who would force their misguided religious teachings on the rest of us. They complain about "in your face liberalism." This is about as in your face as they can get, and it's making this a poorer country.

'In the 1960s the great historian Richard Hofstadter first identified a virulent strain of anti-intellectualism in American life, but thanks to the Tea Party and the recession, its worst traits are still plaguing us.'

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/09/richard-hofstadter-and-america-s-new-wave-of-anti-intellectualism.html

'dumbing down' itself being a rather silly way to say 'cretinisation' or 'cretinization'. 'Course, you get more pliable cannon-fodder that way...

Now that the conservatives and GOP figured out that progressive talk radio was doing well and had an impact on the elctions they have been able to buy all the stations more or less. We just lost 760 AM in Denver and have ONLY hate radio left. The GOP and conservatives have said all along that they will SILENCE all progressive talk nationally. If anyone creates camps it will be these people because they are little dictators.

And the public is so dumb they cannot see the most obvious. Even the poor ones I will bet are against minimum wage increases. In some parts of the North and much of the South the afflicted will NOT vote for Dems because they are too socialistic even if it means you won't get health care or anything else. Kentucky which has a large number of people on the govt dole hat socialism and progressivism.

The only way they will learn is if the guy the vote for comes over and takes away their benefits immediately. Even then these fools will blame Dems when it is their own rep.

If these people cannot be swayed or change their affiliation we may really be doomed as a nation. So I do not know what we do. And with all of the suppression of the left from just about everywhere it is very difficult to get the message out.

Imagine what will happen if/when big media gets control of the internet....

If money is the game, and it is these days, we as liberals are at a disadvantage. We have to start taking the issue into our own hands even if there is a bit of non-violent resistance by circumventing a few laws to get the word out. We have to get the real news into the hands of people who have no other source but RW fake news. If it takes some "creative" methods then so be it. When at war, we have done this. Is this not a war of sorts?

a well known astrophysicist who now hosts the new COSMOS series. (He started by explaining how the program ended up in Fox. Seth McFarland was behind this bizarre matching).

He showed a picture of a hotel elevator, where floor 14 follows 12. He wondered why the floor below 1 is B, instead of -1.

He talked about "Bad Math." No, it was not Hurricane Katrina that damaged New Orleans; it was the levees that collapsed. He then mentioned other structures and bridges that collapsed, including the one in Minneapolis over the 35W and then showed pictures of Roman aqueducts that are still standing.

He showed money notes from different countries that honored scientists. A German note has Gauss and next to him, a graph - a Gaussian distribution. Is it any wonder, he added, that we talk about "German Engineering but not about, say Italian Engineering?" That only the Germans assign -1 to the floor below street level? Kids there grow with the knowledge of Gauss and his graph. In our country, only Ben Franklin appears on a note, but nothing about his scientific contributions. He is there not as a scientist, but as a founding father.

Oh, he did not try to be PC. Why do Italians march in Columbus Day? The Spanish provided the funds for his exploration. Except for Italy, where is Italian spoken? (Someone said in East Africa). And where is Spanish spoken?

He compared the proportion of Nobel Prize winners among the Jews and among Muslims. No comparison: 23% vs. a fraction. But, he added, he is going after Islam because during the last centuries of the first millennium, Arabs and Muslims led the world in math and science. Baghdad was full of scientists and physicists. Many of math terms, like algebra and algorithm are of Arabic origin. We use the Arab numbers, replacing the Roman numbers that do not even have a 0. We moved from -1 BC to +1 AD..

But then around the year 1000 there was an Arab ruler - do not remember his name - who canonized the Quran. This meant that when something unexpected happen, instead of trying to investigate the causes, the reaction was: god's will. And this was the end of any inquiries and curiosity about the world around us. He showed a clip where Bush claimed that "we named the stars." Not true. Many were named by the ancient Greeks and the rest by Arabs before the proliferation of Islam.

He posted a headline from a newspaper: "half of the schools are below average." Well, yes.

And a quote from a member of Congress: "I've changed my view 360 degrees"....

And so it went. But then, he added, his beef is not with those ignorant politicians who cut funding for science; it is with the voters who keep electing them.

I love Neil deGrasse Tyson! He's quite literally a GIFT! A GIFT to this time through which we are slogging, with the human balls 'n' chains around our ankles trying to hold us back.

I cringe for our country.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, in my view, is the last hope. Any of those Fox viewers who still hang in there after "Family Guy" Sunday night should continue to sit back and learn, if that's possible… perhaps as adults for the first time.

If we don't advocate for Cosmos, there will be even MORE of a gap between preferred ignorance and the "ah-ha!" moment!

Useful, for sure...

Everything I see about him is interesting, intriguing, and enticing. He is a WUNNNNderful heir to Dr. Sagan. And we've needed one for awhile. He's a great, and accessible media-personality proponent of science in general, an excellent companion to Bill Nye the Science Guy. He brings a certain amount of sex appeal to the equation - especially for those of us nerds who fancied Mr. Spock over Captain Kirk back in the day (I was one of those). I STILL remember that "TV Guide" issue whose cover photo was of Mr. Spock with the caption - "is it sexy to be smart?" (Answer: FUCK YEAH!!!!!! Hell, I married a guy who takes his algebra books and astronomy magazines to the bathroom with him!) I love smart. I love brains. I think they're sexy as hell! And sex sells. So if the media-savvy and appealing Dr. Tyson can further the fascination with science to the "great unwashed," and bring a little enlightenment to the Dark-Ages crowd, I would say EXCELLENT!!!!!

It's not just the message. It's also who delivers it. An appealing, pleasant, nonthreatening, and sympathetic character as the delivery system - will move that message farther, and help it become more effectively absorbed, seems to me. And if there are folks who start to "get" that science is sexy, then maybe a few more young people will be fascinated enough to pursue it. And they will uplift us all.

Besides, nowadays, we've got an entire planet to save. And we NEED people like Neil deGrasse Tyson to help us make sense of the world as it is - not as fables, or various religious texts based on faith rather than fact, or traditions and trains of thought passed down from three or four millennia ago when superstition ruled the day. You can, as kkkarl rove would advocate, create your own reality. But you can't base the actual reality on your own convenient fantasy version. Not if you expect to be able to make sense of the REAL world/universe.

I would dearly love to meet a Ms. Spock (but also with a functioning heart).

Seems to me that's proof enough that it is our very physical, biological, anatomical nature to be LIBERAL. It seems we're quite literally built that way. And anyone who complains or doubts, I'd say - go complain to God.

Backatcha.

But we have to settle for pyramids with eyes.

I wasn't until now aware of.

Apparently, pre-Islamic Arabian culture collected and 'worshipped' certain rocks found in the desert, now thought to have possibly been of extraterrestrial origin (cf. the possible contents of the Kaaba). Hmmm...

Impossible, of course, for the current Sunni guardians of the Kaaba to contemplate such 'desecration'; but possibly in some near future some potential Persian Shia custodians could be scientificlly-minded and brave enough to attempt the same... ie. Let's investigate...

and leave out '0' by counting from 1 to -1?

There's actually some justification for 1BC and 1AD being adjacent. If a year is "the first year of Our Lord" (or "the two thousand and fourteenth&quot , then you are counting from the moment that 1AD started. Similarly, the first century lasts from the first moment of 1AD to the last moment of 100AD (and yes, many people counted centuries that way - see http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/newyears.html ). And so the "first century BC" was from the first moment of 100BC to the last of 1BC.

Whether it's correct to count building floors as 'measured from ground level', making the ones going down "the first below ground level", "the second below ground level" etc., or whether you should count in integers down from '2', '1', '0', -1' etc. is arguable. But putting 'B' solves any controversy.

Italian engineering - Cosmos is broadcast using radio waves. Marconi might want a word with him about respect. Hey, look, they even put him on their notes:


'He posted a headline from a newspaper: "half of the schools are below average."' But I'm sure you know that more than half of Americans earn below the average wage. The difference between 'average' (ie 'mean') and 'median' can be very instructive at times.

as well as design too. And then of course there is Iberia...

Why refer to the floor below street level as B? Why not -1? I think that street level would be 0.

And I think he chuckled when he found in one place in Germany a -1 designation.

The only reason why he went after the Italians was about Columbus Day. And being a New Yorker he is miffed that the Italian-Americans in New York claim Columbus since his travels, as well as that of so many other explorers were sponsored by Spain.

He obviously is a very charming entertaining speaker. He travels the country to promote STEM and many high school kids and their teachers were in the audience. So I can forgive him for taking some short cuts.

He also showed the periodic table under different presentations: by the country origin of the discoverer, by the order of discovery, by the weight of the elements. I admit, I did not realize how many more were added since my chemistry days.... many many years ago.

Seems that the more recent elements were named after planets. Hence uranium after Uranus and, next to it plutonium after Pluto except... he started by explaining why he agreed to "demote" Pluto from a planet designation.

Talked about the noble gases. They do not react with anything, exist in their own world and the Brits were reminded that their nobles behave the same way. I don't know whether this story is true, but it got us laughing.

any part of that presentation was posted on youtube? I'd like to see it. Love Cosmos.

I'm sure he was aware that in relativistic quantum mechanics, a rotation of 360 degrees leads to a change in sign. It takes a rotation of 720 degrees to return a relativistic wavefunction with unchanged sign.

I cringe every time I hear that term come out of Obama's mouth.

Pick one.



Second column, fourth one down is rather descriptive. Fourth column last down is a common occurence in the GOP. The Kock Koch brothers will adopt the second column second down when they finish their takeover of the Republican party.

Just go with a skull and crossbones. The GOP is poison to this country.

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

he farted dust. And so slick he had trouble keeping his socks up.

Pure science, on the other hand, will never say it has all the answers, only that it shows what have been empirically shown to definitely not be the answers (in experimental conditions based on hypotheses designed to test theories).

Einstein's thoughts on the matter are indeed very interesting, thanks for quoting. Can you define what you mean by your term 'Spirit' as employed in this context?



(Edit: I strongly disgree with the apparent auto-suppression of the above (suppression of reasonable debate == further dumbing-down)).

are just screaming louder. It behooves the rest of us to ratchet up the noise level a few notches. I know there are more of us than there are of them, we have just been too quiet for too long.

Indoctrination that started with Nixon and the "Pointy Headed Liberals."

It's a prequel to "The Marching Morons".

It was the basis of episodes (using the same title) in three television series: Tales of Tomorrow in 1952, Out of the Unknown in 1969 and Night Gallery in 1970.

Here is the story itself from Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/kornbluth-littleblack/kornbluth-littleblack-00-h.html

Here's the article about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Black_Bag

has been following this story for awhile. Still can't believe people this stupid are allowed to run for office.

So true. Teh stooopid is winning.

As more and more people self identify as atheist, agnostic, or other non religious, those who remain in the flock have become more extreme and fundamentalist in nature. Now they are even proud of their obstinate, gleeful ignorance in the dace of so called facts and science.

Did the last Dark Ages start as a happy little skip down the road in the opposite direction from enlightenment, learning, and common sense? This one is heading that way.

I have "smart" people in my family who are now proud of the thought that they don't know if the Earth revolves around the Sun or if God makes the sun die every night and miraculously reappear every morning only because enough of the faithful prayed and sent donations to tv preachers.

tell them that you have discovered that the Sun requires blood sacrifices to ensure that it rises again the next morning. Conclude your little spiel by saying, "Therefore, for the good of all mankind, for the good of the Earth and all the creatures, great and small, that dwell upon it.....I'm starting with you."

...being proud of being willfully ignorant. Truly pathetic.

You'd be surprised how many of them actually seem to think the South won the Civil War. "We kicked their asses good once and we'll kick 'em again," seems to be one mantra. When you point it out to them that the South lost, they bristle and start talking about how they'd have won if they hadn't lost the Battle of Chattanooga or the Battle of Old Ft. Wayne or any other such nonsense. Some people down here are ass crazy.

My God--To have such a need to cling to poisonous fantasies in lieu of
growing in awareness as a human being.

Beyond pathetic.

They're all but dead.

Keep 'em under the thumb of the one percent.

======================

Obama is flawless!

and you'll get a better understanding of world events than watching hours of the major three "news" networks. This general ignorance extends beyond science. I've been shocked by the lack of coverage of events beyond our borders (it actually seems like its getting worse) - the Indian election is a good example. Over half a billion people voted in an election and CNN barely even mentioned the event.

In an increasingly globalized world (make your own value judgments on that - it's still a fact), these things matter. This country thinks it can afford to be more insular and ignorant of the world at large. Not so. We can't afford to invade or occupy half the world - that much is true, but simply ignoring things happening elsewhere just makes us a much less informed populace.

And honestly, I know the networks would say "well we're covering Stirling and the missing plane because that's what people want". No, that's what you've fed people. People are interested in outside cultures. That's why people like shows like Anthony Bourdain. You're just lazy and cheap and don't want to invest in foreign news bureaus.

"if adopted, would see students learn both the case for, and against, natural selection."

Against?
So all day recess that day, right?

I posted this at least a month ago and it has be reposted and reposted. Time to give it a rest.

Another article-another source. Let us not be catty.

Someone told us when we first moved to South Carolina that the best and brightest were lost in the Civil War and what we seen now is what's left. It's proven to be true, especially the politicians.

The truth hurts. That's why ignorance is bliss.