In looking at time (no. 18) we saw how a suggested form of multiverse is one in which sub-cosmi are speculated — there is no observational base, this is philosophy dressed up in a lab coat — to pop up as fluctuations, exhibiting their own “big bang” events and timelines: However, it was not as […]
academic freedom
New free speech rules won’t change much at US Universities, says campus politics expert
First Amendment defenders will welcome the new rules that tie government money to academic freedom but anyone ringing a cowbell can drown out a speaker and craven administrators would have little incentive to take the risk of stopping them: We can encourage our children and grandchildren to stand up against the stifling political conformity and […]
What are the implications of Julian Assange’s arrest in London?
Yesterday, a prematurely aged-looking Assange (he is 47) — a founder of Wikileaks and Australian — was arrested by UK Police after the Ecuadorean Embassy he has sought asylum in since 2012 withdrew its protection. The arrest raises questions on dissidents, privacy, protection of legitimate secrets, the public’s right to know more than officials, power […]
Darwinian PZ Myers blows off attack on Bret Weinstein
The progressive war is, increasingly, with facts, with nature itself. They can’t win but we can certainly lose.
New US free speech policy for universities miffs boffins at Nature
The universities are “spooked by” Trump, are they? Well, they brought him on themselves. They could have listened before, when someone nicer than he is was telling them.
Total surveillance should worry us more than an AI news writing machine
The most dangerous tyrannies are the ones intended to bring about some public good. It’s the difference between someone who just wants to rob you and someone who wants to fix you and run your life.
US prez Trump vows to tie federal funding to campus free speech
Details are unclear but U.S. President Trump has threatened to cut off federal research funds to colleges and universities that deny free speech: In an interview after Trump’s speech, Terry Hartle, senior vice president for the American Council on Education, called the executive order “a solution in search of a problem,” because “free speech and […]
Bill Dembski on censorship of books at Amazon
You think you’re free to read what you want? Think again: Three days ago on this forum, I raised the question how long would it be before Amazon, which has now started banning videos skeptical of vaccines, starts banning books. I thought books would be safer. But no. Tommy Robinson’s book Mohammed’s Koran has now been banned […]
Maybe dissent from Darwin can’t kill a career any more?
Too soon to tell but in an age when “trust in science” is demanded in the teeth of evidence, not on account of it, maybe Darwinism can’t kill opponents the way it used to. Or does it?
FIRE’s Ten Worst Colleges for Free Speech
Unless, of course, you are an authoritarian bureaucrat in training. Or maybe your subject area is, for example, sexual assault among dogs. If so, academia is all yours. With any luck, you will be shouting down empty halls.
Jerry Coyne discovers the lack of intellectual freedom on campus
Students will graduate ignorant, intellectually unable to meet challenges, and mad as stink that the world doesn’t care to hear from them.
Inference Review did NOT set out to make a fool of cosmologist Adam Becker
It’s not a job that needs doing, the editors say.
The Dissent from Darwinism list now tops 1000 scientists
In time for Darwin’s birthday February 12: The Dissent statement represents a splash of cold water on the great man. It reads, “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.” The […]
Jerry Coyne has another reason to be mad at Templeton
Coyne is distressed by the fact that the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which supports people who are being jackbooted by authoritarian leftists, is supported by… Templeton.
Social science hoax papers: Putting a respectable face on persecuting the hoaxers
Sexton: Similarly, the experts Singal contacted said the use of fake data still counts as data fabrication even if the dataset was obviously meant to be part of a satirical hoax. So there may be two grounds on which this IRB could decide to punish Boghossian.