I thought the The View would take first prize when it comes to recent stupidity on TV but here's a contender. The contestant doesn't know whether the sun goes around the Earth or not so he polls the audience. 56% of them say yes.
The French accept evolution. Now we have to work on astronomy. I sure hope Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy doesn't see this.
[Hat Tip: Casey Luskin (really!) [The French Reject Prayer while Accepting Evolution and Geocentrism]]
Il y avait quatre cents ans depuis Galileo...
ReplyDeleteThat was so sad. I feel sorry for the host though...he had to sit through that and not tell the man (and the audience) how stupid they were.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't the lack of an "All of the Above" have been a tipoff?
ReplyDeleteWell, since the "center" of any system is technically arbitrary, one could place the earth at the center and say the sun "revolves" around it. It makes the math incredibly complicated, and the sun doesn't so much "revolve" around as move in an incredibly bizarre, not easily describable path, but it isn't technically wrong.
ReplyDeleteI get the distinct impression that the producers of these shows take great pains to select contestants who really are dumber than fifth graders.
ReplyDeleteoh lala! no wonder they want to invade Iran now.
ReplyDeleteWhat can you expect from a culture that loves Jerry Lewis movies.
ReplyDeleteThe Frenchies also sent us Derrida, Latour, and Lacan.
Dunbar said,
ReplyDeleteIl y avait quatre cents ans depuis Galileo...
Apparently, 56% of French citizens have never heard of Galileo.
I think the contest for stupidest person on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' still goes to a woman who was not aware which direction a compass pointed to.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that the audience members saw what a berk he was and decided to stitch him up. I know I would have, in a similar situation. Think about it: would you want to help that guy win money?
ReplyDeleteI suppose that a majorty of French are pro-evolution the very same way they think the Sun is Earth's satellite. I know what I'm talking about, I'm living in France :-) The same way Sputnik seems to be Earth's natural satellite for a majority of younger.
ReplyDeleteNow, nobody noticed that Larry present what happens on the video the wrong way? The contestant don't poll the public about Sun orbiting Earth, it's just a vote from the public: one answer out of three. Chech it out. This is secondary in front of the publics response, but...
The result isn't to be looked the same way.
The contestant hadn't any preference for one of the four options, that's very sad.
But nobody in the public chosen Venus or Mars! Great, isn't it?
Not a very big difference for the "dark side" of France.
But why Larry who found the situation important enough to make a post doesn't think it is important enough to report it correctly?
I think I'll post this comment anonymously.
And do like Peter's point of view, but I think he is to optimistic :-)
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ReplyDeleteWell, since the "center" of any system is technically arbitrary, one could place the earth at the center and say the sun "revolves" around it.
ReplyDeleteTechnically correct, yes, but we have natural centers as well, those that makes the orbits simplest in some parametrization. The mass center (gravitational center) of the solar system is probably localized close to the sun's center. (Seems the barycenter Sun-Jupiter is just outside the sun.)
Sometimes we have reason to choose a natural definition for other purposes than convenience and convention. (I come to think of using the values of coupling constants when comparing forces, which makes gravitation weakest - but it is strongest when summed as in black holes.) But here I don't see any.
Yes Torbjorn, as usual I am sure you've got that all right. However, you are reckoning without the co-ordinate system you are applying - if it's particularly clumsy it may be easier to retain an earth-centred system. Hence, we find that if we translate all coordinate systems in to FRENCH, then hey presto out pops not just an earth centred universe, but, in fact, a FRENCH centred universe! Occassionally however, Quebec pops out of the equations.
ReplyDeleteErr, this discussion would be quite incomplete without pointing out that Heliocentrism is an Atheist Doctrine.
ReplyDeleteTimothy V Reeves:
ReplyDeletea FRENCH centred universe
I could accept that. If it puts the Sun real close. Mm, french fries...
[Funnily enough I usually don't like potatoes or similar starchy and bitter food. But fries (or the occasional potato gratin or young fresh potato) goes down smoothly.]
Where I live fries (or 'chips') go down particularly smoothly simply because they are incredibly greasy - the result of deep frying; as they say, in Hell the cooks are English!
ReplyDelete@Larry Moran
ReplyDelete"Apparently, 56% of French citizens have never heard of Galileo."
Please, please, please: do you think the audience of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" is a random sample of the french population ;-?
I am not particularly optimistic about the scientific culture of this kind of public, BUT, I think we have a bias here. The question asks: "Qu'est-ce qui GRAVITE autour de la Terre", which must be translated in "What revolves around the Earth", except that the word "graviter" is a little strange for this public, in my opinion.
What I mean, is that the question "Qu'est-ce qui TOURNE autour de la Terre" (turn around) would have been better understood. May be.