It would be interesting to see how many of these people are religious, too.
Perhaps inspired by TV favourites such as Doctor Who and Ashes to Ashes, nearly a third of Britons (30%) believe that time travel is actually possible. The results were revealed in a survey, launched at the start of National Science and Engineering Week (11-20 March) by Birmingham Science City, which aimed to see just how blurred the lines between science and fiction really are.
Other findings included:
1. Over a fifth of adults incorrectly believe light sabres exist.
2. Nearly a quarter (24%) of people are wrong in their belief that humans can be teleported.
3. Nearly 50% of adults wrongly believe that memory-erasing technology exists.
4. More than 40% of people incorrectly believe that hover boards exist.
5. Nearly one fifth (18%) of adults have the incorrect view that they can see gravity.
We need a Thatcher, not a Boehner…I think its time for a Tea Party third party…GOP sold us out again.
To get back on topic…
“That’s really fucked-up.
Just cause they’re ignorant doesn’t means its okay for us to be ignorant.” – Chris Rock
#59 Below 5% unemployment, massive growth in personal income was bad, 15% real unemployment, foreclosures, bankrupt treasury is good?
The progressive advocacy press kept declaring it was a Bush Depression…throughout his presidency…it was insane…
Now when we are in a depression, we hear how good it is to be unemployed….ad nauseam
Progressive lies border on insanity.
I believe that Jack Daniels has been producing a memory-erasing technology for some time now. The Brits may know their local version as “Tanqueray” or “Guiness”.
Okay, let’s see:
Time travel? Please. E=Mc2 provides for one way time travel. So, indeed it is possible, just not both ways or as easily as hopping into the nearest DeLorean.
1. Sure light sabers exist. They exist in the Star Wars movies.
2. See above, but substitute “Trek” for “Wars”.
3. Memory erasing “technology” perhaps not. But torture someone long enough and they will agree to forget damned near anything. And, of course, we don’t really need technology. Biology takes care of it just fine. It just happens as you get older and or drink more.
4. I’m not sure what a hover board is.
5. I can see gravity in the state of human affairs based upon the results of this survey.
#59,
Only if you drink their koolaid.
Interesting how often these ‘surveys’ leave out the MOST important bit.
Namely, “60% of people [interviewed for this survey] believed that……”
Notice that none of these Mickey Mouse surveys actually give any information on the reliability of the survey. i.e. “The reliability index was…”
Or, “The population surveyed were tested for their views on a number of other topics and were found to be within the boundaries of conforming to average by….”
In Ireland for example, if you ran such a survey in Kerry, the rest of Ireland would fall about laughing if you told them this was typical of Ireland. Your teeth would be on the floor of course by this time and you with them. Irish humour takes strange forms.
In the US I’m sure that Hollywood isn’t typical of anywhere (I do exaggerate don’t I? How about any of Uncle Dave’s stories from Wacky Florida).
All these stories are notable for their Verificationist approach. Here’s a crackpot idea, I’ll see how many of those interviewed agree with it.
It isn’t science, that requires a critical approach, notably missing from all such studies.
I once flew faster than the speed of light, when we landed, I couldn’t stand it, I was back home the previous night!
Alf, it was a good day. I went to this nice little church today. I met this nice little minister and I will admit the minister and his minions were quite polite, at first. As far as state air and solid waste regulations the fines should not exceed about 30K. It could have been worse the asbestos could have been covered in lead paint. A word to the wise. If you plan on getting rid of asbestos (or lead paint) you should probably check on the regulations.
Now granted that those are only the states suggested fines. As long as they don’t pull one of those hippie, liberal, tree hugging, activist, democrat judges in St Louis they should be OK on our end. I will not even pretend to know how EPA will handle their end of things. They tend to have less of a sense of humor than state regulators. As I said the preacher was very nice. On the down side he went damn near apoplectic when we shut down the christian school they run. I guess they weren’t as concerned about the hatchlings exposure to asbestos as they were about the tuition. Off to public schools they go until it can be shown the school is frangible asbestos free. Hell it should not cost those white, affluent, conservative, god fearing, law and order, folks more than oh say six months with the right contractor and about 130-150K to take it out or encapsulate it.
Some days it a bit of a pain being an agent of the state. But sometimes, just sometimes I get to stand on the mountain top and scream I LOVE MY FUCKING JOB, today happens to be one of those days.
The cherry on top of the day, it was sunny, 82, and I pulled enough flex time to be off tomorrow, three day weekend! ya gotta love it.
Your very happy happy atheist, So what.
#69 I think you make it up, why not provide some details, like the precise church and school, minister’s name, your name…what it is you do, precisely, and under whose authority.
I think you are lying, prove me wrong.
Do a sunshine request with the st Louis regional office of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
You probably want to wait until Monday as I will not be in the office today, and I WILL be the one you talk with.
“Nearly 50% of adults wrongly believe that memory-erasing technology exists.”
This does exist. It’s called vodka.
Sea Lawyer said, on March 16th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
“#32, KD Martin, things are only impossible if you assume our understanding of physics remains constant. We don’t know what we don’t know.”
True. But we do know that Gen. Rel. has survived every experiment so far, and although it does have problems with infinities, the universe it describes does not allow time travel in the negative direction and the infinities don’t affect that. Godel spacetime theory shows that it could be possible in a universe with a negative curvature and a zero Hubble constant, but we live in a flat universe with a non-zero Hubble constant. Hawking et. al. have also noted that time travel might only be possible in a region of spacetime that is warped in the right way, and that if we cannot create such a region until the future, then time travelers would not be able to travel back before that date.
Wikipedia has an interesting article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel
I know its a paradox, but if time travel backwards was possible, wouldn’t we know about it? I saw an explanation for how shooting your own grandfather might be impossible in a time travel scenario, but they illustrated it with pool balls so it didn’t make any sense to me.
Imagination is fine and dandy. So is reality.
Well I might add that Dr. Who is a very fine show.
#71,
This is exactly the sort of behaviour I would expect from someone employed in a marginally useful government beaurocracy.
Personal agendas, petty enforcement of arbitrary rules, and feeling threatened when someone not of your personal beliefs dares to exist. The confirmation is the glee you claim to feel at your wielding of “authority.” In the name of what, the State? the Greater Good?
And you probably think the government running health care is a great idea too.
Typical.
Why yes, I do take glee in enforcing the environmental regulations of the State of Missouri. I happen to care passionately about the environmental health of the state and its residents. But while I take pride and satisfaction and sometimes a little glee in the enforcing of those regulations, I am never, nor has it ever been accused that I am arbitrary in the application of those regulations. As a matter of fact I am considered quite conservative in referrals to enforcement. I prefer to obtain voluntary compliance. The state has a very specific compliance manual which lays out in specific order and detail how to enforce the air and hazardous waste regulations. Voluntary compliance is always less costly for a facility as the lawyers have not gotten involved at that stage. I can easily stand up in court and have done so to explain my actions. I do tend to take a bit more pleasure when its a facility that has been noted before, and received technical assistance on at least a half dozen occasions, and chose not to even attempt voluntary compliance, gets hoist by its own petard. By the way its spelled bureaucracy not beaurocracy. I am not a spelling Nazi but I work for one. The closing of the school that the Department of Health and Senior Services not the Department of Natural Resources. So not pleasure on my end just humor. By the way Alfi I was in the office all day, not a single sunshine request. If you don’t hurry when its turned over to the Attorney General the records will be sealed to all but the parties of the legal action, until its resolved.
So What,
Pardon my typo, sir. I too work for an unforgiving editor. I choose to believe you and the explanation of your motivation. The content and context of your original post would have had me believing otherwise.
That said, I still believe a large percentage of our civil institutions are bloated, inefficient, and largely unnecessary. As are an equal number of non-profits.
Les
I would agree with your comment to a great degree, unfortunately a bureaucracy is like a very large ship. Trying to change course is a major event. The bigger the bureaucracy the harder it becomes. Toss in the potential changes in administrations and it becomes almost impossible. If you want efficient operations do not look at government as an example. I actually suspect that it is impossible to some degree to make government efficient due to its size. Many times the option of contracting out duties is brought up to make the system more efficient, the problem is, contracting usually costs even more than the original situation. I began my career doing industrial hygiene and environmental pretreatment for industry. I began working for the state as a sunset job. What I find most disappointing is that for every one or two people with a great attitude and work ethic, who is passionate about doing a good job. I can find one is 180 degrees the opposite, who are negative, capricious, arbitrary, and who are just exactly what the stereo type of a state or “public” employee is. The problem is that those are the ones who are remembered by the public. I will admit the tweaking alfies, well that’s just for my own humor.