Science & Society
Donald Trump does not have the power to rescind either constitutional amendments or federal laws by mere executive order, no matter how strongly he might wish otherwise. No president of the United States of America has that power. The media and public need to understand that anything he signs in that way is basically on par with a social-media post ranting about what he thinks should happen. At most, he can direct how the executive branch enforces existing laws and the Constitution, but if any order violates those higher authorities, it’s automatically invalid. Anyone who tries to carry it…
The "drone panic" of 2024 easily claims the title of the most absurd astronomy and physics-related story of the year. At its core, 99.99% of this so-called crisis boils down to people mistaking planes for something extraordinary. The rest? It's people glancing up at the night sky, seeing stars, and failing to grasp the staggering distances that separate us from them. Remarkably, this edges out another perennial misunderstanding: those who genuinely believe that changing the clocks is the reason for shorter winter days, rather than the natural shift in sunlight reaching the northern hemisphere…
USERN (Universal Scientific Education and Research Network, https://usern.org) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that supports interdisciplinary science across borders. Founded in 2015 by a distinguished Iranian Immunologist, Prof. Nima Rezaei, USERN has grown to acquire a membership of 26,000 members in 140 countries, from 22 scientific disciplines. From November 2022 I am its President.Among a number of scientific and education activities, our network organizes a yearly congress in November, always including in the dates November 10, which is the UN day for Science. During the…
Hank |
In 2008, fresh off a decisive victory over Democratic establishment candidate Senator Hillary Clinton in the primary and one over highly-regarded Senator John McCain in the general election, President-elect Obama began to engage in worrisome behavior.
His transition team, those who set the tone for his Cabinet and first 100 days, was over-represented with UFO believers. His inner circle included a guy who thoughts girls can't do math. I was only two years into science media by then so I believed that science academics were a cross-section of America - diverse - and that President George W.…
Hank |
Once upon a time, wealthy white women virtue signaled to other wealthy white women when they spent $500 on snacks at stores they're paid to promote, like "upscale" grocery chain Erewhon, where its overpriced nonsense supposedly leads to a "radiant" lifestyle.
That time is still now. This one is especially fun, because two words after assuring us it "has literally sold out everywhere" she tells gullible viewers that you can buy it at the store she's being paid $5 to promote.
They've been joined by a much younger demographic. Now Gen Z aspiring social media influencers on TikTok taking a break…
Hank |
There are about 3X as many white women as black in the US but white women get 8X as much for donated eggs and Diane M. Tober in "Eggonomics" suggests wealthy people looking for specific traits has gotten to the point of being eugenics.
I hate to break it to the public but eugenics never really left. When progressives like Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes and economist John Maynard Keynes saw their beliefs about government manipulation of evolution writ large in 1940s Germany, the name began to die, but not the sentiment. Margaret Sanger, for example, pivoted to creating Planned…
Hank |
There are lots of stories about the poor in America, and have been for decades. Smart demographers know that, like racism, if everyone is talking about The Poor, it's almost eliminated.
One of the giant cracks in the communist dictatorship called the USSR last century was when the television program "60 Minutes" had a segment on poverty in America. It was designed to tug at the heartstrings of those with more money. The USSR ran it for their citizens but it actually backfired. Being in 'poverty' in America meant having a television and more living space than anyone not an elite in the Soviet…
Hank |
It will be up to science history to try and gain insight into the reasons the federal government engaged in "Reefer Madness" narratives about marijuana, and then backed off that yet did the same to smoking cessation and harm reduction tools like vaping.
Cigarette smoking is unquestionably dangerous, the world's top lifestyle killer. Because nicotine is addictive it is hard to quit. Because it is an addiction there are also psychological hooks, behavioral aspects, and that is why no one product works for everyone. Nicotine patches and gums are great, if they work, but they often don't because…
Hank |
Only a few years ago, American colleges used a "secret sauce" of race in admissions that voided test scores and replaced those with arbitrary demographic selection. Due to such clear racism, and despite being a minority with less than 5 percent of the population, Asians were least likely to be admitted to elite colleges if the alternatives were a more-favored minority with lower scores or qualifications. Asians were even less likely to be admitted than white students.
Asian students with European-sounding last names were told to check White on the ethnicity box, so they could avoid the "race…
Hank |
You're not a Frank-people because you eat Doritos, despite what people writing lifestyle/diet books and New York Times journalists who gush over them want you to believe.
Such claims are pure food populism by rich white people for rich white people. It's not science, it's instead not even right enough to be wrong.
Many outside science like to feel validated by evidence, but few really can be. Historians want to believe their hot take on Xerxes at the Battle of Thermopylae is based on data but we all know they are just writing the opposite of what someone else wrote and claiming some new…