So, while flipping through the channels I stopped on 33, where I noticed for the first time the slogan for ION Television: “Positively Entertaining.”
Get it? Ion… positively… it’s a pun. A scientific pun.
See, ions are electrically charged atoms or molecules. Sure, some are negatively charged, depending on the number of protons and electrons (CATION Television, now that would be positively entertaining, assuming it’s entertaining at all), but let’s not pick nits. It’s still a pretty damn clever pun.
Except… what with the woeful state of science education in the U.S. these days, who the hell would know?
For example, take the Pew Research Center Science Knowledge Quiz… no really, take it. And in my opinion, if you don’t get a perfect 12 out of 12, you’re a fucking idiot. But don’t you worry, a less than perfect score would put you in the company of 90-percent of your fellow Americans who couldn’t answer basic science questions like are the continents moving, or which is smaller, an atom or an electron?
And if you didn’t get that last one—and only 46-percent of Americans did—how the hell are you going to get the pun in ION TV’s slogan?
Or more importantly, how is our nation going to maintain itself as a scientific, technological and economic leader when, say, only 32-percent of Americans accept evolution as true? 32-percent. That’s pathetic.
So when Susan Hutchison and her supporters insist that her service as a director at the anti-science Discovery Institute has absolutely no bearing on the race for King County Executive, I say we positively can’t afford that kind of dumbed down political leadership.
Honestly, the Mars/water question is more of a measure of how well the quiz taker follows current events, as water was discovered only 9 years ago. I wouldn’t have known that if I didn’t watch some documentary a few years back.
Also, the poll for these results was conducted over the phone.
I scored a 12/12 on the online quiz, and yet feel like there is a good chance I might’ve missed one if I took this quiz over the phone.
Goldy, one comment i would make is that concept of an “atom” has unfortunately been kind of ambiguous. From ancient greeks and romans up until the modern era an atom was thought to me the smallest “indivisible” unit of matter. It was a place holder concept for the smallest thing we can imagine. So that is the common sense notion of the term. But obviously science has moved beyond that into the strange world of particle physics. So I tend to think of atoms as kind of a useless concept. Our scientific understanding of matter is so much more complicated these days. It is a vast and complicated field. So I forgive people who have a popular and unsophisticated notion of an “atom”.
By the way the first thing that comes to mind when I hear “Ion” is the dialogue by Plato that so ruthlessly argues against the poets.
As for science and atomic physics. The most exciting thing I have seen in a long time is the recently discovered ability to photograph a molecule. Scientists from IBM used an atomic force microscope (AFM) to reveal the chemical bonds within a molecule.
This is exciting. We can actually see the structure of compounds now, rather than merely theoretically understand them in an abstract sense or with a model. The empirical potential is great.
12 of 12
on ION at 2 am is Jesus talk, so, a couple of those “science” questions could just be seen by the Inhofe’s of the world as propaganda (“fucking idiots”).
The Mars thing I got right, but would agree about when that became know and how widely the facts were distributed, as having factors that make it less likely to be known.
To give people some credit you have to take into account things like people not speaking English all that well, being hard of hearing, having a bad connection, being distracted or simply mishearing a question or two. For example if you hear question one as heart burn you are going to get it wrong.
That and really for most people these questions are not all that relevent to thier lives. One can be quite intelligent and not give a fuck about Pluto or mars.
12/12, saved from fucking idiothood another day.
Because you kow, it’s all the really intelligent people who get a lot of questions wrong on that test…
However, even though in the ideal we’d all be led by philosopher-kings, in practice we get the idiocracy we deserve.
It was encouraging in 2006 and 2008 that even American Idiots were’t stupid enough to think that today’s Republicans are capable of governing. Hutch won’t see the buzzsaw that’s coming at her. She’ll probably sue, because darn it, it’s not fair!.
I think it’s more complicated than it seems. America is becoming more SPLIT. It’s not that we don’t have colleges full of scientists in training (granted a lot of them are foreign nationals). We still have a lot of research and raw science being done. But the ‘average’ public, while using more technology than their parents did, have no idea how any of it works. It might as well be magic to them.
We’re on our way into becoming a society with two classes, just like in medieval days where you had the educated Monk class and the illiterate workers. It’s not that there are laws keeping folks from learning, it’s that we have an entire sector of our society that’s PROUD to be dumb. Being smart and educated is a sign of being an evil ‘liberal’ and science education is an “attack” on religion. They’re stupid and willfully ignorant, but not by accident, by choice.
That’s not good. We’re were founded on an ideal of equality. Not everyone has to be a rocket scientist obviously, but we can’t have 90% of the public totally ignorant of basic science. It’s not helpful to have the biggest loudest supporters of the military (the Christian right) think the earth is 6,000 years old, which is disputed by 99% of the scientists who make the high tech weapons they praise. It’s a schism that isn’t helpful.
What I think is interesting is that if you look at the breakdown of correct answers by sex, women were more likely to answer questions related to health correctly than men, but not those dealing with geology, physics, etc. That suggests to me that women are listening to science news more selectively (not saying that’s a good thing, there just seems to be a bias there).
Only an out of work layabout like Goldy could navel-gaze about such trivial matters as ION tv’s slogan and actually think it important enough to blog about it.
Can someone clue the lad into the science of becoming gainfully employed? He’s been failing miserably in this subject for years now.
Well, it still is the smallest unit of matter that is still one element as opposed to some other element, or a proton or neutron or electron.
But just because the Classical philosophers used it the term, it doesn’t mean it has not had a specific and clearly understood meaning since, oh, Mendeleev or Rutherford, at least. I hope that a question dealing with the state of scientific knowledge as of 100-150 years ago isn’t going to be as much of a stumper as the questions about Pluto or Mars or other relatively recent changes in our scientific understanding.
I donno. I’m in a bad mood. I think there is a fatal flaw in American culture where stupidity is something to strive for. Look the heath care town meeting with the dirt ignorant people fighting tooth and nail, something that would benefit them, if they would JUST THINK. Look at studies where inner city minority kids think to “act white” is to study and get good grades. I think it’s more common on the conservative side with examples of creationism and abstinence, but liberals fall short too, by being spineless wimps.
It’s going to be China’s Century, cause our nation is too stupid and will sell our greatness away.
Update:
Amusing, #8 must have been posted while I was writing this. Similar themes.
12. Blue John spews:
Hmm yes. John is regurgitating proven false talking points fed to him by the DNC, yet those 80% content with their current standard of health care are the ones that are “ignorant”.
At least we can agree on this one, John.
Well said. (12 out of 12).
#13. Why is it, in every democratic country that has some form of socialized health care, they love it and wouldn’t give it up. For all your yammering of corporatate conservtive talking points, you are just not thinking. You don’t see a majority of canadians, danes, french, etc clammering to switch over to our style of health care. Why is that? Beause it’s a good thing. It’s a price they choose to pay, because it’s good for them and good for their society. You and your like minded people fighting it for stupid reasons, that you are greedy and stupid. You are too stupid to see the benifits. And if you are not that stupid, you don’t care, you think that somehow, health care for all, will cost you money.
You are greedy and stupid and you and your kind are destroying America.
You’re free to move to the country of your choice, John. No one is stopping you from partaking in their particular system. 80% of Americans are happy with THEIR CURRENT HEALTHCARE. I know those numbers are difficult for you to compute, but every study shows the same thing. Talk about being a science denier.
No, I think that getting the government into the system will affect the quality of care. You’re too ignorant to understand that the government can’t run simple programs like “cash for clunkers” efficiently, I can. You can’t point to one government run program that is the model of efficiency. Care to take the challenge?
So you babble about the positive attributes of other nations in the world and then say I’m destroying America. Kind of a disconnect isn’t there, John? Yes, i’m greedy. I want my current level of health care to remain intact and not be subject the horror stories of “socialized medicine”. I’m a horrible person for not wanting the U.S. to haphazardly traipse down that road.
Also, John. Emotional arguments fail on merit…and that screed at 15 was nothing but.
#16. Facts, emotions, it all bounces off you and your kind.
So in other words, “I have heath care, screw you”. Like I said, greedy and stupid. You are one of the mindsets that is wrong in America.
Not only were we a nation of individuals, we were a nation of barn raisers, that banded together to help one’s neighbors, because they would then help you, in your time of need.
As I see it, in your world view, nobody will ever help you, so you better get everything you can.
As a culture, we have to get back some of the WE mindset, that we are all in this together.
@16 I can name any number of gov’t programs that do a better job than their counterparts in the private sector (our military vs. contractors like Xe is an obvious one), but let’s take the relevant one: Medicare.
I’m on Medicare due to disability. Is Medicare run perfectly? No. I stayed out of the Part D prescription drug program (the one designed by the Bush administration to benefit drug companies) for as long as I could, until I was forced into it, because my state plan was better run. But I also have to supplement Medicare with private insurance, which has been an ongoing nightmare. I’ve had insurance companies literally try to kill me — by repeatedly denying me a life-saving operation because it was cheaper to let me die — until they realized that death, in my case (and defying the actuarial tables), would be slow and even more expensive. I’ve been downgraded or dumped by private insurers, on average, more than once a year for nearly 20 years, all because of a profit motive inserted where it doesn’t belong: in life and death decisions. I generally hate relying on government programs – but Medicare, and government in general, may or may not waste my money (depending on the program), but it isn’t actively trying to kill me. I’ll take it in a heartbeat (so to speak) over the parasites in the insurance industry.
My experience is extreme, but denial of care is something almost every American has experienced in our system — and everyone has experienced the cost, which has nothing to do with satisfaction over quality of care. That’s why the overwhelming public support, in every poll, for a single payer option that would eliminate the insurance companies entirely, and that’s why the support for the public option.
By the way, the only time in those nearly 20 years of illness when I couldn’t use the doctors of my choice was when a private insurer I was forced into by merger insisted that I be treated only by a hospital that didn’t have any specialists in my illness. I’ve experienced just about every one of the ills the teabaggers are screaming about — but only due to the insurance companies, not the providers and not Medicare or the state high risk pool.
@ 18 ~ you’re implying that the military is run efficiently? Perhaps you can remind us how much of our nations budget is usurped by defense spending and get back to me.
Here’s a snapshot from an anti-war groups website for a reminder.
Why do liberals always fall for this tact? I ask for a model of efficiency and all they can come up with is the military that usurps 36% of this country’s budget.
Proving my point only further.
#18, good effective story but it’s lost on the conservatives. Your situation doesn’t effect them so they won’t listen. I think they lack the ablity to care about anyone but themselves. They have taken Fierce Individualim to an extreme. If it doesn’t effect them, it doesn’t matter.
However, Health care reform might cost them money, might effect them, and that is the worst possible of sins.
#19. What most protesters were protesting was what we were using the military for. Bush and the conservatives’s invasion and occupation of Iraq that did not attack us, was not a good use of our resources, especially when we outsourced so much of the work, at signifigantly more cost.
For the price of that invasion and occupation, we could have had health care.
Empty Suit @10,
Not only don’t you know science, but you don’t understand the creative process either.
‘Caption’ television is by far the best pun ever.
The point of having dumb, prejudiced, uninformed, yet opinionated candidtes on the Republican side is that they appeal to the typical Republican voter.
An even better thing, in the Republican view, is that since the newly minted ‘leader’ has no real information or ideas, they can be informed and told what to do by ‘experts’ — like Dick Cheney — as an extrapolatory example.
ESO- using the size of the military budget as a rap on the efficiency of the military proves beyond any doubt you are clueless. The budget is bloated with questionable programs added for political reasons (Can you say “Star Wars”?). It does not speak to the efficiency or effectiveness of the military.
@11
Maybe this is mostly semantics but as I understand particle physics I think it is wrong to say that the atom “still is the smallest unit of matter”. Lucretius and Democritus gave western civilization a nice idea with the notion of the atom. But it is and has always has been an abstraction. And while I like the expressive power of Mendeelev’s periodic table, there is something very unsettling about the very idea of a periodic table.
I think eventually we will come to accept some sort of fractal model ever downward and perhaps ever upward in our perspective. Unification is just systematizing born out the convenience of the idea of a atom. But science is ultimately a ever shifting dynamic between theory and empirical evidence. Which is what makes it so great as compared to religious theology for example.
We still can’t quite explain the difference between gravity as it appears to work on the subatomic level versus how it appears to work at the planetary, heavenly bodies level. A view that the laws of the universe are absolutely uniform is somewhat hampered by differently observed empirical data. Or at least we lack a single theory to explain it all.
The atom is a nice concept because it seems intuitive to conceptualize it as a single thing. Let’s say the LHC finds the Higgs Boson particle. Then what? I think it is onward and inward to more discovery. Better understanding of systems, and and more precise observational capacity and therefore science progresses.
I got 12/12, but Pluto was a lucky guess.
re 26: That and $10 will get you a cheap haircut.
Nice post G.
The Discovery Institute (the title alone is a joke… discovering what?) is part of the reason why ignorance prevails AT THE COLLEGE level in education (and I should know being a college science instructor). I offend students daily by teaching only true objective science and rocking their faith-based platforms.
a 12/12 score off a quiz that is elementary school level at best is nothing to be proud of.
We need to have leaders that are truly educated and as scientist-trained folks…OBJECTIVE in reasoning, using common sense and reasoning through logic to make realistic decisions.
When I Asked Ms. Hutchinson her views on medical abortion, she said that we needed to sit down and have a discussion on this at the national level (abortion is federally legal). When asked on medical marijuana use in King County/WA, she said with no hesitation that the voters have spoken and it is legal in WA state and that she would uphold the law.
Are not ALL passed laws Laws and should not all laws then be completely and fully upheld by the voter appointed law keepers, as mandated to be done so?
Why does one LAW, especially if scientifically objectively needed, not as a birth control, but medically needed to save a life, and federally passed as law, needing discussion?… I’ll tell you why…because a subjective unproven never seen, never to be tested (as it is not testable and hence unreal) “soul” might be involved.
Religion is the reason for a discussion needing to occur… in the topic of abortion, and religion has NO PLACE in a law makers head when it comes to decision making.
OBJECTIVE scientific thought is needed now in this country, more than ever!
We are failing our nation’s founders (having spent last week in Boston with the likes of John Hancock and Sam Adams in a Grave field just off the Boston Common) and they would be appalled to hear words, from a candidate questioning a federal law and supporting a state law based upon “faith”.
Subjective Faith has NO business in politics, and a faith-based subjective religious head of a large county like King, where Science is how we stay in business (Boeing, Microsoft, Zymogenetics, The Hutch, UW medical, etc…) has no place here.
For starters, no one questioned the effectiveness or rather tactical efficiency of the military in general. In question was whether it served as a model of efficiency for a Government run program- the answer is simply NO!. I understand you’re a liberal and as such, the thought process is complicated and usually somewhat stunted, but do try to keep up with the conversation.
And yet liberals like yourself use that same percentage to bash huge “military spending” as that anti-war group did on the link I provided. A little consistency from the left would be appreciated, though I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen.
re 30: “I understand you’re a liberal and as such, the thought process is complicated and usually somewhat stunted, but do try to keep up with the conversation.”
Is this the way a smart person attempts to communicate with others? Would this be an acceptable approach for your child’s teacher?
BOL~ If that is a serious question, I suggest you google this blogs name and find out the origins of it. Also, if you’ve spent about 5 minutes on any number of threads here, you’ll see that what I wrote is pretty tame and reserved compared to most of the regulars. Good luck on that.
Is there no end to liberal hypocrisy? or feigned idignance?
Geov @ 18
I’ve worked too many places to believe that government should be run like a business.
I wonder if there’s some rule of thumb. Businesses clearly do better running production. They also do a pretty good job with retail and providing services to consumers.
One could argue that businesses are more appropriate to take risks, and therefore a source of innovation. The venture capitalists, for example, bet big money and are a catalyst for innovation.
Alas, the current plutocracy has socialized loses and privatized profits. Banks, pharma, oil, etc. stick the tax payer with the bill, but yet somehow manage to keep all the loot. Nor are they known for their innovation, preferring to ice out competition (using tax payer monies).
What??? You mean this guy isn’t the inspiration for ION TV?
Damn, are all of my preconceptions incorrect? I was figuring that the next iteration would be Nasty TV.
12/12, even with the pressure of being a fucking idiot if I missed even one looming over me. But the Mars question made me nervous — water was discovered awhile ago, and maybe since then they’d also discovered mold and I hadn’t heard about it yet…
Although I swept through the quiz, answering each question instantly, and getting all 12 correct for a perfect score, I think some of these questions would be challenging for someone without a college education who isn’t a regular reader of news. Which describes the majority of Americans.
I have mixed feelings about this sort of thing. I expect a plumber to be good at what he does, which is unplugging pipes and fixing leaks, and it doesn’t necessarily matter if he isn’t up to speed on Mars exploration or stem cell research.
What does bother me is ignorant louts who don’t know shit from shinola trying to tell the highly educated and knowledgeable liberal commenters on HA (many of us have Ph.D.s, J.D.s, or other advanced degrees) that the moon is made of cheese or Obamacare is socialism.
Few things are as annoying as people who don’t know what they’re talking about trying to pass themselves off as Stephen Hawkings.
ESO
I am sure that you have no trouble holding completely contradictory viewpoints simultaneously. There are 45 million Medicare recipients in this country reporting higher satisfaction than holders of private medical (employer-paid) insurance.
I’d say that proves you dead wrong.
Hmmm. The title of this post couldn’t be more suited..
to empty-headed ESO.
Hay!!! I took the Science test and I scored 100%
Cool.
We are blog followers and commenters. We trend college-educated (minus our trolls), current-events-informed (minus our trolls), and so on.
How about if our trolls report THEIR science knowledge? How about it, you stupid sons of bitches? Why not try to prove to us that you DO know shit, instead of “you don’t know shit?”
BTW, like I need to say, I was 12 of 12.
I am still of two minds about ions.
@ 37
Adding another 30+ million (probably more) to an already stressed to the max and financially bankrupt system won’t exactly bode well for “quality of care” concerns. Didn’t bode so well for our finest servicemen at Walter Reed now did it?
But, you’re content in your ignorance bubble. I understand. Afterall, regurgitating DNC talking points is a lot easier than actually processing this logically.
What I meant was: about some ions I am positive, but about others, negative.
Hey! That was a joke!
42 ESO
Aw, you really are an idiot, aren’t you? Don’t bother to answer, it’s clear.
Dude, Walter Reed is an Army hospital, and I know they have their own problems. However, it is NOT a VA hospital, which I can only assume you thinkit was. The VA offers quality care with (again) a high satisfaction rating.
Second, you ignored my point (supported by facts linked to–unlike anything you say) about Medicare, which I totally understand, because it destroyed your POV.
Third, when you say “financially bankrupt” you betray your total ignorance of government. That’s OK, we know you’re ignorant.
42 ESO
BTW, to what “30 million” are you referrring, and why do you ignore the 42 million about whom I proved my point?
You know, it’s kind of weird to depend on some kind of public opinion such as “80% of Americans are satisfied with their health care” when opinion polls of “real Americans” can also cut the other way. Here’s a GOP-sponsored poll that shows that “31% of people said the government should provide ‘coverage for all’ and 35% said ‘coverage for those who can’t afford it.’ ”
But hey, who am I to link to factual background? Crazy, huh?
@ 44 ~ You’re obviously as ignorant as I previously thought. Perhaps I’ll show you your ignorance of “quality of care” issues tomorrow as it’s the weekend and unlike yourself, my life doesn’t revolve around a backwater blog like HA 24/7. Check in tomorrow, Capt Jack wannabe.
Cheers!
47
That’s right, chicken shit. Run!
But you’ll lose today, tomorrow, or whenever.
Cheers!
@ 48 ~ Sorry
Capt.JackDaddy love, I have a life (and wife) outside of this forum. You should try it sometime and get out of the house now and then.Maybe tomorrow, squirt.
You’ll still lose,and you know it.
That’s why you stayed away from a substantive reply.
Chicken shit.
I’m sure your “wife” provides no challenge
for you. Must be fun. it’s clear you’re not up to challenge.
Happy Labor Day. Be grateful to the liberals who fought and died for your day off.
There K falls off the end of the earth again
Puddy covered all the consumer technological advances and inventions from Star Wars technology you use today K-fool? spongebob wondermoron can provide you the list as he collects every PuddyMissive.
Why do libtardos forget facts? Cuz they explode the libtardo mind.
@ 50
Listen, Squirt, It’s either go out with the wife on a friday night or get into a debate with some dumb fuck on the internet. I understand you don’t have to make these kind of decisions given your isolationist/internet dependent lifestyle, but I do. So fuck off and grow up already.
Now, you linked to the CMS site. Good, glad you’re learning something. On that same site they have a link called: Status of Social Security and Medicare Programs.
A brief synopsis of the future of these programs:
Now, you ignorant fuck, study up and bring something to the table next time.
Oh, and yes, Walter Reed is run by the Army. Which , the last time I checked was part of the U.S. Government.
Daddy Lover is MIA. I can’t help but wonder why?
Facts are inconvenient things.