#antiscience

[notabigrock]

Not it doesn’t, and it’s not even close:

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=1174&t=1 Puts AC > 12%

https://iee.psu.edu/news/blog/why-ai-uses-so-much-energy-and-what-we-can-do-about-it#:~:text=Artificial%20intelligence%20(AI)%20is%20becoming,that%20could%20triple%20by%202028. Puts AI < 5%

Stop spreading misinformation because you have a hate boner for AI. This is absolutely a “beholding the mote in thy neighbor’s eye while ignoring the beam in thy own” situation, and looking for excuses to absolve oneself of any responsibility is the most banal form of evil. Stop being gross.

[quickhits]

GOP hostility to science and medicine is getting completely out of hand.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Daisy Stephens

Published: Jul 24, 2022

The Black Trowel Collective, a group of American archaeologists, claimed there are suggestions that many historical cultures had more than two genders and so archaeologists should be "wary of projecting our modern sex and gender identity categories onto past individuals".

The group claimed scientists have a "long history of imposing modern patriarchal gender and sexual norms onto the past".

"Human gender is highly variable and... human beings have historically been comfortable with a range of genders beyond modern 'masculine' and 'feminine' binaries," the group wrote in a blog post.

The Daily Mail claims that some academics are beginning to label ancient human skeletons as 'non-binary' or 'gender neutral'.

The idea has been criticised by historian Jeremy Black, who said gender is key to understanding history.

"It is an absurd proposition as the difference between genders, just as the difference between religious, social and national groups, are key motors in history," he told the Daily Mail.

"This very ideological approach to knowledge means that we're in danger of making knowledge itself simply a matter of political preference."

==

Life continues to imitate parody. 🤡

"projecting our modern sex and gender identity categories onto past individuals"

Current gender woo is the invention and imposition of bored, modern first-world academic elites, which makes this absurdly ironic.

"we're in danger of making knowledge itself simply a matter of political preference."

This is literally the postmodern, social constructivist belief and objective.

No one ever needs to respond to this deranged ideology with anything other than "no."

[thejadedtongue]

I think the greatest failings of the modern news media are the constant presentation of information (even facts) as intrinsically adversarial and the implicit assertion that the respective competing sides are equally valid. It’s easy to have a significant portion of the population willing to question the credibility of objective facts when you’re willing to give equal weight and validity to ridiculous and/or heinous perspectives. The greatest failing of CNN isn’t that they underrepresented Trump voters, but that they treated his views, specifically his explicit lies pertaining to the number of illegal voters, climate change, etc., with an unmerited evenhandedness that allowed those views to masquerade as matters of opinion/partisanship rather than as questionable fact. I think the constant desire to erase bias and appear “objective” has done nothing but erode the value of facts.

[scientific-women]

Wednesday, November 9, dawned gray and raw in Berlin. I was there to moderate a couple of panels at an annual meeting called Falling Walls. The name and timing celebrate the anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall, as well as the free exchange of ideas if only we can knock down barriers. I looked forward to a series of inspiring talks about how science, which I have often called the “engine of human prosperity,” could help us solve some of our greatest challenges.

We all crowded into a large room at the start of the day. A live broadcast began, looming above us on an enormous screen. The Falling Walls attendees watched the acceptance speech of the U.S. president-elect, Donald Trump, whose campaign included a promise to build a new wall.

What would this mean for science, I wondered? As a candidate, Trump had made some troubling antiscience statements, including tweeting that global climate change is a Chinese plot, threatening that he would dismantle the agency that enforces clean air and water regulations, and endorsing the long-disproved link between vaccines and autism. Any hope that he would soften those stances after victory were quickly dashed. His first actions as president-elect included putting forward a climate change skeptic to head the Environmental Protection Agency and reportedly looking to make good on his earlier intent to pull out of the Paris climate accord.

Every day I get more scared, but I also get more determined to keep fighting the good fight. #NotMyPresident

[youngprogressivevoices]

The Anti-Science Lobby Has Been Winning On Climate Change -- We Must Fight Back

Less than a week ago, we covered how the House GOP had decided to call in leaders from thirteen…

View Post

[continentalriff]

Antiscience people shouldn't be in charge of the country.

It was like 53 degrees today! I had to take advantage of it and get a ride in. Feels good man. I typed up a really long post about Ron Paul not being a good presidential candidate earlier and accidently deleted it. Instead of retyping it, I'm just going to cut straight to it.

First things first, I would not be happy with any GOP candidate becoming president. However, given that SOMEONE has to be president and that the most likely people to be nominated are either democrat or republican, there are candidates I would be more comfortable with being elected than others. Romney, Paul, Perry, Santorum... No.

Who would I want? John Huntsman. Why?

“To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming,” read a tweet from his personal account. “Call me crazy.” [link]

He is not an anti-science goon. The majority of the GOP are scientifically illiterate bafoons vying for a position that allows them to make non-scientifically informed decisions and put other scientifically illiterate people in positions that require an understanding. 

I think it's very important for the president to either be scientifically literate or be wise enough to defer to people with an understanding of modern science. Most people on the right-wing don't do that. This guy does.

There was also a time when I liked Newt Gingrich. That might seem kind of odd, but the man has demonstrated a decent understanding of science quite a few times. Notably, here in an interview from 2006, but lately when on the campaign trail...

So Gingrich almost hit an anti-science trifecta here — all he had to do was snub global warming too. So close! [link]

The last line of this is funny because Gingrich just killed a chapter in his new book on climate change authored by the lovely Katharine Hayhoe (An evangelical christian climate scientist). The guy bends to the people he's talking to. That sucks.

Support science, support innovation. Private industry is too risk adverse to make real scientific progress and please, please don't vote for Rick Santorum.

PS: John Huntsman is responsible for Dream Theater day in Utah. 

[aperilousjourney]

[divineirony]

"“Ancient Aliens” deployed its anti-scientism earlier than the G.O.P., and beat out Donald Trump’s beliefs about birth certificates by a full two years. Both they and the show rely on an attitude that Hannah Arendt called “vulgarity,” which, “with its cynical dismissal of respected standards and accepted theories carried with it a frank admission of the worst and a disregard for all pretenses,” something that viewers, whether of Fox News or “Ancient Aliens,” take not as a criminal condescension, but which they “mistake for courage and a new style of life.” The courage of “Ancient Aliens” lies in telling its truths in the face of the “scientists” and “mainstream historians” that Clotworthy sets up and knocks down. It is brave in the same way that Trump is brave when he spits on the establishment, that Jeffrey Lord and the other conservative hacks are brave when they spit into the wind. And as I slogged through the show’s twelve seasons, that vulgarity became a full-on assault against truth, something as absurd to see on the History Channel as it has been in the White House."

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[quickhits]

Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader.

[serenity2132]

In why stupid people should not run shit

All autistic kids are atheists, and atheism is form of autism, says association head

  An actual headline from Turkey today. And no, this isn't an Onion-like news-site. This is an actual news article.Link is here

[thecoppercow]

Yesterday, Corbynites got together and doxxed jewish workers in the BBC, demanding the organisation reveal to them the ancestry and heritage of their jewish employees. Today, after getting called on it, Corbyn makes a ~totally unrelated~ speech about how the Beeb should reveal its social class makeup.

Apropos of nothing, remember how Corbyn had nothing to say about medical research all his life (except of course his infamous belief in homeopathy) and then, in 2016, during the second leadership election where his opponent happened to have worked for a pharmaceutical company, he randomly pulled out a spiteful, off-the-hoof policy full of pandering to "big pharma" conspiracists, declaring that he wanted to defund private sector medical research? (Not because he suddenly cared about public swctor medical research. I've worked in both the public and private sectors of this field. The public sector cannot cope with r and d on its own, nor would that help. He merely wanted to make a dig at his opponent. Whip up the cult. And was willing to make life-ruining policy for a sly, petty, Trumpy dig.)

...just saying.

[shituationist]

By reasserting the view that 'science' is unitary and under attack, it serves those who want money for scientific research with little scrutiny from outside the scientific community. Deconstructionism in the social sciences should not worry scientists. The real danger is a material deconstruction of the privileges of a protected sector.

Brian Martin, Social Construction of an ‘Attack on Science’

[sciencetylia]

This is a brief chronology of the current Conservative Canadian government’s long campaign to undermine evidence-based scientific, environmental and technical decision-making. It is a government that is beholden to big business, particularly big oil, and that makes every attempt to shape public policy to that end. It is a government that fundamentally doesn’t believe in science. It is a government that is more interested in keeping its corporate masters happy than in protecting the environment.

As is occasionally my habit, I have pulled together a chronology of sorts. It is a chronology of all the various cuts, insults, muzzlings and cancellations that I’ve been able to dig up. Each of them represents a single shot in the Canadian Conservative war on science. It should be noted that not every item in this chronology, if taken in isolation, is necessarily the end of the world. It’s the accumulated evidence that is so damning.

Most of the items come from various links I’ve saved over the years as well as various other media articles I’ve dug up over the last week or so. This series at The Huffington Post has been particularly useful as has this article at the Wastershed Sentinal.

A long list of various environmental programs that the Harper government has discontinued or slashed funding to is here. I haven’t found individual media stories about all of them, so they aren’t in the list below. If you can help me find stories about some of those programs, etc, please let me know. As well, some stories are treated multiple times, with perhaps an initial story telling the big picture or introducing a large series of cuts and later stories fleshing out details.

Apr 2006. One Tonne Challenge funding stopped

Jan 2008. Office of National Science Adviser phased out

Jan 2008. Nuclear safety watchdog head fired for ‘lack of leadership’

Oct 2009. Document delivery outsourced at The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (national science library)

Feb 2010. Layoffs at The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information

Mar 2010. Information restrictions brought in by government have severely restricted the media’s access to government researchers

Jun 2010. Statistics Canada discontinues the mandatory long form census

Mar 2011. NRC Press privatized to Canadian Science Publishing, removing Open Access to many articles

Mar 2011. NSERC reduces funding for basic research

Mar 2011. Tri-Council reallocates funds from discovery to industry research

Jul 2011. Budget cuts to Climate Change and Clean Air, Substance and Waste Management, Weather and Environmental Services, Water Resources and Internal Services, Action Plan on Clean Water, the Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan, Chemicals Management Plan, the Clean Air Agenda, the Air Quality Health Index, Species at Risk Program

Jul 2011. NSERC Discovery Grants reduced

Oct 2011. Canadian Environmental Network closes

Dec 2011. Withdraw from the Kyoto Accord

Jan 2012. Natural Resources Minister accuses foreign radical environmentalists of hijacking the system

Feb 2012. Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) loses funding (later partial reprieve)

Feb 2012. Closure of Kitsilano Coast Guard station

Mar 2012. Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences closes

Mar 2012. Guting the Fisheries Act

Apr 2012. Cereal Research Centre cut

Apr 2012. Muzzling of scientists at international conferences

Apr 2012. Repeal of Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, download to provinces

Apr 2012. Sustainable Water Management Division cut

Apr 2012. Transport Canada Aircraft Services cut

Apr 2012. The Centre for Plant Health relocated (later reprieve)

Apr 2012. Scientists monitored at polar conference

May 2012. 1000 jobs cut at Department of Fisheries and Oceans (details follow)

May 2012. Ocean Contaminants & Marine Toxicology Program axed.

May 2012. Centre for Offshore Oil & Gas Energy Research cut May 2012. Freshwater Institute cut

May 2012. Centre for Off-shore Oil, Gas, and Energy Research cut

May 2012. Maurice-Lamontagne Institute cut

May 2012. Smokestacks Emissions Monitoring Team cut

May 2012. Cuts to NSERC Discovery, Major Resources Support and Research Tools and Instruments programs

May 2012. Mersey Biodiversity Centre slated for closure

Jun 2012. Eliminate Experimental Lakes Area program

Jul 2012. Arctic Institute of North America’s Kluane Research Station cut

Sep 2012. Revamp Species-at-Risk act

Oct 2012. DFO Habitat Management Program cut

Oct 2012. Declining grant success rate for Post Doctoral Fellows

Nov 2012. Bill C-45 weakens environmental laws and democracy, such as Navigable Waters Protection Act

Nov 2012. Salmon research lab run by Frederick Kibenge at the Atlantic Veterinary College-University of Prince Edward Island targeted

Nov 2012. Navigable Waters Protection Act altered to give developers more freedom to build around most Canadian rivers and lakes without obtaining permission from the federal government

Dec 2012. Eliminating the Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission

Jan 2013. Very long list of scientist muzzlings from Democracy Watch

Feb 2013. Restrict how researchers can share data

Feb 2013. Department of Fisheries & Oceans muzzles its scientists

Feb 2013. Information commissioner investigates ‘Muzzling’ of federal scientists, called a threat to democracy

Feb 2013. Prairies Regional Office: Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency closes

Mar 2013. Muzzling of scientists

Mar 2013. Experimental Lakes Area environmental research project loses funding

Mar 2013. The government votes against public science, basic research and the free and open exchange of scientific information are essential to evidence-based policy-making

Mar 2013. $100 million cut from Department of Fisheries & Oceans over three years

Mar 2013. National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy closes

Mar 2013. Centralizing, Slashing Federal Web Info

Mar 2013. Quit UN anti-drought convention

Mar 2013. Unnecessarily sabotaging ongoing research at the Experimental Lakes Area and deliberately robbing international and domestic scientist of the 2013 field season

Apr 2013. Create barrier to public participation in pipeline hearings

Apr 2013. Environment Canada name removed from it’s weather website, replaced with government promotional links

Apr 2013.Closure of Department of Fisheries & Oceans libraries

Apr 2013. Prime Minister & cabinet take over power to dictate collective bargaining and terms for other salaries and working conditions at the CBC and three other cultural or scientific Crown corporations

Apr 2013. Scientist at National Water Research Institute in Saskatoon muzzled

Apr 2013. Minister blames David Suzuki, Environmental Groups To Blame For Pipeline Opposition

May 2013. Minister of the Environment Peter Kent refuses to correct Conservative MP’s crackpot views on polar bears

May 2013. Minister of Natural Resources insults oil sands critics

May 2013. National Research Council overhauled to do business-friendly research rather than basic science

May 2013. Hundreds of jobs cut at Agriculture Canada

May 2013. Agriculture Canada cuts including Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, Semi-Arid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre and various centres for beef and dairy research

May 2013. Free-speech report takes aim at Harper government’s ‘culture of secrecy’

This list is no doubt incomplete. There may also be link errors or duplications.

In particular, if you have updates on any of the stories, including reversals or reprieves, I want to hear those too.

Please feel free to make suggestions and corrections in the comments or to me at jdupuis at yorku dot ca.