Posts

Horizontal Transfer of GMO DNA

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To the critical science reader, the claims by the anti-GMO world are a goldmine of intellectual turds.  Over the last few weeks I've been blown away by the junk that is accepted and promoted by folks like (we don't know their actual name, just their fake sock puppet name) GMO USA.  Unfortunately I've been behind on a dozen writing assignments and can't very well put fun discussions like this into the public space without feeling a bit guilty.  However, I could not let this one go!  To the rocket surgeons over at GMO USA, the work by Oraby et al (2014) is quite compelling. However, to anyone with even a high-school level understanding of the science, these data are just awful, and the conclusions unacceptable. The title says "Horizontal Gene Transfer" when the authors don't even test for it! The manuscript was published in the African Journal of Biotechnology, a journal with an impact factor of 0.5 or so.  The lead author, Hanaa Oraby, has some pu

What Shiva Can Teach Us About Science Communication

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We can learn a lot about people from not just what they say, but how they choose to say it.  Communication scholars claim that something like 75% of meaning comes from non-verbal cues. Non-verbal cues are not just gestures, they come from our rate, volume, proximity and our willingness to absorb feedback.  Many suggest that the non-verbals communicate true intention, and that these signals may not always match the words.     When we critically evaluate the non-verbal performance of Dr.Vandana Shiva on China’s CCTV , (beginning at 23:00 min) we learn a lot about the person. This video is a MUST WATCH .  Portrayed by her supporters as a kind-hearted and gentle defender of the downtrodden and the environment, we see her true colors. It is not just her words, but the way she chooses to say them. We can analyze her communication style and rhetoric and draw some important conclusions. If you want to learn how NOT to discuss biotech, watch Shiva closely. Nobody learns anythin

Sony, KJU, and a Coward's Way Out

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Next week another movie I don't want to see was going to premier.   The Interview was a comedy about journalists interviewing Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea... and then they were given the job to assassinate him.  The huge advertising campaign suggests that the film's script and humor are rather simple and targeted to eighteen year old dudes. As we all know by now, alleged North Korean hackers cyber-attacked Sony and made terrorist threats to anyone showing or seeing the movie.   Theaters pulled the film, Sony ceased promotion.  Way to go, morons.  You just bent to threats and further empowered anyone not appreciating artful criticism. Art pokes fun at international leaders. Remember the scenes from good movies like Naked Gun ?  Ayatollahs, Sadam Hussein, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Fidel Castro-- all sitting around a table arguing, portrayed in a less-than-lovey way.  Yep, and here's how Sony and Kim Jong Un played these cards wrong Whe

Never Met a "Merv" I Didn't Like

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The folks over at Safe Affordable Food retweeted one of my recent articles on the cost of activism. A guy named Merv was not very happy about that, nor very congenial.  I was nice. 

The Value of Vani

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Can she be an ally? I’ve been extremely critical of Vani Hari, aka “The Food Babe”.   She freely demonstrates, without humility, her complete disregard for science and evidence when vilifying food, chemistry and farming. She has amassed a substantial group of venomous followers that subscribe to her leadership.  As we attempt to illuminate products, technology and method to feed a growing population, Hari’s shameful resistance to reality needs to be met.  We've done that, and I'm proud of the push back from Steven Novella, Kavin Senapathy, John Coupland, David Gorski, The Chow Babe and the Food Hunk.  Well done.  But when scientists take the time to show her errors, she lashes back with a string of lies and allegations that are truly curious.  She’s stated in her recent writings that I’m just a pawn doing the bidding of corporate ag, which of course, is supported by zero evidence. It turns into two groups.  One that manufactures the trash, and another that poin

Vani Hari (Food Babe) and Silencing Critics

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When you can't discuss things scientifically, just do your best to make sure critics can't be heard.  This is the level of Hari's continued assault on science and reason in the food theater. After a rather pointy article in NPR's The Salt blog, she now throws herself on the sword, a victim of Big Food and Evil Scientists. Like me! On her website about the "attacks" she refers to me loosely... The bottom line is that the time ended and there was no public Q&A.  There was no way that the 300 students she just misinformed could question her claims.  I have posted a letter from the organizers that invited her, stating that she did not answer questions except for a small group that convened to meet her by the stage.  That's true.  However, students left without the opportunity to challenge her claims.  That is not a question. Of course, she ties me in with Monsanto.  Blatantly false.  But since when does she need evidence before maki

Status of the Strategic Shampoo Reserve

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I hate waste. I like clean hair. I also travel.  A lot. I started to think about the little bottle of shampoo that I'd get in a hotel.  I'd use a little goob of it, but then would think about where the rest of the bottle would go next. Certainly they don't have people spending time on refilling them.... My guess was that they went in the garbage, an assumption confirmed by discussions with housekeeping.  So I decided that I was going to cut my soap-suds footprint by taking the little bottles home and using them there. Now a new first-world problem.... I accrue close to one-hundred little bottles. So I decided to marry them into a common container, a strategic shampoo reserve.  Here the many fragrances and colors combine into a delightful mixture that feels weird, smells awful, and doesn't work well. An addition of Citron Essence hotel shampoo to the strategic shampoo reserve. I'm glad to report that as of 12/7/2014 the reserve stands at about