It almost always provides a false sense of validity of a scientific paper.
Category Archives: Science And Society
Those Space Mice
Eric Berger has the story, including the fact that we’ve done absolutely no research in partial gravity, which will be necessary if people want to procreate on Mars.
I’d note that while it’s never officially been confirmed, it seems unlikely, given the nature of astronauts, that no one has ever done it in space.
Shuttle had very sensitive accelerometers. It's likely that Houston was aware of any rhythmic orbital exertions. https://t.co/RNnYSfnCyi
— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) April 21, 2016
“Denialism”
Does it exist? It’s hard to say:
It’s possible that with a lot of work, some extreme corner of the behavior spectrum could be isolated via specific criteria, which then merits labeling as ‘denialist’. But in truth the characteristics of our ‘proto-denialists’ above are radically different to expectations from the current framing, a framing which may have tainted the term beyond redemption. Nor is this approach a great plan even without that taint, because it tends to mask uncomfortable yet crucial truths, especially those in f) and g). So along with other errors we may end up fooling ourselves that there’s a nice clinical division between skeptics and ‘denialists’. Via naïve assumption of cause from a basic categorization of rhetoric, this is exactly the trap I believe Diethelm and McKee have fallen into. Hoofnagle goes further, dishing out labels of ‘dishonest’ and ‘crank’ yet without proper theoretical grounds; despite his noble motives many of these are bound to stick onto the wrong people. Some dishonesty and crankiness will ride any cultural wave, or backlash to such a wave, or backlash to an evidential cause that is perceived as cultural encroachment. But this does not mean that cranks and liars drive the main action; they do not. Nor can the touted methods reliably distinguish crankiness from cultural influence, or skepticism from either.
I would note (as always) that “denial,” and “denialism,” and “denialist” are not scientific terms. They’re religious ones.
[Update a while later]
Bill Nye epitomizes the Left’s authority complex.
The Climate Hustle
The press declares war on the new documentary.
Of course it does. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
That Unlawful Subpoena
CEI strikes back at the AG of the Virgin Islands.
Mouse Embryos
According to the pictures sent back from a high-resolution camera, the 600 embryos, which were put under the camera, developed from the 2-cell stage, an early-on embryonic cleavage stage, to blastocyst, the stage where noticeable cell differentiation occurs, around 72 hours after SJ-10’s launch. The timing was largely in line with embryonic development on Earth, according to CAS.
But we still have no idea what happens in partial gravity. And they didn’t bring them to term.
The 97% Number That Won’t Die
The problem is that the issue is not whether or not “humans are causing global warming.” I can concede that there is a good possibility of that, and it still has zero implications for policy, absent quantification with sufficient confidence levels, which remain lacking.
[Afternoon update]
“Climatologists will say that the way the question is worded depends on whether they are included,” Morano said. “We have many skeptical scientists included as the 97 percent because of the way the questions [in surveys] are asked are so vague and broadly worded.”
Yup.
Gregg Easterbrook
I’ve had my differences with him over the years, but he has a piece in the WSJ with which I basically agree. I’d say the only thing he gets wrong was that it was Apollo itself that set us on the wrong path. The Shuttle was just a symptom of Apolloism.
[Behind the paywall, but do a Google search for “Mission to Nowhere” and it should come up]
The Irony Of RICO
Several states Attorneys General and green groups colluded to go after a false conspiracy theory.
See, if we had an U.S. Attorney General who actually cared about the law, she’d be going after them with RICO, instead of private organizations.
Bill Nye The Fascist Guy
And NASA isn’t covering itself in glory here, either.
@nuclear94 #ProTip: Actual scientists don't propose jailing people who disagree with them. @BillNye @neiltyson
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) April 15, 2016
I was in the same room with Nye a couple nights ago, at a reception. I felt like I needed a safe space.