Comments on: Arizona Cardinals (SCIENCE) Cheerleaders: Ask them anything.

By: JT Lewis

JT Lewis — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:24:51 +0000

Whoa, what’s with the rants?
Reminds me of Will Ferrell in “ELF” “He’s an angry elf, must be from the South Pole. ”

I myself had read “Their goal is to playfully challenge stereotypes and inspire young women to consider science and technology fields” A noble goal. Emphasis on ‘playful’.

Dan ‘gets’ it. The blogger who ranted, “The very act of doing so is part of the problem with the current place of science in our society.”? not so much.

As they say, though, there’s o such thing as bad publicity. So GO Cheerleaders. GO Science!

By: 1985

1985 — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:12:42 +0000

Well, you see, that’s the problem. Simply by saying that “‘socially fit’ people can be scientists too” you are already relegating science to something less important than being “socially fit”. And that’s plain wrong.

It absolutely does not matter whether you are socially fit or not, what matters is whether you understand the world around you. Which you can not do if you are scientifically illiterate. A socially fit moron is a moron first and socially fit second.

It also matters very little whether you are optimistic or not. We have this cultural cult of positive thinking, but it’s just that, a cult which has nothing to do with reality. Optimistic thinking is of zero value, realistic thinking is what matter. That’s why scientists tend to be seem pessimistic – because they are the group that is most realistically thinking of all people in society and when the social norm is to be optimistic, they naturally look pessimistic.

But so what? What matters is whether you are right or wrong, not whether you are “socially fit”, optimistic, or whatever.

That’s why this post is such an outrageous silliness.

By: darlene

darlene — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:03:27 +0000

The current place of science in our society has lots to do with the image people have of scientists as being social misfits. So, I completely disagree with you, 1985. Demonstrating that “socially fit” people are scientists, too, can go a long way towards loosening the grips you described above.
Another benefit of using science-minded cheerleaders to spread the gospel of science: they’re an optimistic group. Not something we tend to see much of in the science community, eh?

By: 1985

1985 — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:21:48 +0000

7. Dan Says:
August 18th, 2011 at 12:02 am
And incidently engineering requires enormous amounts of scientific knowledge.

Which does not make it science. Neither is political science a real science let alone law.

6. Dan Says:
August 17th, 2011 at 11:59 pm
I’d be happy to ask any of them a question, certainly rather than listem to someone who would rather criticize their terrific accoplishments!

It has nothing to do with anyone’s accomplishments, it’s just that you are never going to improve the state of scientific literacy or loosen the grip that anti-scientific thinking and anti-intellectualism in general have on our society by promoting a “See, cheerleaders can do science too” line. The very act of doing so is part of the problem with the current place of science in our society.

By: darlene

darlene — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:54:43 +0000

Thanks, Dan

By: Arizona Cardinals (SCIENCE) Cheerleaders: Ask them anything. – Discover Magazine

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:33:01 +0000

[...] Link: Arizona Cardinals (SCIENCE) Cheerleaders: Ask them anything. – Discover Magazine [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 04:02:13 +0000

And incidently engineering requires enormous amounts of scientific knowledge.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:59:49 +0000

I’d be happy to ask any of them a question, certainly rather than listem to someone who would rather criticize their terrific accoplishments! Like, “How does it feel to be a terrific role model for young girls who get to see that beutiful Can = Accomplished?” There see. That was not so difficult! ; )

By: Darlene

Darlene — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:20:31 +0000

This is an interview with the AZ cardinals cheerleaders. If you’d like to ask them a question, please do! The person who wrote this is a “she”…me.

By: 1985

1985 — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:19:34 +0000

So why not pick one of them then? Either they are mostly engineers, and on top of that, on the very soft side of engineering, or the person who wrote this does not have his definition of science right. Either way, it ‘s not good