Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Racists Infiltrate the Hard Sciences
The humanities and much of the social sciences have been beyond parody and beyond shame for a long time. What's different about "Black Holes: Race and the Cosmos" is its co-listing in an actual science department. The course fulfills Cornell's science distribution requirement, touching as it does on such concepts as the electromagnetic spectrum. It is not surprising that astronomy would be an early adopter of race theory, and that Cornell would lead the way. Many astronomy departments have been on the forefront of campus identity politics, eliminating the physics GRE as a requirement for graduate study, for example, on the ground that it has a disparate impact on female, black, and Hispanic students. Cornell's astronomy department will not even allow prospective graduate students to submit the general GRE or the physics GRE. Cornell's engineering department accepts female undergraduates at over two and a half times the rate of male students, to yield an engineering class that is majority female. This is hardly an accident. Twice as many male as female intending engineering students apply for admission; the average male math SAT score is significantly higher than the average female score, and males predominate at the upper reaches of the curve.
And,
Seeing specters of racism everywhere, the racial avengers are tearing down every institution associated with Western civilization, simply because of its "whiteness." Science had stood as a guard against such metaphorical, magical thinking. Bit by bit, it is succumbing.This is what passes for intellectual rigor among the woke. I wish hard scientists, engineers, and other STEM professionals could be counted on to call bullshit on this absolute nonsense.
Via Scott Johnson.
Disparities
Jenna Lemoncelli: Jalen Rose: Kevin Love made Olympics because of white 'tokenism'.
"As an anti-racist, when I see racial disparities, I see racism."
— Ibram X. Kendi
Electric Fantasy
Then we have electric vehicles. Currently, fewer than two percent of the vehicles on the road in the U.S. are electric. That percentage may be a little higher in California, but it is still miniscule. Nevertheless, California has enacted legislation that seeks to ban gasoline-powered vehicles beginning in 2035. Where the infrastructure will come from to support such a transition in the automobile fleet in the next 14 years is anyone’s guess.
Meanwhile, California’s grid is so inadequate that it can’t effectively charge the tiny number of electric cars already on the road.
Of course, Faraday's law and the photoelectric effect aren't covered in political science, grievance studies, or law curricula.
Labels: party of science