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When Celebrities Speak on Science
Timberwolf0122 writes to mention that the website Sense About Science is encouraging stars not to comment on scientific issues without at least checking their facts. A somewhat amusing article on the BBC matches up a few comments made by celebrities with the factual reaction from experts in the field of study tackled by their blunder.
If I had only 1 piece of duct tape, I would seal the politician mouths first. The celebrities are never taken that seriously for scientific comments.
Anyhow about the science curriculum in US schools, they are actually not that bad. Is the students that don't care. Separate issue.
Well it is a situation about any area when a person talks beyond their areas of experties. People who make a blind coment about music who never studied music just proliferate "bad" music or keeping people from exploring others. People who do not understand litature when they talk about litature they end up making the story seem what it is not.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Unfortunately as far as celebrities go, I don't think it's realistic to expect them not to mouth off on any given subject that comes up - it's what they do. What I would like to see is an improvement in the quality of science reporting by the mainstream media - I don't expect Melinda Messenger to know what day it is, but I expect the science reporters of the main TV/radio/newspaper organizations to make a lot fewer scientific faux pas than they do.
Oh no... it's the future.
It's amazing how many people confuse popularity for authoritative, scientific thought. This conceit goes so far that many celebrities believe themselves. As we've already noted, people like Tom Cruise, Barbara Streisand, and Jane Fonda do this all too regularly. Why in the world would some actor know more about AIDS or cancer (even testifying in front of Congress, for frak's sake) than the average Joe or a medical professional?
Actors should be reminded that, just because they've played a doctor, doesn't make them one.
Other popular people should be pelted with rotten produce and harsh words by the anti-clique popular people whose feet are well grounded as to who they are and what they really know, like Dennis Miller (most of the time).
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
As a proud Roman Catholic, I have this advice: If you want your kids to learn the theory of evolution, send them to a Catholic school.
one of the easiest (and least secure) is to append a zip file to the end of a jpg. name it .jpg and it opens, name it .zip and it opens. (you can not add/delete files from the zip though).
This is because a jpg opens front to back while a zip opens back to front. Excellent way to demonstrate the concept of steg, though it is not all that good for real protection.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump