Climate change does not exist.
Evolution never happened.
The Moon Landing was fake.
Vaccinations can lead to autism.
Genetically modified food is evil.
Skepticism about science is on the rise, and polarization is
the order of the day. In the March issue of National Geographic Magazine there
is an interesting cover story by Joel Achenbach about the current push back on
science, “The War on Science”. With more technology and information at our
ready there is more information available creating segmented beliefs about
science.
Today you hear and what you want to hear, as long as it
supports your particular beliefs. News organizations have their agendas; values
are being attacked by scientific fact. The hallmark of a good scientist is to
be skeptical – data verification is the rule. But the credibility of the source
of data is being questioned by partisan thinking and politics.
Less than half of all Americans believe the Earth is warming
because humans are burning fossil fuels. Science appeals to our rational brain,
but our beliefs are motivated largely by emotion, and the biggest motivation is
remaining tight with our peers. “People still have a need to fit in, and that
need to fit in is so strong that local values and local opinions are always
trumping science. Meanwhile the Internet makes it easier than ever for climate
skeptics and doubters of all kinds to find their own information and experts.
The University of Google is what I call it, the Internet
filter that allows us to find what we want to find, to reinforce our beliefs
and values.
“Eat or not to eat eggs?”
“Drinking red wine is good for you.” “The water is okay to drink.” It
goes on and on. How wide is science between what we believe and the truth?
I am not a scientist, but I have many friends who are, who
read this blog. I welcome their comments about this topic. Personally I think
science is cool, but what is not cool is Bill O’Reilly or Rachel Meadow telling
me that it is all nonsense and what they believe is the true scientific fact.
COLLEGE
CHRONICLES – DIVEST
HARVARD GAINS MOMENTUM: Natalie Portman and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
want Harvard to sell all fossil fuel stocks held by its endowment - and they're
not alone. Last month, prominent Harvard alumni sent a letter calling on fellow
Harvardians to lobby their alma mater to divest. The movement is gaining ground
elsewhere: Stanford University and others have committed to end investments in
coal. "Harvard announcing a
decision to divest would send an incredible moral and political
statement," said Talia Rothstein, a co-coordinator of Divest Harvard,
which is organizing a week-long event in mid-April to call attention to the
cause. Divestment, she added, would be a "cultural catalyst."
Divest Harvard has been around since 2012, but the group
hasn't been able to get an open, on-the-record meeting with the school's
president. Students have tried a blockade, fasts and sit-ins - seven members even
sued. They hope the April event will make a difference. Groups at other
schools, like Yale, are also struggling to have an effect on their
administrations. "They've circumvented that conversation by focusing on
campus sustainability efforts, while their investments tacitly approve of a
business model that exploits communities through destructive extraction ... and
actively works against the climate solutions that would ensure students
graduate into a livable world," Tristan Glowa, communications coordinator
for Fossil Free Yale, told Morning Education.
In 2013, Harvard President Drew Faust explained why
divesting of fossil fuels wasn't the right choice saying, in part, that 'We
should ... be very wary of steps intended to instrumentalize our endowment in
ways that would appear to position the University as a political actor rather
than an academic institution.
Fossil fuels aren't the only thing at issue for university
endowments. Earlier this year, Boston University decided the school wouldn't
end investments in stocks of civilian gun manufacturers, despite the
recommendations from the BU Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible
Investing. The Board of Trustees began discussing divestment after the Sandy
Hook shooting, even before the advisory committee was created.
ELECTRIC
SLIDE - General Electric is a complicated company at a turning
point. Chief Executive Jeff Immelt already had problems convincing investors he
was moving fast enough to remake the conglomerate into a simpler industrial
machine, and then he took a bet on the energy boom; falling oil prices are
taking their toll on GE’s business and raising new questions about Mr. Immelt’s
legacy. Some investors and executives fear it could now be even longer before
GE shares escape their losing streak. “In one way, shape or form, I created all
the problems,” Mr. Immelt said in September, discussing efforts to cut
corporate-bureaucracy layers that have built up over his tenure. “It’s not like
I can say…this was Jack Welch’s fault. It’s our fault, and my fault.”
SMITHSONIAN
BANS SELFIE STICKS - Go ahead and enjoy that dinosaur skeleton,
space ship or portrait at your favorite Smithsonian museum, but don't plan on
capturing the moment with a selfie stick. The Smithsonian announced Tuesday
that selfie sticks are included in its ban on tripods as "a preventive
measure to protect visitors and objects, especially during crowded
conditions."
HARD
DRIVE - Google's (GOOG) planned wireless service may launch by
the end of March, but will work only on the company's latest Nexus smartphone
and not on other phones using Google's Android operating system.
Amazon (AMZN) has opened an online store on Alibaba's (BABA)
business-to-consumer platform Tmall, in a move that analysts say will boost
awareness of its brand in China.
Apple will join the Dow Jones Industrial Average this month,
a long-anticipated change that adds the world's most-valuable company to the
119-year-old blue-chip index. The move is the latest milestone for Apple, which has
emerged in recent years as the standard-bearer for a resurgent U.S. technology
sector. The Cupertino, Calif., company in January reported latest-quarter net
income of $18 billion, the largest quarterly profit on record, fueled by
roaring sales of iPhones.
Apple will replace telecommunication giant AT&T,
according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, the unit of McGraw Hill Financial Inc.
that owns the Dow.
GOOGLE tops Fortune's' 100 Best Companies to Work For': 1.
Google ... 2. Boston Consulting Group ... 3. Acuity ... 4. SAS Institute ... 5.
Robert W. Baird ...6. Edward Jones ... 7. Wegmans Food Market ... 8. Salesforce.com
... 9. Genentech ...10. Camden Property Trust.
BIRTHDAYS
THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to: Alex Ball
…famous political strategist, Frank Borman (87), Billy Crystal (67), Al Jarreau
(75), Quincy Jones (82), Eva Longoria
(40), Jerry Lewis (89), Mike Love (74), Mitt Romney (68), Hollis Stacy (61), James Taylor (67), Andrew Young (83).
FIFTY
YEARS – Gay Talese -- age 83, a former copyboy at The New York Times
who later was a reporter there from 1956 to 1965, and was one of the Times
reporters who covered Bloody Sunday in Selma - returns to Page 1 with "Assignment America ('This series
will explore changes in American politics, culture and technology, drawing on
the reporting and personal experiences of New York Times journalists around the
country'): Selma, Ala. - The Story Lines Blur, 50 Years After the Bloodshed at
the Bridge."
Talese writes: "Selma today is a place expected to
carry perhaps more symbolic weight than any small city can bear. Without doubt,
civil rights history - American history - was made here. But ... when I first
became part of the University of Alabama's all-white campus in 1949, I saw
nothing so different from what I had observed during my New Jersey boyhood.
"In June of 1963 , as a reporter at The Times, I had an
interview in New York with Alabama's Gov. George C. Wallace, who had flown in
to appear on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' He stayed in a large suite at the Pierre
hotel on Fifth Avenue, where our talk took place. The interview had been going
well for the first 10 minutes, but then Governor Wallace suddenly rose from his
chair, took me by the arm, and led me to one of the windows overlooking Central
Park and the row of expensive buildings that line Fifth Avenue.
"'Here we have the citadel of hypocrisy in America,' he
said, pointing down to the street and declaring that hardly any black people,
even those who could afford it, could hope to share living space with whites in
this area, or in surrounding areas, because of the longstanding, if
unacknowledged, practices of real estate segregation in New York and other
Northern cities.
"And still, he went on, they come down to the South and
rant about equal rights! I quoted him at length in the next day's paper, but I
left the interview without mentioning to Governor Wallace that I myself had an
apartment a few blocks away from the Pierre - and I did not have then, nor do I
have to this day, an African-American neighbor on my block." With pic of
Gay Talese gazing at the Edmund Pettus Bridge http://nyti.ms/1BSwz77
--HOW THE TIMES covered Bloody Sunday: On a crowded
eight-column front page, Selma was a 1-col. headline in col. 1 (the off-lede),
next to a 4-col. Associated Press Wirephoto pic. (The 3-col. lead was the
release of the plan for New York City school integration). Here was the
headline over Roy Reed's article from Selma: "ALABAMA POLICE USE GAS AND
CLUBS TO ROUT NEGROES: 57 Are Injured at Selma as Troopers Break Up Rights Walk
in Montgomery -- DR. KING IS IN ATLANTA -- He Reveals Plans to Lead a New March
Tomorrow."
--The lead: "Alabama state troopers and volunteer
officers of the Dallas County sheriff's office tore through a column of Negro
demonstrators with tear gas, nightsticks and whips here today to enforce Gov.
George C. Wallace's order against a protest march from Selma to
Montgomery." http://nyti.ms/1wdzFlo
--GAY TALESE has a scene story on p. 20 (the jump page for
the main story), "New York Doctors Barred at Scene: "SELMA, March 7 -
The long line of Negroes walked slowly and silently to the main sidewalk of
Selma's business district on this quiet Sunday. There were 525 of them, walking
two abreast, and they were headed for a small concrete bridge at the end of the
street."
SPORTS
TALK
-- "Why America fell out of love with golf," by Drew Harwell:
"It's been years since the increasingly unpopular sport of golf plunked
into the rough, and the industry now is realizing that it may not be able to
ever get out. All the qualities that once made it so elite and exclusive are,
analysts say, now playing against it. ... Even what loyalists would say are
strengths -- its simplicity, its traditionalism -- can seem overly austere in
an age of fitness classes, extreme races and iPhone games. ... The number of
Americans who said they played golf at least once last year has fallen to one
of its lowest point in years.
SPRING
TRAINING – It was good to see Hall of Fame Coach George
Valesente’s Ithaca College Bomber baseball team make their annual spring visit
to SCIAC teams this past week. Coach Valesente begins his 38th
season as head coach. Their trip was not too successful, going 2 – 5 for the
week.
WHAT’S
ON THE iPAD? – five songs we are listening to this week:
1). Adele, “Rolling in the Deep” (2010)
2). Garth Brooks, “What’s She Doin Now” (1991)
3). Chely Wright, “Single White Female” (1999)
4). The Hollies, “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” (1972)
5). Harry James, “Sleepy Lagoon” (1942)
BRACKETOLOGY
101
- Kentucky's chasing history, trying to become the first undefeated champion in
March Madness since Indiana in 1976. They're seeded first in the Midwest Region,
in search of six more wins for a perfect season. Kansas is the No. 2 seed in
the Midwest. ... Kentucky's first game will be Thursday against the winner of
Tuesday's play-in game between No. 16 seeds Manhattan and Hampton. The 68-team
tournament begins Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, with a pair of play-in games; it
goes into full swing Thursday, with 16 games. ... Villanova seeded No. 1 in
East Region, Duke seeded No. 1 in the South, and Wisconsin seeded No. 1 in the
West.
The
Swami’s Final Four – Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Gonzaga.
COLLEGE
HOCKEY GAME OF THE WEEK – Friday 3/20, 7:30 PM ET, TWCS; It is conference
playoff time, in the ECAC #16 Colgate University Raiders (21-11-4) coached by
Don Vaughn, St. Lawrence ’84, v. St. Lawrence University Saints (20-13-3),
coached by Greg Carvel, St. Lawrence ’93. The game will be watched by yours
truly, St. Lawrence ’76. St. Lawrence
wins 5 – 4. Season to date (5-2)
THE
SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –
(SCIAC Softball Game of the Week, Mar. 21) Cal Lutheran
Regals (10-11) 4 vs. Whittier
Richard Nixons (11-4) 6
(Big Ten hockey, Mar. 19) Wisconsin Badgers (4-25-5) 2 vs. #19 Michigan Wolverines (20-14-0)
6
(NBA, Mar. 21) Portland Trail Blazers (44-20) 95 vs. Memphis Grizzlies (46-20) 97
(NHL, Mar. 21) St. Louis Blues (44-20-5) 3 vs. Minnesota Wild (38-24-7) 4
Season
to date (28-15)
MARKET
WEEK – Last week marked six years since the 2009 stock market
bottom. Since then, the Dow has risen 173 percent, the S&P 500 has added
more than 206 percent, while the Nasdaq has gained more than 288 percent.
U.S. stock futures were higher in early trading, ahead of
this week's Fed meeting, and after a third straight week of losses for the Dow
and S&P 500 and two straight negative weeks for the Nasdaq. Anticipation of a Fed rate hike has recently
been sending ripples through financial markets. Investors may get more hints on
the timing, after the central bank's two-day meeting ends on Wednesday.
Apple (AAPL) investors are looking for a turnaround,
following three weeks of losses in a row, despite last week's smartwatch
unveiling and the stock's upcoming inclusion this week in the Dow. The battered euro hit new 12-year lows
against the dollar early this morning, before recovering. Meanwhile, oil prices
were under pressure again, with U.S. crude trading under $44 a barrel at one
point.
DRIVING
THE WEEK – Big week for the Fed with an FOMC statement and
Janet Yellen presser on Wednesday ... House and Senate Republicans are set to
produce budget blueprints that could differ on key points including defense
spending and how long it takes to get to balance ... U.S. and Iranian
negotiators resume talks today toward a possible nuclear deal ... Treasury
Secretary Jack Lew testifies before House Financial Services at 10:00 a.m.
Tuesday on the state of the int'l finance system ... Lew testifies before House
appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday ... CFTC holds a roundtable Wednesday
on cyber security ... House Financial Services on Wednesday has a hearing on
'Preserving Consumer Choice and Financial Independence" ... Industrial
production this morning at 9:15 a.m. expected to rise 0.2 percent ... FOMC
announcement at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday expected to drop the "patient"
language, setting the stage for possible rate hike later this year ... Index of
leading indicators at 10:00 a.m. Thursday expected to rise 0.3 percent.
HAPPY
ST. PATRICK’S DAY –
May the
road rise to meet you,
May the
wind be always at your back,
May the
sun shine warm upon your face.
The
rains fall soft upon your fields,
And
until we meet again,
May God
hold you in the palm of his hand.
~~Old Irish
Blessing ~~
Next
week: Spring Training continues and The Puzzler.
Until Next Monday, Adios
Claremont, CA
March 16, 2015
#V-46-256
CARTOON
OF THE WEEK – Science Fact: The Composition of the human
body
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