And I'm not talkin' about WEsley crusher, either.
Posted on 05/13/2014 2:43:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Americans have something of a science problem. They swallow, for example, about $28 billion worth of vitamins each year, even though the Annals of Internal Medicine recently concluded that “[m]ost supplements do not prevent chronic disease or death, their use is not justified, and they should be avoided.” Americans often fear swallowing genetically modified plants (and Vermont recently required labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs), though GMOs have “been consumed by hundreds of millions of people across the world for more than 15 years, with no reported ill effects,” according to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Other opinions are closer to astrology than science. Some deny a link between HIV and AIDS or confidently assert a connection between cellphone usage and cancer. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), during the last presidential campaign, contended that the HPV vaccine causes “mental retardation.” (And, yes, about a quarter of Americans believe in astrology.)
Science has its own explanation for why people are resistant to scientific beliefs. In evolutionary theory (assuming you believe such a thing), our intuitions about the physical world are generally accurate on a human scale — calculating the proper force and trajectory to hit a mammoth with a spear....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Could we strike out the "either" and change the "or" to an "and"?
Ping pongs like “Vitamins are wonderful!” “Vitamins are useless!” seem to bespeak SLOPPY science, which comes up with almost anything you want depending on what you control for.
Science, REAL science, by its very nature, is NEVER settled.
Observation —> hypothesis —> test
Test fails, new hypothesis —> test —> apparent conclusion that fits observations.
New observation, shatters original and subsequent hypotheses, new hypothesis (again) —> new apparent conclusion.
And it continues on and on, every conclusion being subject to new facts derived from observation, eventually resulting in some pretty reliable base for predictability.
Predictability blows up, go back and see if some observation of fact was missed, then re-evaluate hypothesis.
Eventually most of the curliques of thinking get combed out, and some good solid engineering can come out of repeated predictability.
Until it fails.
And eventually, every engineering design fails.
Because the science was never settled, nor shall it ever be settled.
And I'm not talkin' about WEsley crusher, either.
Notice how he creates a false equality between vitamins and supplements (might not be as helpful as you think), and GMO foods (probably not as harmful as you think)?
The author of this trashy piece is anti-science. The gloBULL warmers and their purchased “scientists” have devalued and degraded science for their creepy political ends. They should be beaten with their grant proposals, have their property seized and exiled from civilization. They are arrogant fools and destroyers of fact.
Dear WaPo...I am a conservative. Add to that that I am a Christian. To make things even worse, I’ m a retired USAF fighter/test type.
Despite all this idiocy marking me as a moron, I have advanced technical degrees that no one on your staff, or at the White House, could even start.
As such, may I gently say that you can cram your silly little marshmallow major opinions about real science up your collective smelly Obamaholes.
Let me, off the top of my head, list some of the ‘accepted scientific facts’ that have been retracted or refuted;
1) Standard body temp is 98.6f,
2) Proper hydration is 64oz of water, not any other liquid,
3) 2+ cups of coffee is good/bad/?,
4) Ulcers are exclusively caused by stress,
5) Supersonic speeds will destroy any aircraft that tries it,
6) Atomic Energy is impossible, a path to utopia, will destroy us all.
The history of ‘scientific truths’, ESPECIALLY the ones trumpeted by the media, is absolutely fraught with locked-down statements and indisputable ‘TRUTHS’, even if the original paper / scientist had, or said, no such thing!
I’m still waiting for the ‘normal’ temperature declaration and the specifications of the ‘falsifiability’ or the conditions under which the (insert current name designation of what was formerly known as AGCW) may be considered to be disproved.
how does the 5% increase in CO2 levels correlate with wildfire data between 1990 and 2012? How does it correlate with the massive reforestation and greening of the USA between 1990 and 2012? and how does it correlate with the number of forests and rangelands left in oxidative states from mismanagement of (dead) vegetation?
http://wildfiretoday.com/2012/11/23/2012-third-highest-number-of-wildfire-acres-burned/
also, how does that 5% increase correlate with the increase in industrial activities of China/Asia between 1990 and 2012? or the slash-and-burn activities in Africa and South America during that time period? what about volcanic influences, such as the Iceland event in 2010 or the twenty-some active volcanos erupting yearly?
What is so offputting by these global warming articles is the central blame is always placed on the USA, when the truth be known, if the USA ceased all activity and returned to the stone age, the world would starve to death.
The left continues its war on women:
What are prenatal vitamins?
Eating a healthy diet is always a wise idea — especially during pregnancy. It’s a good idea during pregnancy to take a prenatal vitamin to help cover any nutritional gaps in the mother’s diet.
Prenatal vitamins contain many vitamins and minerals. Their folic acid, iron, and calcium are especially important.
http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/prenatal-vitamins
“been consumed by hundreds of millions of people across the world for more than 15 years, with no reported ill effects,”
Gotta call BS. How long did we consume tobacco with ‘no reported ill effects’??? HUNDREDS OF YEARS.
Interesting he mentions astrology, because it has been shown that college educated people actually become MORE open to astrology and ESP than non-college educated people. Wuh? I guess education doesn’t make you smarter.
Here is my personal favorite part of the screed.
“In its simplest, cable-television version, this charge, at least against scientists, is outrageous. The assumption that the vast majority in a scientific field is engaged in fraud or corruption is frankly conspiratorial. In this case, the conspiracy would need to encompass the national academies of more than two dozen countries, including the United States.”
No conspiracy at all, just scientists who get paid a lot by corrupt governments. I would have no trouble naming two dozen countries that are extremely corrupt politically and academically, starting with the USA. In fact, didn’t an email leak in Britain from climatologists totally expose the thing he is doubting just a few years ago? Also, gotta love the outrage. How DARE anyone accuse scientists of corruption. Outrageous! They have become an exalted class, immune to criticism apparently. Lets not forget the junk ‘science’ of eugenics in Auschwitz wasn’t conducted by wascally country folk who didn’t believe in Darwin. The top scientists in Germany were all in for massacring Jews in the name of the Ubermensch. The master race was settled science. Just look at the skull measurements, you luddites!
Yes, we can and will be skeptical of scientist’s claims of ‘settled science’. The results of not questioning them could be as tragic as those in the last century.
“it seems clear that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have produced a modest amount of warming and are likely to produce more”
... this is literally a flat-out lie. There has been no warming. Nada. Zero. Zip.
This writer has no credibility.
>> Americans have something of a science problem.
Gerson knows. He’s smarter than most every American.
"Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes." ~ Antisthenes
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Replying to you because I agree nearly 97%. I never go 100%. Anymore I regard the first rule or principle of science to be that nothing in science is “settled”. Not even Einstein do I consider as rock solid. Just better than anything else at the moment. The thought that occurs to me is that science is like a freshly frozen pond. Walk on the ice with extreme care, because while most of the ice is safe there will be spots where ongoing discovery is thinning the ice.
The left has destroyed science by politicizing it. GAIA and her physics could care less about thier politics.
algore, bs ... he has a masters degree in bs ... as you say, ‘bovine scatology’.
I remember when all the geniuses declared butter, eggs, and other dairy products would lead to an early death. People I knew went completely off dairy products. I snickered at them. Then later on the same geniuses declared that dairy wasn’t so bad and you could actually eat more than one egg a week. Now they found that the “expert” who said saturated fat would make you fat falsified or faked much of his data. They refuted most of the “expert’s” findings. How many climate researchers fake their data? I would bet quite a few.
After reading these arguments in various magazines I came to the conclusion that if you didn't eat a normal, healthy diet, vitamin supplements were good for you. So taking a multi-vitamin does no harm as far as I'm concerned and may act as nutritional insurance.
This is from the ComPost - therefore I don’t believe it. Does that answer their question?
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