vxbush 5/5/2021 5:24:07 AM

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Morning, campers. Looks like coffee's ready and breakfast is just about ready. 

Today's starting story: Liberal Activist LeBron James Still Hasn’t Been Vaccinated, Teammate Reveals: China apologist said believing in science is a ‘private thing’ after vowing to use platform ‘to shed light on everything that’s going on around this country and around the world.’

What happened to "I believe in science"? 

vxbush 5/5/2021 5:28:03 AM

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Copying over from Instapundit, to make sure more people see this and can share (I'm not sure it will do any good, but every voice counts, right?): 

THE LURCH TOWARD LEFTISM AT K-12: In case you haven’t heard, the Biden Department of Education has proposed a new “rule” that will prioritize federal grants to schools that teach Critical Race Theory (and specifically the 1619 Project curriculum). If that doesn’t make you want to scream in horror, you’re not paying enough attention.
Adam Smith is remembered for (among other things) his quip, “There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.” In context, he meant that it takes a whole lot to bring down a great and prosperous nation. Alas, no nation’s storehouse of “ruin” is infinite.   I can think of no more effective way to bring down the United States of America than to teach a generation of American children that their country is racist to the core.
Right now the best way we have at our disposal to stop this is to deluge the Department of Education with comments before the May 19^th deadline. You can do so at this link provided by Parents Defending Education. The software provides you with a simple message that you can send with a click. Even better, you can substitute your own message.  Either way, it’s easy.

lucius septimius 5/5/2021 5:31:59 AM

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We that was an interesting night.  The power went out around 10:30 last night; oldest boy and I heard what sounded like a great tree coming down.  That happens here when the ground gets completely saturated, which it was after two days straight of torrential downpours.

I need to venture out later -- be interested to see where it came down.

Power did come back at about 2:30 AM -- always nice to be awaken by all of the lights in the house coming on.

buzzsawmonkey 5/5/2021 6:48:50 AM

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In #1 vxbush said: What happened to "I believe in science"? 

When you hear Leftists intone what sounds like "I believe in science," understand that what they are saying is properly spelled thus: "I be leavin' science."

JCM 5/5/2021 7:36:46 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 1:

My problem with is the underlying idea that science is a belief.

Science is knowledge.

The left has turned science into a belief system, you "believe" what you are told or you are anti-science.

It's no longer about finding facts. It is truly Lysenkoism.

vxbush 5/5/2021 7:41:19 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 4:

Reply to JCM in 5:

Both your comments are true. However, I was thinking more along the lines that James is acting like a lot of people who are being hit over the head with claims of being a science denier for not being willing to take the vaccine. 

Now that I've spent 2 hours trying to get my email to play nice again, I suppose I should actually try to get some work done. 

buzzsawmonkey 5/5/2021 7:52:28 AM

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In #5 JCM said: The left has turned science into a belief system, you "believe" what you are told or you are anti-science. It's no longer about finding facts. It is truly Lysenkoism.

When Fat Charlie over at SOB was going nuts, you will recall, there was a lot of "believe the science" flapdoodle flying around.  I remember saying several times there that "science" is wrong most of the time, and it is the job of "science" to be wrong until it is---temporarily---right.

JCM 5/5/2021 7:54:16 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 6:

I was definitely thinking in more generic terms.

Outlook?

vxbush 5/5/2021 8:02:36 AM

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In #8 JCM said: Outlook?

Of course. MFA had messed up my account (as well as too many years of working on the same machine dealing with way too many versions of Outlook), so I had to change my password, wait for the systems to sync up, then look up all the locations where configuration files were stored and blow them away before I could finally get it to work. 

Kosh's Shadow 5/5/2021 8:33:06 AM

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In #5 JCM said: My problem with is the underlying idea that science is a belief. Science is knowledge. The left has turned science into a belief system, you "believe" what you are told or you are anti-science. It's no longer about finding facts. It is truly Lysenkoism.

Science has been turned into a secular religion. Never mind if the predictions its high priests made change - masks are not needed; wear masks; global cooling; global warming; chaos  - obey the priests.

While it should be the scientific method - see what theory most adequately or correctly predicts something. That can be applied in a lot of places. Maybe economics cannot predict all details, but we can tell capitalism works a lot better than socialism.

vxbush 5/5/2021 8:36:01 AM

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In #10 Kosh's Shadow said: Science has been turned into a secular religion. Never mind if the predictions its high priests made change - masks are not needed; wear masks; global cooling; global warming; chaos  - obey the priests. While it should be the scientific method - see what theory most adequately or correctly predicts something. That can be applied in a lot of places. Maybe economics cannot predict all details, but we can tell capitalism works a lot better than socialism.

I've heard some philosophy of science folks call the current "belief in science" scientism, as in a belief system instead of being a methodology of fact checking and testing. 

Kosh's Shadow 5/5/2021 8:40:19 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 7:

Even wrong theories are useful. We know Newtonian mechanics is inadequate for very small objects, massive objects or strong gravitational fields, fast objects, etc. but for most mundane uses, it is sufficiently accurate. Solid state physics requires quantum mechanics, however, and the clocks on GPS satellites must be corrected for gravitational time dilation, so even everyday uses can be affected.

But even really wrong theories can be useful. The geocentric model is used all the time, even today. Can anyone guess its main application?

Kosh's Shadow 5/5/2021 8:56:38 AM

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In #12 Kosh's Shadow said: The geocentric model is used all the time, even today. Can anyone guess its main application?

You can come back now.

The geocentric model is used for celestial navigation, as navigators want their position on  the Earth, not in space.

lucius septimius 5/5/2021 8:58:32 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 5/5/2021 9:11:50 AM

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Speaking of science, my father had a favorite formula:  HA/H >1.

That is, the number of horse's asses, divided by the number of horses, is greater than 1---i.e., there are more horse's asses in the world than there are horses.

JCM 5/5/2021 9:17:15 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 13:

I was thinking time keeping.

Sunrise Sunset and hours of the day are the sun position relative to earth, however time keeping is integral to navigation so it's included.

Kosh's Shadow 5/5/2021 9:22:59 AM

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In #16 JCM said: Sunrise Sunset and hours of the day are the sun position relative to earth, however time keeping is integral to navigation so it's included.

Yes, it is included. Latitude can be determined without accurate clocks (all you need to do is start measuring the Sun's altitude angle before noon, and when it starts to decrease, the maximum was exactly at noon, and if you know the date, you can look up the latitude in an almanac), but longitude needs accurate clocks.

JCM 5/5/2021 9:28:05 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 17:

I have a book around here some place. Harrison's chronometer. Even back then politics had greater sway than the science and Harrison's superior timekeeping.

vxbush 5/5/2021 11:42:57 AM

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In #17 Kosh's Shadow said: Yes, it is included. Latitude can be determined without accurate clocks (all you need to do is start measuring the Sun's altitude angle before noon, and when it starts to decrease, the maximum was exactly at noon, and if you know the date, you can look up the latitude in an almanac), but longitude needs accurate clocks.

"That's a white man's construct."

///I wish I were kidding