Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Science and its Enemies

Am I the only guy who thinks that the box cutter found wrapped in a guy's arm ace bandage by the Philadelphia TSA is more than just a quirk?

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Every once in a while, a guy with a small ax to grind reassures your faith in the land. 
A recent editorial in the WSJ decried the horrifying "unrealized tax gain (aka wealth) tax." 
This is a letter to the editor in response to the editorial and the evil idea of such a tax: 
"Ilya Shapiro warns against “The Wealth Tax You May Already Owe” (op-ed, Dec. 7) and the havoc that will result if the court recognizes a congressional right to tax unrealized gains as “income.” He understates his case.
The government only taxes net gains—that is, after deductions. Therefore, I hereby declare my future charitable donation of $50 million. An unrealized deduction, you say? Why should I get the benefit today of a donation that may never occur? Exactly"

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Science and its Enemies

Rice University offers a course called “Afrochemistry: The Study of Black-Life Matter,” in which “students will apply chemical tools and analysis to understand Black life in the U.S. and students will implement African American sensibilities to analyze chemistry.” The course catalog notes that “no prior knowledge of chemistry or African American studies is required for engagement in this course.”

When a group of physicists led by Charles Reichhardt wrote to the American Physical Society, publisher of the Physics Education Research journal, to object to an “observing whiteness” article, APS invited a response, then refused to publish it because its arguments, which were scientific and quantitative, were based on “the perspective of a research paradigm that is different from the one of the research being critiqued.”

In 2021 Mount Royal University in Canada fired a tenured professor, Frances Widdowson, for questioning whether indigenous “star knowledge” belonged in an astronomy curriculum. The same year, New Zealand‘s Education Ministry decreed that Māori indigenous “ways of knowing” would have equal standing with science in science classes. The Royal Society of New Zealand investigated two scientists for questioning this policy; they were exculpated but resigned.

After all, how different are astrology and astronomy?

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