As suggested at left, of all the damage Trump has inflicted on American society, it’s possible that the greatest harm has been his bizarre, inexplicable ability to turn truth on its head. Here’s an exercise: think back to any close …
Category: Renewables – Science
Correlation Does Not Imply Causation
I just read that people who live at the beach are happier than the rest of us. Hmmm. Could the fact that the guy’s house is worth a fortune, enabling him to travel the world, play a role? That beach …
Tagged with: Correlation Does Not Imply Causation
Qatar Plans to Violate the Laws of Physics
Where will the energy come from that will make this building spin? Strangely, they don’t say.
Tagged with: Qatar Plans to Violate the Laws of Physics
The Round Earth
Reader A asks: How did we discover that the Earth is round? Reader B: Probably fishermen who saw the top of masts coming first when approaching other nearby ships. Me: An ancient Greek mathematician (Pythagoras? Euclid?) asked a friend who …
Tagged with: the Earth is round
Why We Don’t Value Our Scientists
This from physicist Brian Greene. Sadly, very few young people can name (let alone look up to) a single living scientist. Ultimately, this is due to our society’s fixation on money. Rock stars and football quarterbacks enjoy vast media exposure …
The Existence of God
In response to the reader who submitted the meme here, another fellow notes: (The existence of) God is an unfalsifiable proposition, meaning that science can’t say anything positive or negative about it. You’re welcome to believe whatever you want, but …
Tagged with: most scientists are atheists
We Used to Rely on Science
Young folks may not get the reference here, as the American sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” aired in the late 1960s. This was a time before conspiracy theories and trickle-down economics. When we had a problem, we didn’t ask Donald Trump or …
Tagged with: Rely on Science
Conspiracy Theorists Surround Us
Quite a few of the people I grew up with in the suburbs of Philadelphia have turned out to be Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists; the meme here came from one of them. I understand that there are distortions in …
Scientific Literacy
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson makes a pointed observation here, but I wonder how true it is. I grant that some of us need to be scientifically literate. Without that, our civilization could not keep up with things like vaccines against …
Most People Are “Other People”
I agree with what Oscar Wilde said here, and I freely admit that it fully applies to me. We have values that we derive largely from what we learn from other people. For my entire adult life, I’ve chosen to …
