SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
From the I've-heard-enough-and-won't-take-it-anymore department, http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39024648
The BBC reports that former Congressman Rush Holt, now part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is the spokesman for a movement "standing up for science".
His remarks reflect growing concern among researchers that science is disregarded by President Trump.
Scientists across the US plan to march in DC on 22 April.
[...] "To see young scientists, older scientists, the general public speaking up for the idea of science. We are going to work with our members and affiliated organisations to see that this march for science is a success."
Mr Holt made his comments at the AAAS annual meting in Boston as President Trump appointed a fierce critic of the Environmental Protection Agency as its head. Scott Pruitt has spent years fighting the role and reach of the EPA.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 21 2017, @02:36PM
opposition to "science"
The administration is opposed to scientific results that it doesn't like. The most important one in my mind is the vaccine safety issue. The motivated skepticism employed by these people is harmful to the public.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/robert-f-kennedy-jr-says-vaccine-safety-commission-still-works [sciencemag.org]
https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Motivated_skepticism [lesswrong.com]
(Score: 0, Troll) by VLM on Tuesday February 21 2017, @03:26PM
The administration is opposed to scientific results that it doesn't like
Seriously, you got there, from here:
“is exploring the possibility of forming a commission ... (to research the topic of the effect, no mention of researching the cause or the theoretical linkage between)"
You have to be rather open minded. The article correctly mentions that vaccines cause less death than no vaccines while refusing to consider they could cause even fewer deaths. You have to realize that anyone who's listened to the government for the last couple decades knows most of what is claimed is frankly a lie. Low fat high carb diets result in the same number of heart attacks and a hugely (LOL) obese diabetic population. Iraq really wasn't full of WMD. Big Brother really isn't looking out for you, you know?
Let me summarize the article:
We shouldn't have a commission to study the safety of vaccines because fewer people die with vaccines than without, implying the only possible result of a commission or thinking about the topic at all is banning all vaccines, which sounds really tinfoil hat-ish or straw dog-ish. Then a guy with an axe to grind about "X causes Y" who donated enough money yells at trump for a couple hours and a minor functionary says the result is the prez is thinking about the chance of maybe forming a commission to research Y, and the axe grinder claims that means 100% support of the whole axe-grinding line and the anti-trump at all costs crowd agrees, which is absolutely comical. Finally the article devolves in the latter half into word salad about the authoritarian party line we've heard for decades because the government has never lied and the more mercury you inject the better and questioning lower mercury alternatives or thinking that injecting mercury could possibly be bad is double plus ungood badthink which no good prole would ever consider and Big Brother has never told us a lie either. The article just stinks, the dude with an axe to grind is almost as hilarious as the "journalist".
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 21 2017, @04:42PM
lower mercury alternatives or thinking that injecting mercury could possibly be bad is double plus ungood badthink
All of the vaccines recommended for children under six have non-mercury containing options.
Trump has repetedly echoed concerns of a vaccine-autism link and, as president, he is giving increased credibility to these misguided groups and is in a position to directly affect government policy on the issue. The proposition of a “vaccine safety and scientific integrity" commission is disingenuous and appointing Kennedy to head such a group would be clearly pushing a biased agenda. There are already multiple governmental groups that report and regulate the safety of vaccines, but they apparently are not producing the results that Trump wants.
https://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228#t1 [fda.gov]
http://fortune.com/2017/02/16/donald-trump-autism-vaccines/ [fortune.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_Adverse_Event_Reporting_System [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 22 2017, @03:20PM
he is giving increased credibility
Seriously AC, did you read the article or look into the situation?
Someone pays for hours of lecture/meeting time and the only result is a minor functionary in the most polite manner possible doesn't entirely brush the guy off and the fake news claims that's a major alliance, LOL. Total fake news.
All of the vaccines recommended for children under six have non-mercury containing options.
Careful, even mentioning that might turn you into a target in the anti-anti-vaxxer witch hunt. Almost sounds like you're implying that maybe keeping mercury out of your body might be a good idea when possible, thats double plus ungood badthink, comrade....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22 2017, @06:46PM
fake news claims that's a major alliance
Did you read the sciencemag article? There is no claim of a "major alliance" and I did not notice any false claims or unverified/unnamed sources.
The president personally meeting with someone and asking them chair a “vaccine safety and scientific integrity” commission is giving credibility to Kennedy and his views on vaccines (which happen to have some overlap with the president). Those views are not only unsupported by scientific evidence, but they have also been discredited by all the available evidence.
Careful [...] Almost sounds like you're implying
It's almost like the FDA is attempting to address possible concerns that people have by discrediting claims that originated from a fraudulent study.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday February 22 2017, @05:51AM
Science is a huge, huge magnet and bane for propagandists. Science scored so big in the 20th century that nothing else compares. Religion is a distant second on authoritativeness. The nuclear bomb is in a league of its own in sheer power and destructiveness, and yet it was mere icing on the cake for winning WWII. The Axis had so thoroughly deluded their people that they mostly blinded themselves to the cold hard reality that their economies were no match for the Allies, and therefore the only chance of some success in their war was the unrealistic hoping that the Allies wouldn't have any stomach for a fight. What level of idiocy or insanity does it require to take on both superpowers at the same time? No one doubted the power of rationality and science after that, particularly not after such a dismal showing by the irrationalists who'd seized power in Germany. As if nuclear power wasn't enough, there's the moon landing. Probably the moon landing hoaxers are motivated by a desire to tarnish and weaken the pervasive respect society has for science. Those are just the tip of the iceberg. There's all kinds of more humdrum and practical advances that go more under the heading of engineering rather than science, stuff like the refrigerator, microwave oven, radio, TV, and telephone, and the computer and Internet.
Hate, fear, and jealousy of science is legion. Scientific training absolutely does make it harder to run a successful propaganda campaign. Propagandists hate it for that reason, yet they do not hesitate to use the trappings of science to push their own lies if it seems convenient. It's just sort of a bonus that their fake science casts doubt on the real thing.
So today, to have so many people talking trash about science and to see the propagandists rising is worrisome. We got a recent reminder of what it's like to have propaganda loving fools running the nation. The neo-cons drummed up lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq to justify a war, "spending" the good reputation of the US and trillions of dollars, and came away with nothing to show. It was a damn fool thing to do, treating trust and friendship as commodities to be spent, and then not even getting anything remotely worthwhile in return. They seriously damaged US credibility in the world. We can only hope those memories are still fresh enough that the current administration will not be able to trick the nation into supporting another stupid war, should they feel so inclined. No, we're going to be treated to some other lesson about why we should have respected science, facts, and truth. Vaccines doesn't seem a big enough issue, no. Probably will be Climate Change in the long run. In the short run, the idiotic wall on the Mexican border may well be started before bogging down in massive corruption and questions over its failure to stop illegal border crossings. Though there is the frightening possibility it could be war, even nuclear war. With such scary directions they might go, the more impotent the current administration is, the better. The wall is relatively tame. Let's hope that keeps them occupied thus preventing them from doing worse such as wrecking our public education system and bringing on an economic collapse by eliminating all the rules that strive to minimize cheating on Wall St.