What can I put in my house today that will let my children discover science and physics the way Scientific American let me discover them as a teenager?
Scientific American? Just because this post had issues with one article doesn’t invalidate the entire periodical.
The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
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Re: The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
#62NOVA has been undergoing a similar decline. The latest episode was about the nanoarchitecture of butterfly wings, which is a fascinating topic. A researcher mimicked the nano structure onto a piece of metal, a disk the size of a nickel, which is so hydrophobic that two disks close to each other would float, as it had essentially a bubble trapped between them. The subtext of the show was about "combating climate chang…
"Somewhere there was a first planet that formed in the entire universe. We'll never know about it. We'll never know when it formed or what its fate was. But it formed somewhere!"
Re: The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Scientific American? Just because this post had issues with one article doesn’t invalidate the entire periodical.
Really? Because the fact that this article was published seems to showcase evidence for a systemic problem. How did this article get approved? I mean, it's linking to a study that makes racial and sexist judgements based off of ... general relativity? Edit: I've read the full article and it is borderline incoherent. I have no idea what in the world she is talking about or how it even remotely relates to E.O. Wilson,…
The platform is an example of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium,[3] and is regularly regarded as a blog host.
I tend to take things I read on that website with a grain of salt.
Re: The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
#64What can I put in my house today that will let my children discover science and physics the way Scientific American let me discover them as a teenager?
I highly recommend watching the new Cosmos with Neil Degrasse Tyson. When it first came out I made a big production of it with my kids. They got to eat popcorn and drink soda while we all watched the series together. They (and I) still look back on it fondly.
The original Cosmos is still available, and it's quite good.
These videos may not be the best, but it shows a side of him that I find distasteful. He behaves the same way in every panel I’ve seen him in.
Re: The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
#65> The normal distribution is not about default humans. It’s about the fact that in many statistical studies, the characteristics of the population tend to cluster around a mean. So if the average height of the human population is 5 foot 7, then most individuals will be around that height. NO!! This is known to be false. The average does not mean "most" measurements match the... mean. And it actually does happen that…
Re: The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
#66I mentioned that to the editor. I forget the exact words I used, but they were an attempt to be diplomatic, and she replied with something to the effect that the magazine had to have an audience. That was not encouraging. It had had an audience for more than 100 years just as it was.
The dumbing down continued until I couldn't enjoy it at all anymore, and I finally cancelled my subscription. That was a sad day. Now get my science news from r/science.
Re: The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
#67He'd given up on SA by the 1980s, saying their quality had declined.
Re: The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? Because the fact that this article was published seems to showcase evidence for a systemic problem. How did this article get approved? I mean, it's linking to a study that makes racial and sexist judgements based off of ... general relativity? Edit: I've read the full article and it is borderline incoherent. I have no idea what in the world she is talking about or how it even remotely relates to E.O. Wilson,…
As far as the veracity of Medium articles go, this is from the Wikipedia page describing Medium: The platform is an example of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium,[3] and is regularly regarded as a blog host. I tend to take things I read on that website with a grain of salt.
Re: The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
We won’t sadly, “post peak woke” will be a current re-writing of history to fit whatever woke ideology is fashionable (MiniTrue style).
If it can't be escaped does that mean it was always here?
Re: The Shameful Decline of Scientific American
#70I am not defending SJW in saying this, merely pointing out a clear and obvious fallacy and a shameful one considering those who submit and post here that use it. Employing the pejorative "woke" is an ad hominem fallacy because it doesn't speak to any argument, and it, in fact, says nothing at all. It ignores all argument for the sake of, I presume, insult. It is fundamentally tribalistic. Insulting or denigrating the…
I don't consider "woke" to be pejorative to me it's just synonymous to "hyperprogressive", just more searchable because you'll filter out the physical disease and will only be left with the cultural one in the results
Ignore the arguer. Speak only to the argument.