Showing posts with label knowledge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knowledge. Show all posts

Half The Facts You Know Are Probably Wrong

by Ronald Bailey.     Dinosaurs were cold-blooded. Increased K-12 spending and lower pupil/teacher ratios boost public school student outcomes. Most of the DNA in the human genome is junk. Saccharin causes cancer and a high fiber diet prevents it. Stars cannot be bigger than 150 solar masses. In the past half-century, all of the foregoing facts     ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Random Thoughts On The Passing Scene

Observations on life as it is.        When I was growing up, an older member of the family used to say, "What you don't know would make a big book." Now that I am an older member of the family, I would say to anyone, "What you don't know would fill more books than the Encyclopedia Britannica." At least half of our society's troubles   ... MORE

Thomas Sowell: Jensen And Flynn

Trivializing politically incorrect findings.   Anyone who has followed the decades-long controversies over the role of genes in IQ scores will recognize the names of the two leading advocates of opposite conclusions on that subject— Professor Arthur R. Jensen of the University of California at Berkeley and Professor James R. Flynn, an American expatriate   ... MORE

President Obama Jabs At Ayn Rand, Knocks Himself Out

by Wendy Milling.    In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, President Obama stated, “Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we’d pick up.” I’m not trying to mock the President here – he is just repeating an old propaganda line that was hatched by Rand’s opponents – but I have to ask the “adults”  ... MORE

VIDEO: How to Vote Well

Walter E Williams: What You Can't Say

Don't attempt to explain slavery to children.     Jon Hubbard, a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, has a book, titled "Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative." Among its statements for which Hubbard has been criticized and disavowed by the Republican Party is, "The institution of slavery that the     ... MORE

Eyder Peralta: 2012 SAT Reading Scores Lowest In 40 Years

Based on 1.7 million test scores. NPR's Claudio Sanchez brings us this bit of bad academic news: The class of 2012 scored the lowest average SAT reading score since 1972. A bit of good news is that math scores were up. Claudio filed this report for our Newscast unit: "Writing, too, is down nine points since the SAT introduced a writing section in 2006.  ... MORE

Thomas Sowell - The Fallacy Of Redistribution

It is not complicated. The recently discovered tape on which Barack Obama said back in 1998 that he believes in redistribution is not really news. He said the same thing to Joe the Plumber four years ago. But the surfacing of this tape may serve a useful purpose if it gets people to thinking about what the consequences of redistribution are.     ... MORE

Omar Ghate: Ayn Rand's Appeal

The real question is why her appeal isn't greater.   Paul Ryan is Romney’s pick for Vice President and now Ayn Rand’s name is on everyone’s lips. Many on the left are pillorying Ryan as an unrealistic “ideologue” because of his Rand connection. Many on the right accede, quickly trying to set aside Ryan’s admiration for "Atlas Shrugged" as youthful     ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Mixing Ignorance And Democracy

Mindlessly exercising a right.  This is an election year, which means all of us will spend the next few months carefully following the campaigns, finding out all we can about the candidates' proposals and pondering what issues are most vital for the nation's future. Just kidding. Most of us wouldn't do that if you Tased us to within an inch of our lives. In fact,     ... MORE

Charles L. Hooper: They Really Don't Know Clouds At All

A dark cloud is forming over climate warming models.    “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, From up and down, and still somehow, It’s cloud illusions I recall,  I really don’t know clouds at all.” —Singer Joni Mitchell.  Science has an air of authority. Many people, including many scientists, have the view that all the important things are  ... MORE