Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[SkeptInq@aol.com]

 Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest, March 5, 2000

 Visit the CSICOP and Skeptical Inquirer Magazine website at
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 In this edition of SI DIGEST:
 --PAULOS: Who Wants to be a Science Savvy President?
 --NY TIMES: Global Warming: The Contrarian View
 --NY TIMES: Getting to the Core of Mistakes in Medicine
 --NPR Talk of the Nation: Reality-based TV
 --NPR Science Friday: Cosmology/Dark Side of the Universe

 PAULOS: WHO WANTS TO BE A SCIENCE-SAVVY PRESIDENT?

 From the "Who's Counting?" column
 ABCNEWS.com

 For the full text of the article, go to
 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/WhosCounting/whoscounting.html

 Who Wants to Be a Science-Savvy President?
 Some Science and Math Questions for the Candidates

 [March 1 — During this presidential primary season the candidates have been
questioned in numerous forums by countless talking heads with backgrounds in
journalism, economics, and law, but seldom by anyone knowledgeable in
mathematics or science. This is odd given the importance the candidates
themselves ascribe to education, particularly in science and mathematics.
Nobody expects Messrs. Bradley, Bush, Gore, and McCain to calculate quantum
wavefunctions or spout out pi to 50 digits, but reasonable answers to a few
elementary questions on mathematics and science would nevertheless be
reassuring. I thus propose a Who Wants to Be a Scientifically Literate
President quiz. ]



 NYTIMES: GLOBAL WARMING--THE CONTRARIAN VIEW


 Global Warming: The Contrarian View
 Two Sides, Two Data Sets

 For the full article, go to

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/022900sci-environ-climate.html

 February 29, 2000
 By William K. Stevens

 [Over the years, skeptics have tried to cast doubt on the idea of global
warming by noting that measurements taken by earth satellites since 1979 have
found little or no temperature rise in large parts of the upper atmosphere.
The satellites' all-encompassing coverage yields more reliable results than
temperature samplings showing a century-long warming trend at the earth's
surface, they argued. In January, a special study by the National Research
Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, declared that
the "apparent disparity" between the two sets of measurements over the
20-year history of the satellite measurements "in no way invalidates the
conclusion that surface temperature has been rising." The surface warming "is
undoubtedly real," the study panel said. But the dissenters are a long way
from conceding the debate, and they have seized on other aspects of the
panel's report in an effort to bolster their case. ]


 NYTIMES: GETTING TO THE CORE OF MISTAKES IN MEDICINE

 THE DOCTOR'S WORLD
 Getting to the Core of Mistakes in Medicine
 For the full article, go to
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/022900hth-doctors.html

 February 29, 2000

 By Lawrence K. Altman, M.D.
 [Doctors have amputated the wrong leg, killed patients with overdoses of
medications and committed other serious errors for centuries. So why only now
is a United States president calling for the first national plan to reduce
such errors? "Mistakes can happen to anybody, and they provoke a visceral
fear that is real," says Dr. Mark R. Chassin, part of a panel that studied
errors. Dr. Nancy W. Dickey, past president of the A.M.A., says preventable
errors deserve more attention. "The only acceptable error rate is zero."  The
reasons behind the new concern are as complex as medicine itself and as
varied as recent changes in society, including medical advances, greater
complexity of care, increasing challenge to medical authority and new
techniques to pinpoint sources of errors in the maze of systems that doctors
and hospital staffs use every day. Also, mounting complaints about managed
care have intensified concern about the quality of health care, and placing a
spotlight on medical errors grabs public attention in a way that other
quality of care issues do not. As Dr. Mark R. Chassin, a former New York
State health commissioner, put it: "Talk about overuse and underuse of health
care, issues that are as important as errors, and everybody goes to sleep.
But mistakes can happen to anybody, and they provoke a visceral fear that is
real." The spark for President Clinton's plan was a report in November from
the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. It said that
up to 98,000 patients died from preventable medical errors in American
hospitals each year, but that the number could be halved in five years.

 NPR TALK OF THE NATION: REALITY BASED TELEVISION

 March 1, 2000

 HOST: Juan Williams
 To listen to the full program in RealAudio go to:
 http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=03/01/2000&PrgID=5


 HOUR TWO: Reality Based T.V.

 GUESTS:
 ROBERT THOMPSON
 *Professor of Film & Television, Syracuse
 *Director, Center for the Study of Popular Television, Syracuse University
 *Author, "Television's Second Golden Age: From Hill Street Blues to ER"
 (Continuum Publishers, 1997)

 BRUCE NASH
 *President, Nash Entertainment

 The Fox Network has announced a retreat from 'reality-based' programming
 since "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire" show turned into a fiasco...
 but the show itself drew a massive audience, and most critics agree that
 reality-based TV will be with us for some time to come. In the months
 ahead, at least three new series will throw willing participants into
 dramatic and stressful situations for the viewing pleasure of television
 audiences. Why are we fascinated with this hybrid genre? Join Juan
 Williams and guests to examine the entertainment industry's latest
 voyeuristic twist, reality-based T.V.

 NPR SCIENCE FRIDAY: COSMOLOGY NEWS/DARK SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE

 February 25, 2000

 To listen the program in RealAudio go to:
 http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=02/25/2000&PrgID=5

 HOUR ONE: Cosmology News/Dark Side of the Universe

 Last week, scientists from Italy announced that they may have detected a
heavy particle that forms the dark matter in the universe. This hour, the
talk turns to the latest cosmology news, including a report on the search for
the mysterious dark matter and dark energy, the force that's behind the
accelerating universe.

 Guests:

 Michael Turner
 Staff Scientist
 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 Chair and Professor, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
 University of Chicago
 Chicago, Illinois

 Bernard Sadoulet
 Professor, Physics
 Director, Center for Particle Astrophysics
 University of California
 Berkeley, California

 Andreas Albrecht
 Professor, Physics
 University of California
 Davis, California

 ________________________

 SI Electronic Digest is the biweekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)

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