Sunday, 15 April 2012
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The GOP's "War On Science" Part 1 (For Ex: Glenn Beck)
Background:What Occupy Wall Street and The Tea Party Have In Common
1. A recent article...
Scientists have sold their souls – and basic research – to business
A devil's bargain struck by scientists with government has led to the downgrading of basic research
The view of science as the handmaiden of business threatens to discourage a generation of bright, creative people from pursuing science at all. After all, what is attractive about a poorly remunerated, uncertain life in science without the freedom to work on problems of your own choosing? The allure of Britain's overblown financial sector is likely to prove too great.
Meanwhile, the research councils continue to demand impact statementswith their grant applications, a requirement that can only reward the most mundane research or those scientists most able to dissemble or exaggerate. One research council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, has largely stopped funding PhDs that are not associated with one of its Centres for Doctoral Training. The purpose of those centres? To "forge lasting links with industry".
I suspect that the letter sent to Times Higher Education on 5 January demanding root and branch reform of the EPSRC will be the first of many to hit the desks, then the wastepaper baskets, in Swindon this year.
Can basic research be saved from the tyranny of the profit motive? I doubt it. The coalition government has shown little inclination to question the science policies inherited from New Labour, and judging by the science minister's comments, he has little time for science for science's sake. The devil, it seems, will always get his due.
2. An ancient book...
The Republican War on Science
By Chris MooneyScience has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing the country. Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since the Eisenhower administration. In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker's agenda; or, when they're too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues-stem cell research, climate change, missile defense, abstinence education, product safety, environmental regulation, and many others-the Bush administration's positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus. Federal science agencies, once fiercely independent under both Republican and Democratic presidents, are increasingly staffed by political appointees and fringe theorists who know industry lobbyists and evangelical activists far better than they know the science. This is not unique to the Bush administration, but it is largely a Republican phenomenon, born of a conservative dislike of environmental, health, and safety regulation, and at the extremes, of evolution and legalized abortion. In The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney ties together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of our government's increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.3. Neil Tyson's explanation...
America's science decline
Neil deGrasse Tyson uses a few maps to describe America's diminishing contributions to the world's scientific research: This short video captures part of a public presentation by Neil deGrasse Tyson about how the amount of peer-reviewed scientific research done in the U.S. has decreased since 2000, and increased in other places like Japan, China, and Europe. Very concerning (for America, anyway):
For Example; Glenn Beck's Illiterate Ramblings...
1. Glenn Beck Blows...
2. ??!!??!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!...
3. Nazi Tourette's Syndrome...
Related:
1. The GOP and Fox News Team Up To Bring You Thier "War On Christmas"
2. Barack Obama VS Dick Cheney's Corporations (Includes Mitt Romney)
3. The "War Party Traitors" VS The "Ron Paul Republicans"
[Note:Introduction to Empathy For Oligarchs]
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