the trouble with science

title of book I read a good while back, probably mentioned it before, but also a current worry -- we live in anti-intellectual and anti-scientific times, and to have alleged prominent scientists peddling anti-science is a bit alarming, whether it is the UN Climatology people claiming that the ice in the Himalayas would melt in ten years or the doctors who claimed to have a random and strong sample of cases of autism related to MMR vaccine. Scientists are mere human beings of course are not religious figures and science is not a religion. Scientists are practicioners in a discipline and quite often they dont actually know for sure and the best ones are either working on a hunch or even a theory which may have started as a prejudice -- the idea of science is supposed to keep them honest -- if your theory isnt borne out by the facts, you should abandon it and come up with a better theory that supports the facts -- making stuff up based on wishful thinking and plucking data out of the air which suits your theory is precisely the kind of childish twaddle that the scientific discipline was originally established to stamp out -- it is just sad to see that things have rolled back so far, even two hundred years ago people with enormous egos and prejudices were big enough to concede to reality. But of course now days a lot of scientists are owned by corporations or granting bodies whereas up to even forty years ago many were amateurs of independant means or employed by universities or trusts where profit was a remote or absent consideration

Haiti TV

Just wanted to comment on the coverage of Haiti -- surely a couple of hundred extra medical kits or a a few dozen medical personnel would have made more sense than sending a correspondent and camera crew from every station in the western world? None of these people heard of syndication and leaving the skies and roads free for the emergency services such as they are? Reminds me of 9/11 when all the helicopters were available to film the buildings but not one seemed capable of rescuing anybody from the buildings

pub bores on radio

RTE Radio have a new(ish) Sunday program on ethics hosted by Myles Dungan, called something like "The Forum". It is very disappointing, even discouraging. usually the panel comprises mostly or at least partly of experts from academic and related fields but the discussions seem to deteriorate very quickly -- political point-scoring between factions, rambling off the pint, waffling, irrelevancies, facts introduced which were either completely new to me or more likely incorrect or downright lies as far as I know, -- in short it has the worst aspects of ignorant pub bore debating in the sort of public house your grand-father is afraid to go into for fear of being put to sleep. Avoid