Pats Fan: Why I'm giving up on the NFL (The MMQB w/ Peter King)

[zydecochris]

This is true, but the underlying problem is the politicizing of science as well as education. The fact that academia has tied itself to an ideology, which in itself is ironic, has created a discourse about important matters that is always backwards driven, as both sides choose their data to back up their ideological arguments.

I probably shouldn't weigh in again, but: Marko, this was a thought provoking post, even if I don't agree with some of it.

First, I agree with you that it is not completely untrue that education has become politicized, particularly at the K-12 level, the curricula has been "dumbed" down and grade inflation is a big problem, I see this in the incoming freshman classes.

I would still maintain that the scientific peer review process for research (where experts review manuscripts to see if they are good enough research to be published in a scientific journal) isn't very political at all, because only the science is being reviewed.

However, it is probably true that the science reporting (e.g., on TV news) has become very political.

You said that academia has tied itself to an ideology, I would argue that instead a political party (mine) has abandoned academia. To tell the truth, it frustrates the fire out of me. I grew up in OK, I teach as a professor at an AL university. I have always believed in a strong defense and a balanced budget, I am a Republican and almost always vote Republican. So, I'm hardly a flaming liberal.

However, I can't figure out how the Republican party has been hijacked by these anti-science nuts. This isn't politics, it is science! Hopefully it is a temporary phenomena and Republicans who embrace science will dominate in the future.

I just had to vent a bit, I'll go quietly into the night now, no more science posts on a football forum (at least for a while).

 

[Marko]

I probably shouldn't weigh in again, but: Marko, this was a thought provoking post, even if I don't agree with some of it.

First, I agree with you that it is not completely untrue that education has become politicized, particularly at the K-12 level, the curricula has been "dumbed" down and grade inflation is a big problem, I see this in the incoming freshman classes.

I would still maintain that the scientific peer review process for research (where experts review manuscripts to see if they are good enough research to be published in a scientific journal) isn't very political at all, because only the science is being reviewed.

However, it is probably true that the science reporting (e.g., on TV news) has become very political.

You said that academia has tied itself to an ideology, I would argue that instead a political party (mine) has abandoned academia. To tell the truth, it frustrates the fire out of me. I grew up in OK, I teach as a professor at an AL university. I have always believed in a strong defense and a balanced budget, I am a Republican and almost always vote Republican. So, I'm hardly a flaming liberal.

However, I can't figure out how the Republican party has been hijacked by these anti-science nuts. This isn't politics, it is science! Hopefully it is a temporary phenomena and Republicans who embrace science will dominate in the future.

I just had to vent a bit, I'll go quietly into the night now, no more science posts on a football forum (at least for a while).

I agree that conservatives have abandoned academics as a profession, but at the collegiate level it is made clear that we are not welcome. Colleges love to boast about their diversity, but I would argue that they use skin color and ethnicity to camouflage the fact that they have absolutely no diversity of thought, and moreover actively discourage original thinking.

 

[AzPatsFan]

I have a friend who just finished about 10 straight years of academia to achieve his doctorates and he would adamantly disagree with you.

I also have another friend that has been working in Antarctica for 2 years, and there are chunks of glaciers bigger than cities and states in some cases that are going to be breaking away within the next year or so.

The carbon dioxide emissions have also been so overwhelming that the ocean is slowly becoming more acidic from absorbing it all.. It can be measured already, and at this rate in the next 60+ years there won't be anything alive in the oceans at all.

Like JackBauer said, you can have your speculation and what not on climate change... but to put it into the same category as conspiracy theories and other crazy things that people say is unbelievably ignorant.

Me and 93,000 other educated Scientists and Engineers can see through the B**sh*t about Party Line CAGW, as a politico justification for more Power and more Taxes.

 

[1960Pats]

Jeff Hawkins has been studying brains for 35 years and wrote the excellent book On_Intelligence. Basically it says that our mind predicts everything that we experience so it's not a matter of filling in data after the fact; it's a question of how much the actual data changes our predictions and whether we remember the predictions or what actually happened.

Could that be the cause of deja vu?

 

[Mack Herron]

Trolling level: pro

A federal judge today dismissed a motion from a fan who filed an injunction Jan. 26 to stop the Patriots from playing in Super Bowl XLIX.

Jeff Howe tweet

 

[50-yard-line]

Global warming g became "climate change" who can argue against climate change? Yesterday it was hot today it's raining. Lol

It was changed to climate change because of Frank Luntz, who focus-grouped it to find that Global Warming was "scarier" and so told instructed the GOP to go with "climate change" instead.

Not kidding...not that you'll care.

 

[1960Pats]

I probably shouldn't weigh in again, but: Marko, this was a thought provoking post, even if I don't agree with some of it.

First, I agree with you that it is not completely untrue that education has become politicized, particularly at the K-12 level, the curricula has been "dumbed" down and grade inflation is a big problem, I see this in the incoming freshman classes.

I would still maintain that the scientific peer review process for research (where experts review manuscripts to see if they are good enough research to be published in a scientific journal) isn't very political at all, because only the science is being reviewed.

However, it is probably true that the science reporting (e.g., on TV news) has become very political.

You said that academia has tied itself to an ideology, I would argue that instead a political party (mine) has abandoned academia. To tell the truth, it frustrates the fire out of me. I grew up in OK, I teach as a professor at an AL university. I have always believed in a strong defense and a balanced budget, I am a Republican and almost always vote Republican. So, I'm hardly a flaming liberal.

However, I can't figure out how the Republican party has been hijacked by these anti-science nuts. This isn't politics, it is science! Hopefully it is a temporary phenomena and Republicans who embrace science will dominate in the future.

I just had to vent a bit, I'll go quietly into the night now, no more science posts on a football forum (at least for a while).

With posts like that you can drop them anywhere. You should post more also.

I have two sons. One is the republican science mind of the future that you're looking for. God bless him.

The other was teaching english in South Korea (he's teaching art in China now) and the rule was that he could only give a certain % of the class an A, no matter what their averages were. At the time it was only half the class and he had to drop 2 kids that graded well into the 90's down to a B+. That helps explain why they're ahead of our kids.

 

[BradyFTW!]

The term "climate change" was adopted at because a lot of people just don't understand the difference between weather and climate. Therefore, anytime they observe a snowstorm (or any kind of cold spell, really) they declare that 'global warming' has been debunked. Sure, that's like declaring Brady an awful QB because you watched him throw two straight incompletions, but that's where we are now. And that's how you get spectacles like this one:

There were two possible ways to address this. The first was to educate a bunch of people who have no interest in being educated. The second was to just change the term to minimize the confusion in the future.

 

[Tony2046]

It was changed to climate change because of Frank Luntz, who focus-grouped it to find that Global Warming was "scarier" and so told instructed the GOP to go with "climate change" instead.

Not kidding...not that you'll care.

Climate change and Global warming have two different meanings. If you use the label global warming then every joe blow will criticize the theory everytime they have a record low temperature. The climate change model still addresses warming trends in the oceans and other things but allows for weather fluctuations which may produce abnormal lows and highs which in part are caused by fluctuating jet streams etc... Anyways no one knows either way for sure but to deny that releasing 450 Trillion BTU's into the environment daily has no effect is just as ignorant as stating natural effects have no effect. I personally believe that both are in play and that politics are picking sides for political purposes.

 

[Tony2046]

With posts like that you can drop them anywhere. You should post more also.

I have two sons. One is the republican science mind of the future that you're looking for. God bless him.

The other was teaching english in South Korea (he's teaching art in China now) and the rule was that he could only give a certain % of the class an A, no matter what their averages were. At the time it was only half the class and he had to drop 2 kids that graded well into the 90's down to a B+. That helps explain why they're ahead of our kids.

I am so tired of hearing the generalistic educational points of views when comparing China or Asia vs USA. I worked in Asia for an engineering firm and yes the Chinese engineers were smart in that they knew their formulas and knew how to solve mathematical equations but when it came to problem solving, troubleshooting or creative design it was a completely different ball game. I worked with engineers with double PHD's who could not troubleshoot their way out of a wet paper bag. I will say that together we were able to solve some extremely complex problems which was a result of teamwork and a respect for each other.

The latest TIMSS test results showed that if Massachusetts were rated as a country it would have ranked 3rd in Science and 6th in Mathematics Globally. Point being the top students in the US are just as competitive as top students anywhere else in the world.

Now to make it clear. I truly enjoyed my experiences in Asia and I do have the up most respect for their culture. They are an extremely proud people and at the same time extremely hospitable to visitors. Actually they treat us better when we visit their country then we treat them when they visit ours which I think is a shame. The political differences are unavoidable yet still you can have respectable intelligent conversations with them about our differences or at least up to a point. In short I like and respect the Chinese people and hope that we can get a long in the future.

I have also noticed the same generalities applied to comparisons between southern schools and northern schools but when I work side by side with technicians or engineers in southern companies, I find that their logic or their ability to solve problems is off the charts. There is obviously something missing when we rate our schools. We have a long way to go before we perfect the perfect school curriculum but my fear is that we may be trying to match the international standards of intelligence when all the while we may be losing the gift of creativity that built this nation to begin with.

 

[patsfanincleveland]

I have a friend who just finished about 10 straight years of academia to achieve his doctorates and he would adamantly disagree with you.

I also have another friend that has been working in Antarctica for 2 years, and there are chunks of glaciers bigger than cities and states in some cases that are going to be breaking away within the next year or so.

The carbon dioxide emissions have also been so overwhelming that the ocean is slowly becoming more acidic from absorbing it all.. It can be measured already, and at this rate in the next 60+ years there won't be anything alive in the oceans at all.

Like JackBauer said, you can have your speculation and what not on climate change... but to put it into the same category as conspiracy theories and other crazy things that people say is unbelievably ignorant.

Your friend's ability to economically survive 10 years of academia is directly dependent upon the fact that he actually believes that crap. Not to mention.....his future earnings and economic survival are also completely dependent upon it.

Once you grasp that your friend is not alone in this you might start grasping that conspiracies are not so far fetched.

The reality is this is a great topic that shows patsfans.com has been too hard on the 31 other ****** fan bases and that any group can fall for the biggest and dumbest hoaxes if they really, really want that.