Tag: “settled science”

‘Alas! Poor Trachodon! I Knew Him, Horatio…’ (2020)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Marx Trachodon Second Type | The revised Trachodon from 1959… | Flickr

Marx Toys’ classic Trachodon

Today’s science is tomorrow’s poppycock.

Poor Trachodon! One of my favorite dinosaurs. And they’ve drummed him out of the corps.

Alas! Poor Trachodon! I Knew Him, Horatio…

I had the books, I had the toys, I saw the skeletons–waddaya mean, “No such thing as Trachodon”? But then they always do this, don’t they? In fact, we wouldn’t have any science if they didn’t. Science requires constant revision.

The problem crops up when scientists pontificate to the public and suddenly you have this Settled Science that must never be questioned.

And then they base public policy and law on Settled Science that will be laughed at 20 years from now.

‘The Science Is Settled…’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Meet Your Ancestors: Roy Chapman Andrews: Amazon.com: Books

I’ve been trying to take my mind off computer troubles by dipping into one of my favorite books, Meet Your Ancestors, by Roy Chapman Andrews, published in 1945. That is, during some of our own lifetimes.

One of the great science popularizers of his day, Andrew was famous for leading expeditions to Mongolia and being the first to discover dinosaur eggs. But in this book he leaves the dinosaurs behind and focuses on prehistoric humans.

Just about every jot and tittle of the Settled Science in this book is now unsettled, obsolete, outdated, etc. New discoveries, new techniques of analysis, have blown it all out the door.

The lesson to be learned is that today’s Settled Science is tomorrow’s hooey. This has always been true! Yeah, “climate science,” I’m talkin’ to you. To turn our whole civilization upside-down because “the science” tells us to is to turn it upside-down for nothing. It’s great politics, though: scare the plebs into giving you more power, more money.

It is an entertaining book though–gotta give it that.

‘Trudeau Exec Order: Believe in Evolution, or You can’t Have a Job’ (2018)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

See the source image

It’s so hard to write satire, these days. This one actually fooled people. It shouldn’t have, but that’s the times we’re living in.

Trudeau Exec Order: Believe in Evolution, or You Can’t Have a Job

Among mortal men who walk the earth, there’s no bigger fat-head than Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. Look at him togged up in Indian garb. What a schmo.

But my hoax wasn’t that far out. Not long before, the Trudeau regime made support for abortion a requirement if you wanted funding for a summer job.

Freedom is not the natural state of fallen man. It is a gift of God, and must be conscientiously maintained.

Otherwise, nincompoops like Trudeau will lord it over you.

‘The Oldest Bird?’ (2018)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Image result for protoavis

A scientist can get his colleagues pretty mad if he discovers something that’s not supposed to be there.

Sankar Chatterjee accomplished this by digging up a fossil bird that he says lived alongside the first dinosaurs. Uh-oh.

The Oldest Bird?

So much in “science” is said with such authority! As if they really, truly knew. Maybe Protoavis was a bird, and maybe it wasn’t. But “maybe” doesn’t pull in many grants, and certainly won’t land you any PBS specials.

What if there wasn’t really any Triassic Period, after all?

I’d better watch out, saying things like that…

‘Settled Science Alert! Woman Gave Birth to Rabbits’ (2017)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

See the source image

It’s hard to count them when they’re moving

In 1725 a woman named Mary Toft convinced her local doctor, and the king’s own personal physician, and, for good measure, the royal astronomer (!) that she had given birth to 17 rabbits.

Settled Science Alert! Woman Gave Birth to Rabbits

Imagine their chagrin when the story turned out not to be true. I mean, who would’ve thought it? Mary went to jail for the hoax–but none of the men of science got fired or demoted from their positions of trust. I guess because Science is always right, even when it’s wrong.