Acronym Requiredtag:acronymrequired.com,2008-04-12://22010-02-19T20:39:41ZAcronym Required observes science and technology.Movable Type 4.31-enThe EPA Met With Lobbyists and 8 Days Later Changed Its Plans for BPA, Newspaper Says -- What's Wrong With This Picture?tag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5282010-02-16T19:15:08Z2010-02-19T20:39:41Z "Did the EPA drop bisphenol A from the list in eight days because of lobbyists? First of all, if the EPA or any government agency reversed a decision like this in eight days it would be a grand miracle on the scale of the Genesis seven day creation myth....a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Notes in Februarytag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5272010-02-15T22:23:12Z2010-02-17T21:29:36Z Being that it's a slow day in the weekly cycle I should just kick back and peruse the glossy weekend magazine "How To Spend It", from the Financial Times' -- choose some baubles and get-ups to distract me, and lavish African safaris to amuse me. But a post is...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/News: Fit To Print or Print to Fit?tag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5262010-01-29T22:53:38Z2010-01-31T21:29:01Z Twitter Changes Our Brains: In "Cut This Story", Michael Kinsley writes that "newspaper articles are too long", whereas internet news stories "get to the point". In 1,809 words Kinsley calls out the vagaries and customs of print journalism, sniping at long articles filled with what he judges useless information....a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Air America, Unfortunate Name, But Good Runtag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5252010-01-26T09:35:49Z2010-01-26T20:03:20Z Does it seem like Democrats, time and again throwing themselves into a dither at the slightest G.O.P. provocation, suffer severe post-traumatic stress after eight years of Bush, and just need to calm down? Fresh off the Massachusetts upset, they seem distracted from their mission and insist of future-tripping that...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Where The Science News Goestag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5242010-01-23T23:39:30Z2010-01-28T05:06:26Z The Los Angeles Times Science section is a-ok. Except, worryingly, the LA Times now puts Science in a subcategory under the category "US and World", in one of the top ten categories that editors use to divvy up the news: "US & World", "Local", "Business", "Sports", "Entertainment", "Health", "Living",...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Stop The Carp, Or Eat Ittag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5232010-01-23T21:14:19Z2010-01-25T00:08:38Z Carp, a Problem -- And The Government Solution A couple of weeks ago we reported that scientists feared Asian carp had invaded the Great Lakes. Sure enough, scientists recently found carp DNA in Lake Michigan, an ecological problem considered so serious that the Supreme Court weighed in on the...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Obama, The Disappointment?tag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5222010-01-22T02:17:48Z2010-01-26T05:21:30Z Many people who are now disappointed by the Obama administration didn't pay close enough attention during his campaign and election. It's the same with all presidents, really -- the promise of a new president brings at first a golden era of hope during which people seem to cavalierly shed...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/The FDA Equivocates on Bisphenol A, Why Do News Headlines Applaud? tag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5192010-01-19T04:46:21Z2010-01-24T21:11:35Z Bisphenol A, Trees on Mars, and Riveting Headlines Headlines can be deceiving, as well all know. But we often fall for them anyway. "Are Those Trees on Mars?" asked FoxNews and 150 other news outlets last week. So I squinted at the photo, trying to imagine how those could...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Healthcare Checkliststag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5202010-01-18T06:53:50Z2010-01-20T06:46:46Z Checklists? Atul Gawande's latest book, The Checklist Manifesto, advocates checklists to systemize the complexity of healthcare delivery and reduce medical mistakes. Making the media rounds, Gawande spoke for an hour recently on Democracy Now. He also testified before the President's Council on Science and Technology (PCAST). Checklists, you ask?...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Notes in a New Year, 2010tag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5182010-01-15T10:00:17Z2010-01-19T21:12:40Z Haiti! Help, donate: Partners in Health, or Medecins Sans Frontiers, or the Clinton Foundation, or the International Red Cross or text-to-give. PLoS and Elsevier: On the Same Page? One of our favorite things, in the Obama era, is to see would be foes band together. So we look fondly...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Letter From Berkeley, California -- The Clichetag:acronymrequired.com,2010://2.5172010-01-14T23:22:19Z2010-01-30T23:49:12Z Letter From Berkeley In March, 1965, Calvin Trillin wrote "Letter From Berkeley" for the New Yorker (abstract), about the Free Speech Movement (F.S.M.) at the University of California, Berkeley. At that point, the end of the movement, F.S.M. was working on the trial of 800 students who had been...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Notes in December - Development and Evolving Attitudestag:acronymrequired.com,2009://2.5162009-12-19T16:58:23Z2009-12-21T16:38:55Z Copenhagen: Despite walking past sculptures of skeletons and eerie melting ice polar bears and mermaids daily, the climate change delegates collectively refused to come up with anything substantial in Copenhagen. President Obama curtailed his much awaited visit, altogether minimizing his association with what was by most accounts a failure,...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/New Strategies for Bisphenol A and Chemicals?tag:acronymrequired.com,2009://2.5152009-12-18T21:37:14Z2010-02-17T00:13:50Z The Chemical Lobby Finds Their Man: Back when the momentum for banning bisphenol A (BPA) hadn't quite built up to its current fervor, BPA lobbyists used to denigrate everyone who questioned the safety of bisphenol A. Male, female, old, young, it didn't matter, they were 'internet moms' who'd worked...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Tricky Science-Speaktag:acronymrequired.com,2009://2.5122009-12-18T02:23:53Z2009-12-19T22:26:14Z Trick Scientists sometimes confuse people with inscrutable acronyms -- BPA, NIEHS, NTP, EPA (bisphenol A, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Toxicology Program, Environmental Protection Agency), words that are difficult to pronounce -- "phthalates", or words that are difficult to get to the end of -- "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis". But...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/Sussing Out Friedman On Climate Changetag:acronymrequired.com,2009://2.5112009-12-12T01:35:13Z2009-12-15T06:24:17Z In his most recent column, Thomas Friedman marshals ideas from Ron Suskind, Dick Cheney and Cass Sunstein in calling for action on climate change. By the end of his column, Friedman has reminded readers of decades of research showing that greenhouse gases make the planet warmer, with the "potential...a.r.e.http://www.acronymrequired.com/