A friend on facebook posted a link to this article: Michigan Officials Destroy $5,000.00 worth of Good Organic Food from Family Farm. Besides leaving me wondering whether the inclusion of the “.00″ was meant to make the amount appear larger to the quick casual reader, the headline makes me think about a time when I was a teenager, and a bunch of 4-H beef was seized from a butcher’s shop because his license was as a mobile butcher and he had butchered it all on his property instead of the other farmers. There was a big outcry over (Read more…)
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I was excited. I was hopeful. I very much wanted it to be true. But I’m not at all surprised (a bit depressed though) that solar roadways are a bad idea. Three main categories of problems have been illustrated by many. One is cost. This one is tough as the solar roadway people haven’t been all that forthcoming on how much each panel might be, but estimates based on what little we do know show roadways costing somewhere between 20 and 56 trillion dollars. Two is solar efficiency. Solar panels are angled to best capture sunlight, the really good (Read more…) Never say we don’t care about your intellectual development here at DWR:
See, you’re more knowledgeable already. You’re welcome.
Filed under: Science Tagged: Quantum Mechanics, Schrödinger’s Cat, Science The BBC is finally doing something that all media organizations should do – don’t let crazy people derail important debates. For this entire millennium mass media organizations have invited reality-denying people to debates on issues like climate change. This causes the issue to not actually be talked about. No more will climate change deniers and other wackos be welcome on the BBC. Hopefully other media organizations will follow suit. To illustrate the ridiculousness of having one fringe “expert” come in to undermine a scientific consensus, the report points to the network’s coverage of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate (Read more…) Creationist: *argle-bargle* – “Science said this!”, trots out gross caricature of scientific theory. “It is ‘just a theory!” – More *argle-bargle*. Rational People: … *heavy sigh*
And then…the slapdown.
You are entitled to your opinion, but never entitled to the facts.
Filed under: Religion, Science Tagged: Dispellling Creationist Nonsense, Evolution, Evolution is just a theory, Religion Creationist: *argle-bargle* – “Science said this!”, trots out gross caricature of scientific theory. “It is ‘just a theory!” – More *argle-bargle*. Rational People: … *heavy sigh*
And then…the slapdown.
You are entitled to your opinion, but never entitled to the facts.
Filed under: Religion, Science Tagged: Dispellling Creationist Nonsense, Evolution, Evolution is just a theory, Religion This and that for your Tuesday reading. - Suzanne Goldenberg discusses the World Bank’s findings that a smart set of policies to combat climate change can actually improve global economic growth. And Duncan Cameron makes clear that the perpetual austerity demanded by the same parties who insist we can’t afford to act on climate change serves only to make sure that growth doesn’t benefit workers: Dating back to the 1980s, CUPE studies by John Calvert and his successor Toby Sanger, have shown how wages have consistently lagged economic growth. Both Andrew Jackson, and now Angela McEwan of the CLC have (Read more…) The book Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for American’s Soul by Kenneth R. Miller mentions this organization – Discovery Institute – which has a 4 million a year budget to promote their “Intelligent Design” nonsense. In 1998, as they were trying to get funding, a document known as the Wedge Document was written. It included their goals including a five year goal for “one hundred scientific, academic, and technical articles by our fellows.” This hasn’t panned out for them. They can’t write scientific papers because they have no real science. One of their senior fellows admitted (Read more…) Assorted content to end your week. - Neera Tanden points out that a wide range of citizens rely on a strong safety net at one time or another – and suggests that it’s long past time to start discussing how important social programs have been in our own lives: I believe we have a historic opportunity to address poverty today, because the interests of low-income people and the middle class are converging. Median wages—the wages of middle-income earners—have been stagnant for twelve years. People recognize there is growing inequality in this country and that something is amiss when companies are (Read more…)
Another reason why we need more science and not less in the world. Where smoking has been accurately depicted as hazardous to your health and society the rate goes down. Other places, not so much. [Source:Al Jazeera] Filed under: Medicine, Science Tagged: Government Regulations, Medical Science, Public Health, Smoking * This exchange took place in the Canadian House of Commons yesterday: Mr. Bruce Hyer (Thunder Bay—Superior North, GP): Mr. Speaker, two of Canada’s greatest challenges are rising CO2 and growing poverty. The Conservative government has not addressed either one. Proposed by the Citizens Climate Lobby, carbon fee and dividend would address both by setting […] This and that for your Thursday reading. - Emmett Macfarlane and Justin Ling both weigh in on the Cons’ newly-unveiled prostitution legislation – which seems downright calculated to exacerbate the risks to sex workers’ lives and safety that resulted in the previous version being struck down as unconstitutional. - And on the subject of policy designed entirely out of prejudiced desire to punish and exclude marginalized groups, Christopher Ingraham writes about a study showing that restrictive voter ID laws arise out of discriminatory intent. - Newsweek takes note of the Harper Cons’ gag order against meteorologists informing the public about (Read more…) This is what we get for not changing the system that is killing us – a half-assed, piecemeal romp toward oblivion.
“Richard Smith, in a tour de force paper published in the Real-World Economics Review, “Green capitalism: the god that failed,” summed up the dilemma: “[T]he problem is not just special interests, lobbyists and corruption. … [Under] capitalism, it is, perversely, in the general interest, in everyone’s immediate interests to do all we can to maximize growth right now, therefore, unavoidably, to maximize fossil fuel consumption right now — because practically every job in the country (Read more…) The short answer to that headline question – based on everything I’ve read of late – is no. It’s not that silver has no medical uses – one form has been used in dressings and bandages as an antiseptic (not, as is sometimes claimed, an antibiotic). Silver nitrate is sometimes used to treat warts and corns. However, the […] Of all the victims of the federal government’s suppression of science, the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) was perhaps the most important. The ELA, comprised of 58 freshwater lakes along with accommodation and laboratories, is a unique Canadian scientific research facility, the only site in the world where whole lake-experimentation is carried out. Its research has been instrumental in phasing An exciting update on my recent post on solar roadways. Scott and Julie have an Indiegogo campaign (like kickstarter, but not) and they were looking for $1 million to fund production of their solar roadway hexagons. They have made their goal with a few days left and are currently just under $1.3 million. This is happening! And in case my last article didn’t quite express how awesome this all is, check their new vid. Filed under: Science Tagged: new technology, solar power, solar roadways, Sustainable Future . . . → Read More: Dead Wild Roses: Solar Freakin’ Roadways!
Damn right we can, as long the evidence they present present the most accurate view of reality. Religious claims do not do a good job of describing the reality we live in, they are inaccurate, rely on hearsay and reflect an ignorant and scared world view. Filed under: Religion Tagged: Science, The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice, Trust As a bespectacled individual, I was hoping for something a little more high tech. On the upside, it is good to know when you’re in a pinch.
Filed under: Science Tagged: How to See Without Glasses, Minute Physics, Physics, Science
Why is it that we bow down before the market? It is not a fundamental force of nature, yet we in society are instructed to think of it as such.
Filed under: Politics, Science Tagged: Bill Moyers, Climate Change, David Suzuki, Economics Many thanks to anti-vaxers and of course the CIA for doing the stupid shite they are famous for and making the world a worse place in the process.
Filed under: Medicine, Science Tagged: Medicine, Polio, Science A while ago I wrote a post, Roads: Why Are They Still Asphalt? In it I expressed my desire for the future of road materials. No more hours idling in construction zones as they pour more oil to patch another season’s worth of a billion or so potholes. Better drainage and more traction during slippery conditions. Why weren’t these goals being pursued by the best and brightest of engineers? It turns out, someone was indeed working on this problem and it’s looking even better than I had hoped. Julie and Scott Brusaw in Idaho are developing solar roadways. Here’s the quick (Read more…) A while ago I wrote a post, Roads: Why Are They Still Asphalt? In it I expressed my desire for the future of road materials. No more hours idling in construction zones as they pour more oil to patch another season’s worth of a billion or so potholes. Better drainage and more traction during slippery conditions. Why weren’t these goals being pursued by the best and brightest of engineers? It turns out, someone was indeed working on this problem and it’s looking even better than I had hoped. Julie and Scott Brusaw in Idaho are developing solar roadways. Here’s the quick (Read more…) The source of many major problems in society is an overwhelming lack of science awareness. Climate change, evolution, vaccinations, homoeopathy – none of these should be creating any kind of controversy anywhere. The science on each of these issues is pretty damn clear. It is not the case that everyone need to be an expert on such things, but they ought to have a basic understanding on where the scientific community stands. This, however, is not always easy. The public doesn’t get too much info directly from scientists and this is a problem. So is where we actually do get our (Read more…) The source of many major problems in society is an overwhelming lack of science awareness. Climate change, evolution, vaccinations, homoeopathy – none of these should be creating any kind of controversy anywhere. The science on each of these issues is pretty damn clear. It is not the case that everyone need to be an expert on such things, but they ought to have a basic understanding on where the scientific community stands. This, however, is not always easy. The public doesn’t get too much info directly from scientists and this is a problem. So is where we actually do get our (Read more…) John Oliver has it right. Who “gives a shit” if 1 in 4 Americans are wrong about a fact? The “news” should stop polling to find out what proportion of Americans are wrong, unless they want the rest of the world to laugh harder at them. Do owls exist? Are there hats? Leave your answer in the comments. |
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