Media

Is this getting to be a trend? Critical thinking about a lot of the stuff that tumbles down the pike, claiming to be “science”? First there was Nutrition science is not all its cried up to be, now, Ross Pomeroy at RealClearScience: The problems with nutrition science begin with how most of its research is conducted. The vast majority of nutrition studies are observational in nature — scientists look at people who eat certain foods and examine how their health compares with the health of people who don’t eat those foods or eat them at different frequencies. But as I reported earlier this year, these sorts of studies have a high chance of being wrong. Very wrong. In 2011, statisticians S. Read More ›

For reader info, in case it happens when you try to access Uncommon Descent or a  page here: The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has approved the use of HTTP status code 451. The code alerts readers when a page has been blocked for legal reasons or censored. The code number was inspired by Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s novel about censorship. From Fast Company: Code 451 is a big step for transparency, but since it’s optional, it probably won’t be a final solution. As Bray tells The Verge, “It is imaginable that certain legal authorities may wish to avoid transparency, and not only forbid access to certain resources, but also disclosure that the restriction exists.” Others will righteously flaunt the Read More ›

Anyone who can watch this February 2015 vid (“Astroturf and manipulation of media messages”) by news veteran Sharyl Atkisson and still have any respect for Wikipedia had better start figuring out what kind of idiot they are. For their own protection. Know thyself, and all that. (Wikipedia is only part of the astroturf story, but it’s a pretty sizeable part. And to think we thought pages on ID were a special bad case.) In this eye-opening talk, veteran investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson shows how astroturf, or fake grassroots movements funded by political, corporate, or other special interests very effectively manipulate and distort media messages. Sharyl Attkisson is an investigative journalist based in Washington D.C. She is currently writing a book Read More ›

O’Leary for News’ night job, writing on new media Yik Yak: Digital dorm room or cyberbullying? Words on social media are stripped of voice and context. Rx against online harassment Tips from five expert sources may help with online safety. Storing knowledge for a million years – in DNA? All civilization’s knowledge could exist within a few cubic metres. Facebook: When digital breakups byte too hard We should resist the temptation to get personal on Facebook in the first place. The algorithm does not know, and the world does not care. Let’s save it for the few who do. High school: Where life without smartphones is a form of death? Life online may have later political implications for democracy. Many Read More ›

Here (make sure to watch the embedded Fox26 video which I doubt I can embed at UD). Is it reasonable to be putting such a question to 12 year old students in class? (And if you think this was just one teacher, note how it came up the next day in other classes and in multiple classes on the day in question; somebody with responsibility wrote this into a curriculum with intent to create the view that per critical thinking, belief in God is little more than a widely believed, religiously backed [itself a loaded issue] questionable opinion with little warrant.) Is the view that God is real merely a religious belief with no serious weight of evidence or argument? Read More ›

O’Leary for News’ night job: Fake reviews, sure… but fake science journals? Bob the Robot’s TED talk: What robots are and aren’t Robot are things we create to develop our ideas. Will artificial intelligence kill our jobs? That depends. Jumbotron, the smartphone is coming to get you! New tech does not extinguish old art forms. It more often changes their role. Live to text? Well, it’s your neck … Driving while “intexticated”? Social media addiction comes, like other addictions, with a free I-deny-I-have-a-problem package. Follow UD News at Twitter!

O’Leary for News’ night job: Portrait of a social media addict … … who is brutally honest about what it feels like. Down with the selfie! Let’s be groupies! Cell photos can help us maintain relationships over time and distance. Can the internet make loved ones “immortal”? Attitudes to death are becoming increasingly weird in both the actual and the digital world. Is the internet guilty of killing high culture? By making everything equally free and accessible, the internet shone a spotlight on what we do want. And that is our responsibility. The law struggles to make sense of the internet Meanwhile, we can expect some strange decisions. Amazon’s “Workplace Hell,” Part II Jeff Lockhart was not “killed on the Read More ›

(O’Leary for News’s regular night job) Edward Snowden: “When you collect everything, you understand nothing.” Mass spying on citizens “fundamentally changes the balance of power between the citizen and the state.” (On the eve of the new Snowden-themed Bond film, Spectre. ) Writing for the internet is like writing on water The internet may be forever; our pages are not. Is our e-mail private? No. What protects most of us is that our words are lost among the trillions no one is looking for. Does new media make us value democracy less? Maybe, and facing elections and upheavals around North America and Europe, it’s bad news. Whoa, Rosie! Twitter is not a family conference! We all have family problems, and let’s Read More ›

… by viewing Wikipedia edits via this handy new tool: Friend says, “Enter any controversial topic and enjoy.” Possible last-ditch therapy for any who take Wikipedia seriously. See also: How Wikipedia can turn fiction into fact Follow UD News at Twitter!

O’Leary for News’s night job, on the impact of new media: Old media doesn’t get new media. It is called the internet, not the innernet for a reason. Serious argument: The right to marry a robot This is an argument for the right to marry something that is not human and not a self. Forcing others to recognize one’s machine as a spouse would be a social triumph, of sorts. Had to happen. Internet addiction treatment centre Most of what we see on the internet has a better chance of being false than what we see on our street. Tweet this!: Twitter’s value is way down Facebook, perhaps more human, is doing very well indeed. E-mail spam filters force Nigerian Read More ›

BBC writer undermines own argument here: First, when talking about evolution, author Chris Baraniuk chooses to defend precisely the theory of evolution that is most under fire just now, in serious intellectual terms: Darwinism Darwin’s theory of evolution says that each new organism is subtly different from its parents, and these differences can sometimes help the offspring or impede it. As organisms compete for food and mates, those with the advantageous traits produce more offspring, while those with unhelpful traits may not produce any. So within a given population, advantageous traits become common and unhelpful ones disappear. The problem is, in a constantly changing environment, “helpful” and “unhelpful” might not mean anything for long. So the theory amounts to “the Read More ›

From their earliest cinematic appearance in Georges Méliès’s “A Trip to the Moon” in 1902, our conception of life beyond Earth has changed to reflect our hopes and fears, the technology we’ve mastered, and our growing knowledge of the universe. Watch our depictions of extraterrestrial life change over nearly 100 films and 112 years. Good chance the vid below is as good as it’ll get re space aliens. Follow UD News at Twitter! B

Here. John Horgan is one of the most colorful and thought-provoking science writers of the last several decades. He defies pigeonholing and enjoys challenging conventional wisdom. In the best Socratic tradition, he has been a gadfly to the scientific community, constantly urging it to be more self-reflective and to strive for sober understanding of the scientific enterprise—its prospects, possibilities, and pitfalls. Excerpt. John Horgan: I still stand by the thesis of The End of Science, that the era of truly monumental, paradigmatic discoveries has ended. In fact, the argument seems even more compelling today than it did 20 years ago when the book was first published. My guess is that some of the great remaining mysteries—How, exactly, did the universe Read More ›

The question arose from this run-of the mill “sciencey” PR: Compared to its celestial neighbours Venus and Mars, Earth is a pretty habitable place. So how did we get so lucky? A new study sheds light on the improbable evolutionary path that enabled Earth to sustain life. … “We played out this impact erosion story forward in time and we were able to show that the effect of the conditions governing the initial composition of a planet can have profound consequences for its evolution. It’s a very special set of circumstances that make Earth.” So it is NOT science to say that the outlined story is almost impossible on its own? Like getting dealt a royal flush five time in Read More ›

From The Verge, re Neil Tyson, heir apparent to Carl Sagan (Cosmos II) on the Pluto flyby. After calling Pluto a malted milk ball left in the rain (ice cream is a theme in the video), Colbert introduces Tyson as one of the biggest Pluto demoters and proceeds to berate the astrophysicist for his lack of love for the dwarf planet. “It’s even got a heart, unlike you,” Colbert says. Tyson defends himself saying that he was only an “accessory” to Pluto’s demotion — an oft repeated claim of his. Yet he’s not backing down on the status change. Hmmm. Was Tyson’s opinion overrated, the way Carl Sagan’s always was? Would make sense. Would make sense. Hot vs. what? Wow! vs how? Cheat sheet Read More ›