THE NEW SCIENTIST GOES AFTER The Obama Administration’s War On Science:

A US government report on a pressing environmental issue is edited to falsely imply that scientists had peer-reviewed and supported the central policy recommendation. Almost 1 in 4 government scientists working on food safety say they have been asked by their bosses to exclude or alter technical information in scientific documents during the past year.

These incidents sound as if they come from the dark days of George W. Bush’s presidency, when complaints about political interference in government science reached a crescendo. But in fact, both refer to the behaviour of the current US administration, led by a president who famously promised to “restore science to its rightful place” in his inauguration speech of January 2009.

Nobody tell Chris Mooney.

UPDATE: Reader Tom Brosz emails:

From the article:

While some other constituencies are deserting him, Obama largely still has the support of the scientific community. He is seen as a friend of science, who with his allies in Congress ensured that a generous dollop of stimulus spending was devoted to research.

It seems pretty obvious what it takes to be a “friend of science:” A generous dollop of taxpayer money.

Follow it, and you’ll understand a lot. Not everything, but a lot. And note the “if the Czar only knew” bit in the final paragraph. Still, The New Scientist is standing up for scientific integrity here, and that’s to be commended.

COMING: A solar-powered electric popemobile?

55: A MEDITATION ON THE SPEED LIMIT.

IN THE MAIL: The 21st Century Sniper: A Complete Practical Guide.

CHANGE: China spending $511 billion to build up to 245 nuclear reactors.

UPDATE: Reader Stu Gittelman writes: “Just out of curiosity, since China is going to spend all that money on nuclear power, will Tom Friedman finally support more nukes here?”

THE FACULTY SABBATICAL on the chopping block? A lot of people who would have stepped up to defend higher education a decade ago won’t do so now, because it’s become more politicized, and less respected. Alas, we don’t have sabbaticals at my school anyway, so I have no dog in this fight. However, places that have instituted them have seen faculty research productivity go up substantially.

The problem is, governments are broke. When governments are broke, cuts hit the least-powerful constituencies first. That means universities are likely to get cut so that other, more-politically-powerful state employees can preserve their situations. And, within universities, faculty will get hit before administration, even though administrative bloat accounts for most of the rise in costs.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, the feds would be warrantlessly tracking Americans in their daily lives. And they were right! “Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows.”

COMING SOON: The loud thud of a gold bust?

LIFE INSURANCE INDUSTRY lobbies hard against estate tax repeal.

AT AMAZON, Cyber-Week deals in electronics.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: Recovering China’s Past on Kenya’s Coast. “The underwater search for shipwrecks follows a dig last summer in the village of Mambrui that unearthed a rare coin carried only by emissaries of the Chinese emperor, as well as a large fragment of a green-glazed porcelain bowl whose fine workmanship befits an imperial envoy. Although Ming-era porcelains are nothing new in Mambrui—Chinese porcelains fill the local museum and decorate a centuries-old tomb—the latest finds suggest that the wares came not through Arab merchants but directly from China.”

CHURCHILL SAW IT COMING.

RICHARD POLLOCK: Dismal Jobs Number Exposes A Leaderless White House on Economic Policy.

L.A. TIMES: Was President Obama endangered by premature news reports of his arrival in Afghan warzone?

ED MORRISSEY: The new humane: killing terrorists instead of capturing them. It’s a sign of dysfunctional law and politics.

THE REST OF THE STORY on those Andy Griffith ObamaCare ads: “The new documents show the Obama administration spent $3,184,000 in taxpayer funds to produce and air the advertisements on national television in September and October of 2010 to educate ‘Medicare beneficiaries, caregivers, and family members about forthcoming changes to Medicare as a result of the Affordable Care Act.'”

HOW HIGHLY WOULD YOU RATE SPINAL TAP? I just watched it again — doing research for my Sunday Examiner column (no, really) — and thought it held up pretty well. On the other hand, my daughter watched it with me, and despite her current immersion in ’60s and ’70s rock history she was pretty lukewarm. Since then, though, she’s been gleefully repeating key lines. So maybe it’s better after you’ve watched it then while you watch it?

UPDATE: On rating Spinal Tap, Dr. Scott Hannay writes:

“11”, of course!

Of course!

HOW EUROPE’S DEBT CRISIS could infect America. Remember when the Euro-pundits were tut-tutting about “cowboy-style” American capitalism?

NIGEL FARAGE: The English Tea Partier.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Why don’t institutional investors have say on their own pay? “I wonder how many, if any, members of the Council permit their beneficiaries to vote on the pay their executives receive. I don’t recall ever being asked to give an advisory vote on the pay of the executives at TIAA-CREF or the UCRP. How about CalPERS? Why isn’t sauce for the goose sauce for the gander?”

I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANOTHER GODDAMNED WORD about my carbon footprint.

THE FOLKS IN WASHINGTON can’t even regulate bars well. “When I moved to DC a scant three and a half years ago, there were enough bars where you could enjoy a Thursday night seated in the company of friends. Then came January 2009, when I held a birthday get-together at a previously local place on 11th street. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much getting together; more than half the people were turned away because of overcrowding. Several bars had been shut down in Adams Morgan because the weren’t serving enough food to comply with their tavern licenses; the result was that Adams Morgan relocated to U Street. Since then, this pattern has been repeated over and over; any bar that opens is pleasant for a month or so, then completely, miserably jammed.”

VENEZUELA’S JEWISH COMMUNITY sees “dark horizon.”

OBAMA MAKES A SURPRISE HOLIDAY TRIP TO AFGHANISTAN. What a novel idea.

ETHANOL’S POLICY PRIVILEGES: Heading for history’s dustbin?