Critical thinking...

[Denis Franklin, MD]

You do know, do you not, that "Dr." Douglas Howard, the huckster for Balance of Nature freeze-dried veggies in a capsule, is a chiropractor.  He is a self-styled "scientist": a general job title for which there are no requirements whatsoever, for which there is no degree and no licensure or certification.

The other TV ads that exemplify deception are those ones with Joe Namath that urge you to call the "Medicare Helpline" for information about all the benefits you may be missing.  The visual layout of the ad is that of a Medicare Card, but the "Medicare Helplie" (stet) is actually the completely non-governmental marketing entity of a Medicare supplemental insurance plan.  So all the "free" benefits you may be missing are only free if you buy their expensive insurance.  Shame on Joe Namath for lending his name to such a blatant scam.

Remember "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger, infamous radio psychologist, who was licensed in California as a therapist: (either Licensed Clinical Social worker, LCSW, or Marriage, Family and Child Counseling, MFCC.  Her PhD was in physiology and her thesis was on the effect of insulin upon lab rats.  The Doctor Laura Program was in the top five on radio for several years.

But these  stories do illustrate the fact that a whole course in critical thinking and linguistic analysis could be offered using only TV ads as the reading (or viewed) workbook material.  The task of each lesson would be to find the deceptions woven into each ad. 

Denis

[Denis Franklin, MD]

Hi Alan,

I think in my two "science" examples it was a matter of non-scientists implying that they were scientists when they were not.  But Medicine is full of examples of quackery, some schemes perpetrated by actual doctors.

But the world can always use another book!

Denis

On May 11, 2021, at 3:51 PM, Alan Korwin <al...@gunlaws.com> wrote:

Marvelous Denis.

Would I hurt the credibility of my next book by delving into this? Huckters as scientists?

Oz once claimed there are ten million colors. Wikipedia backs that up. Bwahahahahaha! With math no less. You can't name or recall 10 million anythings or, I believe, distinguish ten million anythings. Color is a subject of such subjective complexity that to make such a claim strains credulity beyond credulity, to bend a phrase.

Alan.

<WSMW Sm.png>

I just got permission to use the illustration.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Virtual Idea Exchange" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-idea-exc...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-idea-exchange/5B030BB1-A85E-40E6-8244-1253B0F1DAD3%40uchicago.edu.

Alan Korwin, Publisher

Bloomfield Press
"We publish the gun laws."

4848 E. Cactus, #505-440
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
602-996-4020 Phone
602-494-0679 Fax
http://www.gunlaws.com
al...@gunlaws.com

"Don't be a spectator in the struggle to preserve freedom."

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Virtual Idea Exchange" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-idea-exc...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-idea-exchange/F173EDAC-3F3D-4A6C-A678-ACD460E76026%40gunlaws.com.

[Jim Delton]

Alan - several things are getting conflated here.  As a starting point we would have to define what we mean by "color".  I'm not going to do that, I'd rather keep this confusing.  I will make a couple points though because my keyboard is still functional.  In my view (as I might define color) there are an infinite number of colors.  In regard to the 10-million color claim, I looked at how they came up with that and it makes sense WITHIN the definition of color they are using.  Keep in mind that at least one aspect of the meaning of "color" depends on whether you are talking about how many colors can be generated versus how many a particular organism can perceive.  If someone is color blind how many colors are there to that person?  What about a cat?  Why is "blue" a color but "infrared radiation" not?  How many "blues" are there?  If politics makes you blue does an opera make you orange?

Jim Delton ¨¨°°¨°°¨Ô¨°°¨°°¨¨ 

On Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 03:52:02 PM MST, Alan Korwin <al...@gunlaws.com> wrote:

Marvelous Denis.

Would I hurt the credibility of my next book by delving into this? Huckters as scientists?

Oz once claimed there are ten million colors. Wikipedia backs that up. Bwahahahahaha! With math no less. You can't name or recall 10 million anythings or, I believe, distinguish ten million anythings. Color is a subject of such subjective complexity that to make such a claim strains credulity beyond credulity, to bend a phrase.

Alan.

I just got permission to use the illustration.

On May 11, 2021, at 12:01 PM, Denis Franklin, MD <denisf...@uchicago.edu> wrote:

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Virtual Idea Exchange" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to virtual-idea-exc...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/virtual-idea-exchange/5B030BB1-A85E-40E6-8244-1253B0F1DAD3%40uchicago.edu.

Alan Korwin, Publisher

Bloomfield Press
"We publish the gun laws."

4848 E. Cactus, #505-440
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
602-996-4020 Phone
602-494-0679 Fax
http://www.gunlaws.com
al...@gunlaws.com

"Don't be a spectator in the struggle to preserve freedom."

[Jim Delton]

Found this in Merriam Webster website....  kind of interesting....

Jim Delton ¨¨°°¨°°¨Ô¨°°¨°°¨¨ 

Dictionary 

scientist noun

 

sci·​en·​tist | \ ˈsī-ən-tist  \

Definition of scientist

1: a person learned in science and especially natural science : a scientific investigator

First Known Use of scientist

1834, in the meaning defined at sense 1

History and Etymology for scientist

scient- (in Latin scientia "knowledge, SCIENCE" or in SCIENTIFIC) + -IST entry 1

NOTE: The word scientist was apparently first introduced by the English polymath William Whewell (1794-1866). The coinage is referred to in an unsigned book review authored by Whewell in The Quarterly Review, vol. 51 (March & June, 1834), pp. 58-59): "The tendency of the sciences has long been an increasing proclivity to separation and dismemberment…The mathematician turns away from the chemist; the chemist from the naturalist; the mathematician, left to himself, divides himself into a pure mathematician and a mixed mathematician, who soon part company; the chemist is perhaps a chemist of electro-chemistry; if so, he leaves common chemical analysis to others; between the mathematician and the chemist is to be interpolated a 'physicien' (we have no English name for him), who studies heat, moisture, and the like. And thus science, even mere physical science, loses all traces of unity. A curious illustration of this result may be observed in the want of any name by which we can designate the students of the knowledge of the material world collectively. We are informed that this difficulty was felt very oppresively by the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in their meetings at York, Oxford, and Cambridge, in the last three summers. There was no general term by which these gentlemen could describe themselves with reference to their pursuits. Philosophers was felt to be too wide and too lofty a term, and was very properly forbidden them by Mr. [Samuel Taylor] Coleridge, both in his capacity of philologer [philologist] and metaphysician; savans was rather assuming, besides being French instead of English; some ingenious gentleman [apparently William Whewell himself] proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form scientist, and added that there could be no scruple in making free with this termination when we have such words as sciolist, economist and atheist—but this was not generally palatable…." As Whewell indicates, his coinage was not a success, though, undeterred, he reintroduced it in 1840, and the word seems to have been produced independently of Whewell in the following two decades in both Britain and the United States (where it was more readily accepted). For documentation and details, see Sydney Ross, "Scientist: the story of a word," Annals of Science, vol. 18, no. 2 (June, 1962), pp. 65-85.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Idea Exchange of Phoenix" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to phxidex+u...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/phxidex/CF15B219-D97E-499C-8568-D0E9D46D2FD3%40uchicago.edu

.

[Denis Franklin, MD]

My three years of Latin in high school  taught me that scientia means knowledge or skill.  Sciens, scientis means knowing, versed in, acquainted with.  In French, savoir is to know.  Savant is a scholar or one who knows, is learned or skillful.

I therefore take scientist to mean a person who has studied a particular topic having to do with the natural world, and who is particularly knowledgable about his or her particular area of interest.

But it also implies an occupation or profession, and usually more than an avocational interest and activity in the field.  For instance, a lawyer who was an avid birdwatcher would probably be described as an amateur ornithologist rather than a scientist specializing in avian taxonomy and migratory behavior.

I didn't get into the discussion about colors because of the obvious absence of usable definitions, and inattention to the biological process of color perception.  Color perception is the consequence of the action upon certain molecules by electromagnetic waves.  More specifically, it involves the transfer of energy to those molecules when the inter-atomic distances within the molecules are resonant with the wavelengths of the incoming electromagnetic waves.  Whereas the wavelengths vary continuously across the spectrum, the relevant molecular dimensions are discontinuous, or discrete, meaning that color perception is not infinitely variable.  Ergo, biologically speaking, there is not an infinite number of colors.

I am highly skeptical that anyone has identified and measures the relevant (resonant) distances for all of the molecules utilized by all living organisms, in order to tally all the wavelengths it is possible for earthly life to detect.  Therefore I will disbelieve any number offered.

The radio spectrum is said to extend (wavelength-wise) from DC to daylight.   But of course it goes beyond that to x-rays, then to gamma rays, and then what?

But if "color" is restricted to what somebody, or some thing (on Earth?) can perceive, it requires explicit definition and likely its "numbers" can never be quantified.

More likely the "10 million" assertion pertained to distinctions able to be measured by something other than a biological detector and  -- well, why go on working hard to define the terms of such a sloppy assertion?

Denis

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/phxidex/563424440.1770757.1620797561675%40mail.yahoo.com.