AGW

February 24. 2010 by Dick.

I wholeheartedly accept the scientific basis
behind Anthropogenic Global Weirding.

Posted in Global Warming, Quickies, PC, Big Thoughts | 1 Comment »

What? The World Isn’t Flat?

February 15. 2010 by Dick.

I have a phrenology bust.

German physician and research scientist Franz Joseph Gall theorized that the brain is the source of all mental activity. He was the first to measure shape of the skull scientifically to determine how its bumps indicate character.

Enos Barnard, a learned man, inventor, dairy farmer, and my great-grandfather, was widely read and very forward thinking. He insisted that my great-grandmother attend Swarthmore College before they married. He developed a cooling system for cream separation. And he believed as Gall showed that, through careful observation and extensive experimentation, the high spots at specific areas on the skull tied to the locations of faculties in the brain. The popular phrenology busts were topographical maps of the skull used to measure character scientifically.

It is an interesting curiosity; I collect curiosities.

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Rooted originally in Ancient Egypt, alchemy is the system of transmuting metals. Alchemists invented distillation, made glass, mortar, paint, and cosmetics, and then decided they could turn base metals into gold. This science — well supported by empirical evidence of materials changed by the alchemists — was universally accepted into the Middle Ages. Believers had faith in alchemy.

Geocentricity was all the rage in the scientific establishment until Pope Urban VIII (the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms) jailed Galileo in the 17th Century for debunking the scientific theory that the earth is the center of the Universe and that all other objects move around it. The view — well supported by empirical evidence that the sun, stars, and planets appear to revolve around Earth — was universally accepted in ancient Greece and in ancient China. (Belief in a flat earth was gone by the third century BC, despite claims by the modern Flat Earth Society). Believers had faith in geocentricity.

30 years after Galileo died, German physicist Johann Joachim Becher theorized the existence of Phlogiston. The view — well supported by empirical evidence — showed that a fire died out when the phlogiston saturated the air. This is the earliest known example of anthropogenic effects on the atmosphere. Believers had faith in the existence of the classical elements.

The Bible (and other historical records) show that God made man from dust. Science embraced Spontaneous Generation as well supported by empirical evidence of the elemental nature of the universe. Anaximander wrote that the first humans had been born spontaneously from the soil as adults. Aristotle wrote that some animals grow spontaneously rather than from other animals. Jan Baptist van Helmont wrote a recipe for making a mouse from wheat and soiled cloth. Believers had faith in equivocal generation. Louis Pasteur’s discovery of biogenesis debunked spontaneous generation in 1859.

University of Vermont professor of zoology Henry F. Perkins began teaching eugenics in his heredity course in 1921. His “Vermont Eugenics Survey” of 1925 His view — well supported by his empirical evidence of heredity in human affairs — led directly to the Vermont sterilization law of 1931. The 253 sterilizations performed on poor, rural Vermonters as well as Abenaki Indians, French-Canadians and others deemed unfit to have children in Vermont ranked this small state 25th in the nation. Believers had faith in eugenics. Earlier this month, the Vermont Assembly took testimony on a non-binding resolution to express regret about the eugenics movement.

The science of Astrology has shown through extensive experimentation that the positions of celestial bodies influences, divines, or predicts personality, human activities, and other terrestrial matters. That view — well supported by empirical evidence linking human action to star location — has spawned traditions and applications from the third millennium BC to the present. Believers have faith in astrology. Although the scientific community has demonstrated that astrological predictions have no statistical significance, millions of Americans trust it.

Early climatologists theorized that human settlement caused a permanent increase in rainfall (”Rain follows the Plow”). In the 19th century Americans settled the Great American Desert (now called the High Plains), the Southwestern Desert (now called Arizona), and parts of South Australia (now called South Australia). Modern climatologists theorized that human settlement caused a permanent increase in global temperature they called Global Warming. Believers have faith in man-made Global Warming. Although the scientific community has demonstrated that the predictions of human change driving atmospheric change made by this political science are flawed, millions of Americans still trust it.

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Curiosities.

Once upon a time all the evidence showed each was a universal truth. Believers had faith. That’s a problem when laymen come to science to find universal truth. Science gives us a way to compare what we think (our hypotheses) to what we know (the results of our experiments). A real scientist develops a theory from what he thinks and what he sees. That theory will change as new data comes to light. True scientists understand this need for change but it is hard for laymen to give up their hopes.

My great-grandfather may have given up the busted religion of phrenology but he kept the bust.

Biologist Ludwik Fleck warned us that witnesses see what they expect to see, notwithstanding facts that contradict them nor what impartial observers measure. As Thomas Cardinal Wolsey wrote, “Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out.”

Now that’s still true.

Posted in Global Warming, Sociology, Science (real), Big Thoughts, Random Access | 2 Comments »

A (Baker’s) Dozen Reasons to be Left

February 8. 2010 by Dick.

As Paul Dirac almost said, In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in political science, it’s the exact opposite.

“So-called ‘Liberals’ want to shove their one true enlightenment down your throat and mine,” Rufus told me.

I can’t speak for the Left so I asked my friend Fanny Guay to feed me the dozen or so most important concepts in her ideological world. I’ve known Ms. Guay for nearly 50 years. I can say that not because I’m far enough away to drop the age word safely but because she is proud of her experiential learning. She was a second generation member of Helen and Scott Nearing’s back-to-the-land movement in Vermont. The Nearings bought an old farm house and built a simple, self-sufficient lifestyle here, far from big government and rampant consumerism. Their descendants are now the power brokers and consumers of Montpelier.

“I will, as long as I can be earnest in my comments,” she said.

Sure. And I’ll be frank in my response. So here we go. Ms. Guay will supply the definitions. I’ll translate back into English as we go.

Today’s liberalism developed in large part from the progressive thinking, she wrote. We hold that the state must supply needy individuals with their most basic needs if they are unable to fend for themselves. We created the policies of government intervention in the economy, the creation of social welfare, the safeguarding of science, and protection of human rights. We teach that in the schools, implement it in the courts and in war, and guide and finance it through taxation. Some of our ideas were first incorporated in the New Deal.

Translation: American Liberals rejected the Divine Right of Kings in favor of the Divine Right of the State.

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1. Mores, the law, and even the constitution are “alive.”

Translation: There are no absolute facts, only what our common agreement proclaims as truth. In other words, the end justifies the means.

2. People are inherently good but when they go astray, we can change them back by reasoning with them.

Translation: Laura Silsby, Mahmoud Imadinnerjacket, and even Glenn Beck, listen to reason and will change whenever the reasoning is liberal.

3. People are inherently good but when they go astray and reason doesn’t work, we can change them back with legislation.

Translation: If you fall from the path of true belief, we will tax you until you return. If that doesn’t work, we will regulate you back. If that doesn’t work, we will jail you.

4. The best way to help the poor is to tax those who can afford it. It counters all understanding that anyone could think otherwise.

Translation: We need to give away our financial future and our means of productivity. We will take fish from the fishermen to give to those who do not fish instead of teaching those who do not fish how to fish for themselves.

5. We need to pay more taxes to afford to lift our neighbors up by their bootstraps.

Translation. YOU don’t pay enough taxes to fund all the things I want to spend money on.

6. We value holistic education and assure that every child in school is treated well and passes every grade with his or her peers.

Translation: Today’s “educators” promote empathy over science because feelings are more important than the data that shows American schoolchildren are falling behind in every international measure.

7. Because we give everyone’s opinion equal weight, we are the most culturally advanced.

Translation: Our fellow travelers are always right because we can change our ways to accommodate their point of view; anyone who disagrees with us is at best misguided and at worst a threat to our way of life.

8. I do not believe we have enemies. We have people who do not trust us. We just need to learn everyone’s point of view to find why they do not trust us.

Translation: We could be wrong and, since they hate us they must have a reason. Perhaps we should change our ways to accommodate their point of view.

9. We must stop trying to bully the world to force everyone else to adopt our way of life.

Translation: The fact that we developed public education, built the world economy, support the world with our farms, perfected “labor saving” tools, and put a man on the moon is a bad thing and we must apologize for all of it. The Apologetic President, Mr Obama apologized to the Special Olympics, apologized to the Muslims, apologized to the Cambridge police officer, apologized to the UN, apologized to Europe, apologized to “Sin City,” all to make up for those transgressions. He apologizes in a major speech about once a month.

10. I do not trust our doctors and scientists to get important health issues like vaccinations right.

Translation: I completely trust all the doctors and scientists who match our common perception but not the ones who contradict my deeply rooted beliefs.

11. We are the world stewards. For example, we know that we have to fix Global Climate Change in our lifetime or our planet will be ruined.

Translation: Once upon a time, we called it Global Warming. Since the political scientists (the very same scientists who determined that Carbon Dioxide threatens human health and welfare and are always right) changed the name, no right-thinking Far Greenie calls it “Global Warming” anymore.

12. Our government moves fast, eliminates waste, and wipes out fraud.

Right. Translation: With our guys in charge, government will never again be so slow, wasteful, and criminal as it was with the other guys in charge. [Editorial note: There has never been a candidate who didn’t promise to root out sloth, waste, and chicanery nor a politician who didn’t see them rise on his watch.]

13. All knowledge should be free.

Translation: We must give away our country’s hard-earned intellectual property.

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Ronald Reagan said, “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” That and the fact that they haven’t yet been mugged by the reality that, sooner or later, Other People’s Money runs out.

Posted in Sociology, Politics & News, PC, Big Thoughts, Random Access | 3 Comments »