One of the things I find contemptible about Proglodytes (besides EVEERYTHING!) is the fact that all things are relative to them. They have no principles, no moral grounding only a greed for power over others.
This leads them say something is sacred in breath, then damn it for blasphemy in the next.
Case in point: SCIENCE!
The science is settled.
The GOP is anti-science
SCIENCE! is their religion.
Neil Degrasse Tyson and Bill Nye are their High Priests
The ICPP is their Holy Conclave
Science must guide and form all things
Until it shouldn't:
JohnyCanuck (9,827 posts)
Professor Who Exposed Flint Crisis Says Greed Has Killed Public Science
Academic pressure and financial motives has prohibited scientists from asking important questions
by
Lauren McCauley, staff writer
"Academic research and scientists in this country are no longer deserving of the public trust," declared Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech civil engineering professor who helped expose the Flint water crisis.
In an interview published in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Tuesday, Edwards explained how the pressures put on academics to secure funding are forcing scientists to abandon work done in the public interest and that similar financial motives are causing government science agencies to ignore inconvenient truths—like high levels of lead in public drinking water.
He said he's "very concerned about the culture of academia in this country and the perverse incentives that are given to young faculty." Edwards describes the culture as a "hedonistic treadmill," with "extraordinary" pressures to pursue funding, publication, and academic clout. Meanwhile, he said, "the idea of science as a public good is being lost."
Edwards, whose research also uncovered high levels of lead in the Washington, D.C. water supply in 2003, was tapped by Flint residents to help test their water after officials with both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) ignored their concerns.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/02/03/professor-who-exposed-flint-crisis-says-greed-has-killed-public-science
Hmm, wonder if the above is relevant when deciding whether or not to accept the opinions of scientists and government regulatory bodies who repeatedly advise that are are no causes for concern about the safety of GMO foods and crops, and anyone who would suggests otherwise is a kook.
marions ghost (18,410 posts)
1. Academic research has been hijacked like everything else
--it's a lower priority if it's in the public interest.
malaise (137,350 posts)
3. This happened when the serious Social Sciences faculties across the globe were undermined
with strong Sociology, Economics and Political Science and International Relations were trashed by their Management and Business Departments with complicity from Administrators at very high levels who wanted the money brought in by these 'corporate chairs' in the Business Schools.
Put simple - neo-liberalism has overtaken our universities and now we have greedy young academics willing to play as much ball as the greedy young politicians.
One once told me that he never pretends to be an academic - all he wants is to make money.
The virus is everywhere - yes a revolution is needed.
MisterP (20,703 posts)
4. see, it's not just reports and data that neer see the light of day
it's science itself that gets "massaged": nuke advocates over and over note how low gamma radiation is nearby, how it's externally the same as what you get from bananas a table, yada yada
once the conversation goes to internal long-term doses and alpha and beta emitters, of course, the nukespeak goes on the defensive
ag_dude (514 posts)
5. How do YOU choose which science to believe?
That article didn't mention a single thing about GMOs other than "science".
Conservatives spout the same "you can't believe scientists, they're all bought and paid for" rhetoric about climate change that you're spreading about GMO research.
How do YOU choose which science is legitimate and which is not?
LanternWaste (23,741 posts)
6. Peer review.
Peer review.
The same peers sucking off the same government teat?
The same peers who won't let you join them unless and until you parrot what they say?
ag_dude (514 posts)
7. Agreed.
...which makes bringing up GMOS in this odd because there's plenty of peer reviewed research on the subject.
JohnyCanuck (9,827 posts)
9. Evidence keeps accumulating........
Too many government regulatory bodies apparently see their role as protecting profits rather than people, regardless of science or just plain common sense.
Stopped!! Methane Blow-Out. Radioactive Fall-out. And … The Predictable Result
By Brett Redmayne-Titley
This past Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016 brought a welcome breath of fresh air to more than 4400 displaced Porter Ranch, CA residents. It was their first in more than four months. A mile or so due north and a thousand feet farther up the foothills of the Santa Susana mountains in Aliso Canyon, the nation’s worst environmental and health disaster since BP, has stopped. Natural gas well, SS-25 is dead.
After depositing more than 90 million metric tons of a very toxic gaseous cocktail from two miles deep under the mountains up into the atmosphere above 18.5 million mostly unsuspecting Angelenos, the corporate players who have caused this disaster are now assuring this same public that they are, suddenly, protecting their interests. As highlighted in the previous article, the negligent corporate criminals at the Southern California Gas Company hold the keys to the jail and the purported guards over at the California agencies; PUC, DOGGR and the Dept. of Conservation are sound asleep in their chairs. Now, with pending legal and legislative action heading downwind towards So Cal Gas, continued close public scrutiny is warranted. Considering that these same public agencies were all negligently complicit in causing the Aliso Canyon disaster, can they now be trusted to change their spots and enforce meaningful changes upon So Cal Gas?
Like the natural gas flowing downhill from Aliso Canyon the growing plethora of damaging information against So Cal Gas funnels together down a central path. Two points generally sum-up the accusations leveled squarely at multiple defendants, many of whom will almost certainly be bearing witness very soon. In court. First; owner of SS-25, the Southern California Gas Company, caused the disaster by willful negligence. Second; that this negligence was subordinated by multiple California State public officials. As the previous article shows, starting with the Calif. state agencies, P.U.C.; DOGGR , and the California Department of Conservation – and likely leading to “environmental†governor, Jerry Brown’s telephone – So Cal Gas has been given unregulated carte blanche to put their corporate profits before concerns for public and environmental health and safety. Multiple lawsuits may soon ferret-out the details of these inescapable conclusions.
At issue; the removal, rather than replacement, of a “Sub-Surface Safety Valve†on SS-25 of which So Cal Gas, in 1979, reported to state regulators that it had indeed replaced the safety valve. Then, in 2014, So Cal Gas filed a fraudulent inspection report with the Conservation Dept. certifying that the valves were in place and had also passed inspection. With the Aliso Canyon Underground Storage Facility holding over 160 billion cubic feet of highly pressurized, very toxic gas, and the potential risks showcased for the past one-hundred-twenty-plus days in epic evidence, the necessity of safety valves is obvious. So … how many of the other 114 aging wells are also missing safety valves? In defending this apparent negligence Rodger Schwecke, of So Cal Gas, said in a public meeting last month that the company decided not to replace it because it was not a “critical well.†Reportedly, according to state law, Critical Wells are defined as those being 300-feet-or-less from homes or schools. What? After hiking up the steep hills to witness the full horrifying magnitude of SS-25 up-close, the sheer lunacy of such a regulation is pause for retching disgust.
http://www.activistpost.com/2016/02/stopped-methane-blow-out-radioactive-fall-out-and-the-predictable-result.html
But we nee-e-e-e-e-e-ed government regulators to keep us safe!
idiots
