Pretty good stuff, regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum… And if you can vote, please do.

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It seems Europeans get weeks and weeks of vacation and Americans don't get any at all. Shocker of the century, right? [...]

As a Frenchman living in the US, I have to admit that not having more vacation time is something I miss. With the small number of vacation days I get (compared to what my friends get in Europe), it becomes almost stressful to take vacations: you have to plan everything right, you can’t really afford to make a mistake because you know you won’t be able to go back on vacation soon. As a result, you almost feel pressure to enjoy yourself and do something when the only thing you really needed was to be able to do nothing and just relax. Quite difficult to do so, isn’t it?

Plus, for me, it also means spending most of my vacation days in France, to see my family and friends there, leaving precious (to none at all) time to take vacations elsewhere (including here, in the US).

But does all that time off make Europeans any less productive? The answer is a surprising no. Several European countries—Norway, Ireland, and even France—post higher productivity levels than does the United States. [...]

Even when America does beat European countries in the productivity rankings, "[t]he United States’ much higher output per person is due mostly to more hours on the job, not to superior productivity while working." Is it worth it?

On the productivity front, I am not surprised by the results either. When you spend too much time working, you get burnt out. Sure you can work more but you’re not going to be as efficient. This is especially true in creative/mental work. Not having much vacation/sick days makes it also difficult to take care of your family (how to deal with sick kids) or yourself and that eventually takes a toll on your work. If you have to constantly (or often) worry about things of that order, how can you be expected to give your best at work? Sure, vacations (and social benefits at large) can be perceived as unproductive money at first glance, but are they really? Wouldn’t it be better to have a reasonably rested workforce that knows that things will be taken care of if something unexpected happens, a workforce that can devote its full attention to the task at hand?

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I’ve created a flickr set for this little experiment, to which I will add as time goes…

Well, I need to work on my technique some more. The ribs were a little too dry, the meat didn’t quite fall off of the bones and the rub was a little too spicy. I think I need to control the temperature better next time, keep it more constant. Maybe use less smoke, more steam and cook the ribs less. I might also need to chop them off instead of cooking the full rack, for better control. Not bad, but not great either.

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In an essay commissioned by Edge, evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne writes about creationist presidential candidates, the fallacies they promote, and public servants’ responsibility to be scientifically literate.

When the moderator asked nine (Republican presidential) candidates to raise their hands if they “didn’t believe in evolution,” three hands went into the air—those of Senator Sam Brownback, Governor Mike Huckabee, and Representative Tom Tancredo. Although I am a biologist who has found himself battling creationism frequently throughout his professional life, I was still mortified. Because there is just as much evidence for the fact of evolution as there is for the existence of atoms, anyone raising his hand must have been grossly misinformed.

I don’t know whether to attribute the show of hands to the candidates’ ignorance of the mountain of evidence for evolution, or to a cynical desire to pander to a public that largely rejects evolution (more than half of Americans do). But I do know that it means that our country is in trouble. As science becomes more and more important in dealing with the world’s problems, Americans are falling farther and farther behind in scientific literacy. Among citizens of industrialized nations, Americans rank near the bottom in their understanding of math and science. Over half of all Americans don’t know that the Earth orbits the Sun once a year, and nearly half think that humans once lived, Flintstone-like, alongside dinosaurs.

Now maybe evolutionary biology isn’t going to propel America into the forefront of world science, but creationism (and its gussied-up descendant “Intelligent Design”) is not just a campaign against evolution–it’s a campaign against science itself and the scientific method. By pretending that evolution is on shaky ground, and asserting that religion can contribute to our understanding of nature, creationists confuse people about the very form and character of scientific evidence. This confusion can only hurt our ability to make rational judgments about important social issues, like global warming, that involve science.

I encourage you to read the whole essay. It contains a well formulated opinion on why it is so important (and to me, almost incredible) that 3 out of 9 Republican candidates don’t believe in evolution. Even more important than just the contention on evolution is how it is attacked.

Truth doesn’t exist. Or rather, it is not accessible to human cognition. We can only formulate theories on what the truth may be but ultimately, we cannot know it. We can only test our theories on the touchstone of facts. If the theory correctly explains the facts, then it is close enough to the “Truth” and it is agreed to be considered as a scientific truth. That is until a new fact is discovered that cannot be explained by this particular theory, in which case, it is either refined or discarded for a new one that can accommodate a more complete explanation. Sure there are things that are not understood (and there probably always will be) but science progresses by iteration (and sometimes revolution). It doesn’t start with concepts and tries to make the observed facts fit into a rigid framework based on belief, or, as Coyne puts it:

Scientific truths are facts agreed on by all observers using scientific methods. The formula for water is H2O, the Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. These are matters that can be verified empirically by any scientist, be she Muslim, Catholic, or Hindu.

What bothers me is not so much that evolution is put to the trial: as a scientific truth, it needs to be put to trial and pass the test of facts. What bothers me is the fact that there is no trial. Evolution is disregarded (as well as the facts) in favor of dogma. This attitude is more and more pervasive (it can also be found in other domains than science) and it is troubling to see such a powerful and predominant country as the US show the sign of a return to obscurantism. Coyne concludes:

This attitude has enormous political—and educational—implications. What happens if scientific truth conflicts with a politician’s “spiritual truth”? This is not a theoretical problem, but a real one, as we see in debates about stem-cell research, abortion, genetic engineering, and global warming. Ignorance about evolution may be widespread, but it’s not nearly as dangerous as dogmatic certainty about the real world based on faith alone.

What does such an attitude, held by people so close to becoming the next leader of the most powerful country in the world, mean for this country? What does it mean for the rest of the world? Supposing that evolution could be banned from being taught in school if such a dogmatic candidate was to become president, what’s next? Crusades? After all, if facts don’t matter and only the word of God is of importance, why not?

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Back in January, Passport posted on a scary Defense Department report that warned of Canadian coins that had been transformed into tracking devices. It turns out the whole things was a big misunderstanding [...]

Yes, U.S. defense officials were spooked by Canadian lucre bearing an unusual floral design. Moreover, their fears were transmitted pretty much uncritically to the rest of the defense establishment. And the whole thing could have been cleared up by turning to the nearest friend from north of the border and simply asking, "What’s this coin thingy, eh?"

Yep, I’d laugh if it wasn’t so ridiculous that such people are in charge of supposedly protecting us… especially considering how enormous the DoD budget is. Couldn’t anyone do a simple fact check? Would that have been so hard? Or are people just blindly following orders and giving in to fears, without using their judgement? Is this why the war to “free” Iraq is so expensive?

FP Passport – blogging on global news, politics, economics and ideas

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When a young mans shooting rampage left 33 people dead on the campus of Virginia Tech Monday, Americans were in shock. (…) The Web sites of major U.S. media outlets (…) have been dominated by coverage of the shooting. We see photos and biographical sketches of the victims, and the grief is palpable.

Today, 166 people so far have died in attacks in Baghdad, with 119 killed in just one marketplace bombing alone. But Americans aren’t stopped in their tracks. As with previous marketplace bombings, today’s tragedy merits only a quick acknowledgment in the news, and then its on to more important concerns like Sanjaya on American Idol.

When I think of the grief that we Americans feel at the death of 33 innocent people in Blacksburg, I wonder what it must be like to live in Iraq and deal with such anguish literally every day… and to have it ignored. And then, I wonder why we Americans, who are supposed to care so much about Iraqis, aren’t more stricken by the daily carnage there.

But I don’t wonder long, for we all know the sad truth: as much as we would like to believe otherwise, in reality, all humans aren’t equal. To us, every American life is priceless; more and more, it seems, Iraqi lives aren’t even worth 60 seconds of air time.

And what about the Darfur or Somalia victims? What about all these conflicts/human tragedies that we (in the so called civilized West) never hear about? This phenomenon is of course not American-centric, we’re all guilty of caring more about what’s close to us and what we know but when you think about it, it really is shocking. Then again, ignoring others’ pain and bath in the comfort of our daily lives and focus on our own issues, meaningless as they may be confronted to the daily pain of so many people around the world is a way to cope with our guilt for not being able/willing to do something helpful. So… What about that Sanjaya?

FP Passport – blogging on global news, politics, economics and ideas

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