Democracy Has Prevailed.

April 19, 2016

Sarah Palin vs Bill Nye. WHO'S The Scientist?

Since some of my friends on the left are screaming at each other vis-à-vis Clinton V Sanders (and by  Grabthar's hammer, I am so happy I'm not involved in that one!), I'm veering sideways to another argument.

This one:
Of all the causes Sarah Palin has embraced in her varied career as hockey mom, Alaska governor, Republican vice-presidential nominee, Fox television commentator and Donald Trump supporter, none perhaps may be as bold or – as she still likes to say, “rogue” – as trying to take down a much-beloved children’s television personality: Bill Nye the Science Guy.

But that was where hardcore climate change denial landed Palin on Thursday: a wood-panelled committee room in Congress where she disputed the credentials of a hugely popular science educator who has designed devices for Nasa (sic) and been awarded several honorary degrees.

“Bill Nye is as much a scientist as I am,” Palin told the gathering. “He’s a kids’ show actor. He’s not a scientist.”
That's right.  The governor-who-quit-half-way is as much a scientist as Bill Nye?

Can we get a fact-check on this?

Sure:
So how do Nye and Palin’s scientific credentials compare?

Palin has none. She has a bachelor’s in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho. She has spent her career in politics. In addition to serving as governor of Alaska from 2006 to 2009, she was chairperson for the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission between 2003 and 2004 and Republican vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election, among other posts.

Nye has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Cornell. He also has six honorary doctorate degrees, including Ph.D.s in science from Goucher College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

He held various positions as an engineer between 1977 to 2009, such as contributing to the designs of 747 planes for Boeing and the designs of equipment used to clean up oil spills.

From 1999 to 2009, Nye worked with a team at the NASA and California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to design and create the MarsDial, a sundial and camera calibrator attached to the Mars Exploration Rover.
And so on and so forth.

That she's still taken seriously by some of our friends on the right is screamingly laughable and maddening all at the same time.

He's right and she's wrong.

7 comments:

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

Target rich environment for the Fascist Guy Bill Nye
Fascist Non-Scientist, Bill Nye, Wants to Jail Climate Skeptic REAL Scientists
http://louderwithcrowder.com/wtf-bill-nye-encourages-jailing-climate-change-deniers/
He also has six honorary doctorate degrees, including Ph.D.s in science from Goucher College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
What are those are worth exactly?
"Bill Cosby has been awarded at least 57 honorary degrees since 1985. Nearly half of these honorary degrees have been rescinded due to allegations of sexual assault and/or immoral behavior"

Of course Nye in a debate would deflect these "Gotcha" questions.
A) Life scientist Bill Nye (who wrote the book on Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation) said "Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science."
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/bill-nye-religious-fanatic
So there were no advancements in life science before Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life"?
B) Please list the scientific advancements based on evolution, the big bang and string theories?

Ol' Froth said...

The paper revises the scientific committee.

Dayvoe said...

Another non sequitur (a set of them, actually) from HTTT.

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

Surprised progressives have not used the Edited video defense to excuse Bill Nye wanting to jail Climate Deniers.

FactCheck.org cites Bill Nye’s fake degrees to prove he’s a scientist
http://twitchy.com/2016/04/19/factcheck-org-cites-bill-nyes-fake-degrees-to-prove-hes-a-scientist/
http://thefederalist.com/2016/04/18/sarah-palin-is-right-bill-nye-is-no-scientist/
"It does not appear that Nye has published a single paper in a peer-reviewed journal of any kind; his chief scientific exploits of the past 20 years or so appear to be tinkering with sundials and making public speaking appearances to talk about how great science is. His most recent high-profile contribution to “science” was to publicly debate a creationist over whether the Earth is 6,000 years old—a functionally useless endeavor, though I’m sure it made for a great Twitter hashtag."

Ol' Froth said...

Heir keeps asking the wrong questions. Evolution explains biology, amongst other things. Science doesn't necessarily "advance" due to a workable theory, the theory explains what we observe. The Big Bang and string theory are closely related, you could throw branes, cosmic background radiation and inflation in there as well...but then again, Heir doesn't understand what science is, or even engineering, which at its core is applied science.

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

Maybe progressives should stop yelling that you can not use modern technology (made possible by the advance of SCIENCE) to DENY SCIENCE.

Ol' Froth said...

Now you're just babbling incoherently.