I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Emily Gould: Exposed.
Peter J. Jacques, Riley E. Dunlap and Mark Freeman wrote:
Environmental scepticism is an elite-driven reaction to global environmentalism, organised by core actors within the conservative movement. Promoting scepticism is a key tactic of the anti-environmental counter-movement coordinated by [conservative think tanks], designed specifically to undermine the environmental movement’s efforts to legitimise its claims via science.
Thus, the notion that environmental sceptics are unbiased analysts exposing the myths and scare tactics employed by those they label as practitioners of ‘junk science’ lacks credibility. Similarly, the self-portrayal of sceptics as marginalised ‘Davids’ battling the powerful ‘Goliath’ of environmentalists and environmental scientists is a charade, as sceptics are supported by politically powerful CTTs funded by wealthy foundations and corporations.
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Chasing Utopia, Family Imagines No Possessions.
I lived Elmer Fridrich’s basement. It was my grandfather’s, my father’s and to a much lesser extent, my own. Just like Elmer’s, there were narrow aisles between tools and boxes and tables piled to the low ceiling. And there was even more pieces and parts and belts and wires hanging from nails driven into the floor joists.
My basement, like Elmer’s, hearkened back to a time in America when we were makers, not peddlers. To a time when upon Sandburg’s broad shoulders rested hard steel and not soft Armani suits.
My grandfather held no degree — I don’t think he even graduated from high school — but if he could lay his hands on it, he could fix it.
In his life he crafted dental bridges and dentures for his brother the dentist, he rebuilt lead-acid batteries (the job he held when he met my grandmother who worked across the alley in her brother-in-law’s music store), he repaired refrigeration systems, he sold and repaired white goods (household appliances) and brown goods (radios and televisions), he was a short order cook in his own diner and he could whittle a perfectly balanced airplane propeller with nothing more than his Barlow pocket knife.
Unlike Elmer, my grandfather never held any patents; but he invented solutions from what he had at hand on a regular basis. That’s what you can do when you have a basement without a wet bar and a home entertainment system.
I’ve met Elmer, he’s the father of a friend. I’d heard the tale about how an obituary writer (the first rung on the ladder for most journalists) gave the title of The Father of Halogen Lighting to another man who didn’t deserve the title. So it was good to read Frank Bentayou’s piece on Elmer. (Another connection, Frank was the first editor I worked with in Cleveland and I’ll never again use the trite phrase best kept secret because of him.)
The phrase that Frank did use to describe Elmer was constant fiddler. We don’t fiddle anymore. We actualize. We accessorize. We maximize. Me minimize. We synergize, for feck’s sake.
Go to your basement and fiddle. The world needs more fiddlers.
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is 16% of US science teachers are creationists.
The case of [facilitated communication] in general and with this specific trial show a major feature of pseudoscience – the deliberate use of bad data that can be manipulated to give a desired result.
When FC is tested with proper scientific controls it is clear that that facilitator is doing all the communication, not the participant. Proponents do not like this result. It is always difficult when the evidence kills a favored theory, especially when that theory is already being put into clinical practice (which of course was a mistake in itself).
These are the times that test one”s professionalism and dedication to science and objectivity. Once the evidence speaks so clearly, the only rational option is to accept it and move on. Those who cannot become pseudoscientists. Typically they embark on a career of doing bad science, with poor controls and enough wiggle room so that they can get a result they like.
The tragedy of pseudoscience is magnified many fold when it is put into practice – such as in this case with the treatment of this child, the advice given to her parents, and ultimately to testimony given in a courtroom.
Found in my electronic chapbook.
Low brain serotonin levels are associated with depression, and also with aggression. (T) p. 188
From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is 17 Tips to Help You Get Leaner and Fitter.
0636, 0633, 2027, 2016, 1923, 1650, 1422, 2031, 1511, 1501, 1446, 1435, 1414, 1359, 0840, 0804 Campaigns & Elections 2008 Rising Stars
Found in my electronic chapbook.
The limbic system controls the four Fs (fear, food, fighting and … sex). p. 183
From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.
I’m beginning to realize that Dante missed a Circle of Hell appropriate for the likes of the military dictators of Myanmar. Yes, I realize that they didn’t actually event this level of depravity, but as the Corruption du jour, their latest scheme is off the charts. And I’m thinking Dante would have had to get really creative for this one.
From the Belfast Telegraph:
Amnesty International has accused Burma’s military regime or forcing cyclone survivors to work in exchange for vital aid supplies.
The human rights group says the Burmese Government has also stepped up a campaign to evict survivors from aid shelters and make them return to their destroyed villages. Continue Reading »
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