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The New York Times renounces the scientific method
I was astonished to see the following letter in these days’s NY Occasions, which I herewith print in its entirety:
To the Editor:
I have no concept regardless of whether people are contributing substantially to global warming, and I agree with these who say we should strategy “as if” due to the fact not to take steps could be catastrophic if writers like James Hansen show to be appropriate. But take into account 1 of his claims: “Every main national science academy in the planet has reported that worldwide warming is true.”
Here’s a news flash: European scientists in the 15th century agreed that the earth was the center of the universe. That didn’t make it correct.
GEORGE THOMAS
Warren, N.J., Could 10, 2012
Let’s feel a second about what this letter is in fact saying. Supposed Mr. Thomas had created exactly the identical assertion, but had used slightly various phrasing:
Science in the 21st century can be thought of as currently being in essence the very same as science in the 15th century.
It is doubtful that such a bizarre claim would have been published in the Times. Immediately after all, the scientific strategy as we know it was not even practiced in Europe until the 17th century — two hundred years following the era in question.
I’m not faulting Mr. Thomas. He is entitled to be a crank, and to compose nutty letters about what ever notion enters his head.
But it is inexcusable that the editors of what claims to be the “newspaper of record” are so intellectually lazy that they would publish a letter like this.
Rocks in the head
My sister, who is an professional in geophysics, was talking nowadays about the 3 phases of rock — igneous (when the rock is fresh out of the volcano), sedimentary (when time and pressure have started forming the rock into layers), and metamorphic (right after so much time and strain have accumulated that the rock is completely hardened). I identified my mind wandering to 3 related words that could be utilised to describe the techniques we knowledge pleasure at different stages of our lives.
When we are young and hot headed, our pleasure is extreme and immediate, because it comes from not figuring out any much better. This is our age of ignorant pleasures.
As time passes, and layer on layer of obligation have begun to accumulate, we find ourselves settling down beneath the growing weight of lifestyle. This is our age of sedentary pleasures.
Eventually, right after considerably much more time has passed, we are able to achieve genuine permanence and solidity. Alas, by that time, all pleasure has grow to be metaphoric.