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bilsams.bsky.social

@bilsams.bsky.social
140 followers 98 following 229 posts
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 5h
The medieval tradition of execution as public spectacle and entertainment pairs well with the medieval approach to medicine and human rights in the United States of Dystopia.
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Xela Hart @xelahart.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
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dc2daylight.bsky.social @dc2daylight.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
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Rae Radford @raeradford.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Wise words…. #BookSky
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
BEFORE we build more mega data centers, why don't we insist that AI prove itself by designing less power-consumptive data centers or less environmentally damaging power generation?
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
My most unexpected curlew sighting came some 30 years ago. I was on top of a bare-rock ridgeline, heavy fog, in British Columbia, Canada, 200 miles from the ocean. And there it was, a lone curlew resting right at the summit.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
As long as campaign financing is in the state it is in, the Dems are only marginally better than the GOP. Mega-donors still have a toxic lock on government. 12+ years of impotence and inaction should be a wake-up call.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Hmmm, how about a quiz on the dozen, or so, women who SHOULD have won a Nobel, but didn't? Lisa Mitner, Celia Payne, Nancy Roman . . .
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Without a broad sector of the educated having a deep familiarity with, and a foundational handle on the innovation within AI, we will be at the mercy of those who would (and are) weaponizing it. A new KIND of weaponization pioneered by social media.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I have said repeatedly on this topic: People are worried FAR too much about the technology of AI and not NEARLY enough about who is increasingly controlling that technology. A RATIONAL use of AI technology should be heavily encouraged in academia.
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america.is.not.free @antifapatriot.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Murmuration ❤️ #birds
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Clay Bennett @claybennett.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
9/26/2026- SCOTUS www.timesfreepress.com/news/2026/se...
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
And now I've spent my daily allowance of media time on this one response. I do NOT regret it. Honest and open inquiry is a refreshing change from mindless, hostile and usually pointless opposition. Please ask for any further elaboration. I may not be the best to answer all of them, but will do my--
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
(4) cont. - this brings us back to the "controlled experiment", the point of which is to tease a fundamental cause or reaction from often complex conditions. In order to demonstrate cause and effect with sufficient certainty, it is necessary to eliminate or control as many variables as possible.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
(4) cont. - this points out a popular criticism from the 1980s and '90s; that science was "too reductionist" and missed the "wholistic" picture. The criticism is not entirely unjustified. I will first say that much advancement has been made in fields of systems analysis, to look more at the whole.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
(4) I would say scientific inquiry is applicable to the study of any natural phenomena. It is in learning to probe a question in a systematic way that the art comes into the fields. Designing and setting up a sufficiently controlled experiment presents unique challenges in each branch of science.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
(3) cont. - The most common, and most easily dismissed criticisms of science come from a lack of familiarity and a cultural discomfort when scientific findings contradict traditional superstitions. From the scientifically literate, well, we'd all like a better system. So far, none has been found.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
(2) I believe I have already addressed. The HD method is not a term I am familiar with in common usage, and is poorly defined. (3) Criticism of the scientific method is "trendy". It is an easy target to highlight the shortcomings of a discipline in an attempt to invalidate its utility.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
(1) cont. II - For students who follow a scientific path, the method is elaborated and it is demonstrated how it applies to various disciplines like chemistry, physics or biology. Routinely, students will reproduce definitive classic experiments.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
(1) cont. - although it has been remarked elsewhere in this thread that the scientific method is not generally taught in U.S. schools, it is, in fact. Typically introduced around 5th or 6th grade, it is immediately forgotten by most students who have no primary interest in the sciences.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
(1) Because there is a fair amount of variation in how the scientific method is applied, looking for a concise, all-inclusive definition is going to be essentially impossible. Comparing it to another method, equally ambiguously defined will be entirely impossible.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
As a beginning the ambiguity in defining the scientific method is at least matched by the ambiguity in a term like hypothetico-deductive method. Each of your points needs at least a significant amount of discussion, if not a book to adequately address, but I'll have a go.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Additionally, it needs to be more frequently noted that virtually all "correct" answers are conditional. That is, there may be circumstances and/or conditions where more complex solutions must be considered . . . exceptions to the rule.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Too often, the scientific method itself is a slow ratchet, creeping in on increasing accuracy over a protracted period of trial and error. While some questions lend themselves to easy and unambiguous answers, others are moch more subtle and convoluted.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I'm pretty sure there is potential for an entire book on the function and evolution of cervical vertebrae in owls.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I realize you must read these responses in reverse order for them to make sense.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
And yet, as with all tools, it is subject to the vicissitudes of human behavior. It is as apt to misuse as to miracles, a reflection of our wayward humanity, our contumulous natures.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
To communicate with each other by the manipulation of photons or electrons over tremendous distances, to photograph sunsets and graduations, the parts of cells and distant galaxies. It is the most functional tool ever designed.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Because of science we can fight the biological causes of disease in a way we could not when it was believed to be the result of malevolent spirits or bad air. It allows us to harness non-biological sources of energy, to send spacecraft to other planets with indescribable precision.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Above all, the most important aspects of scientific inquiry are its reproducibility and its functionality. Science WORKS! And it works more effectively than any other paradigm of inquiry so far attempted. Science is not perfect; it makes errors. But it is slowly honed to greater precision.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It is not perfect. Humans are inherently fallible, particularly as individuals. It is communal effort that gives the method its greatest strength. Where an individual stumbles, the community gradually converges on something approximating objective reality.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The scientific method is one discipline of critical thinking. And I would argue that it is overwhelmingly the most effective example humans have ever devised. Ideally, the scientific method aims to replace subjective interpretations with objective ones.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
One of your best yet.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is something I would love to see popular in 0 or 12 years, because it is diagnostic of a dysfunctional era we have put behind us, Like McCarthyism and reconstruction.
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𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.lol · 21/09/2026
“You didn’t tell me these were the same Persians who beat the Romans!”
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Additionally, while many fundamental discoveries were, and are, made by less rigorous methods, in the end, all ideas must pass through the crucible of scientific methodology to attain acceptance within the scientific community.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The scientific method is also short of the topic of the original post. It is possible to learn critical thinking without learning the scientific method, and the scientific method is not an assurance of broader critical thinking, though it certainly helps.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
We're sorry, there was a slight oversight in our lack of oversight. . . from your friends at the new FDA.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
At 68 I've always resented the intrusion of a phone. Cell phones only seem more intrusive. I frequently leave mine for a couple of days. I do not text. I have disabled online access options that were not essential for the actual phone function. I also hate cars and driving, but love a fishing rod.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Ultimately a hypothesis confirmed needs to hold up to repeated experimentation and observation preferably by numerous and skeptical researchers. Ideally, a mechanism of cause and effect should be postulated and/or established.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
There is a glib, standard definition; Observation, form a hypothesis, test the hypothesis to confirm or refute, repeat. It's okay for a quick sketch. But it misses a trainload of the whole process. Someone ELSE needs to test your results, repeat them if they can, if not, explain.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It's noteworthy that, historically, geniuses have rarely come from the privileged population.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Don't get sucked into the echo-chamber. Likely you're seeing what your "profile" shows as a preference. A rapid MAGAt is likely to see an entirely different suite of self-validating reverberation.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This should be a no-brainer. Kind of like, it's astronomically cheaper to protect the planet we have than to talk about terraforming some other one to escape our excesses.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Over, under, sideways, down Backwards, forwards, square, and round
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Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Yuka Numata’s Haunting Sculptures of Children, Made from Fishing Line and Beads, Installed at Abandoned Elementary School spoon-tamago.com/yuka-numata-...
spoon-tamago.com
Yuka Numata's Haunting Sculptures of Children, Made from Fishing Line and Beads, Installed at Abandoned Elementary School
When you enter the classroom of an elementary school, you might expect to hear laughter and yelps of excitement. But at the former Yuya Elementary School in Gifu, you’ll instead encounter hundreds of beads hanging from the ceiling by fishing line. As you walk through the classroom, the beads slowly
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Michelle says: Be kind. Always. ❤️ @snarkysillysad.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Hey, wait a second.... #AGoodPlace Source: www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmil...
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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.com · 17/09/2026
New cat just dropped. Landed on its feet, it’s fine.
nationalgeographic.com
Meet the First New Cat Species Discovered in 100 Years
A small, spotted tiger cat from Bolivia may just be the beginning of a wave of new small cat species.
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
While Rome burns, our Nero is not fiddling around; he's spraying gasoline. WE ARE TOAST
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bilsams.bsky.social @bilsams.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
WOW!
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