Science | The Arts Mechanical

The Trial of The Century.

About a hundred years ago, a small town put science and religion on trial. The trial was the Scopes Trial and while Religion and William Jennings Bryan won the case, the victory was hollow and empty, as in the court of public opinion, old time religion was mocked out of existence. Over the past few weeks, Climate Science was put on trial and while Michael Mann and big science had an affirming verdict, the big losers were truth and the right we Americans have to speak our mind and criticize our “betters.” The verdict was a bad day for Mark Steyn and even worse for the First Amendment, the ability to speak truth and the United States.

Just How Stupid Are The Experts?

Posted on October 23, 2022 by jccarlton

However you regard the events of the last few years, the pandemic involving
the Covid 19 virus was a disaster that affected millions of lives. That being
said, most of us probably like to believe that no one would be stupid enough to
play with the Covid 19 virus, “to make it better,” that is to make it
more lethal and virulant at the same time. Unfortunately, you would be wrong.

The Domination Of The Hairy Men

Posted on June 30, 2021 by jccarlton

I ran into this and I thought it was interesting.

When Orcs were Real – Contemplations on the Tree of Woe (substack.com)

These off mainstream scientific ideas are interesting because they challenge the existing knowledge base and, who knows, they may be right.

Harvesting Blue Blood

Posted on April 30, 2016 by jccarlton

From horseshoe crabs. Before you complain about how this hurts the crab population, the crabs that have their blood drained are, for the most part returned alive. Look, before anybody gets concerned about the 30% or so that die, the crab lifecycle expects that 90% of the larvae hatched will not make it to mating. Followed up with the fact that mated crabs die soon after egg laying.

http://inhabitat.com/every-year-250000-horseshoe-crabs-donate-their-blue-blood-to-save-humans/

I grew up on the water and horseshoe crabs are interesting creatures. They’ve been around since before the dinosaur, essentially unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. I’m not surprised that horseshoe crabs have excellent disease resistance. It goes along with the very hard shell and the shape that allows the crab to crawl along the bottom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab

A remarkable creature.

Is It Ok To Be Both A Scientist And An Artist?

Posted on April 3, 2016 by jccarlton

Adam Savage has been having a “Ask Adam Anything” blog on the Tested website.

http://www.tested.com/premium/565709-ask-adam-anything-4-time-management-tips/

One question that came up was this one from “dork daddy”:

Good morning, Adam. This question is from my brilliant, beautiful, precocious 10 year old daughter, Ellie. I certainly know how I would answer it, but I suspect you’d have a pretty unique and eloquent spin of your own. My daughter has passions and interests that range the entire spectrum. She is a gifted writer, a prolific artist, an enthusiastic athlete and a natural-born scientist. She has so many interests she sometimes feels like she can’t keep up. The question she often asks me as she looks to her own future is this:

Is it possible to be an artist and a scientist at the same time?

If You Are Any Kind Of Maker, You will Want This

Posted on March 2, 2016 by jccarlton

The complete Amateur Scientist on CD-Rom

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/m2071.html

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0970347626/sciencehobbyist/

When I was a kid, Scientific American always had a science project that people could do in their home shops, usually with normal tools and some scrounging. The quality of these projects was always extremely high. Scientific American stopped putting those articles out sometime in the 1990’s, here they all are. There are thousands of pages of useful stuff and projects to fabricate. This is especially useful for getting info on obsolete projects and dangerous stuff.

Finding The Great Extinction In NJ

Posted on February 28, 2016 by jccarlton

An amazing find in an old quarry in NJ.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/science/behind-a-shopping-center-in-new-jersey-signs-of-a-mass-extinction.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=1

It’s amazing what shows up in the most normal seeming of places.

What Is “Science”

Posted on February 24, 2016 by jccarlton

I ran into a couple of videos recently. The first is from Neil Degrasse Tyson about climate change.

How Do We Know What A GMO Is?

Posted on December 23, 2015 by jccarlton

The basic thinking behind the opposition to GMO crops is that Genetic manipulation is dangerous because we don’t know what all the consequences will be. As this article points out, it that’s the issue, then we are In REAL trouble.

http://grist.org/food/mind-bomb-its-practically-impossible-to-define-gmos/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed

I’m not a biologist, but even a light reading of some bio stuff sort of tell you that genes are remarkably fungible. I think that this is life’s protection against a dangerous universe. And it’s worked for billions of years. Blending genes to get desired traits is just another way that human being using nature to improve our lives.

What Impact Does Stuff Like This Have On Science?

Posted on October 29, 2015 by jccarlton

Yet another missive from a puppy kicker. Now I don’t know the exact circumstances about The Marcy case. For all I know he could be the biggest horndog out there as well as being a total idiot. . I am sure that if he was NOT aware of the fact that he had to keep constantly alert about his behavior, he was a total idiot. I do think that it’s telling that the events were not reported for YEARS after they took place when the so called victims were changing careers from astronomy to professional activists and victims.