Free Republic

After getting over the shock of the Obama administration’s unilateral decision to delay the employer mandate for a year, supporters of the law have taken to downplaying the significance of the step. Jonathan Chait and Ezra Klein, among others, have said it is just not that big of a deal to delay a provision that they claim affects so few employers. After all, they argue, most employers offer coverage today without the mandate, so it can’t be true that imposing the mandate is essential to making the rest of the law work well. Klein goes even further and says it...

Examination of neurological disease research shows pervasive ‘significance bias’. A statistical analysis of more than 4,000 data sets from animal studies of neurological diseases has found that almost 40% of studies reported statistically significant results — nearly twice as many as would be expected on the basis of the number of animal subjects. The results suggest that the published work — some of which was used to justify human clinical trials — is biased towards reporting positive results. This bias could partly explain why a therapy that does well in preclinical studies so rarely predicts success in human patients, says...

They should have seen it coming. In recent weeks, editors at a respected psychology journal have been taking heat from fellow scientists for deciding to accept a research report that claims to show the existence of extrasensory perception. The report, to be published this year in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, is not likely to change many minds. And the scientific critiques of the research methods and data analysis of its author, Daryl J. Bem (and the peer reviewers who urged that his paper be accepted), are not winning over many hearts. Yet the episode has inflamed one...

According to the stunning New York Times headline, which quoted climatologist Phil Jones, there has been no “statistically significant” global warming in the past 15 years. Just kidding! The Times forgot to write about that. No doubt they were distracted by that golfer-guy’s TV event. Priorities! Anyway, that’s what Mr Jones has said. Reader Francisco González has asked what that “statistically significant” means. It is an excellent question. Answer: not much. Here is what it absolutely, certainly does not mean: “There is a 95% chance that no warming occurred over the past 15 years.” It also does not mean: “There...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2005 – Iraq's upcoming national elections will have a major impact on the country, forming a new government that "will act like a magnet and draw people in," the Defense Department's representative to Europe and adviser to the U.S. mission to NATO predicted today. The Dec. 15 elections will create a new government expected to be seated for the next four years, during which it will "stake out the future for Iraq," Ambassador Evan Galbraith said at the Heritage Foundation here. "It's the most important political event that's taken place in the Middle East ... in some...

ADVENT WREATH "Customarily the Advent Wreath is constructed of a circle of evergreen branches into which are inserted four candles. According to tradition, three of the candles are violet and the fourth is rose. However, four violet or white candles may also be used” (Book of Blessings 1510).The rose candle is lit the third Sunday of Advent, for this color anticipates and symbolizes the Christmas joy announced in the first word of the Entrance Antiphon: "Rejoice" (Latin, Gaudete). For this reason the Third Sunday is also called Gaudete Sunday, and rose color vestments are permitted.The Advent Wreath represents the...