Free Republic

Lack of rigour is often blamed on pressure to publish. But ethnographers can find out what truly keeps science from upping its game.A decade ago, the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke convened a workshop on how to improve the rigour of preclinical research. Its recommendations were surprisingly straightforward: scientists should mask (or ‘blind’) their studies; randomize; estimate appropriate sample sizes; and specify rules for data handling (S. C. Landis et al. Nature 490, 187–191; 2012). Ten years on, many preclinical scientists still do not take these basic steps. Ask most advocates of rigorous science why this is,...

Eight years ago, a team of researchers launched a project to carefully repeat early but influential lab experiments in cancer research. They recreated 50 experiments, the type of preliminary research with mice and test tubes that sets the stage for new cancer drugs. The results reported Tuesday: About half the scientific claims didn’t hold up. “The truth is we fool ourselves. Most of what we claim is novel or significant is no such thing,” said Dr. Vinay Prasad, a cancer doctor and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the project. It’s a pillar...

CNN president Jeff Zucker told the network’s staffers on Tuesday morning that former host Chris Cuomo “deserved termination” and won’t be paid any severance, according to reports. During a town hall-style meeting, Zucker also called Saturday’s firing of the “Cuomo Prime Time” star “a lesson we have all learned from,” the Wrap reported. Zucker said Cuomo’s secret efforts to help his brother, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, battle sexual harassment allegations violated CNN’s standards and practices in a way that went “too far and deserved termination,” the website said. Zucker also said Chris Cuomo won’t receive any money toward the remainder...

Every year, the state controller publishes thousands of public employees’ salaries, from nearly every city, county and special district, on its transparency-focused “Government Compensation in California” website. Here’s what you won’t find: about two-thirds of the Golden State’s school systems. Unlike other public agencies in the state, California’s schools can choose whether to participate because of a loophole in state law. Most do not even reply to the controller’s requests. This year, of the 1,915 requests sent to education employers, only 447 provided the appropriate information. Another 128 responded, but with either incomplete or unacceptable records, according to the state...

Kyle Rittenhouse said he will destroy the AR-15-style weapon he used in the fatal shooting of two people last year at a racial injustice protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In an appearance on the conservative podcast “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Rittenhouse said Tuesday that the gun was being "destroyed right now.” “We don’t want anything to do with that,” he said. Rittenhouse, 18, was acquitted of five felony charges related to his actions on Aug. 25, 2020, during a protest over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer. Rittenhouse was charged with reckless homicide...

Amends the Illinois Insurance Code. Provides that a group or individual policy of accident and health insurance that is amended, delivered, issued, or renewed on or after January 1, 2023 shall provide that a person who is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and chooses not to be vaccinated shall pay for health care expenses out-of-pocket if the person becomes hospitalized because of COVID-19 symptoms. 1 AN ACT concerning regulation. 2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, 3 represented in the General Assembly: 4 Section 5. The Illinois Insurance Code is amended by 5 adding...

Our economic woes are not going away anytime soon, and President Biden seems to be doing his best to prolong them. New restrictions on travel to the United States, especially for the transit of cargo, coupled with a newly emerged strain of COVID, may cause the frail economy to spiral into 2022. The White House’s policy errors will further exacerbate the delicate national recovery from the pandemic and become the greatest contributing factor to a worsening of our supply chain crisis and inflation. While information surrounding the omicron variant is still emerging, if officials respond with more spending and lockdowns...

Osama Abuirshaid has openly expressed anti-Semitic views in the past; has close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood; and has voiced support for Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. (December 3, 2021 / JNS) The executive director of the new lobby group Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action) was a guest speaker at a recent conference in Jordan that also hosted members of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), both of which are designated as terror groups by the theUnited States and the European Union. Osama Abuirshaid, who is also the executive director of American Muslims...

The Cleveland Clinic released a statement today announcing some unexpected but exciting news: Viagra may be an effective preventative for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).A new Cleveland Clinic-led study has identified sildenafil – an FDA-approved therapy for erectile dysfunction (Viagra) and pulmonary hypertension (Ravatio) – as a promising drug candidate to help prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease The research team, led by Feixiong Cheng, Ph.D., of Cleveland Clinic’s Genomic Medicine Institute, made the discovery as part of a data-mining study. They performed a large-scale computational analysis of medical insurance data from over 7 million patients, evaluating medicines already FDA-approved and in use...

Lia Thomas ( formerly Will Thomas ) A transgender swimmer who competed as a man until November of 2019 recently smashed several women’s swimming records at an Akron, Ohio, meet, winning the 1,650-yard race by 38 seconds over the closest competitor.Lia Thomas was able to qualify for next year’s NCAA women’s championship with record-smashing times at the Zippy Invitational meet. Thomas would be the first transgender athlete to qualify for a national title in swimming.Thomas has met all the requirements the NCAA has set for men to compete as women. But the astonishing way Thomas dominated the competition should...

“Right wing builds its own echo chamber,” the far-left, fake news site Axios warned in a recent headline. They cancel us, they blacklist us, they shadow ban us, they memory-hole inconvenient truths about Hunter Biden’s laptop, Kyle Rittenhouse’s innocence, and the coronavirus lab-leak theory, and now they’re all butthurt because we refuse to sit there, shut up, and take it. Hey, can you blame them? After decades of dealing with the right’s castrated, house-trained McCains, Romney’s, Bushes, Kristols, and National Reviews, the media are still shell-shocked over this new generation’s awesome belligerence towards them (which our founder Andrew Breitbart deserves...

A left-wing protest in Washington, D.C., is blocking traffic in the nation's capital to demonstrate against an administration and lawmakers they believe have failed them by not delivering on various promises. The initiative, dubbed "Shutdown DC," is a joint effort from several activist organizations that are each conducting blockades at different spots near the Capitol building.

Representatives Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz and others hold a news conference at the U.S. Capitol to protest the treatment of January 6 defendants at the D.C. Jail. Gohmert and Gosar as well.

A federal judge has blocked the vaccine requirement for federal contractors.

Top Senate Republicans are predicting that they'll get enough GOP support to help advance a deal on the debt ceiling, as GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) pitches his caucus on the agreement. Under the deal, the House and Senate will first need to pass a bill that sets up a subsequent one-time simple-majority vote to raise the debt ceiling. Though Democrats would then be able to raise the debt ceiling on their own, they would still need 10 GOP votes to advance the initial legislation that lays out how the debt ceiling vote will work.

So, how do the COVID vaccines (grouped together for this piece) compare to other vaccines? I’ll tell you. But first, I gotta disclaim: 1. Yes. I am a medical doctor. 2. No. I am not your doctor. 3. No. I am not providing you with medical advice. 4. Yes. I do not know you. 5. What you choose to do re: the COVID vaccine is a choice made among (you) + (your physician) + (whomever else you decide to include) +/- (government/employer mandates). I am completely out of it as far as your health care choices are concerned. As always,...

Survey of China Mainland Press. Hong Kong: American Consulate General, 1965. p. 35 Delegation of Palestine Liberation Organization Visits Military Academy in Wuhan (NCNA-English, Wuhan, March 24, 1965) "Our common target is US imperialism" said Ahmed Shukairy president of the Palestine Liberation Organization.. FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1965. 032456 -- "Delegation of palestine liberation organization visits military academy in Wuhan" Wuhan, March twenty fourth (hsinhua) -- "Our common target is US imperialism" said Ahmed Shukairy president of the palestine Liberation organization. When he and the delegation visited he is leading visited a military academy of the cChinese people's Liberation army here...

If this what the Biden Administration had in mind? Soaring labor costs at the same time that labor productivity is falling to its lowest level since 1960? Powell and the Gang’s monetary approach doesn’t seem to be working for the labor market … But is working extremely well for asset prices. Wall Street parties while Main Street suffers worst decline in productivity since 1960.

women's sports are a relic of history

Your eyes do not deceive you. This is not some naughty bachelorette party dessert; it is a vintage fruit salad that was popular in America from the 1920s through to the 1960s. A holiday recipe. Later printed in children’s cookbooks. The candle salad is typically composed of lettuce, pineapple, banana, cherry, and either mayonnaise or, according to some recipes, cottage cheese. Whipped cream may also be used. Its preparation is: first arrange a few leaves of lettuce on a plate or decorative napkin, this forms the salad’s base. Then stack pineapple rings on top of the lettuce, providing a niche...