SFist Reads
We're so excited about the new Mission Bay Library, which is set to open in 2006. Did you know that is will be the first new branch library in 40 years? While we're excited about any library news, this is great for us because this new library is very close to where we work, giving us an all-new place to pick up and drop off our online reserves. While we want to advocate book purchases at one of our fine independent bookstores, this week we're sending our book money to the Friends of the Public Library, to help support the Mission Bay effort.
SFist Jer is reading Best Food Writing 2005, edited by Holly Hughes. He loved the 2004 edition, and the latest one is proving to be very enjoyable. It has some great articles in it; the challenge is to not go out and eat everything the writers refer to on the spot.
Cedric just finished Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science, a scary account of how the current White House is using (ie. destorting, manipulating, eviscerating) science to achieve its political goals. The two main domains are the environment (policy which is sound scientifically gets in the way of the big corporate donors of this administration), and the so-called "values" (teaching a class how to use a condom effectively reduces STD, but offends the moral right). Mooney's book points out that the strategy to diffuse the influence of science, is to create phony science. Politicians can then spin the doubts instilled by the junk science (obviously called, in an up-is-down manner, "sound" science) into their desired policy. The worst consequences is not just bad policy, it is the undermining of science in general: The goal of science is to find some truth regarding the world which surrounds us. A science which is subservient to ideology is useless, and it is a scary perspective.