Science

[doghouse]

Why science is so hard to believe - The Washington Post

 

[Thruth]

Nice. Fluoridation, vaccination and climate change all in one handy dandy post.

Science is hard to believe because so much of it cannot be seen or touched. Like the Higgs Boson. Unlike God. I knew there was something missing in that article.

 

[Russell Street]

Opponents didn’t like the idea of the government adding “chemicals” to their water.

Why is chemicals is quotes? Is it a quoteworthy word or is the idiot journo trying to refute the simple fact that fluoride is a chemical?

To which some people in Portland, echoing anti-fluoridation activists around the world, reply: We don’t believe you.

And this is really more important than anything. Why should the government be trusted? What fool social scientist will claim that government is all good and free of nefarious or just wrongheaded schemes?

We’re asked to accept, for example, that it’s safe to eat food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) because, the experts point out, there’s no evidence that it isn’t and no reason to believe that altering genes precisely in a lab is more dangerous than altering them wholesale through traditional breeding.

What a roundabout way of saying "not proven safe!"

...Galileo was put on trial and forced to recant.

Oi, this old trope. The Church realized that Galileo's idea of perfectly circular orbits didn't add up. Don't mention that, do we? In fact, Galileo was forced to recant bad science that he couldn't explain.
Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

...uestions about whether humans are descended from tree-dwelling creatures (also true but easier to grasp)...

What? That theory is now "true" despite all those big inexplainable gaps and that the initial thory has been totally scrapped for a theory that is antithetical???

Even for scientists, the scientific method is a hard discipline. They, too, are vulnerable to confirmation bias — the tendency to look for and see only evidence that confirms what they already believe.

QFT

Once the results are published, if they’re important enough, other scientists will try to reproduce them — and, being congenitally skeptical and competitive, will be very happy to announce that they don’t hold up.

Oh what shit. As though the lack of mocking InStitches on SF means he is loved by snarky and competitive commenters.

climate-change skeptics

pfft, bias and ad hominem attacks. Don't challenge the orthodoxy. Recant! Recant this heresy!! 1.5 degrees in over a century. The world will catch fire!!!!!

Those with a more “egalitarian” and “communitarian” mind-set are generally suspicious of industry and apt to think it’s up to something dangerous that calls for government regulation; they’re likely to see the risks of climate change.

Wait, the totalitarian nerds that think they know what's best for you and want to impose it at the barrel of a gun are "egalitarian" and "communitarian???

 

[Grand Potentate]

That was an excellent use of the multi-quote snippet feature

 

[Thruth]

That was an excellent use of the multi-quote snippet feature

An impressive use of the technology. He could have just posted "burn the witch" as an alternative

 

[Allen Smithee]

article was written by a Joel; didn't read

 

[OfficePants]

Is Joel also a movie director?

 

[Allen Smithee]

Is Joel also a movie director?