The skeptic black hole

When Neil deGrasse Tyson spoke at N.C. State last month, he gave his usual riff on science literacy:

For me, science literacy is “what is your capacity to ask questions?”

Questions, they’re kind of an inoculation against people telling you stuff and having you believe whatever they say. That’s not science literacy.

When someone says “I have these crystals and if you rub them together you’ll be healed” and you say “oh yeah, great, gimmie!”

Ok? No, that’s not science literacy. But you know what else isn’t science literacy? Saying “that’s bunk, get it out of here.”

Each of those requires no thought, the rejection or the acceptance.

I thought of Tyson’s words today when I tangled online with some hard-core skeptics. The anger and derision shown by some skeptics reveals a surprising lack of balance. Many tend to shout down others who don’t share their opinion.

This is what drives me nuts about skeptics. It’s what Tyson has called “lazy brain,” dismissing something out of hand before one knows the facts. It is wrong for a believer to assume something without evidence, yet is equally wrong for a skeptic to assume something without evidence. Both require no critical thought. Both predispose a result. Both are blinded by their own bias.

True scientists follow the evidence wherever it leads them. True scientists accept experimental results if those experiments can be shown to be solid and reproducible. True scientists maintain open minds. “Prove it to me” is the mantra of a true scientist.

It seems to me that no matter what the issue, the louder one shouts is inversely proportional to the truth of one’s statements. If you maintain that you know all the answers, you don’t. That’s not called science, that’s called zealotry.

Council to vote on Frank St. sidewalk Tuesday

Frank Street Sidewalk
The City Council’s Law and Public Safety Committee recommended approving the Frank Street sidewalk 2-1. It now goes before Council on Tuesday afternoon and then, if approved, the normal sidewalk planning process.

Once it gets to Council there won’t be the opportunity for public comment but a strong showing of sidewalk supporters in the Council audience would go a long way. Everyone wear their Conn T-shirts!

I have worked to get a sidewalk here for many years. I hope it will soon be a reality!

Below are the minutes of the committee meeting:

Item# 13-04 Sidewalk/Crosswalk – Frank Street.

Chairperson Baldwin asked Staff to give an update on this item.

Assistant City Manager Howe gave a brief introduction on this item.

Assessment Supervisor Upchurch stated Mr. Turner requested a City initiated sidewalk on the south side of Frank Street between Norris and Brookside. He has attempted twice through petition process and has been unsuccessful. There are only two properties on the street. He pointed out the property owner most affected by this is not supportive.

Mr. Upchurch pointed out Ms. Harris’s daughter lives in New York and has indicated her mother does not want a sidewalk. He stated the daughter has indicated that the crosswalk across Brookside to the school be relocated to north side of intersection and then kids would use sidewalk on the other side of the street on Frank Street. He pointed out citizens are definitely using the south side of the street. In Mr. Turner’s video he has shown numerous pictures of the children utilizing that side of the street. He pointed out Staff is not necessarily not in favor of putting the sidewalk there but wanted to make sure the Council knew all of the facts and all of the information. He stated Mr. Niffenegger will address the crosswalk issue because Ms. Harris’s daughter was very concerned that if the City could look at relocating the crosswalk this would resolve the whole issue.

Mr. Niffenegger stated they have studied Conn Elementary many times. He pointed out this school has a crossing guard. They have studied this 3 times. Highest score of any one they have done. He stated it had 128 students crossing in the a.m. and 200 students crossing in the p.m. Staff does not recommend changing the location of the crosswalk. He feels the sidewalk would be a big benefit here.
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Security theater

In the early morning of April 20th, a 15-year-old kid named Yahya Abdi causally hopped a fence at San Jose International Airport and later climbed into the wheel well of a Boeing 767 bound for Hawaii. Miraculously, he survived the five hour trip at altitudes of subfreezing temperatures and thin air. Usually this doesn’t happen.

The press seems to have moved on but I can’t help thinking of the implications this incident has on air safety. This kid only wanted to see his mom in Somalia, but what if he had more sinister plans? What if the kid had left a backpack of explosives in the wheel well?

All the baggage screening, pat downs, and porno scanners are powerless against a kid leaping over the airport fence. Think about that.

Yahoo email breaking listservers

Yahoo is making my sysadmin life difficult again. A week after I tracked down an SPF issue with my mailserver, Yahoo continues to bounce mail from the neighborhood listserver that I manage.

I found this document today which indicates a recent change by Yahoo is the culprit for my listserver troubles. I love this particular part:

If you are a mailing list owner, what should you do?

Mailing lists are a special case of sending mail on behalf of individuals. The most common option is to use the mailing list’s address instead of the sender’s on the From: line. This will change the reply behavior. Some mailing lists also choose to act as pure forwarders and resend the mail without breaking DKIM signatures. As of this publication, no common mailing list packages provide straightforward configuration options that produce DMARC compatibility, although Mailman has relevant features starting in 2.1.16.

Translation: “right now, there is no mailserver software that can fix our brokenness. You’re screwed.”

Yahoo helpfully lets me know that I can send email to Yahoo accounts if I just munge my message headers, which as far as I know would violate the email RFCs. There’s also no way I’m going to fuck up the mailing list experience of 325 users just to work around the incompetency of some dipshits at Yahoo.

Hey Yahoo: listservers aren’t going away any time soon. Either fix your shit or get out of the email business.

Dueling phones: iPhone vs. Android

As luck would have it, I have been issued a company cellphone, an iPhone. Company policy is that all mobile phones accessing corporate resources have to have a self-destruct app installed. Thus, if I don’t want to expose my personal smartphone to potential destruction (does it say “this message will self destruct…” before smoke pours out?) I must carry two. While this is inconvenient, having both an iPhone and an Android has given me insight on the two that I wouldn’t ordinarily have.

My thoughts? What, did you expect to come to MT.Net and not get my thoughts? Here’s what I think about the two platforms:

Speed – advantage iPhone. My new 5s runs rings around my Samsung Galaxy Epic 4G Touch. That’s not surprising since my Samsung is positively ancient.
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Sacramento

I just wrapped up a weeklong trip to California. It’s been a few years since I’ve been in the state and this was the first trip I’ve made to its capital, Sacramento. Here are a few quick hits from my visit.

Sacramento is flat. Like Florida flat.

City streets go in one direction for miles and miles.

The oak trees are beautiful and something I don’t remember seeing in Southern California.

A walk through the woods is a treat for all the senses. Sheltering trees tower over you, birds chirp, and sweet-smelling plants are everywhere.
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AT&T, NCNGN, and Google Fiber

fiber_house
I’ve had a lot of people ask me last week what the deal is with the City of Raleigh’s announcement that AT&T has been selected as an NCNGN provider. Most want to know how this affects the city’s work to get us Google Fiber. I was curious, too, so I gave the City’s CIO, Gail Roper, a call.

OMG! Did Raleigh just kill Google Fiber?

Let me say right up front that Google Fiber is safe. The city has been working hard to complete Google’s checklist which is due back on May 1st. The city is still on track to respond by the May 1st deadline. With that out of the way, allow me to explain a bit what NCNGN is all about.

The N.C. Next Generation Network (NCNGN, pronounced “NC engine”) is a regional effort to define common standards for building out fiber networks and to attract providers willing to meet these standards. The participating government entities are using the NCNGN plan as a starting point for negotiations with broadband providers. The goal is to bring some uniformity and predictability to what can be a very expensive process by standardizing on as many aspects of a fiber build as possible.
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Renewables are already beating coal

A ridiculous letter to the editor from local curmudgeon George Sharpley prompted me to pen this response:

George Sharpley thinks that investments in renewable energy have not shown “exceptional gains.” On the contrary, solar PV prices have dropped 97.2% since 1975 and ten states have now reached “grid parity” where renewable energy costs equal that of coal. But why stop there? The same market forces that make our smartphones ubiquitous and affordable are destined to make renewable energy cheaper than other energy sources.

No wonder the Koch brothers are worried. If I were in the dirty energy business I’d be worried, too.

I submitted it to the N&O today. Hope they run it.

Oh, and Sharpley mentions that China’s renewable energy production has dropped to %0.23 from a high of 40% in 1971? While that may or may not be true, China’s entire energy production in 1971 was only 3% of what it is today. It wasn’t until Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit that China’s growth began in earnest.

In case Mr. Sharpley doesn’t remember who Richard Nixon is, I’ll give him a hint: he’s the president who created the Environmental Protection Agency.

Vital vitals

My health isn’t all scary, fortunately. I saw the doctor on Wednesday to try to get some answers. Though I’m still waiting on those answers, I was quite pleased to hear my blood pressure is 113/71 with a pulse of 55.

Those are fantastic numbers and I don’t know to what I can attribute them. It’s not like I’m exercising more than I was, or eating better. I think the biggest change between this reading and the unhealthier reading I had a few months back is simply being in a job now that I love.

I suspected that my last job situation was significantly impacting my health. Now there is some evidence that might back that up.

Shattered

Every 6 months to a year I will have these very odd health symptoms. Last week I experienced one of these internal health storms and it happened very inconveniently during a trip away from home.

It began last Thursday morning. When my brain suffers from a fever I start to not think straight. I noticed that taking hold during breakfast and began to wonder what was going on.

By Thursday at lunch I began to feel stomach pains and a bit of queasiness. The stomach weirdness continued though the day until I began our drive up to DC.

I had handed the driving over to Kelly and taking a short nap when I noticed my ears felt hot against my car pillow. I told Kelly that something was going on with me but I wasn’t sure just what. In spite of my stomach pains continuing and the feeling of coming down with something, I managed to complete our drive to Kelly’s parents’ home.
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