Vert the ferk???
Scientific American, which dates to 1845 and touts itself as “the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States,” recently ran an article arguing that scientists should prioritize “reality” over scientific “rigor.” What would make a publication with a name like this one set empirical evidence at odds with reality? Masks, of course.
Full article, HERE from the City Journal.
This…is just patently ridiculous, to put it mildly. Especially in the light of what ‘else’ it going on with the so called ‘scientific rigor’ these days…
We have seen the so called climate experts (many of whom have nothing to do with actual climate studies) ‘modify’ actual climate records to ‘fit’ their models that show the predictions they are pushing (hockey stick anyone).
Borepatch (HERE) has been covering this for years, as have many others. I have worked with actual climatologists and have seen what happens when they don’t ‘toe the corporate line’, including being disinvited from major world conferences, haveing abstracts and papers pulled from publications, and being removed from conference programs.
Re the article, I was in to see the dentist to get the old fangs scraped earlier in the week, and we discussed the increases seen in dental ‘issues’ caused by excessive/long term mask wearing, especially in younger children, who’s teeth were still developing. This was even covered by an NIH article on ‘Mask Mouth Syndrome’, HERE.
Funny how that is never mentioned isn’t it…
It’s becoming more and more apparent, at least to this old fart, that we are responsible for our own research and using that to make decisions rather than relying on the so called ‘prestigious’ scientific journals.
Sigh…
Usta be an avid SciAm reader until they dumbed it down. Bummer.
Looks like much of Mask Mouth Syndrome can be alleviated through good oral hygiene, staying hydrated, not sucking down lotsa sugary crap, and breathing through yer friggin’ nose. Y’know, things we should be doing anyway.
Let’s see a show of hands from the CPAP users who wear a friggin’ plastic mask every night. Some of us are unimpressed with the MMS epidemic.
Or just….. not wearing a mask unless you have a damned good reason to.
And to reassure panicked idiots is not a good reason.
I use CPAP – but made damn sure to get a NASAL mask that forces me to breathe through my nose.
I haven’t had to go to the extent of adding the “force the mouth closed” strap, but using CPAP has resolved my chronic snoring issue, and made sleep revitalising again.
So “Scientific American” is eschewing the usefulness of the actual scientific method?
Let’s see, who are these people exactly?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/page/about-scientific-american/
Our Parent Company
Scientific American is published by Springer Nature. The main shareholders of Springer Nature are Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and BC Partners.
And Springer Nature? Following that link through:
The main shareholders of Springer Nature are Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and BC Partners. Holtzbrinck, a family-owned company based in Stuttgart, holds a majority share of 53 per cent.
At the very bottom of the Springer Nature page is a link called “Legal notice”. This is the link I always try to find on a page to inform me about where the company truly is.
Responsibility
Springer-Verlag GmbH, Heidelberg,
Zweigniederlassung der Springer-Verlag GmbH, Berlin
Tiergartenstrasse 17
D-69121 Heidelberg
Germany
So… “Scientific American”. Not all that scientific, and apparently not all that American either.
Springer’s been in the scientific publishing business for decades at least, going back to the 1950s. They don’t make too many editorial decisions – that’s done in-house at each journal. (Their prices, and those set by the other big science publisher, Elsevier [based in Leiden], are higher than a cat’s back, but that’s a grumble for a different blog.)
SciAm jumped the shark in the 70s at the beginnings of the Acid Rain hysteria and totally lost their poo when Reagan proposed his Strategic Defense Initiative. The magazine that published Einstein to the public is now another Omni/Discover/People magazine.
Scientific American became politicized back in the 80’s.
They’ve just slowly getting worse and worse.
I haven’t paid them any heed since about 1990. They’re just propaganda.
Sad to see, but given the comments, no surprise.
That means anyone can be a scientist, right?
You all be safe and God bless.
Just as anyone can cook, anyone can be a scientist.
That doesn’t mean that everyone should be.
Trust but verify?
All- I see y’all think the same as I do. Ag, thanks! I wasn’t aware they’d sold out to overseas… WSF- Yes, trust but verify, always!
Been seeing similar on the dietary front for years.
The whole “sugar is fine but red meat and saturated fat is going to kill you” thing.
Backed by junk-science and ideology.
Funded by industry.
The more society has followed that advice, the sicker it has become.
You can find out for yourself. Choose your trial , eat it for 4-6 weeks and see how you feel. If you are losing weight, feeling better and your blood-test results are improving, then you have good reason to disregard the advice to the contrary.
Yep. I’m trying to cut back on carbs. Calories in/calories out is BS.
The current power structure prefers pseudo science they can control over actual science…which doesn’t care about agendas. Humanity has seen this before, a time when actual science could get you executed if it drew the ire of those in power. We now call that period THE DARK AGES.
Drawing the ire of those in power is always dangerous.
Did you know the Catholic Church actually funded and encouraged scientific innovation? Galileo wasn’t tried and convicted of offenses against “approved science”. He was convicted of mocking his best friend and patron, the Pope, in literary form, despite repeated warnings not to. Then he was sentenced to house arrest, while his best friend, the Pope, continued to fund and publish his research.
Most of the dark age loss of knowledge happened with the Muslim conquests. They burned books and executed scholars. The destruction of Rome by Emperor Justinian didn’t help any, either.
McChuck:
So, when GG muttered “And yet, it moves”, it was a non-sequitur to the actual issue? Huh.
“loss of knowledge…Muslim conquest” But, but, I was told we got math concepts and chemistry and medicine (see bezoar) and a bunch of those weird names for stars because of the great Arab scientists!?
I’m not at all disagreeing with you. What you said seems at odds with what those nuns told me. I is confuse (and a bit lubricated, so I probably shouldn’t be typing). Seriously, though, I was always told that GG got in trouble for disagreeing with the Official Position of TPTB. Can you suggest a book that might educate me on this?
Robert…
The debate over the heliocentric/geocentric solar system was not new to GGs day. His contribution was to offer a claimed proof for one side of the argument
Best way to understand the argument is to ask yourself whether when you use terms like “up” and “down” you are asserting that the whole universe is flat and that “up” is “up” everywhere…. or whether you are just talking relative to your viewpoint. Or that using the term “sunrise” means that the sun is actually moving and the earth is stationary.
Shocking as it may seem, many of the Biblical writer used that kind of language, and left it to us to work out exactly how they meant it to be understood.
….. and people have been arguing ever since. Because people are like that. Galileo seems to have been an arrogant, tactless bastard who’d be right at home on the modern internet. Too busy sneering to bother convincing people. “And yet it moves” is just one more “I’m right, you dumb sh!t and you should shut up” moment…
No serious historian uses the term “Dark Ages” for the Early Middle Ages or Early-Medieval period. Curiosity, innovation, investigation and scholarship continued. There are relatively few documents from the time, because the recording-methods of the period didn’t last well, but much of what we do know from earlier periods – including dissenting, pagan and “heretical” views – was preserved by the same Church that gets accused of persecuting people who held those views.
It seems likely that the myth of the Dark Ages was promoted later “scholars” wanting to present themselves as more “rational” and “enlightened” than those before them. History is a wonderful study, but one of the lessons it teaches is to be properly sceptical of historians trying to boost reputations and sell books.
Common-sense applies.
Cheers…
If it is considered a magazine, the Farmer’s Almanac was started in 1818. It is sold in the magazine section, so I guess it identifies as a magazine.
Every institution has been infiltrated by liberals, lefties(hobby commies), real commies, SJW’s, affirmative action hires the sexually confused/deviant, and pedo satanists that want to destroy Western civilization. But wudda I know, I’ve only been paying attention a few decades.
Mr. NFO, we live in a world of lies at the behest of power and of course this cannot stand.
On topic, I like the distinction between “scientific rigor” and “reality.”
Does this make science magical and if so, where goes reality?
All- Thanks and no disagreement here… dammit…
The destruction of science by those who place themselves in charge of the scientists is not exactly new. Physics has been held back for nearly a century now by their devotion to the magical thinking imposed by the Copenhagen Interpretation. The only real competition for supremacy is coming from the cult of the Many Worlds. It’s all woo-hoo, all the way down. And heretics are mocked and exiled.
The 2022 Nobel Prize for physics went to a worthy group of scientists who labored for years to exhaustively prove that waves do, in fact, act like waves. Well, duh. And this was celebrated as a great confirmation of the magic.
PeterW:
Ah. Thank you for that.
“Dark Ages” is certainly what I was told in school. I’m started to doubt various authorities.
“Galileo seems to have been an arrogant, tactless bastard”. I always figured I would like him!