URLs du Jour

2017-04-26

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Getting started a little late today…

■ Does Proverbs 27:21 have anything to say about getting started a little late? That would be amazingly coincidental…

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise.

Nope, I can't make that stretch. Again notice the sexism-avoiding pluralization. (KJV: "…so is a man to his praise."

But it's nice that praise is less painful than furnaces or crucibles, I suppose.

■ Good news for people who like food to taste like something: Eating Less Salt Does Not Lower Blood Pressure for Most Americans, Says Yet Another Study.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that "most Americans should consume less sodium." The CDC asserts, "Your body needs a small amount of sodium to work properly, but too much sodium is bad for your health. Excess sodium can increase your blood pressure and your risk for a heart disease and stroke. Together, heart disease and stroke kill more Americans each year than any other cause."

… but "a new study shows" that might not be true for anyone except a small fraction of people who are sodium-sensitive.

I harp on this stuff because of that stupid UNH/Carsey study we looked at last month, that basically claimed that skepticism toward "science" generally and the CDC specifically was likely to send us all to our doom, because we were unlikely to follow CDC advice.

But given the above, why in the world shouldn't we be skeptical of CDC advice?

Slashdot has news from the Peoples' Republic of Oregon: Oregon Fines Man For Writing a Complaint Email Stating 'I Am An Engineer'.

In September 2014, Mats Jarlstrom, an electronics engineer living in Beaverton, Oregon, sent an email to the state's engineering board. The email claimed that yellow traffic lights don't last long enough, which "puts the public at risk." "I would like to present these facts for your review and comments," he wrote. This email resulted not with a meeting, but with a threat from The Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying [stating]: "ORS 672.020(1) prohibits the practice of engineering in Oregon without registration -- at a minimum, your use of the title 'electronics engineer' and the statement 'I'm an engineer' create violations." In January of this year, Jarlstrom was officially fined $500 by the state for the crime of "practicing engineering without being registered."

Woops. Since I read the backpage ads in Reason magazine, I wondered whether the Institute of Justice might offer some help to this occupational licensure board run wild.

And the answer is… Lawsuit Challenges Oregon Law Prohibiting Mathematical Criticism Without a License

Although Oregon resident Mats Järlström’s mathematical theories are more earthly than Galileo’s or da Vinci’s, he faced a similar inquisition by the Oregon engineering board after he publicly criticized the standard formula used to time yellow traffic lights.

But now Mats, working in partnership with the Institute for Justice, is fighting back against the state’s unconstitutional ban on mathematical debate. Today he filed a lawsuit against the board in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the state’s requirement that citizens must obtain an engineering license in order to publicly debate anything involving “engineering.”

Here's hoping The Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying gets so publicly humiliated by this…

■ And can you stand one more March-on-Science post? Too bad, here's one anyway, Ben Shapiro at NR: Science vs. Science™!.

This is the dirty little secret of the Left’s sudden embrace of Science™ — it’s not science they support, but religion. They support that which they believe but cannot prove and do not care about proving. Bill Nye isn’t interested in a scientific debate about global warming — how much is occurring, the measurement techniques at issue, the sensitivity of the climate to carbon emissions, the range of factors that affect the climate. He wants you to accept his version of the truth — not just that global warming is happening, but that massive government intervention is necessary in order to avert imminent global catastrophe.

As previously noted: when people (like Carol Shea-Porter) talk about "belief in science", they're basically talking a religious stand, one conveniently in line with their political predelictions, and without all that messy talk about sin and grace.


Last Modified 2024-01-26 6:44 AM EDT