23 Comments

Or the bizarre claim, from a November 2023 article, that:

“The inequality between male and female athletes is a result not of inherent biological differences between the sexes but of biases in how they are treated in sports.”

Omg. What lunacy.

Olympics (and all professional sports) should add another "test" to its current battery.

DNA.

If there is a Y chromosome, case closed.

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Nov 20Liked by Joel Bowman

I am 86.7 and since a young age have been avidly interested about all of things mathematical and scientific. I tried to keep every issue of Sci-Am and even spent many hours of precious time finding/buying missing issues. Sometime in the 90s I noticed that it was already going down hill and because I was moving around a lot and transporting all these issues in mag holders with great difficulty, I got rid of the whole lot. Now that I have seen just how bad it got I have no remorse whatever,

Thanks for another interesting and thoughtful piece.

--Paul Wakfer

PS Is the "Bow" in your name pronounced like "bow and arrow" or like the front of a ship. I always feel that I don't know someone at all (and can't really be friends) until I know how to pronounce his name. Mine is pronounced like it should be spelled "Wakefer", which my estranged daughter did for several years before she was married.

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author

Thanks for your thoughtful comment, good sir! The “Bow” is pronounced like “bow and arrow,” as in the instrument my ancestors would have crafted for their friends, the Archers and the Fletchers. Cheers!

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Looking forward to the Land Beyond Woke.

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Hope they're gone soon. 📺 📻 📰

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Great article.

Scientific American hasn't been relevant probably since the early 1900's. I remember a few years ago Forrest Mims was up for a job at Scientific American. They didn't hire him because of his religious beliefs.

https://search.brave.com/search?q=forrest+mims+scientific+american

The irony is that there is MUCH MORE scientific evidence for creation than evolution.

Science changes, one funeral at a time.

-Unknown

Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts.

-Richard Feynman

Atheism: The indirect worshiping of God through the study of His creation, known as science.

-Unknown

The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game.

-Karl Popper

Many of the examples presented as topics that science can not prove, such as Big Bang, evolution, dark matter, Higgs-Boson, etc., are in fact pseudoscientific concepts masquerading as being scientific. The evidence was not obtained from the steps of the scientific method, especially in regard to the first step which involves the observation of a natural phenomenon. This is seen in germ theory as well, as the evidence that has been used to prop up this theory was gathered by pseudoscientific means. This is why it is claimed that piles upon piles of evidence are necessary to be stacked on top of each other in order to strengthen the theory. Pseudoscience can never be proven right, no matter how much evidence is gathered. Having a preponderance of evidence may look impressive, but this is the lowest form of acceptable proof on the court of law totem pole. All that it takes is one person to knock a piece of critical evidence out from underneath the bottom of the pile in order for it all to come crashing down.

-Mike Stone

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It's so gratifying to see them take themselves down. Great article Joel.

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We all know they're here Joel and would like to see them gone, but the question I would like to see investigated is where in hell didi they all come from and how did they get where they did? Are they aliens or what? We used to admire competence amongst other things but somehow whatever used to keep these morons quiet no longer exists, or is it coming back with a rush?

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Although I only remember Herb Stein by name, I am very familiar with his son, Ben. I could just imagine hearing Ben recite that quote from his dad in is usual monotone. As it is, I was only 8 when Herb's term as one of Nixon's advisors terminated with Richard's resignation.

But the most surprising fact in the article was that Oprah Winfrey has a network (Oxygen) that is part of the Comcast/NBC batch of useless channels while also having The Oprah Winfrey Network affiliated with Discovery.

Speaking of useless television services: Warner Brothers Discovery. Or a company that should be known as Discover Warner Brothers, because that's something no one seems to know how to do. But then then could just shorten their name to DWeeB.

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Some of the business rags are also following the Comcast dumping attempt, and admitted there are no interested buyers of that dumping. So look for dropping stock prices on those dumplings coming soon.

Short positions on all of those aforementioned dumplings might do well?

They are all heading in the same direction as the useless and dying MSM.

Didn't Micro$oft start MSNBC? Even they don't want it back now.

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I feel some sadness to learn how Scientific American has devolved, but would feel no remorse to see it die a quiet death. Scientific American was pure excitement for me and my classmates taking high school physics in the late 1960s. For some years afterward, I would occasionally peruse a copy from the magazine rack to see what new was going on in the world of science. It has been at least a few decades since I last read an issue. For that, I should feel fortunate.

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The final results of our presidential election between a woke-soaked empty suit and a career criminal are now in. Of all eligible voters, 42% voted third party or (mostly) refused to vote at all. Trump's 'mandate' is built upon him receiving support from under 30% of the public. Harris, of course, did worse. I'm proud to stand with the actual winner, None of the Above....

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Maybe the propaganda rags are simply going to change sides for fun and profit lest they fade ignominiously into the night.

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“with apologies to the aforementioned professionals” It’s hard to find a critical metaphor extreme enough.

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Thanks to Substack, us HS janitors are far better informed.

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So this is what Science is about? Glad I didn't have a subscription, like I had quite a few years ago. No need to waste money on propaganda.

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founding

How'd she get that job anyway??

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founding

Joel, Find it interesting that these media dictators have no remorse for their followers as they go down in flames.

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I confidently predicted "peak political correctness" to my lawyer colleagues about 12 years ago, during the middle of Obama years. Wrong was I. I do believe the evidence is there that peak woke is here, but that doesn't mean a new era of rationality by fascist leftists is upon us, or anywhere near. They long since tumbled to the reality that they have nothing to offer that actually would improve life for anyone other than themselves, so they stopped trying. Instead, perfecting the bald-faced lie and projecting their mental deficiencies upon their opponents has become the preferred weapons of choice to retain power. When pressed for specifics, they retreat to increasing levels of generality, the curse of the awful debater. Next we will see the continuation of the preexisting strategies, combined with a renewed stridency against the perceieved and actual failures of the upcoming administration. There are always legitimate complaints to make. It continues to surprise (irk?) me that 48-54 percent of voters prefer the approach to governance that focuses on personality over consideration of actual issues and analysis. Whenever I hear anyone ask how someone "feels" about an issue or a candidate, I'm reminded that as long as voters continue to concentrate on their feelings, any progress in correcting malgovernance is merely temporary. As the expression goes: "facts don't care about your feelings."

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founding

Let us move on to real issues like $4B pledged to the international monetary fund or that sleepy joe just green-lighted using US rockets to bomb Russia. Did 2/3rds of US voters vote for that?

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