Bill_Thompson wrote:Lance, I am stunned that we agree on something.
Do you know of any other professional educators who take this sort of hard line approach? You cannot teach people by alienating them or pissing them off. Unfortunately we are an emotional species. Getting Couric to do a retraction or even get Plait to come on her show would be the best approach. It would have done a lot of good. There isn't a snow ball's chance on Mercury of that happening now. Instead Plait gets a following of Nascar and Studio Wrestling fans who are willing to back him up blindly even when he makes a mistake and his followers jump on anyone who will disagree with him.
And that really is Bad Science.
Bill_Thompson wrote:Lance, I am stunned that we agree on something.
Do you know of any other professional educators who take this sort of hard line approach? You cannot teach people by alienating them or pissing them off. Unfortunately we are an emotional species. Getting Couric to do a retraction or even get Plait to come on her show would be the best approach. It would have done a lot of good. There isn't a snow ball's chance on Mercury of that happening now. Instead Plait gets a following of Nascar and Studio Wrestling fans who are willing to back him up blindly even when he makes a mistake and his followers jump on anyone who will disagree with him.
And that really is Bad Science.
Bill_Thompson wrote:Lance, I am stunned that we agree on something.
Lonewulf wrote:And it *is* his blog, not his actual official website... it's something designed for your personal opinion.
Lonewulf wrote:Also: About "good science" -- first of all, economics may be somewhat of a science,
but commenting on another person's opinion is not exactly a scientific endeavor, but is by it's nature a subjective (opinionated) analysis.
Sigh. Another clueless talking head opens her mouth and jabbers on a topic about which she has no idea.
Bandit wrote:As a banned member of BAUT
it would be very easy for me to rip into Plait here for the hypocracy of posting something like this on his site (nice example to set for the kids who read it) but sometimes people don't think before they compose something .. or don't care. I think the BA would have been better served with making an attempt to address Couric on a more mature level or not at all instead of what went down.
Khrushchev's Other Shoe wrote:Lonewulf wrote:Also: About "good science" -- first of all, economics may be somewhat of a science,
Why not? After all, I have even met people who think physics is a science.
A student entering a doctoral program in economics needs a level of mathematical and technical training not too much behind what people entering, let's say, a mathematics program need. Economics journals are filled with rigorously defined quantitative models, analytic derivations of the predictions of these models, and testing of those predictions against real-world data. Probably the biggest difference is in many areas of economics, it isn't really practical to conduct laboratory experiements, although there is something called experimental economics, for which Vernon Smith shared the Nobel prize a few years ago. (Come to think of it, though, laboratory experiments aren't really very practical in lots of areas of astronomy, either.) Of course, many BAUTers do not allow total lack of knowledge of any of this to keep them from waxing eloquent on the topic. . .
Lonewulf wrote:I'm just commenting on the claim that what Phil is doing is "not good science". It wasn't science. It was an opinion.
Lonewulf wrote:Blogs are places where people put up their opinions on matters.
Lance wrote:Lonewulf wrote:Blogs are places where people put up their opinions on matters.
Can be, but that is not the case here, per my message above.
Bill_Thompson wrote:Well said.
By playing to the lowest common denominator I think Plait has gained popularity.
And I find that sad that such a popular scientific website is such.
Bill_Thompson wrote:By playing to the lowest common denominator I think Plait has gained popularity.
Lance wrote:Bill_Thompson wrote:Well said.
By playing to the lowest common denominator I think Plait has gained popularity.
And I find that sad that such a popular scientific website is such.
Carolyn Kepcher was a good business woman as an executive in the Trump Organization until she gained popular recognition on the TV show "The Apprentice". Then she became more fond of celebrity than actually doing her job and was ultimately fired by Trump.
Is Dr. Plait too fond of his growing popularity?
Lance wrote:Is Dr. Plait too fond of his growing popularity?
Bill_Thompson wrote:At the same time, addressing this with maturity and tact while still stressing how important it is to him would have had a more fruitful return.
Lance wrote: I thought the number of "ditto-head" responses on Phil's blog was interesting.
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