Reviews

A beautifully told story with colorful characters out of epic tradition, a tight and complex plot, and solid pacing. -- Booklist, starred review of On the Razor's Edge

Great writing, vivid scenarios, and thoughtful commentary ... the stories will linger after the last page is turned. -- Publisher's Weekly, on Captive Dreams

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

The Four Quadrants of Science

Originally on Judy Curry's blog

Posted by at
Labels:

13 comments:

  1. I'm sure I'm way oversimplifying here, but when I looked at your picture, I found myself thinking, the Scholastics were in the Bohr quadrant, while the early moderns were in the Edison quadrant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. And Voltaire, who liked to play with a chemistry lab but never did any work of value, was definitely in the Nye quadrant.

      Delete

    2. Well, no scientific work of any value. Candide is very funny and fun to read, though, so I wouldn't say absolutely no work of value.

      Delete

    3. I meant he did no work of value with his chemistry lab, of course.

      Delete

  2. Ha! Although if Nye is anywhere to be found on a science chart, it should only be as a cautionary tale.

    ReplyDelete

  3. Can you even really call what Edison did research? It was more like "meticulous trial and error". As Tesla said of him, "If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search... I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Yeah, I'd say that's research. Though admittedly, if true, very inefficient research.

      Delete

  4. I'm not sure Nye is worthy of a whole quadrant. Maybe just the origin (0,0). . .

    ReplyDelete

  5. I don't understand the disdain for Bill Nye. He's probably the most popular voice for science -especially climate science - right now, taking on climate deniers and demonstrating the fatal flaws in their arguments. All of this under an administration that is waging a *secular* war on science - something people like Dawkins and Harris said was impossible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. ‘Climate deniers’. That’s your trouble right there. In your mind, anyone who is not passionately convinced that humans are solely and exclusively responsible for an imminent catastrophic change in global temperatures, and that the overbearing and draconic action of the state is the sole possible method of averting the catastrophe, is a ‘denier’ who knows no science and wants to know none.

      Nye, like you, is a religious cultist; only because his religion does not contain a god, he and you can go on pretending that you’re advocating good science instead of bad religion.

      Delete

    2. @Tom Simon: To be fair, Anonymous did say that the Trump administration was mounting a secular attack on science, which "people like Dawkins and Harris" denied the possibility of.

      @Anonymous: Part of the antipathy to Nye is that he is actually included in "people like Dawkins and Harris". Another part is that climate is not remotely as cut-and-dry as political advocacy would like it to be. And a third part is that Nye abused the authority he acquired in his audience's childhood to help propagate nonsense like that "gender" is a spectrum—as a scientific idea, not a cultural one. ("Gender" as a set of social norms is, indeed, not exactly binary. But the biology in question is; the intersex conditions, so frequently cited to the contrary, don't change that. "Some aspects of A as well as B" is not actually "C".)

      Delete

  6. Bill Nye, like the Left more generally, is of the school of 'If-You-Disagree-With-Me-You're-Wicked-or-Stupid-or-Both'. The whole point of the 'Climate Denier' epithet (and it's cousins, 'Science-Denier' and 'Anti-Science') is to shut down discussion/debate on legitimate scientific grounds, in order to advance a political/ideological agenda.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Wow, what perfect aim, right to the heart of the matter!

      Christi pax.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Whoa, What's This?

adam amateur theology aphorisms Aquinas argument from motion Aristotelianism art atheism autumn of the modern ages books brains breaking news captive dreams cartoon charts chieftain clannafhloinn comix commentary counterattack crusades culcha dogheads easton stuff economics eifelheim evolution factoids on parade fake news fallen angels Feeders fir trees in lungs firestar flicks floods flynncestry flynnstuff forecasts forest of time fun facts gandersauce gimlet eye global warming glvwg headlines henchmen high frontier history home front how to lie with statistics humor hush-hush hypatia in the house of submission irish Iron Shirts irrationalism january dancer jihad journeyman kabuki kool letter lion's mouth lunacon maps mayerling medieval metrology miscellany modern mythology moose zombies music new years nexus odds odds and ends paleofuture passing of the modern age philosophy philosophy math poetry politics psyched out! public service quality quiet sun quote of the day razor's edge redefinition of marriage religio reviews river of stars scandal science science marches on scientism scrivening shipwrecks of time shroud skiffy skiffy in the news skools slipping masks some people will believe anything stats stories stranger things the auld curmudgeon the madness continues the new fascism the spiral arm the writing life thomism thread o' years tofspot topology untergang des abendlandes untergang des morgenlandes up jim river video clips vignettes war on science we get letters we're all gonna die whimsy words at play xmas you can't make this stuff up