tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post8074886133460475963..comments2023-10-26T22:06:11.166+11:00Comments on Metamagician3000: Russell finishes Unscientific AmericaRussell Blackfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12431324430596809958noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-2870840448076521862009-08-31T02:13:42.241+10:002009-08-31T02:13:42.241+10:00Blake-
Being an (albeit very lapsed) amateur astr...Blake-<br /><br />Being an (albeit very lapsed) amateur astronomer, I have been following the discussion about Pluto for a long, long time.<br /><br />The debate about the nature of Pluto was exciting, particularly with the discovery of more distance bodies in the Solar System.<br /><br />The idea that there was some mass public shock at the re-classification is silly. Just as silly is that scientific classifications should be influenced by public vote. <br /><br />What a total irrelevance anyway. M&K can't just not see the wood for the trees; they can't even see the tree for the leaf.Steve Zarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16867968082532563442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-89033637887967245742009-08-31T02:05:00.614+10:002009-08-31T02:05:00.614+10:00The introduction to the book, which brings in the ...The introduction to the book, which brings in the Pluto business, is <a href="http://www.unscientificamerica.com/excerpt.php" rel="nofollow">available online</a>. Whether or not one thinks that the IAU came to the "right" decision is beside the point: M&K's treatment of the Pluto question isn't even <i>historically accurate.</i> To pick just one, suitably ironic point, they ignore the public education efforts in the years prior to the IAU decision, including those by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, one of the most mediagenic scientists active today. They also take the size of the Facebook group "When I was your age, Pluto was a planet" as evidence that people were aghast at the astronomers' behaviour. I mean, <i>seriously?</i> First of all, saying that Pluto <i>was</i> a planet back then can just as well imply acceptance of Pluto's not being a planet any more; more importantly, a Facebook group people can join in a moment of whimsy hardly counts as "encouraging people to vote on Pluto's status and override the experts". To invoke a modern idiom: Understanding online culture FAIL.Blake Staceyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13977394981287067289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-1440682307951352502009-08-31T01:46:04.923+10:002009-08-31T01:46:04.923+10:00I'd be interested to know if you think the boo...I'd be interested to know if you think the book is worth the time to read, even just as an education about a certain position.<br /><br />Coming across elsewhere some statement by authors about the importance of the reclassification of Pluto was a real 'WFT' moment.Steve Zarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16867968082532563442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-12776336380393025282009-08-30T10:59:56.448+10:002009-08-30T10:59:56.448+10:00I'm starting to like this idea: Unscientific ...I'm starting to like this idea: <i>Unscientific America,</i> written in the stylistic mixture of Pynchon's <i>The Crying of Lot 49.</i><br /><br />"Oedipa Maas came home that afternoon from a Tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue, to find she had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, for the estate of Carl Sagan, a science-communication mogul whose legacy was complicated enough that the job of sorting it all out was more than honorary."Blake Staceyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13977394981287067289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-8043671883470460502009-08-30T10:54:52.317+10:002009-08-30T10:54:52.317+10:00Ha! Yeah that's it - if only they'd done a...Ha! Yeah that's it - if only they'd done a little pastiche in the style of Sir Thomas Browne now and then.Ophelia Bensonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-3415335357473485372009-08-30T09:54:55.503+10:002009-08-30T09:54:55.503+10:00I'm also a fan of difficulty and unfamiliarity...I'm also a fan of difficulty and unfamiliarity in their proper dosages. . . Switching into faux-Elizabethan iambic pentameter for a few scenes hasn't stopped me from being <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Until-Earthset-Blake-Stacey/dp/1442128771/" rel="nofollow">the highest (on average) rated author on Amazon.com</a>! :-)Blake Staceyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13977394981287067289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24761391.post-45164867768017668382009-08-30T09:06:31.506+10:002009-08-30T09:06:31.506+10:00I'm a big meanie, but the style grated on me. ...I'm a big meanie, but the style grated on me. It is lucid and clear, and that's good, but...it has a talking down note that I don't like. I think of it as a mass circulation newspaper/Time-Newsweek style - carefully simple and kind of coaxing - as if written for children. Too many buzzwords (community, mainstream, culture wars, etc), not enough...sharpness, surprise, difficulty, unfamiliarity.Ophelia Bensonhttp://www.butterfliesandwheels.comnoreply@blogger.com