We expend a good deal of resources here advocating for science. This may seem like a subject that should take care of itself, but sadly, it isn’t, given the influence of big money and religious fundamentalism.
What is suggested in quiz question #6 shown here makes matters even worse. Though a great deal of progress has been made in this arena, it’s deeply regrettable that there are too few females pursuing career opportunities in STEM.
Venn diagrams, popularized by John Venn in the 1880s, show the logical relation between sets. Right around the time I was in elementary school in the early 1960s, set theory was becoming an important part of math curricula, and our teachers used them to teach us things like elementary logic.
My guess is that whoever created the advertisement shown here was denied that educational experience. If this were a Venn diagram, it would mean that there is very little intersection between “our values” and the positive characteristics on the left. Examples would be white supremacists and environmentalists, or Trump supporters and gun control advocates.
Let’s hope that someone caught this before it went public.
There can’t be more than a handful of intelligent people in the world today who believe that religion, generally, is currently operating at its optimum capacity in human civilization.
The aetheist intellectuals, e.g., Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens liken the whole of religion to a computer virus running in the brain. I.e., the process of believing in things for which there is no evidence at the expense of ignoring provable scientific phenomena is simply a form of stupidity, and leads universally to savagery, whether it takes the form of war, torture, suppression of human rights, or whatever. (more…)
There are probably enough people poking jabs at the youthful climate activist Greta Thunberg without my jumping on the bandwagon, but this is all in good fun, and it’s far too clever to ignore.
There are people who believe that an armed society is a safer and therefore better society.
One can argue about the meaning of “better.” But there can be no equivocation on the word “safer,” and anyone with a 4th grade command of mathematics and access to the graph below can explain that.
The author of the meme here is making a more subtle point. If the level of courtesy I display to those around me is a function of the fact that I can shoot him to death if he does something that annoys me, and he can do the same to me, is it at all correct to say that either one of us is “polite?”
If our only claim to calling ourselves civilized is our capacity and willingness to kill one another, the precise opposite is closer: we are both savages.
As suggested at left, some people are more qualified to present their views on certain subjects than others.
Most of the world is appalled that Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s opinions on the pandemic are putting the health of 29 million of the state’s residents at risk.
“Q” (of QAnon) is similarly unqualified to tell us about climate change, chemtrails, voter fraud, and the like.
It was only a few years ago that the Republican party in the United States was based, at least loosely, around the principles of the traditional conservatives, things like small government, personal responsibility, deregulation, and whites-only country clubs. Of course, it had its slightly hidden agenda of less noble things like warmongering, unchecked gun rights, KKK-style racism, and the rest, but they weren’t overt parts of the package.
Now, conservatism has been replaced by sheer insanity. (more…)
Here’s a nifty new appliance for the scientifically/environmentally impaired. Just separate out the vegetables from the rest of your kitchen garbage, put the veggies into the container, plug it in, and go! Three hours and 1.2 kWhrs of electricity-turned-into-heat later, you have a small amount of powder residue that you can use as low-grade plant fertilizer.
Anyone who thinks this is a good idea is too stupid to have a driver’s license.
pregnant mother smoking and drinking
There are pregnant women who smoke cigarettes who wouldn’t think of going outdoors without sunscreen. There are guys who ride motorcycles with no helmets who drink a pint of fresh-made vegetable juice every morning.
There are also those who think that America’s deteriorating infrastructure, its aging roads, tunnels, and airports represent a significant threat to their survival.
Obviously, the U.S. cannot be praised for its failure to keep pace with the rest of the developed world in this capacity, but how many people annually lose their lives to collapsing bridges? (more…)
