Greta Cringes

For John, BLUF:  Science is slowly emerging from a period of suppression.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Scientists Officially Declare End of ‘Climate Emergency’ During Prague Climate Conference

Here is the sub-headline:

Climate Intelligence Group (Clintel) “calls upon the entire scientific community to cease and desist from its persecution of scientists and researchers who disagree with the current official narrative.”

From Legal Insurrection, by Leslie Eastman, Monday, 25 November 2024 at 10:00am.

Here is the lede plus six:

Legal Insurrection readers will recall that in my post on the United Nations climate conference in Azerbaijan this week, its president boldly declared that oil and gas were a ‘gift from God’.

The eco-activists attending the event were enraged.

The climate cultists will likely be working themselves up into even more hysteria because of another climate conference that occurred mid-November in the Czech Republic city of Prague.

The Czech division of the International Climate Intelligence Group (Clintel) organized a two-day climate conference in Prague on November 12-13, 2024, where climate scientists declared that the “climate emergency” is over. The conference concluded with a communiqué drafted by the participating scientists and researchers that targeted the climate hysteria promoted by the United Nations body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

‘The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which excludes participants and published papers disagreeing with its narrative, fails to comply with its own error-reporting protocol and draws conclusions some of which are dishonest, should be forthwith dismantled.’

This declaration supports the conclusions of the major Clintel report, The Frozen Climate Views of the IPCC.

Moreover, the scientists at the conference declared that even if all nations moved straight to net zero emissions, by the 2050 target date the world would be only about 0.1 C cooler than with no emissions reduction.

Later the article says:

The declaration has 18 different point referencing climate science and facts that counter the narratives being pushed by the IPCC and those who want to push their green agendas. I have listed the first six below (which should be familiar to Legal Insurrection readers); there remainder can be found in the copy of the declaration.

Here are the first three:

1. The modest increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide that has taken place since the end of the Little Ice Age has been net-beneficial to humanity.
2. Foreseeable future increases in greenhouse gases in the air will probably also prove net-beneficial.
3. The rate and amplitude of global warming have been and will continue to be appreciably less than climate scientists have long predicted.

Ms Greta Thunberg must be appoplectic.  This is a direct confrontation with those who believe climate change is real.

Science has alwys been the fight of insurrectionists against the establishment, even when the establishment thought of itself as "science".  We have only to look at Dr Fsauci and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases fighting agaist the Great Barrington Declaration.♠  And, now, climate change.  I am so old I can remember when the big fear was global cooling.

As this chart shows, COVID did not hit every nation the same.  And, Sweden, with a different approach, did better than the United States, with it svaccines and lockdowns.

For it to be science, there must be a free exchange of ideas, with each side getting a chance to make a fair presentation of its ideas.  The use of ipse dixit is not science.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  In the US the Federal Government, comfortable in its assessment of the situation, worked to suppress alternative idea, thus suppressing the scientific method.

Origin of Species

For John, BLUF:  Science is about upstarts posing new ideas that disrupt the established ideas.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Wild Tale of the Cerutti Mastodon, a Fossil That Could Rewrite the Human Story

Here is the sub-headline:

The Cerutti Mastodon, found near San Diego, shows signs of being butchered 130,000 years ago—but by who? Or what?

From Atlas Obscura, by Reporter Gemma Tarlach, 1 August 2024.

Here is the lede plus five:

CALIFORNIA’S HIGHWAY STATE ROUTE 54, skirting southeast of San Diego, doesn’t seem like it would be the catalyst for challenging some of the longest-held ideas about human evolution and our spread across the planet. And yet, in 1992, along SR 54’s ribbons of asphalt and exit ramps to malls, taco joints, and subdivisions, road-widening construction unearthed a fossil that could rewrite the human story—if scientists ever stop arguing about it.

Here, 130,000 years ago beside the future site of SR 54, a young mastodon perished. There’s nothing uncommon about that—these heavily-built, distant relatives of modern elephants were found throughout much of North America at the time. Paleontologists don’t know how the mastodon died, but there is evidence preserved in its bones, and in rocks found nearby, that the animal’s carcass may have been butchered by humans. There’s just one problem with this scenario. Most scientists agree: Homo sapiens left our ancestral homeland of Africa less than 100,000 years ago, and arrived in the Americas only in the last 15,000–25,000 years, as the last ice age ended and travel from Asia and the land bridge known as Beringia, into Alaska and Canada, became possible.

So who—or what—made a meal out of that mastodon?

The fossil is now known as the Cerutti Mastodon, after the late paleontologist Richard Cerutti, who recognized the significance of the bones as they were uncovered during the highway expansion project. Greater San Diego was growing rapidly at the time, and so was its infrastructure. Previous highway projects had turned up a wealth of fossils, from ancient walruses to dinosaurs, and Cerutti worked on behalf of the San Diego Natural History Museum as a site monitor, on the lookout for more discoveries. But he wasn’t expecting this.

Cerutti was initially excited because he thought the fossil belonged to a mammoth. However, further excavation over several months revealed the distinctive teeth of its close relative, the mastodon—and turned up strange things neither Cerutti nor his colleagues could explain.

The heavy, massive limb bones of a mastodon are not easy to break, and specific fracture patterns on the Cerutti specimen were not consistent with natural processes, such as being tumbled in river rapids. There was also the curious arrangement of the bones. Two broken femurs appeared to be placed side by side, and one of the animal’s tusks was almost vertical, as if stuck upright in the sediment like a flagpole.

So maybe we have it all wrong.  Maybe the human species evolved in San Diego, a veritable Garden of Eden, and then moved across the Bering Strait, into Asia, Africa and Europe.  Perhaps we evolved from the Grunion, as they turned their fins into legs..

On the other hand, getting such a theory to be considered, considering the power of the scientific establishment, is a Sisyphian Task.  Look at the efforts expended and wasted by those scientists who differed from Doctor Anthony Fauci during the Covid-19.  Dr Fauci, who famously saaid:  "I Am the Science".

In the mean time, we have a conundrum.  How do we explain the early emergence of human type activity in San Diego, California.

Regards  —  Cliff

We can Handle the Truth, and Multiple Versions Thereof

For John, BLUF:  As people become more and more protective of their own truth, including quashing other views, we become less and less free citizens, exercising our rights thereof.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Courage to Follow the Evidence on Transgender Care

From The Old Gray Lady, by Opinion Columnist David Brooks, April 18, 2024.

Here is the lede plus one:

Hilary Cass is the kind of hero the world needs today.  She has entered one of the most toxic debates in our culture: how the medical community should respond to the growing numbers of young people who seek gender transition through medical treatments, including puberty blockers and hormone therapies.  This month, after more than three years of research, Cass, a pediatrician, produced a report, commissioned by the National Health Service in England, that is remarkable for its empathy for people on all sides of this issue, for its humility in the face of complex social trends we don’t understand and for its intellectual integrity as we try to figure out which treatments actually work to serve those patients who are in distress.  With incredible courage, she shows that careful scholarship can cut through debates that have been marked by vituperation and intimidation and possibly reset them on more rational grounds.

Cass, a past president of Britain’s Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, is clear about the mission of her report:  “This review is not about defining what it means to be trans, nor is it about undermining the validity of trans identities, challenging the right of people to express themselves or rolling back on people’s rights to health care.  It is about what the health care approach should be, and how best to help the growing number of children and young people who are looking for support from the N.H.S. in relation to their gender identity.”

This issue begins with a mystery.  For reasons that are not clear, the number of adolescents who have sought to medically change their sex has been skyrocketing in recent years, though the overall number remains very small.  For reasons that are also not clear, adolescents who were assigned female at birth are driving this trend, whereas before the late 2000s, it was mostly adolescents who were assigned male at birth who sought these treatments.

Doctors and researchers have proposed various theories to try to explain these trends.  One is that greater social acceptance of trans people has enabled people to seek these therapies.  Another is that teenagers are being influenced by the popularity of searching and experimenting around identity.  A third is that the rise of teen mental health issues may be contributing to gender dysphoria.  In her report, Cass is skeptical of broad generalizations in the absence of clear evidence; these are individual children and adolescents who take their own routes to who they are.

Some activists and medical practitioners on the left have come to see the surge in requests for medical transitioning as a piece of the new civil rights issue of our time — offering recognition to people of all gender identities.  Transition through medical interventions was embraced by providers in the United States and Europe after a pair of small Dutch studies showed that such treatment improved patients’ well-being.  But a 2022 Reuters investigation found that some American clinics were quite aggressive with treatment:  None of the 18 U.S. clinics that Reuters looked at performed long assessments on their patients, and some prescribed puberty blockers on the first visit.

Unfortunately, some researchers who questioned the Dutch approach were viciously attacked.  This year, Sallie Baxendale, a professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University College London, published a review of studies looking at the impact of puberty blockers on brain development and concluded that “critical questions” about the therapy remain unanswered.  She was immediately attacked.  She recently told The Guardian, “I’ve been accused of being an anti-trans activist, and that now comes up on Google and is never going to go away.”

I see this article as having two main issues.

One issue is transgenderism.  I think Dr Cass is right to suggest go slow for gender dysphoria for young people.  If you are 23 or older I figure you are mature enough to make your own choices.  Before then it is child abuse.  (I would have said 21, but my co-host this morning said the age was 25 for full brain development.  She is a teacher of special needs children and a member of our School Committee.)

But, at another level transgenderism is abusive of those who are not.  Some day in the future this might not be true, but today it just throws more of a burden on women who are cis-women.  To sustain our population they, today, must produce 2.1 children.  In this generation my Middle Brother and Wife have one, my Youngest Brother and Wife three and Martha and myself three.  Seven.  Divided by 3 is 2.33.  We produced a surplus.  For my kids, three, two and four.  Nine.  Divided by three is 3.0.  A surplus.  But, if my Daughter had been transgender, then two and four, for six, divided by thee and you get 2.0.  Someone else has to make up that deficiency. Do the work others won't (can’t).  Which is why we need immigration, since they can do the work female US Citizens can’t or won’t.  Don’t blame me.  Blame nature and nature’s God.

As for the point, about scientific research, I think that we are in a period where it is not respected.  I liked the mention of British philosopher and mathematician William Kingdon Clifford.  Columnist Brooks throws shade at Republicans in this arena, but I think that is too narrow a view.  Look at COVID-19.  Any research that flowed differently from the views of Dr Anthony Fauci or Dr Birx was suppressed.  Look at either the Great Barrington Declaration or Ivermectin.  Or Mr Berliner, formerly of NPR.  We need more dialogue, more people challenging the conventional wisdom.  This morning I had a Democratic State Rep, at the end of a televised interview, asked me, given my views, why I am a Republican.  I took that as a genuine complement.  A diversity of views and an openness to discuss them is important to our progress as a society.

Hat tip to my Middle Brother.

Regards  —  Cliff

Nelson's Blind Eye

For John, BLUF:  Science, and with it, progress, is being emperiled by avoiding facts to support feelings.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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NO SEX, PLEASE, WE’RE ANTHROPOLOGISTS

From InstaPundit, by Blogger John Tierney.

Here is the lede plus one:

Dis-empaneled. Bowing to political pressure, two leading anthropological associations cancel a conference discussion on the centrality of biological sex. The American Anthropological Association now wants to pretend that there are not two biological sexes, which is even more appalling than the group’s earlier decision to pretend that there is no such thing as race (never mind the genomic evidence revealing five distinguishable races). The Left’s War on Science continues.

The Title is a modificsation of the title of a British farce, No Sex Please, We're British.  It had a long run (6,761 performances).  Martha and I caught it in London back in 1974.

Perhaps from an anthropological point of viewa it makes no difference the sex of skeletons uncovered.  That said, I am somewhat dubioous.  For example, the way to identify an ancient house of ilrepute could be the disporportionate number of young males buried on site.

To ignore naturally found physical differences in remains, to see if there is some implication for the development of this or that culture, seems to shift from a culture that prizes ratioonoality to one that is immersed in myths.  This incident is disturbing.

Regards  —  Cliff

Nelson's Bllind Eye?  Here.

Knowing Your Fascists

For John, BLUF:  This is about a sideshow, but it is attracting some attention.  To Vax or not.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Are you following the pretty formidable coalition with neofascist leanings?

From Althouse Blog, by Professor Ann Althouse, 18 June 2023.

This is about Joe Rogan challenging Professor Peter Hotez to come on his show to debate Democratic Party Presidential Challenger Robert F Kennedy, Jr.

Professor Hotez Tweeted:

I'm quite concerned about the Elon-Tucker link, then fold in Rogan and RFK Jr and it becomes a pretty formidable coalition with neofascist leanings.  In some ways darker or perhaps more dangerous than Trump, in my opinion.  Awful.  I just hope Team Biden is preparing.

Do these people even know the origins of Fascism?  Do they connect it with Benito Mussolini?  Do they understand that it was Mussolini's invention after he rejected Communism and invented his own system of socialism?  Do they understand it is more "Left" than "Right"?  Do they undertaand that Left and Right were great terms in late 1700s France, but are artificial constructs today?

When Professor Hotez says, "I just hope Team Biden is preparing," do he and Team Biden know that it is both within the party and external?

As for myself, I worry about the Fascists supporting President Joe Biden.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Lysenkoism—and the concern for merit in science and engineering

For John, BLUF:  Lysenkoism is "any deliberate distortion of scientific facts or theories for purposes that are deemed politically or socially desirable."  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Researchers Fight Back Against ‘Ideological Capture’ of Modern Science

Here is the sub-headline:

Jerry A. Coyne and Anna Krylov argue that narrative-based ideology now dominates research in the U.S. more pervasively than it did at the Soviet Union’s height.

From Legal Insurrection, by Blogger Leslie Eastman, 30 April 2023 at 02:00pm.

Here is the lede plus two:

For over eight months, I have been chronicling the “ideological capture” of our scientific institutions, which has led to the reduction or elimination of funding to scientists whose research challenged “settled science”; to the deplatforming scientists, engineers, and technical professionals who go against the narrative; and to the denial of tenure, promotions, or hiring because research doesn’t meet the currently approved world view.

. . .

Scientists are now adding the weight of their experience and observations to the fight against this trend.  The Wall Street Journal recently published a truly insightful opinion piece by Dr. Jerry A. Coyne (professor emeritus of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago) and Dr. Anna Krylov (professor of chemistry at the University of Southern California).

In their article, entitled “The ‘Hurtful’ Idea of Scientific Merit,” Coyne and Krylov argue that narrative-based ideology now dominates research in the U.S. more pervasively than it did at the Soviet Union’s height.

My Middle Brother, who had a very successful career in high tech acquisition for the Department of Defense, accuses me of, by pushing merit, excluding members of the accepted minority groups,  I am not for excluding anyone.  If you are the best qualified, the most innovative, you should be the hire.  If being hired into a supervisory role, you should include in your tasks, fostering meritocracy and helping all people improve their game, their merit, regardless of who they are.

So, is this perceived flight from merit because women in Academic STEM have an advantage over men in hiring decisions, as researchers have found?  Or is it because of the domination of academia by Progressives?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Missing Clams

For John, BLUF:  We think we know our planet, but science means being open to new understandings.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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'Extinct' Clam From 30,000 Years Ago Turns Up Just Fine in California

From Science Alert, by ReporterCarly Cassella, 18 November 2022.

Here is the lede plus two:

A species of clam known only by the 28,000-year-old fossils it left behind has turned up alive and well on an American shoreline.

The small, translucent bivalve, known as Cymatioa cooki, was recently discovered hiding in the rocky intertidal zone of southern California – a place carefully combed over by scientists for many, many years.

"It's not all that common to find alive a species first known from the fossil record, especially in a region as well-studied as Southern California," says marine ecologist Jeff Goddard from the University of California Santa Barbara.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Selling Out to WHO?

For John, BLUF:  We must be careful of our Federal Government giving away authority to supra-national organizations, especially ones dominated by nations with different views on governance, freedom and social organization.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Biden Seeks New Unilateral Powers for WHO Chief to Declare Public Health Emergencies

From Epoch Times, by Commentator Mark Tapscott, 17 May 2022.

Here is the lede plus four:

President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing amendments to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) governing regulations to give Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus unilateral authority to declare a public health emergency in any nation based on whatever evidence he chooses.

The proposed U.S. amendments were forwarded to the WHO in January for consideration next week by the UN’s 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

In a January 26 letter to a virtual meeting of WHO’s executive board, Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) described “the importance of equity and equitable access to medical countermeasures and the negative impacts of misinformation and disinformation related to the pandemic.  We agree that we must all do better.

“The United States led an inclusive and transparent process to develop this decision, as we are mindful that updating and modernizing the [International Health Regulations] IHR are critical to ensuring the world is better prepared for and can respond to, the next pandemic.”

I liked the "inclusive and transparent" words regarding the process.  I didn't feel included and it didn't seem transparent.  I didn't notice it in the newspapers I read.  In fact, the little mention I saw was in what I might consider fring publications.  Is this typical of the current Administration.

And, I am not too keen on giving more power to WHO, or to even national level parts of the administrative state.  If COVID taught us anything it should have been that larger governmental organizations sometimes get it wrong.  The corrolary is that larger governmental organizations will not just resist alternative views, but actively work to suppress alternative views.  Such actions are not "science".

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Where We Came From

For John, BLUF:  There are still a lot of mysteries to be learned in science.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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We Have Even More Evidence Life's Building Blocks Came to Earth From Space

From Science Alert, by Writer Conor Feehly, 27 APRIL 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

We still don't know just how the first life emerged on Earth.  One suggestion is that the building blocks arrived here from space; now, a new study of several carbon-rich meteorites has added weight to this idea.

Using new, extremely sensitive analysis techniques for these meteorites, a team led by scientists from Hokkaido University in Japan detected organic compounds that form the very backbone of the nucleic acid molecules common to all life as we know it – DNA and RNA?

I still favor the Garden of Eden version, but we should be open to all possible understandings.

Regards  —  Cliff

We Have Even More Evidence Life's Building Blocks Came to Earth From Space

Living on Mars

For John, BLUF:  Mars is not just like Earth, but without breathable air.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Speed of Sound on Mars Is Strangely Different, Scientists Reveal

From Science Alert, by Writer Michelle Starr, 24 March 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

Scientists have confirmed the speed of sound on Mars, using equipment on the Perseverance rover to study the red planet's atmosphere, which is very different to Earth's.

What they discovered could have some strange consequences for communication between future Martians.

This is very iinteresintg and shows that going to other planets will not be exactly like living on Earth, but with your own oxygen supply.  Not a reason not to go, but rather a challenge to do it sooner and learn and grow.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Reinterpreting the Age of COVID

For John, BLUF:  The thesis is that Democrats have to pivot to stay in line with the People regarding COVID.  And, the story of the past few years are being respun, science notwithstanding.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Democrats Will Try to Retcon Their Response to COVID-19 With a New Narrative–Don't Let Them

The term retcon means a new interprutation on a previous event.

From Pajama Media, by Reporter Stacey Lennox, 27 February, 2022 11:57 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus five:

The polling firm that proudly served Joe Biden in 2020 has some advice for Democrats.  Impact Research wrote a memo, which is circulating on Capitol Hill, alerting Democrats that no one likes their policies regarding COVID-19.  Prepare for the most comprehensive attempt to retcon the last two years we have seen yet as Democrats now understand that their political fate depends on embracing reality.

Impact Research is advocating for Democrats to declare that their leadership has defeated the threat from COVID-19 and claim the win.  The title of the memo is “Taking the Win Over COVID-19.” From the memo:

After two years that necessitated lockdowns, travel bans, school closures, mask mandates, and nearly a million deaths, nearly every American finally has the tools to protect themselves from this virus.  It’s time for Democrats to take credit for ending the COVID crisis phase of the COVID war, point to important victories like vaccine distribution and providing economic stability to Americans, and fully enter the rebuilding phase that comes after any war.

There was no war.  There were artificial economic and education shutdowns that many public health experts objected to from early in the pandemic.  Once it became clear that the virus was a serious threat to people over the age of 65 who had other health issues and not the younger, healthier populations, thousands of health experts, researchers, and clinicians signed on to the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020.

Related: Fauci Orchestrated ‘Quick and Devastating’ Takedown of Anti-Lockdown Experts

The document provided clear guidance to get low-risk younger adults back to work and children back to school.  At the same time, it called for creativity and local action to protect the vulnerable until treatment or vaccines became available.  Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci actively sought to discredit these ideas and maintain harsh restrictions.  Vulnerable and elderly Americans died by the hundreds of thousands anyway.

This is a two part message.  One part is about the spinning of the past to put a better face on it.  Including the revising of the history of our time in COVID lockdown.  The second is about how it is time for the Democratic Party to turn on a dime and fall into step with the People, with regard to it being time to move on from the COVID pandemic interregnum.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Integrity in Science

For John, BLUF:  Science should not be treated like a religion.  Questioning should be endemic.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Team Biden’s plan to ‘ensure scientific integrity’ should start with itself

From The New York Post, by Law Prof Glenn H. Reynolds, 13 January 2022, 6:23pm.

Here is the lede plus three:

The Biden administration has announced a plan to “ensure scientific integrity.”  It’s about time.

The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a 67-page report, says the task force aims “to ensure that science is conducted, managed, communicated, and used in ways that preserve its accuracy and objectivity and protect it from suppression, manipulation, and inappropriate influence — including political interference.”

It won’t have to look far: The United States government has been misbehaving on the scientific front for years, most notably in the COVID-19 pandemic.  Political interference, suppression, manipulation and inappropriate influence have been standard, which is why trust in government, particularly on science, has fallen so far.

Ironically, even as this initiative was announced, damning new information about government scientists’ response to the COVID-19 outbreak came out.  A series of just-released e-mails from top scientists revealed they were highly confident that the disease came out of a Chinese laboratory, even as their public statements treated any such suggestions as crazy talk, “conspiracy theory” and “misinformation.”

The COVID-19 Pandemic has gone a long ways toward discrediting "science".  One of the things I hope has been discredited is the expression "The Science is Settled."  Science is about delving deeper and gaining a better understanding of what is actualy happening.  As a result, science advances by hungery young sciences attacking the theories of the older, more experience, entrenched establishment scientists.  The new scientists breaking with the old scientists.  I remember a CNN newscast from around 1985, in which a guest said that 80% of what was scientific truth in 1900 we now knew to be false.

Let us respectfully question scientific truth, looking to see if there are seams in the seamless garment of science.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

A Red Flag

For John, BLUF:  We, as a nation, are filing in our efforts to have our People vaccinated against COVID-19.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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First Workers, Now Blacks:  Democrats’ Betrayals For Big Business Are Piling Up, But Can Republicans Seize It?

Here is the sub-headline:

Now roughly 72 percent of black New York City residents aged 18-44 are banned -- banned -- from entering dining establishments.

From The Federalist, by Christopher Bedford, 1 October 2021.

Picking up on the subheadline:

At a practical level, fighting the virus, I can almost imagine the value of the mandate, except it suggests an underlying problem.  Our Federal Government is not able to sell the solution.  Over the last year and a half they have squandered their reputation.

Worse, the President is a cranky old man who will not tolerate anyone thinking differently from him.  That is not just a bad personality trait. It will work against the success of our Democracy.

And, quoting The Federalist, “Now roughly 72 percent of black New York City residents aged 18-44 are banned -- banned -- from entering dining establishments.”  That sounds like a problem unsolved.  Why are we unable to reach out to our Black Brothers and Sisters and help them see value in Vaccinations?  Or, are the Unvaccinated right and we are wrong and the Vax is bad and we are stupid.  If it was 32% it would be one thing, but it is 72% who haven’t had the jab.  This should be a big red flag and should be causing the Federal Government to rethink its approach.  Alas, ’tint happening.  I think the House Speaker is just as stubborn as the President.  Stubborn leaders are not leaders.  They are dictators..

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Disaster Recycled

For John, BLUF:  Remember Chernobyl, back in 1986?  It seems it is back.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Chernobyl’s Blown Up Reactor 4 Just Woke Up

Here is the sub-headline:

Scientists don’t understand why

From History of Yesterday, by Historian Andrei Tapalaga, 17 September 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

The nuclear disaster that occurred in 1986 will forever be remembered, but the world will soon have a reminder of the event as the zone for some reason (yet unexplained by scientists)is becoming more radioactive.  For those who may not be aware of the incident here is an article to get you up to speed.

“Chernobyl will never be a problem”

Underneath reactor 4 there is still nuclear fuel that is active and which will take around 20,000 years for it to deplete.  The uranium is too radioactive for anyone to live in the city and since the incident, the European Union had created a shield around the reactor which should not allow for the radioactive rays to come out.

Yes, Chernobyl is a long ways away, in Ukraine, but with the jet stream it's potential radiation may be only hours away for the rest of the world.  The interest thing is, with all the monitoring, the experts, the scientists, don't know what is causing this issue of increased radiation.

For a second source, we have "Nuclear reactions are increasing in an inaccessible chamber at Chernobyl", from CNET, by Mr Steph Panecasio, 11 May 2021, 6:07 p.m. PT.

Radioactive emissions in an inaccessible chamber within the Chernobyl nuclear power plant have spiked in the last four years, leading scientists to question how serious the threat of a runaway nuclear fission reaction really is.

The 1986 Chernobyl explosion -- which resulted in catastrophic destruction and significant loss of life -- sealed off a number of areas and chambers in the Ukrainian power plant, including subreactor room 305/2, which is now the site of the surge. The room is thought to contain a large amount of highly radioactive material.

Good luck to us.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Vaccine Mandates

For John, BLUF:  The President, apparently without consulting with Congress, has assumed dictatorial powers.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Larry Kudlow calls out 'anti-freedom part' of Biden's vaccine mandates

Here is the sub-headline:

'President Biden caused a firestorm yesterday by announcing his mandate'

From Fox Business News, by Anchor Larry Kudlow, 10 September 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

"If they'll not help... if these governors won't help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way."

Don't take it from me. Take a listen to the president himself who is thumbing his nose at our nation's governors and after he thumbs his nose at them, he's putting his finger in their eye.

Federalism is dead. Don't take it from me, take it from President Biden.

The Constitution?  The Bill of Rights?  Roe v Wade?.  The role of the US Congress?

All gone in a flash because not everyone will do as President Joseph Biden says.

It is almost like Donald Trump won in 2020.  Not the real Donald J Trump, but the one pictured in the minds of Progressives and many Democrats.

But, it wasn't just a Bidenism.  His staff was out backing up his move.  For example, on the CNN Don Lemon Tonight Show we have the Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, former Congressman Cedric Richmond.

Senior White House adviser:  Biden will 'run over' governors standing in way of vaccine mandates

Here is the sub-headline:

'We won’t let one or two individuals stand in the way,' adviser Cedric Richmond declared

And this article's lede:

Senior White House adviser Cedric Richmond declared Thursday that President Joe Biden would "run over" governors that stood in the way of his efforts to mandate vaccinations against the coronavirus in companies with more than 100 employees.

We are going to run over the Governors?

If I thought the agencies of the Federal Government followed the science, let along understood it, I might have some willingness to concede the President was trying to help us.  As it is, I think he is just swatting wildly at the problem, and breaking things in the process.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Science is Unsettled

For John, BLUF:  it tuns out "Peer Reviewed" scientific studies are often dubious.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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We’re told to ‘follow the science’ — yet some of it is just plain wrong

From The New York Post, by Professor Glenn H. Reynolds, 26 August 2021, 8:54pm.

No, this isn't about the COVID-19, although the moving goalposts for immunity should be a big signal, as should public school mask mandates (at best a 10% protection).

No, this is about "scientific" studies, peer reviewed, influencing government programs, that are later found to be dubious.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Following the Science

For John, BLUF:  I am not convinced that those who are urging us to follow the science know what the science is, or even what science is.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This month’s heresy is next month’s orthodoxy

From Samizdata, by Blogger Natalie Solent, 11 August 2021.

Here is the post, or most of it:

“YouTube suspends Rand Paul for a week over a video disputing the effectiveness of masks”, reports the New York Times.

I have no strong opinion on the question, but Senator Rand Paul is also Doctor Rand Paul, so his medical opinion holds some weight. This post on Rumble takes you to the video that got him banned: “It Is Time For Unfiltered News”

As Glenn Greenwald points out,

JUST LAST WEEK: Biden’s former COVID adviser, the epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, told @camanpour [the CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour] exactly the same thing.

YouTube and Facebook* play a merry game. On April 16 2020, Guy Rosen, Facebook’s “VP Integrity”, posted “An Update on Our Work to Keep People Informed and Limit Misinformation About COVID-19”. That post is as good as a soap opera; the writers are always adding new and dramatic plot twists.

On February 8, 2021 at 10:00AM PT, they announced that claims that “COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured” would be removed.

On May 26, 2021 at 3:30PM PT, they said, “In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured from our apps.”

In like spirit, Dr Paul is doing no more than returning to the medical orthodoxy before last. From the Independent, Thursday 12 March 2020:

Coronavirus: Face masks could increase risk of infection, medical chief warns

Members of the public could be putting themselves more at risk from contracting coronavirus by wearing face masks, one of England’s most senior doctors has warned.

Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer, said the masks could “actually trap the virus” and cause the person wearing it to breathe it in.

Science is about better explaining what we think we know to be true.

Once, a long time ago, about 1986, I heard someone say on CNN that 90% of what we knew to be scientifically true in 1900 we now know to be wrong.

I know we all think we are a lot smarter than we used to be, but a dash of humility is never out of order. I expect Government officials, elected or appointed, are not open to saying that they aren't certain, but it would help sell things to me.  And even "circling back" once in a while and saying "here is where we got it wrong" might do wonders to build my confidence in the job they are doing.

Regards  —  Cliff

Moon and Floods

For John, BLUF:  How long has this been going on?  The moon, our moon, wobbling, and impacting our tides?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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NASA predicts a "wobble" in the moon's orbit may lead to record flooding on Earth

From CBS News, by Reporter Sophie Lewis, 13 July 2021, 11:04 AM.

Here is the lede plus two:

Every coast in the U.S. is facing rapidly increasing high tide floods thanks to a "wobble" in the moon's orbit working in tandem with climate change-fueled rising sea levels.

A new study from NASA and the University of Hawaii, published recently in the journal Nature Climate Change, warns that upcoming changes in the moon's orbit could lead to record flooding on Earth in the next decade.

Through mapping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) sea-level rise scenarios, flooding thresholds and astronomical cycles, researchers found flooding in American coastal cities could be several multiples worse in the 2030s, when the next moon "wobble" is expected to begin.  They expect the flooding to significantly damage infrastructure and displace communities.

Science is like that.  Things happen and we don't understand them, or we misunderstand them, until someone looks into it and uncovers previously unknown interactions.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Where We Came From

For John, BLUF:  If we accept the sciernce of evolution we know that our descendents 100,000 years from now may not look as we do today.  What will the future bring?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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How mankind really evolved:  Top geneticist DR ADAM RUTHERFORD says simple diagram of ape changing to man is 'so wrong' it should be removed from school books - and reveals the far messier Ascent of Man

Here is the sub-headline:

• Dr Adam Rutherford discusses why 'The Road To Homo Sapiens' is wrong
• He describes it as a 'convenient shorthand' to depict the evolution of man
• Discovery of a new skull suggests linear evolution of man is wrong, Dr Rutherford says

From The Daily Mail, by Dr Adam Rutherford (Geneticist) 4 July 2021, 05:46 EDT.

Here is the lede plus seven:

It's one of the most famous images in the history of scientific endeavour.  The Road To Homo Sapiens, by American-based artist Rudolph Zallinger, is a convenient shorthand to show the gradual evolution from primitive crawling apes to upright walking mankind.

The image was created for a children’s book in the mid-1960s and has since appeared in humorously subverted versions everywhere, from T-shirts to The Simpsons.  But the past few days have seen a new discovery which perfectly illustrates what scientists such as myself have long known:  the image is completely wrong.

A week ago, a huge prehistoric skull that had lain hidden in a Chinese well for 85 years resurfaced. Inconveniently, it doesn’t easily fit into the famous image, which shows us getting bigger and bigger brains as we evolve.

The head was first discovered in 1933 by workers building a bridge over the Songhua River in Harbin, northern China.  The labourers wrapped it in cloth and hid it in an old well to stop it falling into the hands of Japanese soldiers occupying the province.<

There it remained until 2018, when one of the workers told his grandson about the secret.  The grandson recovered the skull from its hiding place and gave it to researchers at Hebei Geo University, who declared it to be at least 146,000 years old.

They believe it comes from an unknown hominid – an early human species.  Once again, our species finds that we are going to have to rethink the story of humankind to fit in with new scientific discoveries.

Evolution by natural selection was Charles Darwin’s big idea and this year sees the 150th anniversary of the publication of his great book, The Descent Of Man, in which he applies his theory to humans.

Swathes of evidence have been amassed since Darwin’s time, from fossil bones to, more recently, DNA analysis.  This gives us a broader picture of our evolution, which we often imagine as a tree with different species branching off at different times since life on Earth began.

You have to go to the link to see the revised path of progression, as proposed by Dr Rutherford.

Hat tip to my Wife.

Regards  —  Cliff

Math Answers

For John, BLUF:  In an effort to stamp out racism, public education seems to be working overtime to dismiss "Western" learning, including Western math and science.  As a practical matter, this doesn't make sense to me.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Profs help push program that claims math is 'racist' because it requires a 'right answer'

Here is the sub-headline:

• A new program promoted by the Oregon Department of Education is designed to “dismantle” instances of “white supremacy culture in the mathematics classroom.”
• Professors at San Diego State University and Loyola Marymount University assisted in creating the program.

From Campus Reform, by Correspondent Wyatt Eichholz, 25 March 2021, 8:10 PM.

Here is the lede plus one:

An Oregon Department of Education newsletter from February promoted an online course designed to “dismantle” instances of “white supremacy culture in the mathematics classroom.”  One example of “white supremacy” highlighted by the course was “the concept of mathematics being purely objective,” an idea which the resource stated is “is unequivocally false."

The program, known as “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction,” describes itself as “an integrated approach to mathematics that centers Black, Latinx, and Multilingual students” that provides “opportunities for ongoing self-reflection as they seek to develop an anti-racist math practice.”

The "feedback advisors" for a portion of the program include William Zahner, who is an associate professor at San Diego State University; Melissa Navarro Martell, who is an assistant professor at San Diego State University, and Elvira Armas, who is the Director of Programs and Partnerships for the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University in California.

“White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions,” the guide states.  “Coupled with the beliefs that underlie these actions, they perpetuate educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.”

The newsletter pitched the program to educators “looking for a deeper dive into equity work,” offering to teach “key tools for engagement, develop strategies to improve equitable outcomes for Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, and join communities of practice.”

There are links in the original.

Back when I was somebody and flying fighter jets for the US Air Force, math, and the predictability of math, seemed to be important.  The ability to navigate from the launch airbase to turn points A, B, C, D, etc, to the recovery airbase depended on being able to determine a heading and distance, and based on airspeed, a time.  This, in turn, was used to calculate fuel consumption.  Running out of fuel and having to make an emergency divert, or worse, abandon the aircraft in mid-air, would be embarrassing.♠

It seems to me that math being consistent and predictable was very important to safe aviating, regardless of race or ethnicty. Whether in my Ar Force Academy Class it be me, or my Roommate Bill Perez, or my Cadet Squadron mate Willie T Sakahara or our distinguished classmate Fred Gregory.  It was all the same.

Maybe in the airline business it is different.  I wonder if the "feedback advisors" fly on airliners?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  With the F-4, all Marks, the Pilot's Handbook said a flame out landing was not recommended, and "High Key" (where you start the 360 degree turn to touchdown was 15,000 feet AGL (Above Ground Level)).  No typo.  One would have to lose almost three miles of altitude in a single turn from overhead the point of intended landing and touchdown.