It's been a while since I wrote an Out of Left Field Friday entry, and since I've worked 60 or more hours this week and desperately need to take a break… so a science-themed entry.
- Cars are Faraday cages, which is why we're safe inside one in a thunderstorm (even thundersnow, at least from the lightning bit). Do not ever buy a plastic car! But a pipe-cleaner car should work, at least in theory.
- There was one science reporter who accurately described the "free-write after reading a passage" bit of research that was generally misreported. That honor of accurate reporting goes to Dr. Kiki Sanford, co-host of This Week in Science, on the January 27 show/podcast.
- I do not believe in evolution. I am persuaded that natural selection is a fact.
- Boy, that North Atlantic Oscillation hates Dallas this winter. I bet a hundred thousand or more football fans will regret that the Super Bowl isn't in Florida this Sunday. This afternoon, Tampa's high was in the low 80s.
- One college student I know is tempted to conduct a wildlife survey in her dorm. The fact that the wildlife in question is plush animals makes me wonder whether this is a legitimate exercise in learning methods.
- As Paul Cottle notes, Florida's political and educational leaders seem to be schizophrenic. We want STEM education for economic development! But let's not make a state test in chemistry or physics! Let's attract more science teachers! Make (math and science) teachers pay 5% of their salary for retirement! If I were inclined towards a psychodynamic explanation of politics, this would be incredible grist for a mill.
- I have no idea why my brand of statins is very close to a brand name for toothpaste. I assure you, the statin doesn't taste nearly as good as the toothpaste brand (which I don't use: I prefer another).
- Thank goodness a reasonable amount of research shows that tangeloes don't conflict with statins in the same way that grapefruit does. Wekiwa tangeloes taste a lot like sweet pink grapefruit, except they're about half the size.
- I learned today that the expected time a photon spends inside the sun before reaching the surface is measured in the thousands or tens of thousands of years. Filibustering senators have nothing on the barriers to solar photons getting the job done!
Outstanding, especially your pointing out the difference between belief and being persuaded.
No, “Florida’s political and educational leaders DO NOT seem to be schizophrenic.”
Rather, it is Panglossian to assume (why?) that all this should be smoothly integrated, etc. These are independent constituencies engaged in realpolitik, right? Why would we expect anything diff?
The debate about “belief” needs to include a historical understanding of the development (evolution even?) of “believing” in the English language. See books by Wilfred Cantwell Smith “Believing: An Historical Perspective,” is the shorter one, and “Faith and Belief: The Difference Between Them” is much longer.
In contemporary usage “belief” carries with it the potential for disbelief, disprovenness, or disagreement with that belief, as something that is “just” a belief — and is therefore of lesser certainty than “facts.” The distinction, of course, is most frequently self-reported.