A little etymology lesson: data derives from the Latin, dare (pronounced DAH-ray), "to give," and means "given." (Back when I took Latin, it was typically the second verb the conjugation of which one learned. The first was amo, "I love," the infinitive form of which is amare.) Data means "given." In the natural sciences, it's supposed to mean what we observe. It's supposed to be quite distinct from what we do with or infer from what we observe. To be data, information should be unadjusted … [Read more...]
Does the Trump Administration Put Science in Jeopardy?
It's hard to imagine a more thoroughly ignorant statement than this: “The discipline of science is one where the facts, once they are peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals, are fixed. They’re not open to interpretation, or at least not much.” That's the opinion of Jeffrey Kluger and Justin Worland, writing in "How a war on science could hurt the U.S.---and its citizens." in Time magazine. The truth, of course, for these two apparent neophytes to science, is quite the … [Read more...]
Who Does John Tierney Think He Is to Challenge Chris Mooney about “Science Denial”?
Leftwing environmentalist Washington Post columnist Chris Mooney has made something of a cottage industry out of lampooning what he considers conservatives' "science denial" in four books. Count 'em: The Republican War on Science, 2005 Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming, 2007 Unscientific America---How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, 2009 (with Sheril Kirshenbaum, who holds Ph.D.'s graduate degrees in meteorology and climatology marine … [Read more...]
Who Are the Real Science Deniers?
So you think of science (or maybe I should say “science”?) as a solid, objective, trustworthy activity? Certainly a whole lot more credible than, say, philosophy, or theology, or fortune telling? Before I go on, let me assure you that I value science (without the scare quotes) a great deal. (Philosophy and theology, too—but not fortune telling!) But today a lot of what goes by the name of science deserves the scare quotes. And that should scare us, for a lot of reasons, because it means we’re … [Read more...]
Those Greedy Climate Deniers!
Can't help chuckling as the chickens come home to roost for the nattering nabobs of climate correctness. They've been telling everybody for over a decade that "the science is settled," "there is no debate": Human emissions of CO2 are driving catastrophic global warming and we must, absolutely must, drastically curtail emissions to save humanity and even planet Earth itself! Well, if that's so, why continue spending $Billions on research related to that settled question? I mean, we're not … [Read more...]
Obviously this Guy’s a Science Denier!
Was it a critic of the IPCC's notion of dangerous manmade climate change who wrote this? The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness. As one participant put it, "poor methods get … [Read more...]
