A new ID the Future episode continues the debate between design theorist Casey Luskin, an editor of The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, and science historian Adam Shapiro, co-author of Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction.
Media
Ultra-In mag New Yorker: “For our nation and our species, the future depends” on Francis Collins’s success…
One way of looking at it: In light of the appalling treatment of infants under Collins’s regime, he is just the sort of individual that the New Yorker would want to represent evangelical Christians — or any other group that its staff despise.
Has Bill Nye sold out to… Coca Cola?
The writer at Gizmodo is not convinced that “the good people at Coca Cola” are making anything like the difference Nye says they are but interested readers can read the article and watch the vid.
To get change, create or exploit a crisis . . .
to control the change, set the agenda and control thought to a thesis, an antithesis and your desired synthesis. So, we see, in a cartoon: Where, let us recall the change challenge: . . . thus the fallacy of the false dilemma pushing a simplistic dichotomy of choices: . . . and the Overton Window Read More…
At Mind Matters News: Could decentralization fix Twitter’s censorship problems? Or Wikipedia’s?
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger, interviewed at Mind Matters News, warns that decentralized networks can still be captured and controlled.
Trust the Science! Instructive testimony from media efforts to squelch debate about the COVID panic
It would be good to study how “science” became a synonym for “what people do when they are in a panic” and how “disinformation” came to mean “casting doubt on panic-stricken responses.” But obviously, there is a larger message here…
At last someone is asking: Why are science reporters so credulous?
Another way of putting it is that too many people are — at best — naive about government-led and government-funded science. And science writers can make a living out of avoiding realities and catering to their illusions while retaining a sense of impeccable righteousness.
Yes, law schools have changed. Now here’s a key way media have changed
Media people today see freedom of speech in a much more hostile light. During the Convoy response to the COVID crazy here in Canada, we were explicitly given to understand that freedom of speech is a “right wing” value. That view is now widely shared. It would certainly have surprised generations of liberal-minded journalists. But if we ponder the matter for a moment, we can see what drives the change of view.
Has anyone else noticed the blatant political flavor of many sciencey mags these days?
Yes, it was always there but recently, as the editors become ever more self-righteous (= Us vs. the Unwashed), it has become more open and that sure isn’t an improvement. Science writer Matt Ridley thinks science is reverting to a cult.
A media bias takedown by the Frontline Doctors
If you needed a case study on loaded language driven slanted reporting, here is a case study that deserves to be headlined: For context, see the de-spin chart: Remember, this has been with lives on the line. END
A characteristic of our times: Anarchy from above: Canadian truckers edition
Here’s what resistance to the anarchy means in Canada: The Convoy was peaceful compared to most demos. We just want to COVID Crazy to end. It’s not doing anything but harm. But GoFundMe has now seized the $10 million dollars Canadians contributed to the support of those camped in Ottawa aiming to end the destructive lockdowns and will give it to charities instead.
John West explains why Discovery Institute will start speaking up about science totalitarianism around COVID
COVID-19 has been used as the rationale for an extraordinary expansion of government power in the name of science… COVID has shown government officials how to do an end-run around the normal system of checks and balances. They simply need to invoke “science” and declare an emergency — and then extend their emergency orders time and again.
Well, Jogalekar finally got a chance to tell his story re what happened at Scientific American
Asaronaon: Ashutosh used to write regularly for Scientific American, until he was fired seven years ago over a column in which he advocated acknowledging Richard Feynman’s flaws, including his arrogance and casual sexism, but also understanding those flaws within the context of Feynman’s whole life, including the tragic death of his first wife Arlene.
Will science media’s slow descent into the Woke crazy empower competition?
In a still-free society, Wokeness will create a space for a new popular science magazine. Lots of Woke-weary folk who value evidence over ideology would likely support it. That magazine should allow evidence-based criticism of Darwinian theory — which is treated with considerable skepticism anyway once you get outside the venue of the people who blew up SciAm with their Wokeness.
Retraction Watch co-founder on the lab leak theory re COVID
Ivan Oransky: Many in the media, as well as some scientists, quickly labeled it a conspiracy theory, designed to shift focus away from the missteps of their own countries. But, like everyone else involved in the discussions about the lab leak theory, scientists have something at stake: If SARS-CoV-2 did escape from a lab, it could further shake trust in research, and threaten funding…