> Mike Huckabee linked the National Science Foundation’s funding of shrimp-treadmill studies to limited military spending
How the fuck did he manage that? How many hours would $300m last the military?
How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
101–110 of 137 posts
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thankfully, the term "sexy" doesn't just apply to sex as the informal definition is something exciting, appealing, interesting and/or stimulating.
Meh, it was still a weird interview, especially combined with his shirt. I watched it live with my fiance and we were both confused and actually said out loud, "We'll be hearing about him later on." I don't think he's sexist, I'm sure he's a well-respected and well-liked scientist, and I don't think it's fair to judge someone's worth based on a short interview when they're not used to being in the spotlight. At the s…
Fortunately, science is largely unencumbered by the fashion choices of the people who participate in it. Furthermore, as outlandish as this shirt may be I find it to be quite refreshing that a tatted up metal fan wearing a shirt like this can still be well-respected in his field for his accomplishments and rise above a moment of questionable judgement and a fashion faux pas.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#103I highly recommend folks watch Particle Fever (for a variety of reasons, and it's on Netflix), but one section particularly stuck out, when the documentary addresses the original LHC location in Texas being de-funded. It shows members of congress arguing how "discovering the origins of the universe" should not be a priority. I think it's easy to make a very public argument against budgeting research, as the general p…
Has the LHC ever produced any benefit to humanity? Serious question.
Not yet, but similar fundamental scientific research has led to the inventions of extremely beneficial technologies like TV, GPS, CAT scans and nuclear energy.
All of these technologies based directly on fundamental research came years or decades after the discoveries. Science is often a game of patience.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#104War on Science in US is astounding. It is amazing how US still manages to be ahead in most areas of science and technology.
See European freakouts about GMOs for evidence that it's not just the US.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
The SSC was killed in the 103rd Congress by a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate and a Democratic president. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/103-1993/h526 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/103/hr2445/text The project was originally championed by Republicans (and Democrats from Texas.) "Reagan Calls Super Collider 'Doorway to New World'" March 31, 1988|Associated Press http://articles.lat…
This clashes with my worldview and prejudices, so I refuse to accept any of your facts.
Never let facts get in the way of your beliefs...
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#106I highly recommend folks watch Particle Fever (for a variety of reasons, and it's on Netflix), but one section particularly stuck out, when the documentary addresses the original LHC location in Texas being de-funded. It shows members of congress arguing how "discovering the origins of the universe" should not be a priority. I think it's easy to make a very public argument against budgeting research, as the general p…
Has the LHC ever produced any benefit to humanity? Serious question.
It's probably going to take some time for knowledge of this kind of seep into our day to day lives, but for a lark:
It's confirming evidence of the Standard Model. It's kind of like checking for your chair for a thumb tack, when you work in an office of pranksters -- if there isn't a thumb tack, was there any benefit to checking? Maybe, but you probably wouldn't say that if there was. If the standard model fell, there would be implications that we could probably engineer around up to and including utilizing nonlinear aspects of particle interactions to build computers with. But alas, it confirmed the model.
Also the standard model has implications on the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which in turn have implications on the likelihood that we get clobbered by a random piece of space rock. Of course even if we did know this to a better degree...it's unclear whether that's a benefit or not. I'm assuming for the purposes of this comment however that knowing our degree of mortality is a benefit, but ymmv.
In general, the more tangible benefits of lhc are probably going to come from stuff related to anything in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_beyond_the_Standard_Mo..., and nanoengineering efforts yet to come.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#107Reminds me of the research into French fruit flies that Palin tried to make the same political point with - http://news.sciencemag.org/policy/2008/10/french-fruit-fly-f... I wonder if they just find it icky and are then rationalizing the politics afterwards.
Palin shares her hatred of Fruit Fly research with Stalinist Soviet Russia[0] [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism
And her hatred about France (at the time) too.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, his shirt wont keep women away from science. The entire fiasco is not about science, it is LITERALLY the thing that I would want to avoid if I had planned going into this field, and I assume that women also do not want long drawn out discussions about what they are wearing INSTEAD of their impressive scientific achievements.
So you are saying pictures of scenes degrading and objectifying women as sexual objects can't make women feel degraded and objectified?
It's appalling that in the science/tech community there is so little understanding for these issues. In a perfectly equal world, yes, such a shirt would be just completely inappropriate instead of demeaning.
But science does have a sexual abuse problem. Some established male scientists do choose their female collaborators according to taste. Sexual violence does have a tendency of being initiated by men against women.
All this "it's not a big deal" talk is a symptom of not understanding this issue, lacking information and empathy. And this lack of empathy does have an impact.
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#109I highly recommend folks watch Particle Fever (for a variety of reasons, and it's on Netflix), but one section particularly stuck out, when the documentary addresses the original LHC location in Texas being de-funded. It shows members of congress arguing how "discovering the origins of the universe" should not be a priority. I think it's easy to make a very public argument against budgeting research, as the general p…
Has the LHC ever produced any benefit to humanity? Serious question.
I'm not sure which come directly from the LHC, and which predate it (but probably still benefit from the research) but a lot of medical techniques rely on particle interactions and acceleration which benefit from the research such as PET-scans, and particle-therapy.
There is also research being performed at cern into new superconductors and new ways of coating various materials with thin layers.(as a direct resut of building the LHC).
Re: How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
His shirt was a handmade gift from his friend's wife, who's a tattoo artist. I would personally be surprised to find out that tattoo artists are the kind of thing that keeps women away from science. I mean, it's probably a rare interaction. Blaming their parents seems more productive.
it is that he found it an appropriate shirt to wear. as an extreme comparison, if it was a woman dominated field and they commonly wore shirts depicting scantily clad men with bulging pants, I think it would impact my desire to enter that field. I don't know that the parents can be blamed so readily. Here in Los Angeles at least, I've been very dissaspointed with what my classmates consider appropriate.
As far as gender oppression goes... that shirt ranks pretty low. Lets solve, pay disparity and workplace harrassment before we deciding whether to worry about shirts.
Feminism is not about being precious, it's about equality (which shirts have very little to do with).