Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Arguing Science

25 Comments

Ten mistakes people make.

Here’s an eleventh one:

A common battle-line between climate change deniers and people who actually understand evidence is the effectiveness and representativeness of climate models.

The phrase “climate change deniers” to describe people properly skeptical of crap science is a) unscientific and b) offensive demagoguery.

[Late-morning update]

“Elite” reporters explain why they don’t have to have balanced reporting, or give “deniers” a voice.

IOW, “Shut up,” they explained.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

SLS

12 Comments

This isn’t a space transportation system; it’s a cathedral:

The foundation that was already there at Michoud was too weak to support the tool. We had quite a job to reinforce it, to dig it out and then put it back so it could hold up the Vertical Assembly Center. To give you context for the magnitude of the new foundation, Louisiana is not known for its hard soil, and the new foundation that we laid for the Vertical Assembly Center would hold the largest building in downtown New Orleans, 1 Shell Square.

For a program that’s likely to fly, at best, twice.

Business, Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

The Infantilization Of College Students

3 Comments

Even the Left is getting frightened of the brown-shirted monster they’ve created. I find it interesting that this professor has such a lack of self awareness:

Personally, liberal students scare the shit out of me. I know how to get conservative students to question their beliefs and confront awful truths, and I know that, should one of these conservative students make a facebook page calling me a communist or else seek to formally protest my liberal lies, the university would have my back. I would not get fired for pissing off a Republican, so long as I did so respectfully, and so long as it happened in the course of legitimate classroom instruction.

The same cannot be said of liberal students. All it takes is one slip—not even an outright challenging of their beliefs, but even momentarily exposing them to any uncomfortable thought or imagery—and that’s it, your classroom is triggering, you are insensitive, kids are bringing mattresses to your office hours and there’s a twitter petition out demanding you chop off your hand in repentance.

He keeps using that word “liberal.” I don’t think it means what he thinks it means.

[Update early afternoon]

The wrong time to coddle:

Between the infantilizing of campus culture and the growing global harshness, something has to give and—hint, hint—it won’t be the real world. The worst thing about the current climate of PC stupidity and mandatory cocooning on campus isn’t the ugly repression it entails. The destruction of free speech and free debate in the institutions that ought to be the citadels of intellectual liberty is a terrible thing and a horrible betrayal of everything universities are supposed to be about. But there is yet a worse consequence: the catastrophic dumbing down and weakening of a younger generation that is becoming too fragile and precious to exist in the current world—much less to fight the real evils and dangers that are growing.

These are the great-grandchildren of The Greatest Generation, corrupted by that generation’s children in the academy and public schools. How we have fallen.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!