Author Archives: Alexander Mosiak

Unprecedented Chinese Uprisings

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

China is no stranger to popular uprisings, but current protests in Guangdong province are unlike any in recent memory. Activists in the village of Wukan have been fighting the corrupt seizure of land for commercial development for years, but when … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Basic News, Degrowth Economics, Occupy Wall Street, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

Overcoming Climatology

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

Meteorologist Jeff Masters’ discussion of atmospheric circulation, global warming, and climate modelling in the context of a massive weather disaster, the recurrent East African drought, seems to me to be moving towards the kind of interdisciplinary thinking needed to grapple … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

Environmental Alarm Grows in Urban China

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

An incipient environmental awareness is increasingly emerging among the urban middle-class in China, but the almost apocalyptic scale of the pollution must be discouraging to activists, to say the least: The statement posted online along with a photograph of central … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental policy, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

What Is College For?

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

A new piece in The Stone, the NY Times philosophy blog, raises questions about the value of college: Most American college students are wrapping up yet another semester this week. For many of them, and their families, the past months … Continue reading →

Posted in Future of the University | Leave a comment

Correlation or Causation?

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

With the right graph, you can imply anything… Correlation or Causation? – Businessweek

Posted in Metrics | Leave a comment

For-Profit College Rules Scaled Back After Lobbying

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

If the last post didn’t convince you of the surge in corporate profiteering from publicly-funded education, here’s yet another instance of this trend: Last year, the Obama administration vowed to stop for-profit colleges from luring students with false promises. In an … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University, Occupy Wall Street | Leave a comment

Online Schools Score Better on Wall Street Than in Classrooms

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

The financialization of “public” education is gaining steam at ever lower grade levels: By almost every educational measure, the Agora Cyber Charter School is failing. Nearly 60 percent of its students are behind grade level in math. Nearly 50 percent … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Occupy Wall Street, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

Questioning ‘International Development’ in DR Congo

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

This BBC article about DR Congo as a failed state contains a great deal to suggest that a merely technical approach to socioeconomic development can backfire dramatically: In the absence of a functioning state or similar, even the best-intended projects can … Continue reading →

Posted in Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

Fracking may be causing groundwater pollution, says EPA report

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

The US Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution… The EPA found that compounds likely … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental policy, Peer Review, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

Outsourcing Pollution

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

An unregulated global market repeatedly leads national environmental regulations toward the same outcome: pollution shifting to where it’s cheaper to pollute. Whether it’s European limits on carbon dioxide emissions shifting industrial production (and the associated emissions) to China or American … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Climate Change, Degrowth Economics, Environmental policy, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

At Climate Talks, a Familiar Standoff

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has once again emerged as the biggest puzzle at international climate change talks, sending ambiguous signals about the role it intends to play in future negotiations. This week the nation’s top climate envoy said that … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Environmental policy, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

The University of Wherever

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

Sebastian Thrun [the Stanford computer science professor famous for leading the team that built Google's self-driving car]… is offering his “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course online and free of charge. His remote students will get the same lectures as students … Continue reading →

Posted in Future of the University, Science and technology ramifications, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | 1 Comment

Geoengineering Might Be Gaining Traction

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

Notions of manipulating the climate to impede global warming have been on the fringe of scientific discussion for some time, but is moving increasingly toward the mainstream…. At a time of deep concern over global warming, a group of scientists, … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Environmental policy, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

Hurricane-force Santa Ana winds: Another sign of global warming?

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

This article in the Christian Science Monitor constitutes a rare journalistic attempt at discussing risk management related to climate change in the context of an extreme weather event – the recent 150+ mph Santa Ana winds. My hunch is that … Continue reading →

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Diversity for Dollars

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

The steady withdrawal of public funding from American higher education and domestic students’ increasing reliance on loans is driving the growth of a recruitment model in which international students are sought as a source of steady capital. China is the … Continue reading →

Posted in TechnoScience & Technoscientism | 3 Comments

Militarized Millipedes?

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

Thinking about the broader impacts of an “army of cyborg insects” is probably worth doing…and not just because of NSF funding criteria. There’s some pretty wild hubris in the BBC article below – most likely a mix of sensationalistic journalism … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, Economics & STEM Research, Open Access, Science and technology ramifications, STEM Policy, TechnoScience & Technoscientism, Transformative Research | Leave a comment

The Branding of the Occupy Movement

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

Kalle Lasn, the longtime editor of the anticonsumerist magazine Adbusters, did not invent the anger that has been feeding the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the United States. But he did brand it. Last summer, as uprisings shook the Middle East and … Continue reading →

Posted in Occupy Wall Street, Open Access | Leave a comment

Hydrofracking Debate Spurs Huge Spending by Industry

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

I wonder to what extent the corporate impact on public policy is currently being taken into account in mainstream STS (Science, technology, and society) studies. Is attention being paid to the role of lobbying and advertising in driving innovation or … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Degrowth Economics, Environmental policy, Science and technology ramifications, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

The Unbearable Lightness of Forgiveness

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

Rob Johnson, a former banker and former investment partner with George Soros, now heads the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). He endorses debt reduction because social destruction is the great uncalculated cost of doing nothing. “There are so many … Continue reading →

Posted in Degrowth Economics, Occupy Wall Street, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | 1 Comment

Rebels Without an Ideological Cause

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

It is clear (although perhaps not to Fox News viewers) that we are living in a moment of historic political resistance. The “Arab Spring” is convulsing the political regimes of the Middle East and the “Occupy” movement is emerging as … Continue reading →

Posted in Degrowth Economics, Occupy Wall Street, Open Access, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | 2 Comments

No News Better Than Fox News

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

Quick, were Egyptian protesters successful in their bid to overthrow longtime president Hosni Mubarak earlier this year? According to a new poll (PDF) from Fairleigh Dickinson University, if you watch Fox News you are significantly less likely to know the correct … Continue reading →

Posted in Occupy Wall Street, Public Pedagogy, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

Media Coverage of Income Inequality Quintuples

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

Whatever the objectives of protesters involved in Occupy Wall Street, they have succeeded in engaging the country in a conversation about income inequality. A quick search of the news–including print articles, web stories and broadcast transcripts–via Nexis reveals a significant … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Degrowth Economics, Occupy Wall Street, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

Public Health vs. Corporate Profitability or: Why Science Cannot (And Does Not) Determine Policy

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

In his inaugural address, Mr. Obama promised to “restore science to its rightful place” in making government environmental policy. He also pledged to revisit environmental rules set by the administration of George W. Bush that his administration felt were too weak. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Degrowth Economics, Environmental policy, Occupy Wall Street, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

Bootstrapping My Way Into the Ivory Tower

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

Critics of higher education love to suggest that we professors are living it up. But I’m not. I have less than $100 in my checking account. I’ve been ignoring a recurring robo-call from a company trying to collect a $50 … Continue reading →