Planning an Everglades camping trip? Maybe it’s time to reconsider.
Science
Military Intelligence and the Scientific Method
Jay Manifold of A Voyage to Arcturus here, parachuting in with a post that’s a bit more geopolitical than the sort of thing I like to do these days on my own blog. Kind of like sneaking off to a nearby town to indulge a secret vice, I guess.
(And apologies in advance, both for having been a non-contributor of late, and for the possible breathtaking un-originality of the thesis of this post.)
Background: so, okay, I’m in the inimitable Cargo Largo in Independence, always a serendipitous experience — quite a bit of their merchandise is the result of Customs or DEA seizures, thus the occasional pallet-load of, say, marmoset food — perusing the book rack, a bizarre mixture of English and Spanish titles of every imaginable genre, and come across Military Intelligence Blunders (actually the hardback), and snap it up for $6.
Turning to page 6 (which is among those viewable via the Amazon link above), we find the Intelligence Cycle, which I reproduce here as a bulleted list:
One thing you can do for $100
Here’s a pretty cool example of an underwater ROV made on the cheap. Granted, it’s not going to 1000 foot depths, and it is a tow-behind, but it still is a good example of garage-workbench ingenuity.
Let Patients Decide
Face transplants are a great idea if someone can make them work.
The “ethicists,” part of whose problem is hubris and another part is conflict of interest (they have an incentive to promote their own role as decisionmakers), scoff:
“This idea needs more evaluation. What we do know either can’t be quantified or the risks clearly outweigh the benefits,” said Karen Maschke, the associate for ethics and science policy at the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute in Garrison, N.Y. “Look, a lot of science is boosterism.
“People always think they’re going to be cured by new treatments and life will be normal again, but that’s usually not the case.”
But the creative surgeon has the right idea:
Dr. Siemionow disputes the notion that facially disfigured patients should not be allowed to decide the risks, asking, “How can people who are normal decide for burn victims ‘This is not right for you’?”
The patients know their own interests best. They should be the ones who decide what procedures, and risks, to subject themselves to.
Shannon’s “Left & Evolution” Revisited
Shannon’s earlier observations, “The Left & Evolution”, come to mind reading discussions at Volokh & Left2Right. Arguing about evolution seems a bit, well 19th century, but it is pretty easy to see that a certain pugnacious, literal, and irritating fundamentalism is matched by minds equally pugnacious and literal. The level of conversation at Volokh is pleasant. This also echoes Himmelfarb’s criticism of the French Enlightenment, where Reason replaces God, while the Brits & Americans see reason as a path to civic duty and liberty. While we should revere the “scientific method” and “scientific inquiry,” we may well suspect sentences that begin “Science says” and then judge the complexities of human motivation. Volokh quotes (none of the links work as far as I can see):
In March of 2001 the Gallup News Service reported the results of their survey that found 45 percent of Americans agree with the statement “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so,” while 37 percent preferred a blended belief that “Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process,” and a paltry 12 percent accepted the standard scientific theory that “Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process.”
Well, I’m willing to agree that 45% is a pretty ridiculous (sad) percentage and does not bode well for America’s future in a world where broad science ability is important in terms of economics & defense. However, any one in that 12% who considers himself a beleaguered and martyred proponent of the truth must have an oversupply of chutzpah.
As long as polemicists insist that acceptance of science & evolution is bound up with acceptance of such a certainty, that 45% is not likely to become educated.