News You Can't Actually Use...

Even Fruit Flies Love Ejaculating, And Turn to Alcohol if They Can't Get Laid

...but is good to know, anyway, for those parties with uncomfortable silences that need fillers.

Professor: Academic Rigor = Bad.

Prof: Academic rigor reinforces 'power and privilege'

Suggested Subtitle: I'm too lazy and stupid for actual academic rigor, so I don't reap the rewards that those who actually are rigorous get, so they must stop being rigorous, amirite? And BTW I don't do math or empiricism, I do feminist, Foucaultian destructive criticism which gets me published in non-engineering feminist journals.

The leader of Purdue University’s School of Engineering Education recently declared that academic “rigor” reinforces “white male heterosexual privilege.”

Donna Riley, who previously taught engineering at Smith College for 13 years, published an article in the most recent issue of the journal Engineering Education, arguing that academic rigor is a “dirty deed” that upholds “white male heterosexual privilege.”

"Scientific knowledge itself is gendered, raced, and colonizing."

Defining rigor as “the aspirational quality academics apply to disciplinary standards of quality,” Riley asserts that “rigor is used to maintain disciplinary boundaries, with exclusionary implications for marginalized groups and marginalized ways of knowing.”

Engineering Education is a discipline??? No freaking wonder she can't do engineering, and finds it threatening: quality in engineering is too hard for her and "genders, races" and thus it succeeds over those, which appears colonizing.

This is a blatant admission of technical inability cum SJW totalitarianism, focused on destruction of something they cannot understand much less dominate.

Again, what the hell is "engineering education" anyway? And don't forget this wonderful diktat:

"Scientific knowledge itself is gendered, raced, and colonizing."

This is a marker for ideological insanity. In fact, take a look at Prof. Riley's published papers (I've bolded the pertinent info):

Selected Publications

Riley, D., Pawley, A., Tucker, J., and Catalano, G.D. "Feminisms in Engineering Education: Transformative Possibilities." National Women's Studies Association Journal, (August 2009).

Riley, D. Engineering and Social Justice. San Rafael, CA: Morgan and Claypool (2008).

Riley, D. and Sciarra, G.L. "'You're all a bunch of fucking feminists': Addressing the Perceived Conflict Between Gender and Professional Identities Using the Montreal Massacre." Proceedings of the Frontiers in Education Conference, October 28–31, San Diego, CA (2006).

Riley, D. M., and Claris, L. "Power/Knowledge: Using Foucault to promote critical understandings of content and pedagogy in engineering thermodynamics." ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings, June 18 - 21, Chicago, IL (2006).

Riley, D. and Armstrong, E. "Common Ground: How a course collaboration between engineering and women's studies produced fine art." ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings, June 12-15, Portland, OR (2005).

Chesler, N. and Riley, D. "The Art of Engineering: Using fine arts to discuss the lives of women faculty in engineering." ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings, June 20-23, Salt Lake City, Utah (2004).

Riley, D. "Employing Liberative Pedagogies in Engineering Education." Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 9(2): 137-158 (2003).

Riley, D. "Sex, Fear and Condescension on Campus: Cybercensorship at Carnegie Mellon University." Wired_Women: Gender and new realities in cyberspace. L. Cherney and E.R. Weise, eds. Seattle: Seal Press, 1996.

This illuminates and explains her approach to "engineering education":

She claims that rigor can “reinforce gender, race, and class hierarchies in engineering, and maintain invisibility of queer, disabled, low-income, and other marginalized engineering students,” adding that “decades of ethnographic research document a climate of microaggressions and cultures of whiteness and masculinity in engineering.”

She evens contends that “scientific knowledge itself is gendered, raced, and colonizing,” asserting that in the field of engineering, there is an “inherent masculinist, white, and global North bias...all under a guise of neutrality.”

[RELATED: Prof: Algebra, geometry perpetuate white privilege]

To fight this, Riley calls for engineering programs to “do away with” the notion of academic rigor completely, saying, “This is not about reinventing rigor for everyone, it is about doing away with the concept altogether so we can welcome other ways of knowing. Other ways of being. It is about criticality and reflexivity.”

“We need these other ways of knowing to critique rigor, and to find a place to start to build a community for inclusive and holistic engineering education,” she concludes.

Stupid Science

Study links obesity to rise in knee dislocations

Ya Think??

Science Is Just Whatever Scientists Do...

Over 30,000 Published Studies Could Be Wrong Due to Contaminated Cells

This is very, very bad.

Researchers warn that large parts of biomedical science could be invalid due to a cascading history of flawed data in a systemic failure going back decades.

A new investigation reveals more than 30,000 published scientific studies could be compromised by their use of misidentified cell lines, owing to so-called immortal cells contaminating other research cultures in the lab.

Astonishing Science in the News

Guess what? Older people don't show the genetic signs that kill people at younger ages. Yes. Read that again.

Humans are still evolving, study suggests
"We find genetic evidence that natural selection is happening in modern human populations," said researcher Joseph Pickrel.

Wow! And it gets even better!

The findings -- detailed this week in the journal PLoS Biology -- suggest humans are still influenced by natural sections, as those with longer lifespans are more likely to pass along their mutation-free genes.

"It's a subtle signal, but we find genetic evidence that natural selection is happening in modern human populations," Joseph Pickrel, an evolutionary geneticist at Columbia University and the New York Genome Center, said in a news release.

Advances in genomic analysis techniques have allowed scientists to track the rise and fall of genetic signatures across large groups of people.

In the latest survey, researchers found a sharp drop in the prevalence of the ApoE4 gene, linked with Alzheimer's, among women over the age of 70. They also found a significant decrease in the frequency of the CHRNA3 gene, linked with smoking among men.

That only two genetic mutations were strongly correlated with length of lifespan suggests other variations have been purged from the population through natural selection.

"It may be that men who don't carry these harmful mutations can have more children, or that men and women who live longer can help with their grandchildren, improving their chance of survival," said Molly Przeworski, an evolutionary biologist at Columbia.

So they discovered that if you don't have a deadly mutation, you live longer. They immediately conclude that that proves evolution via natural selection.

This is a tacit admission that mutations are deadly. That being the case, the mutations don't implement new organs by which evolution advances via speciation, as is the claim of Huxley's The Modern Synthesis, p47, 115 (now rejected by much of the evolution community).

This does not, as is the claim, prove natural selection, because it merely shows the effect of mutations to be a reduction in the size of the gene pool... or does it? The available gene pool for transfer to subsequent generations stops around 35 to 45 years of age in women. Those who live or die beyond that age have already participated in the gene pool, including those with genetic mutations. So there is no natural selection involved. Period. The available gene pool is still infected with the mutations. What, then did they find?

They found that mutations kill women earlier than non-mutated women, but not before they breed.

That's it.

Interestingly they did NOT find any tendency toward speciation... all humans are deemed totally equal after all, and the Evolution Narrative would conflict with the Leftism Narrative. Can't have that.

Never Heard of Sheep, Right?

Ancient humans had sex with non humans

And there's always stripper poles, parking meters and pickup trucks.

Hey, wait! If there's DNA trace (and there's probably not) that would mean that successful breeding happened, and that in turn means "same species". So what? BIG DAMN DEAL . Another science false news release. What it really says is that there is some DNA that they don't understand, they're late for a required "scientific paper" so they make stuff up, and bazambo, it's published.

What, If I May Ask, Did They Study??

Study: Describing Breastfeeding as ‘Natural’ Is Unethical Because It Reinforces Gender Roles

Glenn Reynolds agrees:

IT’S TRUE! AND IT’S TRANSPHOBIC, TOO! WHAT ABOUT WOMEN WITH PENISES AND NO BREASTS?

Great Headline for a Truly Obtuse Article

AND THIS IS WHY THEY’RE EXTINCT: Tyrannosaurus rex was a sensitive lover, scientists find.

Thanks for the laugh, Sarah Hoyt.

More Settled Science Gets Weird

Eating more red meat does NOT hurt your heart: New study insists larger portions of beef and pork can actually be GOOD for blood pressure

Health officials recommend cutting our intake of red meat for our heart health

But a new study has found unprocessed beef and pork are not dangerous

In fact, a review of clinical trials showed the meat was beneficial for patients

We found that consuming more than half a serving per day of red meat, which is equivalent to a 3 ounce serving three times per week, did not worsen blood pressure and blood total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglyceride concentrations, which are commonly screened by health-care providers,' O'Connor said.

WAIT!... What? 3 ounces? 3 times a week? That's not "eating meat". That's dabbling in hors d'oeuvres. That's starvation portions for real people. It's NOT "larger portions". These researchers need a diet of double Quarter Pounders with cheese, because their brains are starving.

Stupid Science

From PhysOrg:

Sex evolved to help future generations fight infection, scientists show

Even evolutionists should puke at this headline. Evolution does not respond to a cause external to it, including and especially not a speculative benefit that is not obviously environmental. The theory is that random changes occur, are stockpiled and then flower into a modification which is Selected or rejected. Mathematically, they are all rejected, but that's not the issue.

The issue is that sex did not evolve for a purpose. If it evolved, then it jumped into existence when the complexity was fulfilled. And then, and only then, did it compete for Selection.

If sex provides any advantage, which is a marginal concept considering the continuing existence of hordes of prokaryotes, then the advantage is an accidental benefit, not a goal of evolution.

Evolving to achieve a purpose is known as teleology. Teleology requires that an objective exist prior to any action can exist for the purpose of achieving that objective. So under the Atheist, Naturalist presupposition demanded by Materialist Science, teleology cannot exist, because such a cause cannot be physically measured and therefore it is outside the Naturalist, Materialist presupposition. That presupposition has the force of Scientific Law, at least in those "sciences" which are threatened by teleology.

However, the (stupid) headline does not represent the actual science it is attempting to advertise. The actual science asks why sexual reproduction, far more complex than mitosis, persists since the cost seems high. They ignore most obvious answers and home in on increased resistance to health threats as the answer.

That is one benefit. But there are others. Others which are more compelling, but ignored. What actually is teleological is the science done here: they assumed a conclusion, then set about finding data to support it. What they did not provide was any way to falsify their conclusion for other species, or other geological timeframes. Under the requirements of classical, Enlightenment, empirical science, this is a non-starter due to having proved a benefit for one species, only. But certainly it is a success in the sense that it did get published and possibly will help obtain more funding (the primary goal of research is to perpetuate itself).

Feminists Should Be Banned From Using It

The Great Literacy Conspiracy:

Feminist Declares The Invention Of The Alphabet The Root Of Sexism, Misogyny And Patriarchy…
From the book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image:

Of all the sacred cows allowed to roam unimpeded in our culture, few are as revered as literacy. Its benefits have been so incontestable that in the five millennia since the advent of the written word numerous poets and writers have extolled its virtues. Few paused to consider its costs. . . . One pernicious effect of literacy has gone largely unnoticed: writing subliminally fosters a patriarchal outlook. Writing of any kind, but especially its alphabetic form, diminishes feminine values and with them, women’s power in the culture. […]

Literacy has promoted the subjugation of women by men throughout all but the very recent history of the West. Misogyny and patriarchy rise and fall with the fortunes of the alphabetic written word."

From the book blurb:

"This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking and this shift upset the balance between men and women, initiating the decline of the feminine and ushering in patriarchal rule. Examining the cultures of the Israelites, Greeks, Christians, and Muslims, Shlain reinterprets ancient myths and parables in light of his theory. Provocative and inspiring, this book is a paradigm-shattering work that will transform your view of history and the mind."

All feminists must stop being literate, NOW. Literacy is obviously an insidious male plot to educate the world; females must resist! IGNORANCE POWER!

Ski Slopes Are Sexist (Don't Tell The Skiers)

Academic Absurdity of the Week: Sexist Ski Slopes?

"Did you know that skiing is a sexist sport? It turns out that even the ski slopes themselves are sexist! Or something. As usual, it’s hard to make out exactly what’s being said. but you’ll never be able to ski down a steep mogul run again, never mind use fast wax on your totally-phallically skis (and don’t even ask about ski poles I think), without Freud in your head, according to this article in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport:

Constructing masculinized sportscapes: Skiing, gender and nature in British Columbia, Canada

Mark CJ Stoddart, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.

Abstract

Sport sociology has provided a significant body of critical research on gender and social inequality within outdoor sport. Less attention is given to how the social construction of sport landscapes shapes gendered power relations. This article examines how skiing landscapes are constructed as masculinized spaces. The mountainous sublime is a site for performing athletic, risk-seeking masculinity.The backcountry and advanced terrain at ski resorts also appear as masculinized places. By contrast, less risky areas of the skiing landscape may be interpreted as ‘gender-neutral’ or feminized space. Through skiing, participants construct the meaning of gender and place, privileging masculinized versions of the sport.

As always, you can own a complete copy of this gem for a mere $36."

Bogus "Science"

Physicists discover an infinite number of quantum speed limits

"In order to determine how fast a quantum system can evolve from one state to another, it's necessary to be able to distinguish between the two states, and there are multiple ways to do this. In the new study, the physicists used a general method based on information geometry. From a geometric perspective, two distinguishable states can be represented by two points on the surface of some shape, such as a sphere or other manifold. Previous research has shown that there are an infinite number of corresponding metrics that can be used to measure the distinguishability of two quantum states.

In the new study, the physicists have shown that each of these metrics corresponds to a different quantum speed limit. The "strictest" quantum speed limit is determined by the metric that gives the shortest distance (also known as a 'geodesic') between the two points, or states, as measured along the manifold's curved surface.

"A different quantum speed limit arises from each of these metrics in such a way that the tightest bound for a given dynamics is specified by the metric whose geodesic is best tailored to the given dynamical path," explained coauthor Marco Cianciaruso, also at Nottingham."

Good Grief. Anyone who took solid geometry (I did as a high school junior) knows that there are an infinite number of paths between to points on a sphere, but only one shortest one. And that's all that this says. It took "previous research to figure this out? I'll bet the report ends with, "more study is required, and more funding is essential".

And certainly this massive prognostication regarding the value of their "findings":

"Our findings are expected to have an impact on the fields of quantum information, computation, simulation, and metrology," said Diogo Soares-Pinto at the Sao Carlos Institute of Physics, who supervised the project."

Bogus Science: Yet Another "Walking Fish"

Or at least bogus science reporting:

Researchers Find Fish That Walks the Way Land Vertebrates Do

Perhaps this fish does have a pelvis connected to the spine. Regardless, it is obvious from the looped video that the fish does not pull itself by moving its fins with respect to its body position. As the body undulates, the fins move only because they remain in a constant physical relationship to the body. If the body did NOT undulate, the fish would not "walk". This is not "the way land vertebrates walk".

The link provided in the article does NOT go to any journal paper, so if you want to track it down, you must do some work. I didn't bother.

Good News From... Science?

Scientists have discovered what causes Resting Bitch Face

Ridiculous "Science"

Prehistoric rock carvings 'were humanity's earliest architectural plans'
Researchers say 14,000-year-old carvings by 'Paleolithic Picasso' depict a campsite built by early hunter-gatherers

See it? It's right over... there... or maybe it depicts animals? Or maybe it's just another rock.

"Others have suggested that the work, which has been dated to 13,800 years ago, may in fact show highly stylised animals."

Or, maybe it's just another stinking rock.

Enviro-Idiocy

An interesting juxtapositioning by Drudge:

PRINCE CHARLES: 'Climate change' root cause of Syrian war...

FLASHBACK: Scientist Declared 'Global Warming' Caused Hitler...

Now that it has been shown that peer review is virtually useless, AND we know that empirical restrictions such as replication of experimental process and confirmation of results are no longer part of science, why, any stupid statement by a "scientist" becomes "science". And who wants to be a science denier? Well, I, for one, am proud to deny bad, non-empirical claims any value whatsoever. These claims qualify for that.

Stupid Science at Work

Scientist Finds Rare Bird... and Kills It

Technically Incorrect: A US scientist finds a male mustached kingfisher in the Solomon Islands. He kills it so that he can study it. Not everyone is impressed.

Subheadline is wrong: the lede is technically correct. The bonehead even takes a photo of it, alive, sitting on his hand, just before killing it.

Science is Whatever Scientists Do

Scientists in Antarctica Drink a Lot. Maybe Too Much

"NSF officials in Antarctica told auditors that drinking has created “unpredictable behavior that has led to fights, indecent exposure, and employees arriving to work under the influence.” But the real problem seemed to be an ongoing culture clash between scientists in Antarctica (“beakers,” as they’re known down there) and contract workers.

The divide between the scientists and the contract workers is a long-standing one. They tend to eat, drink, and socialize separately, just like officers and enlisted in the military. “There’s a very big cultural split in Antarctica,” says Philip Broughton, who wintered over at the old dome-covered South Pole station back in 2003. Broughton served drinks as a bartender to both groups when he wasn’t working as a technician on the South Pole radio telescopes. “The beakers have a license to kill,” Broughton says. “There is little consequence for what they do down there.”

And indeed, the auditors found that scientists often get away with breaking the rules more than the contractors who keep the bases running. During a site visit to the South Pole, auditors found a researcher brewing his own beer in one of the science labs. That’s a violation of rules, though it’s true that the South Pole station has a small general store where anyone can buy a six-pack for $6 or $7, as well as the harder stuff, and take it to a small BYOB lounge in one of the base’s fire-proof survival pods. And McMurdo, the largest settlement on the continent, has three bars."

Cultural split? Scientists are better than you. Drunker, too.

"My poor legs were all a-flutter, so I lay down in the gutter
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
We sang,"Never mind the weather just as long as we're together"
Till a lady passing by was heard to say,
"You can tell someone who boozes by the company he chooses"
And the pig got up and slowly walked away."

Can't Be Parodied

Iran took samples for IAEA at suspect military site

"Tehran (AFP) - Iran said Monday it independently collected samples at a suspect military site where illicit nuclear work is alleged to have occurred and later handed them to the UN's absent inspectors.

The disclosure that international monitors were not physically present is likely to feed critics of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, who have poured scorn on measures used to check if Tehran's atomic programme is peaceful.

In a mark of the high stakes at play it drew a quick reaction from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, whose chief insisted that "the integrity of the sampling process and the authenticity of the samples" was not compromised.

The samples were taken under "established procedures", IAEA director general Yukiya Amano said, noting "significant progress" is being made in its long-running probe of whether Iran ever sought to develop a nuclear bomb."

A perfect example of stupid science as policy... stupid policy.

Next up: Parolees will bring in their own urine samples; P.O.s will vouch that the ""the integrity of the sampling process and the authenticity of the samples" was not compromised, even though they weren't there when the samples were produced.

And temperature data will be compiled and enviro-warriors will vow that "the integrity of the sampling process and the authenticity of the samples" was not compromised, even though they weren't there when the samples were produced.

And of course, fossil R was the descendent of fossil Q, and scientists will state that "the integrity of the inference process and the authenticity of the inference was not compromised, even though they weren't there when the fossils were produced".

Of course there is no chance that the [Death To America!] Iranians are lying [Wipe Israel Off The Map!] is there? Islamists never [Taqiyya] ever lie! [No democracy - Only Islam!]