Ian David
Ian David's Journal
"Praise Jesus he wasn't eaten by the Sarlacc in the Great Pit of Carkoon," said his nerdy nephew n/t
University of Texas at Austin: Do a Real Misconduct Investigation of Mark Regnerus
University of Texas at Austin: Do a Real Misconduct Investigation of Mark Regnerus
http://www.change.org/petitions/university-of-texas-at-austin-do-a-real-misconduct-investigation-of-mark-regnerus-2#
UT HAS A HISTORY OF SWEEPING MISCONDUCT UNDER THE CARPET
Only tremendous outside pressures finally moved officials of the University of Texas at Austin (UT) to do the right thing by having an independent outside panel investigate UT Professor Charles Groat.
Groat had carried out a study on fracking wastewater – (concluding that it was non-toxic) -- without disclosing that he was on the board of a fracking industry company and held $1.5 million of its stock.
UT CARRIED OUT A SHAM “INQUIRY” OF MARK REGNERUS
With its perfunctory "inquiry" of Mark Regnerus's "New Family Structures Study" (NFSS) in the summer of 2012, UT has again violated the public trust.
If UT had done a true inquiry, it would have disclosed to the public that W. Bradford Wilcox collaborated with Regnerus on NFSS study design. Then, it would have done a full misconduct investigation.
HUGE, MULTIPLE OUTSTANDING NON-DISCLOSURES OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Who is Brad Wilcox, and why is this so important?
In 2010, when the NOM-linked anti-gay-rights Witherspoon Institute organized the NFSS, Brad Wilcox was Director of Witherspoon’s Program for Marriage, Family and Democracy.
Witherspoon’s 2010 IRS 990 forms describe the NFSS as a “major accomplishment” of Wilcox’s Witherspoon program.
Wilcox recruited Regnerus to do the study for Witherspoon. After Witherspoon gave Regnerus a $55,000 NFSS “planning grant,” Wilcox collaborated with Regnerus on STUDY DESIGN. Then, Witherspoon arranged for Regnerus to have full study funding of $785,000.
It is A DOCUMENTED FACT that as Witherspoon Program Director, Brad Wilcox collaborated with Regnerus on the booby-trapped, anti-gay NFSS study design.
REGNERUS GOES BEYOND “NON-DISCLOSURE,” TO LYING
Nonetheless, in his study published in June, 2012, Regnerus LIES by saying that the funding sources were not involved “at all” in study design. In his “Additional Analyses” article published in November, 2012, Regnerus repeated that lie.
Wilcox also is an old crony to Regnerus and to James Wright, editor of the journal that published Regnerus -- Elsevier’s “Social Science Research.” Moreover, Wilcox is on the “Social Science Research” editorial board. It thus is hardly a surprise that when Wright was shown the documentation that Wilcox – as a Witherspoon Program Director – had collaborated with Regnerus on study design, Wright ignored that documentation, and published Regnerus’s lie for a second time.
Formulating and/or changing a study design to produce a study result desired by a funding agency constitutes misconduct.
For a researcher to lie about his relationships with his anti-gay-rights funders, in the pages of a scientific journal – as UT’s Mark Regnerus has done, twice – very seriously deviates from ethical research standards.
In the wake of the UT Groat scandal, UT is pretending that it is reforming its policies, which it has confessed were not sufficient to preventing flimflammery in research during the period Regnerus did the NFSS.
For UT, finally doing a real misconduct investigation of Regnerus will merely be a necessary part of the school’s finally getting its academic house in order.
UT Associate Professor Mark Regnerus is a shameless liar, with no autonomy whatsoever from his anti-gay-rights funders. The evidence and documentation already assembled – proving that beyond all doubt – goes far, far beyond what is stated above in this petition text.
UT must now carry out a full misconduct investigation of Mark Regnerus, if it wishes to begin to repair the public perception that the school is not at all trustworthy.
To:
Robert A. Peterson, UT, Research Integrity Officer
Randy L. Diehl, Dean, UT College of Liberal Arts
Mark Regnerus, UT Associate Professor
Gary Susswein, UT Media Contact
Tara Doolittle, UT Media Contact
Steven W. Leslie, UT Provost
Michelle Bryant, Media Contact, UT College of Liberal Arts
William Powers, UT President
Nancy Brazzil, UT, Deputy to the President
Charles A. Roeckle, UT, Deputy to the President
Geoff Leavenworth, UT President's Office, Chief Communications Officer
Board of Regents, UT
Francie A. Frederick, UT, General Counsel to the Board of Regents
Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., UT Chancellor
Mark Hayward, Director, UT Population Research Center
Christine L. Williams, Chair, UT Department of Sociology
David Ochsner, UT, Media Relations
Patricia Ohlendorf, UT, Legal Department
Do a Real Misconduct Investigation of Mark Regnerus
Sincerely,
[Your name]
More:
http://www.change.org/petitions/university-of-texas-at-austin-do-a-real-misconduct-investigation-of-mark-regnerus-2#
Facebook Is Down, Mobile Apps Still Working For Some — Second Big Tech Outage Of Day
Source: Tech Crunch
Facebook appears to be down right now. It’s the second big outage of the day after Google’s.
For now, mobile apps are still working for some. Some writers can load everything with their phone, but it’s not the case for everyone. You can still technically access your Facebook feed, but not through your browser
Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/10/facebook-is-down-mobile-apps-still-working-second-big-tech-outage-of-the-day/
Better link pending
See also:
The system is down: Facebook crashes in wake of epic Gmail failure
It’s a dark day for the Internet: We’ve confirmed that yes, Facebook is at least intermittently down for lots of users around the globe.
In fact, it looks like it’s worse that just “down” — DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com shows a unique error message for the site: “Huh? http://www.facebook.com doesn’t look like a site on the interwho.”
And this sad news comes just a few hours after we confirmed widespread Gmail outages. If we start seeing Fail Whales, that’ll make some kind of social media nightmare trifecta.
More:
http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/10/facebook-is-down/
Facebook encountering DNS issues, making it unavailable for some users
Facebook has been encountering some DNS issues this afternoon that are making it unavailable to many users. The site’s Domain Name System servers are not directing folks to its site, causing it to appear as if the network is down completely.
As of this writing, it’s been down for some 20 minutes at the very least, and there are a lot of people that are pretty upset. It appears that visiting a Facebook subdomain, o.facebook.com, is letting users access Facebook, proving this is a DNS issue.
This is Facebook’s first major outage since October 11, when the social network went down in several countries worldwide. At the time, there were rumors that the site had been hacked, but Facebook denied this, and instead blamed DNS test for European outage which lasted more than an hour.
As usual, hoards of Twitter users have tweeted their concerns:
More:
http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2012/12/11/facebook-encountering-dns-issues-making-it-unavailable-for-some-users/
Eric Schwartz will be performing in Boston Monday, November 19th 7-9PM at Tommy Doyle's
Eric Schwartz will be performing in Boston Monday, November 19th 7-9PM at Tommy Doyle's
This month's guest is singer/songwriter Eric Schwartz. See our web site for details: http://bostonskeptics.com/2012/11/skeptics-in-the-pub-eric-schwartz/
Monday, November 19, 2012
7:00pm until 9:00pm
Tommy Doyles Irish Pub & Restaurant
76 Winthrop St, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
https://www.facebook.com/events/124488891041895/
See prior thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101734895
"I'm In" by Roy Zimmerman
Vote with Your Vagina, by Taylor Ferrera
Gov. Patrick declares state of emergency in Mass.
BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Deval Patrick on Saturday declared a state of emergency for Massachusetts as Hurricane Sandy approached, threatening to combine with another storm from the west and cold air from Canada to bring heavy rains and damaging winds that could cause widespread power outages.
Patrick said 200 National Guard members were on standby and the number would rise to at least 1,000 by the time the storm hits the state, possibly Sunday night. It is expected to peak Monday and Tuesday, and could cause moderate to major coastal flooding and severe beach erosion.
‘‘We are expecting damaging winds, strong enough for widespread power outages, there will be bands of heavy rain with potential for 5 inches or more over several days,’’ Patrick said.
Hurricane Sandy, upgraded again Saturday just hours after forecasters said it had weakened to a tropical storm, was barreling north from the Caribbean and was expected to make landfall early Tuesday near the Delaware coast, then hit two winter weather systems as it moves inland, creating a hybrid monster storm.
Patrick said the declaration will help Massachusetts officials quickly secure necessary services, supplies and personnel ahead of the storm. National Guard members will prepare supply armories, fill sand bags and position them and other equipment throughout the state, he said. Once the storm hits, they will help with any evacuations, search-and-rescue operations, moving emergency workers and helping local officials with security and traffic control, the governor said.
More:
http://www.boston.com/news/weather/2012/10/27/gov-patrick-declares-state-emergency-mass/5d8KIuoAQZGuQ7Ph77FESL/story.html
Big Bird at Jim Henson's Memorial
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