Letters to the Editor
Silenced
Published Letters: 1359 Editor's Choice: 75
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USERNAME -- neither China, Russia nor Venezuela will ever be a power in science
[Read the article: Seizing American supremacy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As rising countries like China, Russia and Venezuela use their new-found wealth to educate more and more modern scientists -- who will use their science education to develop new technologies (including weapons technology)
They won't be using their science to do anything that great -- because these countries don't have to capacity to become great scientific powers.
China is an authoritarian state, and that's still how they do science. You still have to get permission from a "great man" -- someone already recognized by the Communists -- in order to haver a new idea recognized as credible. And their "great men" have tended towards protection of their own pet ideas. So you can see how far that's going to go.
This is why China has never been, and never will be, a powerhouse in basic scientific research. I know several Americans are trying to help them become one -- but I hear even those people are getting frustrated by the Chinese government's obvious antipathy towards independent thinking.
China has always been good at engineering, but that's about all you can expect from an authoritarian country.
Venezuela will never have great science because Hugo Chavez is a Stalinist nutcase and those kinds of people always thwart and undermine the types of independent people who do the best science.
He's a walking cult of personality and his crash and burn phase is coming. It always comes for his type of leader. He's turning the whole system into a monument to himself, and eventually when people get tired of his bullying and intimidation, they'll reject what he did, too.
And by the way -- scientists have never responded well to bullying and intimidation.
I predict scientists will end up fleeing Venezuela and America as usual will get the best ones.
Russia used to have an overabundance of great scientists during the Soviet period, but that's because science was the only place where your work could be more or less free from Party censorship.
But now young Russians no longer want to go into science, because the arts and humanities are no longer tightly controlled by the government, and in addition they can get rich by going into business.
So Russian science really is not in brilliant shape. It does not look good for the future. They can't get young people interested in science any more. It's almost a national crisis.
You can rant all you want about the Republicans and what they've done to science in America. I don't like what they've done either.
But I will bet you cash money that ten years from now, this is still where all the best scientists in the world want to come to work.
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It's a tough job being God
[Read the article: I'm so damned judgmental!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I know it's very fashionable right now for people to feel it's their responsibility to judge all mankind personally. Especially on the Internet.
But I think there's a good reason why ancient people decided to give that job to God. It's a job that never ends, never wins, and never brings you any love either.
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Don't write off Europe when it comes to global dominance in science
[Read the article: Seizing American supremacy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If we're talking about science -- well then -- where is the Large Hadron Collider located? It's not in China, Russia or Venezuela.
And there never will be anything of the kind in any of those countries.
They're never going to have a major non-weapons physics project in China, because they simply do not value information for its own sake in China. It always has to be connected to someone's authority. And it's been that way forever, not just under the Communists.
They're not going to have a major non-weapons physics project in Russia in the foreseeable future, because young Russians are much more interested in getting rich than doing science these days.
It's a stupid joke to even consider the possibility of a major basic physics project in Venezuela. Chavez would wake up cranky one morning and close the whole thing down on a whim. Everyone would know that going in, and so no scientists in their right minds would ever agree to work for him.
Europe is America's only serious competition for global leadership in basic scientific research.
And if you don't lead the world in basic research, then you're not going to lead the world in creating military or commercial applications either.
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They're not any better to their kids
[Read the article: Spare the rod, spoil the wife]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One of those "Christian" boot camps just got in trouble because they dragged some girl behind a truck after she couldn't keep up with the team on a hike.
It doesn't really sound like Christianity. It sound more like the the kind of patriarchal tribalism that allows the "honor killing" of disobedient family members in the tribal Islamic world.
But then the "people of the book" are all on the tribal side, aren't they? The Old Testament and the Koran are like instruction manuals for the tribal way of life.
Only the New Testament gets away from that mindset to honor the individual by himself or herself, apart from the family or clan or tribe.
But today's "Christians" seem to be rejecting that message and reaching back in time to the tribal attitudes that ruled before Jesus came around.