowdy kids?
Addressing this...
Is ADHD a legit psychiatric diagnosis, or a label psychiatrists and drug companies have slapped on rowdy kids?
Addressing this question in a story is a little like addressing global warming a decade or so ago: There are two points of view, but one is held by an overwhelming number of people, the other by only a few.
Katherine Ellison, in a story in today's Washington Post, addresses the controversy head-on with a report on a new study that found differences in the way people with ADHD process the neurotransmitter dopamine, when compared to people without the illness.
Ellison opens her story with the question I used above, except hers is more...
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