not bad…

and yeah, many people fall for that common logical fallacy of Argumentum ad verecundiam (appealing to authority, usually authority vested elsewhere from the discipline in question e.g. a doctor commenting on contract law) and we have lots of bogus opinions all around.

But, objectively speaking, don’t you think it a little unfair to expect a mere journalist to have formal training in other professions? Sure, it’s horrible to misrepresent and mislead the masses, especially in certain reputable papers (aww c’mon let that one go), but surely you know that if we raise the requisite standard of expertise of a journalist, we’d have little or no one to cover articles; few can attain such a level, and those that do would demand a pay higher than a newspaper would pay.

Sure, he should do his homework, but hey… if he were to comment only on his qualified profession…

ok i lost my own punchline, forgive me, its 5am.

good to see you shianux. well, sort of.

This is why I don’t read the ST.

Is Andy Ho even qualified to comment on science-related issues?

Source: God In the Dock
Published: July 13, 1958
Author: C. S. Lewis
Title: Willing Slaves of the Welfare State

Again, the new oligarchy must more and more base its claim to plan us on its claim to knowledge. If we are to be mothered, mother must know best. This means they must increasingly rely on the advice of scientists, till in the end the politicians proper become merely the scientists’ puppets. Technocracy is the form to which a planned society must tend. Now I dread specialists in power because they are specialists speaking outside their special subjects. Let scientists tell us about sciences. But government involves questions about the good for man, and justice, and what things are worth having at what price; and on these a scientific training gives a man’s opinion no added value. Let the doctor tell me I shall die unless I do so-and-so; but whether life is worth having on those terms is no more a question for him that for any other man.

thanks! thanks for saving us from andy ho … now let’s look for the next expert to tell us the truth about the next field he chooses to poke his nose into