10 Comments

Oh brother this Malthusian monster Ehrlich just keeps on ticking.

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Jan 9, 2023Liked by William M Briggs

The slow death of science. Rather reflective of western culture, sadly.

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Jan 9, 2023Liked by William M Briggs

It's pretty obvious by now that Peer Review = "got big corporate cash sponsors".

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Jan 9, 2023Liked by William M Briggs

That's right, even to not very well "formally educated" person like myself

the argument is laughable. Just the 🍒 on his cake.

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Jan 9, 2023Liked by William M Briggs

If Ehrlich is so sure of himself why won't he engage in public debate with someone like Bjorn Lomborg or Michael Shellenberger or Patrick Moore or Steve Koonin? Why, because he knows he would get beat up bad, really bad.

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Probably because he remembers how badly he lost to Julian Simon back in 1980. Ehrlich bet Julian Simon that a basket of commodities (Ehrlich's choice) would be more expensive in 1990 than 1980. All five commodities were cheaper in 1990 (in constant dollars), and three were cheaper in nominal dollars.

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Jan 9, 2023Liked by William M Briggs

Well, it's obvious! There are no longer any meaningful discoveries to be made!

Fauci & Co., (by "& Co.", I am referring to the U.N. and that apotheosis of all science that resides in the body and mind of Bill Gates) have made this clear with their stern, yet lovingly paternal declarations of being the physical embodiment of science and of owning all such science! Fauci's reluctant, yet graceful denouement into private life is proof of Science being all done, and he's taking it with him. We hoi polloi can simply ease back in our Barcaloungers and glide into nirvana on the rails greased with the vast, almost bottomless, intellectual fruits he has deigned to gift to the world. Don't applaud, just throw money...and more peer-reviewed honors.

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Jan 9, 2023Liked by William M Briggs

I put a few quotes on Twitter, Sarge.

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Interestingly, the graph seems to show that nearly all sciences mentioned (except social sciences) have that "average CD" value more or less stable for decades until mid 1990s, and then a big drop. Could it be caused by Chinese scientists entering the publication race en masse at that time?

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This reminds me of the Sumo wrestler's "fix" in Freakanomics.

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