tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post3659128378826336463..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Scientific IlliteracyAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-80102273471367903892020-11-29T11:21:49.668-05:002020-11-29T11:21:49.668-05:00Like about half of California law school graduates...Like about half of California law school graduates, Kamala Harris flunked the bar on her first try. That's a high enough failure rate not to disqualify many California law school graduates from a moderate level of professional success in one of the less demanding areas of law, but failing the bar the first time is still a strong indicator of mediocre intelligence. Amy Coney Barrett, in contrast, was at the top of her Notre Dame law school class and is routinely described by colleagues at the highest level of appellate practice (already a rarified field) as wildly smart. There's scarcely any comparison between the two women's intelligence. The only people who could seriously argue for their IQ equivalence are people whose notions about high intelligence are murky, long-distance, and large theoretical.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-10206501327110803662020-11-29T05:02:12.543-05:002020-11-29T05:02:12.543-05:00Introducing Pakistan Rishta service
Welcome to Ris...<br /><br />Introducing <a href="https://www.reallrishta.com/" rel="nofollow">Pakistan Rishta</a> service<br />Welcome to Rishta Pakistan Website Allah Swt made your partner already<br /> in heaven so we help for finding your life partner at earth through this<br /> website Create an account and look for your Muslim life partner<br /><a href="http://www.ecomdiversify.com/" rel="nofollow">E-Commerce Diversify</a><br /><a href="https://www.srsroofing.ca/" rel="nofollow">Roofing company</a><br />pakistani matrimonial rishtahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02193681011543667472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-46520238453741173592020-11-28T12:39:32.682-05:002020-11-28T12:39:32.682-05:00Interesting article. I'd thought the guy was &...Interesting article. I'd thought the guy was 'cancelled' at the height of the 'me too' movement but I'm happy he's a visible voice for understanding of science in the current debates.<br /><br />Summing up the article, he distinguishes from innumeracy or math-phobia (about which I've got my own teaching stories) and science illiteracy. The way I read it, he takes pains to point out that science is not conclusions but a process of gaining knowledge, one that has uncertainty -- and that communicating that uncertainty is also important. <br /><br />It strikes me as somewhat disingenuous to complain of politicians saying "I'm not a scientist, but", after we've had 8 months of a very strong movement that <i>only</i> qualified 'experts' should make judgements on issues of appropriate COVID-19 response. <i>"In this, and all areas where scientific evidence is both public and sufficiently overwhelming, public figures who even feign ignorance for reasons of political expediency should be called out."</i> he says, illustrating that in spite of being an American citizen and resident in this country since the late 1970's, he either is ignorant -- or feels it appropriate to feign ignorance -- of the 'Ginsburg Rule' and the importance of it for maintaining judicial independence. It's kind of startling really, that a man who would purport to offer advice in areas of public policy, could be so ignorant of something that has been in the national news repeatedly during his adult career.<br /><br />We've not seen his book yet, but when I read him saying <i>"I wrote my new book, which presents the fundamental science behind climate change, in part to specifically respond to this sorry state of affairs. Outrageous denials, or outrageous doom and gloom predictions <b>equally</b> subvert the ultimate goal, which is to develop rational public policy. Gaining a perspective of the fundamental science . . is a precursor to proposing rational policies to address one of the most significant global challenges of the 21st century.</i> I think that it is a needed tonic if it turns out to be as described. Yet, when books and articles that can be described similarly have come out by others who are equally supportive of the fundamental science and insistent that the policy-response be rational, they tend to get labelled as 'deniers'. But perhaps I see 'rational' as being policy that has some hope towards attaining its stated goals without 2nd-order effects that will inevitably subvert it or lead to increased human suffering and ecological damage.<br /><br />I've been mulling over this post for a while - I've a facebook friend who is a retired professor of Physics from a top program, who continually posts to facebook activist articles on renewables in his country. Without being a jerk about it I do manage to occasionally get him to acknowledge that the numbers claimed in these articles are implausible or already proven incorrect. In effect, he is selectively and by choice innumerate and scientifically illiterate! It seems to me that he is happy to live in a mental world where 100GW of solar and/or wind can 'replace' 100GW of baseload or dispatchable electricity generation, and to argue for policies that put the ratio of uncontrollable to controllable generation pretty far into the danger zone, but I find that he'll straighten up and fly right as soon as I start asking questions of him with real numbers. I suspect there are areas were I'm the same, in that I affiliate with positions that I find amenable for non-scientific reasons, but shy away from looking too closely at the details lest I might need to change my views to something less fashionable.Douglas2https://www.blogger.com/profile/11290012200563917585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-42951968502516468332020-11-27T11:31:46.193-05:002020-11-27T11:31:46.193-05:00Larry is the author of the Quillette article, Lawr...Larry is the author of the Quillette article, Lawrence M. Krauss.<br /><br />Douglas2https://www.blogger.com/profile/11290012200563917585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-85870639285255528522020-11-27T11:24:13.801-05:002020-11-27T11:24:13.801-05:00PenGun, who is this Larry you mention?PenGun, who is this Larry you mention?Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-89697412850304529092020-11-27T01:30:08.340-05:002020-11-27T01:30:08.340-05:00Tonight I calculated that a certain download speed...Tonight I calculated that a certain download speed in megabytes per second would mean a certain number of gigabytes could be downloaded in a certain time. The numbers weren't even, and to some degree my estimate was a fine rounded number; but I did it in my head, just so I can still do it. Aristotle was right: virtues are always matters of habituation, actualizing whatever kind of potential you have. <br /><br />Hell, maybe I was wrong. There's no penalty for that. Being right is not even as important as just trying to work with the numbers, the orders of magnitude, keeping in practice; setting an example for your children.Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-22994828868449218392020-11-26T20:00:49.726-05:002020-11-26T20:00:49.726-05:00Some things are invisible to me. I can't keep...Some things are invisible to me. I can't keep track of actor's names--or which pop singer is which--even though they're ubiquitous in the news. Back when University Square was still a shopping center, I walked by a florist every day and never remembered that flowers might be a nice treat for my wife--until the bus was arriving.<br /><br />One obvious question is "What are the bits of essential information people ought to know?" Maybe even just outlines: basic rules of thumb about health, for instance...jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-86362929796395563052020-11-26T19:31:26.765-05:002020-11-26T19:31:26.765-05:00@ matism - sorry, we go almost that far but not qu...@ matism - sorry, we go almost that far but not quite here.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-81351571864605623292020-11-26T19:21:15.797-05:002020-11-26T19:21:15.797-05:00Larry is just great. His series of interviews of a...Larry is just great. His series of interviews of actual 'clever people' are wonderful.<br /><br /> CP Snow<br /><br />"the majority of the cleverest people in the western world have about as much insight into it as their neolithic ancestors would have had"<br /><br /> Now here is where we differ, perhaps a lot. You think all kinds of people that I consider border on idiocy are clever, or intelligent people. CP is doing the same thing. Hi ho.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-58626888167714170992020-11-26T19:13:35.551-05:002020-11-26T19:13:35.551-05:00"There is a type of social intelligence which..."There is a type of social intelligence which mimics what I would call real intelligence."<br /><br />I've been using the term 'mirroring intelligence,' referring to people who astutely pick up on the ideas and phrases that are common among their peer group..or the peer group they hope to join...and play them back smoothly. There is a lot of this in Barack Obama. I see a fair amount of it in my LinkedIn feed, with people attempting to position themselves as deep business thinkers without much in the way of actual *ideas*.<br /><br />David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.com