I've been reading 'The Lucky Culture and The Rise of an Australian Ruling Class' by Nick Cater. Mr Cater has been a journalist with News Ltd and interestingly has a degree in sociology from Exeter University in the UK.
The book is very much a sociologist's perspective on the contemporary Australian inner city pseudo-intellectual. Mr Cater is extraordinarily accurate in his description of their totems and their prejudices.
TENTATIVE COMMENT
Comment from: jennifer November 23rd, 2013 at 2:08 pm
"Beth, I don’t actually think science ever really happens the way Popper suggests."
Larry's comment #1. What about the Polywater fiasco of the late 1960s and early 1970s? This story is too long to describe adequately here. However one can read all about it at Wikipedia. Here's a long story short.
A Russian physicist thought that he had discovered a new form of water. Supposedly, the freezing point and density were different from ordinary water. This would have been truly revolutionary science if it had panned out. Kuhn would have been proud.
The first fly in the ointment was the fact that other scientists had difficulty in reproducing the finding. Some could; others could not.
Richard Feynman had an insightful biology-related take on the controversy.
The coup de grace came from a scientist who had a great sense of humor. After playing a vigorous game of handball one day, he collected a bit of his own sweat. It turned out that this sample tested positive as 'Polywater'.
These days, scientists are loathe to discuss the Polywater story in mixed company. The initial 'finding' was an artefact of dirty glassware.
The Polywater hypothesis was thoroughly falsified. This is one of the reasons that I feel comfortable with Popper's popularization of the word, "falsifiable."
Jennifer also wrote:
"And I note that Popper was an economist rather than a scientist."
Larry's comment #2: A person who didn't know you better could easily misinterpret this as follows:
We should not take Popper seriously, because he didn't have the right piece of paper.
Larry's comment #3: On a Kuhn-related side note, I have known two people who made revolutionary discoveries in the sciences -- including macroeconomics, physics, and (yikes!) mathematics. Speaking of the devil, here's a maths problem from one of these men. It's absolutely unsolvable with integral calculus, but it lends itself to a much simpler albeit non-obvious approach.
While out for a ride, you go through a long puddle of water, and get your bicycle tires wet. Then you make a right-angle turn onto a side street. The wet tires make a crescent shape on the pavement, because the rear wheel is always taking a shortcut in its 'attempt' to catch up with the front wheel. You know the distance between the hubs of your bicycle. What is the area of the crescent?
Anyway, only one of these two guys is beginning to get the recognition that he deserves. Both men possessed a special gift for pissing off their peers.
Oops, I almost forgot the obligatory remark about the Flying CO2 Monster. Here goes: AGW is the zombified 21st Century equivalent of Polywater.
Hey Larry
Sorry! And point noted about being specific about times… we are ahead of almost everyone in the world here in Queensland, Australia.
But if you post the "tentative comment" here and/or email it to me at jennifermarohasy at gmail.com I will post it at the thread.
Otherwise, I shall make sure the blog is open for Wednesday evening next … California Standard Time.
Thanks for your efforts. Best, Jen
On another thread,
Comment from: jennifer November 28th, 2013 at 12:14 pm
"Thanks everyone for your contributions. I’m going to close off comment here for another week. Will reopen next Wednesday evening, December 4th."
Last night (Wednesday, California Standard Time), I wrote a tentative comment for that other thread. Lo and behold! When I went to post it, the thread was already closed.
I appreciate your efforts. And I realize that the blogging time in your busy schedule is limited. But the timing of the open window is creating a small problem for those of us on the other side of the Pacific Pond.
Here's a modest suggestion. Please be more specific about when that other thread will be open. And please post a chart for converting from Oz Time to other time zones. (I hope that I don't have to rustle myself out of bed at some ungodly hour in order to post a comment.)
Thanks.
Just filing this here: http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2013/11/20/why-conservatives-dont-learn-from-history/
How conservatives have been on the wrong side of history…
A year ago or so I made a suggestion that believers in CAGW were also likely to be supporters of the NBN. Comments that followed this statement strongly suggested I was correct.
It appears abundantly clear that the NBN as planned is a disaster.
"A senior analyst in telecoms, media and technology at stockbroker BBY, Mark McDonnell, told an NBN-focused conference in Sydney the project was "the worst idea ever devised in the history of Australian telecommunications" and this was "in serious trouble". "The magnitude of this mistake is truly staggering," Mr McDonnell said.
"It is the Fukushima of Australia's telecommunications industry ... The NBN is a testament to the naivety of our policymakers and the gullibility of our political class."
- See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/ziggy-switkowski-vows-to-fix-nbn-the-fukushima-of-the-telco-industry/story-e6frgaif-1226763868282#sthash.qalObo03.dpuf
Maybe we are also right about the C in CAGW?!...And we are most certainly correct about our own policy responses.