These Aren't The Scientific Results You Want To Publish

In today's environmental news of the bizarre, Al Gore rushed to a rally in Berkeley, California. ``I'm here to change peoples' minds on the climate crisis and to support Prop 87,'' Gore called to a group of reporters after he emerged from the ``100 miles per gallon'' Toyota Prius that brought him to a noontime rally in a sun-drenched park behind Berkeley's City Hall. What did he leave out of his environmental zeal? The fact that the three motorcycles, two limousines and Dodge Ram 1500 light duty truck in his motorcade emitted enough noxious fumes for a regular working stiff to drive back and forth to his job for three weeks. Prop. 87 is an additional tax on California gas production - already the highest in America - so that California poor people can subsidize research on alternative fuels everywhere else in the world. It's kind of like the Queen Of Holland owning a vineyard in Tuscany and getting a government subsidy paid for by Italy's working poor, only funnier. Elsewhere, Newsweek admitted it was wrong about global cooling in the 1970s but is sure they are right about global warming today. Sayeth Newsweek, "In April, 1975 ... NEWSWEEK published a small back-page article about a very different kind of disaster" and then says, "More than 30 years later, that little story is still being quoted regularly—as recently as last month on the floor of the Senate by Republican Sen. James Inhofe, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee and the self-proclaimed scourge of climate alarmists" Their contention is that this article was small and insignificant so it shouldn't be used as evidence that they are clueless today. Except, no Newsweek reporter ever had an original thought in their entire lives. They were writing about this after it was well-established hysteria and TIME had already done the same article. Sorry, NEWSWEEK. I doubt your reporters are all that much better now. If you say the sun will shine tomorrow, I am bringing an umbrella.

How You Know America Rules The Science World

A few years ago Nobel Peace Prize Committee Chairman Gunnar Berge awarded a prize to America's fourth most useless President of the 20th century, Jimmy Carter, and declared the prize "must also be seen as criticism of the line the U.S. administration has taken on Iraq ... a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States." In other words, we will give a prize to ineffectual Americans because we're more about politics than peace. Communist darling of the left Joseph Stalin being a nominee while Ghandi never got one at all tells you all you need to know about the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Now it seems the curse is inflicting the hard sciences also. Roger D. Kornberg of Stanford was awarded the prize in chemistry for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins. Important stuff, you say? Well, sure, but so are lots of things in chemistry. Kornberg stands out because understanding the process is key to using stem cells to treat disease. George Bush made it possible for federal funding of stem cell research but he objected, as did many, when some scientists want to use that federal money for things other than embryonic stem cell lines derived from embryos that had already been destroyed. This was a call to war for political activists ( and a few scientists ) who felt that a stem cell is a stem cell. Most scientists long ago conceded that the difference in actual research value is minor but the political community is using the shifting target of this science to make a case against a politician they do not like. Now the Nobel Committee is doing the same in chemistry. No one will be as stupid as Berge and come out and admit it. Plus, I bet on George Whitesides to win this for his work on Self-Assembly and I lost 5 bucks so I'm a little extra cranky.