Science funding dips in U.S., soars in China
If this doesn’t scare the shit out of you, you probably voted for Bush and believe the sun orbits the Earth.
If this doesn’t scare the shit out of you, you probably voted for Bush and believe the sun orbits the Earth.
May 17th, 2005 at 7:00 AM
Eh, that’s OLD science. Don’t you know that in today’s Oo-Es-of-Ey, we’re PROUD to be ignant? Get with the program, Steve! Who needs to know hard stuff like science (which relies on a person – gasp- QUESTIONING things!) when the Rapture’s coming soon anyway?
May 17th, 2005 at 7:13 AM
Remeber when the people who stood with signs predicting the end of the world where concerned to be (generally) harmless nut cases — intsead of presidents and senators and congressmen?
May 17th, 2005 at 10:40 AM
I blame the standardized testing they’re forcing down states’ throats. We’re so narrowly focused on math and verbal scores that all other subjects fall to the wayside.
If you’re a kid who’s being pressured to mainly study math and verbal, and neither is particularly interesting, then you’ll quickly become bored with school, wouldn’t you? We’re now exciting young people’s minds.
I’m also thinking about how the arts get cut in schools, too. You’d think that as pro-business and pro-economy Republicans are, that they’d pay a little more attention to one of our largest exports: the entertainment industry. But they’re all Godless heathens anyway.
May 17th, 2005 at 10:48 AM
And did you see Bill Maher’s show last friday? He did a great sketch where a mom’s trying to keep her kid from learning about evolution, the separation of church and state, that condoms prevent AIDS, etc. I love that show.
Here’s the transcript, it’s the very first part of it.
May 17th, 2005 at 5:58 PM
I wish I could think of this as something new, but even our own generation, much ballyhoo’d for our science background, is dismally ignorant of basic science. I’ve known so many saps my age who ought to know better but believe in Bermuda Triangles and 100th Monkey marlarkey that I despair. Today’s kids are learning even less than we did, in our Sputnik-afflicted day.
Funny thing, though–my younger daughter appears to be a born engineer. She’s always taking things apart, rebuilding them, fixing appliances, showing her teachers how to fix audio-visual gear…I must have done something right. I’m unsure, however, just what it was.
May 17th, 2005 at 6:31 PM
Hmmmmm… Well, maybe plans for removing grades from schools should be rethought. However, Steve, if you remembered your general theory of relativity, you would know that the Sun DOES revolve around the Earth, if you define the Earth as being still (which is an entirely valid definition). With the advent of computer modeling, astronomers often use a geocentric view of the Universe, since it makes it easier to aim their telescopes…
May 17th, 2005 at 7:54 PM
Not to be a pedant, but the Earth and Sun orbit _each other_. The Sun wiggles a little bit.
May 18th, 2005 at 6:08 AM
One other item. There’s a wonderful book called THE TROUBLE WITH SCIENCE (by R.I.M. and Robin Dunbar), which is an excellent overview of the philosophy (ooh, that word!) of science. Essentially it’s about how science works, how scientists think, and why the public at large frequently doesn’t understand it. In any case, one thing they posit for a future of science is for the graduate schools to rethink their criteria for recruitment. They point out that there are tons of psychology, art history, English, etc. majors who have a lot of trouble finding work, but who may very well have the right mentality for working in the sciences, even though they will need to start from ground zero.