Scientific Illiteracy

Having just read a slew of idiotic comments on Climategate, I'm appalled at the lack of understanding of science.

A few things about science:

1) It's not a religion. Scientists argue, fight, smear each other and do all other things humans have been doing since we were living in the trees. But the final arbiter over time is what best satisfies the experimental data. Data changes the world of science.
2) Scientists are human beings, not priests. See #1.
3) If you want to understand scientific hypotheses, read scientists. Don't read the Washington Times. Don't read the Time or Newsweek. Don't watch Faux News. Don't listent to Glenn Beck-- well, don't listen to Glenn Beck anyway. Read the science. Read the abstracts. If you're not well enough versed in the material, read scientific blogs by scientists.
4) Don't read just one scientist. Read a bunch. Consensus isn't reached by a lone voice in the wilderness. It's a crowd of voices shouting data. The ones that most match up are the loudest.
5) Check the credentials of those you read. Salt your credibility by the expertise of those you read. Vaccine safety is better understood by doctors than by beauty models or actors. Not that credentials should dictate who you believe, but whom would you rather have give you an appendectomy? The guy who does them every day for a living with eighteen years of training and twenty years experience or the guy who played a pet detective? If you'd trust that guy with cutting open your body, why do you suddenly not trust him with vaccinating your child on the sayso of someone who talks out of his ass?
6) If ideas can't be tested in some fashion, they can't be called science.

I could say a lot more about science here but the main thing is someone like Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck are not competent to discuss these matters. Not only are they not qualified, they have a vested interest in taking a particular side. They get paid to take that side-- just like the shill selling cars on television. It's their bread and butter. This makes them, by definition, partisan and untrustworthy.

Now is the worst possible time to be scientifically illiterate. Yet, that's what this country has embraced.

That said, if you actually want to know about Climategate, here are some links:

For a good analysis of the content, check out Nobel Intent here and Real Climate, here.
For a good analysis of the scientific misconduct, check out In the Pipeline, here.
And, finally, if you want the raw data, get it from Real Climate here.

You might check the comment section on that last one as it has some interesting criticisms. Also, you can see criticism of what data is there and the response-- scientific process made miniature.
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Wall of Idiots
Lawyering for animal rights

Links of Interest
Thanksgiving Chemistry
Census of Marine Life
Morality and Wilderness
Nano Soccer Bots
The Northern Lights of Saturn
America's Army on the Moon, and other stories
More LHC. And here.
Solar energy -> Hydrogen
Five things you should know about climate change
Complex history of scientific facts
Ravens hunt cooperatively
State of glaciers in the Himalayas
Mechanical forces on the cell
Killing Rinderpest
Shrimpus eBayicus