Monday, December 19, 2011
Notable exception!
Couple days ago I expanded on a wonderful pithy saying by Jim Hopkins:
"Journalists never admit they're wrong; they just stop being wrong."
This is basically the journalistic side of Kuhn's paradigm shift. Bad science is never publicly refuted by other scientists; it just fades when the bad scientists die out.
In the item I mentioned several of the enviro crimes of the last century, including the acid rain scam.
Today we have a notable exception to the Hopkins rule, and it's coming from Fred Pearce, one of the New Superstitionist high priests!
Not only an admission of wrongness but a vindication of Great Satan Reagan!
Bravo to Fred Pearce for breaking this destructive rule, and helping to rebuild civilization.
When the high priests pull their usual fade-out routine, leaving only heretics speaking the truth, it's easy for the Establishment to ignore truth. The lies are no longer repeated every picosecond, but the truth is still coming only from Unpersons.
When a high priest comes out and explicitly admits the truth, even the other high priests have to acknowledge that something has changed. ¶ 10:46 AM
"Journalists never admit they're wrong; they just stop being wrong."
This is basically the journalistic side of Kuhn's paradigm shift. Bad science is never publicly refuted by other scientists; it just fades when the bad scientists die out.
In the item I mentioned several of the enviro crimes of the last century, including the acid rain scam.
Today we have a notable exception to the Hopkins rule, and it's coming from Fred Pearce, one of the New Superstitionist high priests!
Ronald Reagan was right. Well, nearly. One of the former US president's most ridiculed statements was that acid rain came from trees.
Up to half the acidity in rainfall over the US in summer does indeed come from volatile compounds given off by plants – just not the compounds Reagan was thinking of.
Formic acid is produced when we burn fossil fuels and biomass, and when plant compounds called terpenoids are oxidised by sunlight....
New satellite data shows more than 100 million tonnes of formic acid is produced naturally each year – far more than thought and 10 times the total from all known [artificial] sources.
Not only an admission of wrongness but a vindication of Great Satan Reagan!
Bravo to Fred Pearce for breaking this destructive rule, and helping to rebuild civilization.
When the high priests pull their usual fade-out routine, leaving only heretics speaking the truth, it's easy for the Establishment to ignore truth. The lies are no longer repeated every picosecond, but the truth is still coming only from Unpersons.
When a high priest comes out and explicitly admits the truth, even the other high priests have to acknowledge that something has changed. ¶ 10:46 AM
