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2010-04-26 Science & Technology

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Posted by twobyfour 2010-04-26 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11136 views ] Top

#1 Climate change is now very much on the agenda in trying to determine how the dinosaurs became extinct.

But, but, but, and but, man wasn't around then to contribute to greenhouse gases. Science makes my brain hurt.

Posted by JohnQC 2010-04-26 10:16|| 2010-04-26 10:16|| Front Page Top

#2 Next, scientist will revive the Ptolemaic model of the universe, demanding grant monies to fund computer models that will show its true! Cause the universe must fit the religiously ordained model! All else is heresy. Go to your room Galileo.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-04-26 11:51|| 2010-04-26 11:51|| Front Page Top

#3 Science makes my brain hurt.

Poor JohnQC. Aren't you an engineer? ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2010-04-26 13:04|| 2010-04-26 13:04|| Front Page Top

#4 TW, :) Just kidding about science. I should say current distortions and politicization of science makes my brain hurt. Yes, I taught engineering for 25 years.

Posted by JohnQC 2010-04-26 14:31|| 2010-04-26 14:31|| Front Page Top

#5 Technically, one is not supposed to sell himself as an engineer or call himself an engineer unless a P.E. I'm not a P.E. I've worked in engineering in one capacity or another for 35-40 years.

Posted by JohnQC 2010-04-26 14:35|| 2010-04-26 14:35|| Front Page Top

#6 I should say current distortions and politicization of science makes my brain hurt. Yes, I taught engineering for 25 years.

I was just teasing, John dear. They make my brain hurt, too, and I took only an intro engineering class once. The professor demonstrated conclusively that engineers are born, not made, so I eventually became a housewife instead. Those who drive across bridges or put gasoline in their vehicles know not how much reason they have to be grateful to that man.

Posted by trailing wife 2010-04-26 16:13|| 2010-04-26 16:13|| Front Page Top

#7 The reason for the extinction of the dinosaurs was likely an evolutionary change in plants that allowed them to utilize CO2 at lower concentrations. Hence lowering the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, perhaps dramatically and in evolutionary terms, extremely rapidly.

This point illustrates that most scientists, who are specialists in narrow fields, know no more about most aspects of science than the average person here at the Burg. And many know considerably less than a reasonably well educated person. A point completely lost on the MSM, who assume every scientists is an expert on all aspects of science.

Posted by phil_b 2010-04-26 17:57|| 2010-04-26 17:57|| Front Page Top

#8 Re #5: Technically, one is not supposed to sell himself as an engineer or call himself an engineer unless a P.E
John, so what do you call the person who drives a train?

Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2010-04-26 19:16|| 2010-04-26 19:16|| Front Page Top

#9 Something about Evolution has bothered me for years and I have no idea how to find out.

Can anyone tell me just about when the oceans became too salty to drink?

I know that fish have an ability to expell salt, their blood is less salty than sea water, (You will find that fish need salting when you dine on them)so wouldn't this be a severe change cause a huge die off?

Posted by Redneck Jim 2010-04-26 19:22|| 2010-04-26 19:22|| Front Page Top

#10 Technically, one is not supposed to sell himself as an engineer or call himself an engineer unless a P.E

I'd call a person who operates a train an engineer. I'd call myself an engineer just not a P.E. I have occasionally seen state licensing board come down very heavy on non-licensed engineers for calling themselves engineers. I know a lot of people who have never been to college who are better engineers than many who are hold degrees. I know a Ph.D. type engineer who is a nationally certified accident reconstructionist (former student) who was taken to task by a P.E. in the court system for not being a P.E. The accident reconstructionist had to show reasons to the state board why he should not be taken to task and fined for practicing without a license. He got it straightened out but with some effort. The P.E. didn't know $hit about accident reconstruction but he was a P.E. with a chip on his shoulder. The P.E. didn't have the qualifications for the case and most likely he was trying to deflect attention away from his ineptitude. I think we have come to a place in our society where we are requiring an "over-credentialization" of just about any field. i think it is mostly an effort to limit the field in the workplace. I can remember a friend of my father over in Arkansas in the 1960s. He was a self-taught attorney. He never went to law school. Good lawyer. He just had trouble staying out of the bottle a little too much.

Posted by JohnQC 2010-04-26 20:20|| 2010-04-26 20:20|| Front Page Top

#11 It helps if you remember a Ph.D. is someone who knows more and more about less and less until he/she finally knows everything about nothing. ;-p

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2010-04-26 23:16|| 2010-04-26 23:16|| Front Page Top

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