‘In the conditions of real war, the feeling of uncertainty is magnified, and this makes the opponent much more sensitive to crafty deception — so that even the most threadbare ruse has succeeded time after time.’
— Sir Basil Liddell Hart
Desperate times require desperate measures, and in warfare few are more cunning — or dangerous — than the desperate. Although the Federals did manage to pull off their fair share, it was the Confederates who were responsible for the majority of the hoaxes that were perpetrated during the Civil War. This stands to reason considering the South’s predicament. Desperately lacking in both men and materiel, Rebel commanders were often forced to resort to correspondingly desperate measures, such as deception, in order to mask or offset those deficiencies. Some, including famed cavalryman Nathan Bedford Forrest, would even attain near legendary status for their seemingly magicianlike talents. It was Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, however, who best defined the Confederate tricksters’ creed when he wrote, “Always mystify, mislead and surprise the enemy.”
Not surprisingly, Southern commanders developed a particular affinity for Quaker guns. By war’s end they would become veritable masters of the bogus battery ruse, employing it at such places as Charleston Harbor; Corinth, Miss.; Columbus, Ky.; Richmond; Shreveport, La.; and Corpus Christi and Galveston, Texas. The Quaker was, however, but one of the many devices to be found in the Rebel bag of tricks. In fact, the methods for deceiving an opponent were limited only by the trickster’s imagination. In the category of Civil War deception, the names John B. Magruder, P.G.T. Beauregard, Forrest and Robert E. Lee stand above the rest.
John B. Magruder
Known to his contemporaries as “Prince John,” Magruder was renowned for his florid and sometimes theatrical bearing. Accustomed to living “like a grand seigneur on a line officer’s pay,” he would often go to remarkable lengths in order to keep up a lavish appearance. Given these characteristics, it should not be surprising that Magruder would have been entirely in his element as he fought for a fledgling nation whose own resources were stretched beyond its means.
Magruder’s first curtain call came in April 1862 at Yorktown, where he was confronted with the task of impeding Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s advance on Richmond until reinforcements could arrive. His main problem lay in the fact that he could muster no more than 13,600 men with which to hold off an estimated 55,000 Federals.
As it developed, the Army of the Potomac’s progress was brought to a grinding halt by the unexpected course of the Warwick River. Military maps of the time had it running parallel to Maj. Gen. Erasmus Keyes’ intended route when, in fact, it ran directly across his path. Operating on McClellan’s left flank with the IV Corps, Keyes was even more disturbed by the discovery of equally unexpected enemy fortifications on the opposite bank of the severely flooded stream. As he surveyed the situation, Keyes could also hear the foreboding sounds of drumrolls and of cheering men emanating from behind some woods to the enemy’s rear. Even more distressing for Keyes was the sight of enemy columns filing across various gaps in the woods. Sufficiently impressed by what he had seen and heard, Keyes concluded that the enemy’s position was “a strong one” and that further reconnaissance would be required before any attempt could be made to take it.
In truth, most of what Keyes had seen or heard had been nothing more than a grand illusion, compliments of Magruder. The defenses that stretched along the entire 14-mile length of the river had been real enough, but due to a lack of sufficient troops, most were only lightly manned. To throw off the Federals, a handful of Magruder’s men had been kept marching from one location to another. Arriving at a designated scene, the soldiers-turned-actors would then go about entertaining their Yankee audience with a staged setting depicting a strongly garrisoned position. Once satisfied that the onlooking Federals were suitably impressed, the troupe would then proceed to the next position and put on a new show. Keyes was oblivious to the fact that many of the enemy columns he had observed filing through those various gaps were often the same units, which had simply doubled back under concealment of the woods.
As for the cheering, the drumrolls and the general commotion that was emerging from behind the woods, the majority of these noises had been nothing more than engineered sound effects, designed to complete the illusion of a large army. With considerable irony, Keyes wrote, “Wherever the enemy has shown himself I have shown a force to confront him, and I think he must suppose I have an immense army.” Keyes did not know the half of it.
Eventually McClellan, too, became convinced that Magruder had twice his actual numbers. Already plagued by a string of recent problems both on the Peninsula and back in Washington, McClellan opted to lay siege to Yorktown. In the end, the Confederates, including Magruder and his troupe of players, would exit stage right before McClellan’s artillerists were finally able to bring their siege guns to bear. Adding insult to injury, Magruder left a few Quakers behind in the abandoned works. For John Magruder, all the world truly was a stage.
A flamboyant figure to be sure, Beauregard seems to have had a natural flair for trickery. At Charleston Harbor, his use of Quakers and various other contrivances would play an essential role in warding off the Union blockading vessels. At Petersburg in June 1864, the hard-pressed and severely outnumbered Creole devised a series of ruses that ultimately kept Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s numerically superior forces at bay until Lee’s reinforcements could arrive. His most famous ploy, however, took place at Corinth in May 1862. On the Federal side, it was Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck who was initiated into the realm of Confederate deception.
Following a sluggish month-long advance from Pittsburg Landing, Halleck’s forces — numbering well over 100,000 — finally reached Corinth on May 28. Coming up against the enemy’s fortifications, Halleck was immediately struck by the apparent strength of the bastion. Having already convinced himself that the enemy’s numbers were equal if not superior to his own, he cautiously proceeded to invest the stronghold. Peering out from behind these formidable works was Beauregard’s Army of Mississippi.
On the night of the 29th, many in the Federal lines were kept awake by the constant sound of trains and of men cheering as each one of these arrived. One of those sleepless Federals was John Pope, commanding the Army of the Mississippi on Halleck’s left flank. Unnerved by all the commotion, Pope finally wrote Halleck, “The enemy is re-enforcing heavily, by trains, in my front and on my left. The cars are running constantly, and the cheering is immense every time they unload in front of me. I have no doubt, from all appearances, that I shall be attacked in heavy force at daylight.” Perhaps Pope’s anxieties had been heightened by the equally ominous sight of Rebel artillerists standing by their guns, their figures silhouetted by myriad enemy campfires. Certainly the sounding of taps and tattoo, being played all along the Confederate lines, would not have helped matters any.
Whatever misgivings Pope and Halleck may have had, these were cast aside the next morning when it was learned that the enemy had stolen away during the night. They, along with many others in the Union rank and file, had been taken in by an old-fashioned sleight of hand. In truth, the Rebel force had scarcely exceeded 50,000 fighting men, and faced with such overwhelming odds, Beauregard wasted no time in devising a plan aimed at getting his troops out of their precarious situation.
Contrary to Pope’s belief, the Army of Mississippi had not been reinforced the previous night but was instead withdrawn from Corinth in a prescribed and orderly fashion. To mask the evacuation, Beauregard had arranged for an empty train to be run back and forth along the Memphis & Charleston tracks. It was also he who had instructed the men to cheer every time it rolled in, thereby giving the impression reinforcements were arriving. The sounding of taps (played by a single band that had been shifted from place to place) and the seemingly endless stream of campfires had also been nothing more than embellishments on the theme. To complete the illusion, drummers had even been left behind to beat reveille on the morning of the 30th. As for the Quaker guns, most were still manned by stuffed dummies, many bearing painted-on grins to torment the Federals all the more when discovered.
It could genuinely be said that, at Corinth, Beauregard’s hand had been quicker than Halleck’s eye.
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest was without question the most daring and cunning cavalryman to emerge from the Civil War. So legendary were his exploits that he is now widely remembered as “the wizard in the saddle.”
Many adages have been ascribed to Forrest, the most famous of course being “Get there first with the most men.” Less famous but equally intuitive was his maxim that stressed the need to “keep up the scare.” It was during the earlier of his two famous Tennessee raids that Forrest first put his own wise words into practice. In the early morning hours of July 13, 1862, he and his 1,400 horsemen swept down on the strategically important hamlet of Murfreesboro. Slumbering peacefully there were 1,040 Union soldiers belonging to two infantry regiments whose separate camps were situated 1 1/2 miles apart.
Almost immediately, Brig. Gen. Thomas T. Crittenden — the garrison’s recently appointed commander — was captured along with his entire guard. As these events were unfolding, a number of Confederate sympathizers were rescued from the local jail while, elsewhere in the town, large quantities of equipment and supplies were also being “liberated” from Union hands. Most commanders would have considered all of this a good day’s work, but not Forrest. “I did not come here to make half a job of it. I’m going to have them all,” he would reply when urged to quit while he was ahead.
As for the garrison’s troops, those who had not already been shot or captured as they scrambled out of bed did eventually manage to form a line of battle. On the eastern edge of town, the 9th Michigan gave a good account of itself and could conceivably have fought on. But finally, under a flag of truce, Forrest duped Lt. Col. John G. Parkhurst into believing that the rest of Crittenden’s force had been captured and that no quarter would be given should the 9th continue to resist. The issue having been put to a vote, the regiment, along with a detachment of cavalry, ultimately surrendered en masse.
Forrest now turned his attention to the 3rd Minnesota, which, together with a four-gun battery, was still holding out 11¼2 miles northwest of town. Forrest must not have relished the thought of going up against those four guns, especially considering he had gone into action with no artillery of his own. Still, he was not going to be satisfied until he had bagged the whole lot. He issued his no-quarter terms once again, but this time Colonel Henry Lester, the 3rd Minnesota’s commander, insisted on being given proof that the 9th Michigan had surrendered. Forrest complied with Lester’s request by escorting him on a tour of the by now Rebel-controlled town. Once satisfied that the Michiganders had indeed capitulated, Lester felt he had no choice but to follow suit.
In addition to snaring Crittenden and his entire command, Forrest also seized a considerable amount of much-needed supplies. Intent on a clean sweep, he had the booty loaded onto 60 Union wagons that were, in turn, pulled by a bevy of captured horses and mules. Most prized of all, however, were the four guns that Lester had so graciously turned over. A “rare mixture of military skill…and bluff” is how one admirer summarized the Murfreesboro raid.
One of Forrest’s more humorous stunts took place in May 1863. Following a grueling five-day cat-and-mouse chase that had stretched over 150 miles, Forrest finally caught up with his prey near Rome, Ala. Penned up were 1,400 worn and frazzled cavalrymen under Colonel Abel D. Streight.
In a smoke-and-mirrors display that included the transformation of two artillery pieces into a 15-gun array, Forrest eventually fooled Streight into believing he was severely outnumbered. Like Parkhurst and Lester before him, Streight was finally compelled to surrender. The story goes that Streight later became incensed when he learned that it was he who had actually outnumbered his wily opponent by a margin of 3-to-1. Furious, he demanded that Forrest return all surrendered weapons and further insisted that the two sides resume the fight. Of course, Forrest declined Streight’s request. With a chuckle, he then patted his downtrodden captive on the shoulder and remarked, “Ah, Colonel, all is fair in love and war, you know.” It is little wonder that William T. Sherman once scornfully referred to the conniving Confederate cavalryman as “that Devil Forrest.”
Lee and Jackson
It was Robert E. Lee who masterminded one of the most significant ruses of the entire war. In May 1862, Lee surmised that a portion of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’ force in the Shenandoah Valley might be preparing to link up with Irvin McDowell’s contingent at Fredericksburg. This was a cause of great concern to Lee, who recognized the danger McDowell would pose if sufficiently reinforced. As it developed, one of Banks’ divisions was making its way toward Fredericksburg, where McDowell was preparing for a pincer movement against Richmond. Meanwhile, on the Peninsula, McClellan had been ordered to effect a junction with McDowell’s left flank.
When he learned of McDowell’s proposed movement, McClellan’s reactions were mixed. Several weeks earlier, at the outset of his Peninsula campaign, the Army of the Potomac commander had been dismayed to learn that McDowell’s I Corps had been withheld from him. Convinced that an insufficient number of men were left behind to protect the capital, President Abraham Lincoln had compensated for the perceived shortfall by retaining the bulk of McDowell’s corps. Now, when it appeared as though McDowell’s command was finally going to be released, McClellan learned that his control over these long-awaited troops would be severely restricted. “You will give no order, either before or after your junction, which can put him [McDowell] out of position to cover this city,” wrote Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. As if to emphasize the point, Stanton added, “The specific task assigned to his command has been to provide against any danger to the capital of the nation.” It is clear from Stanton’s message that the government was still somewhat apprehensive over Washington’s security. Apparently Lee perceived Lincoln and Stanton’s anxieties and, as a commander who was always ready to capitalize on an enemy’s weakness, devised a plan by which those fears might be turned to the South’s advantage. To accomplish this he looked to Stonewall Jackson, commanding the Valley District.
On May 16, Lee set events in motion when he counseled Jackson on the importance of preventing any of Banks’ troops from reaching Fredericksburg. “A successful blow struck at him would delay, if it does not prevent, his moving to either place [Fredericksburg or the Peninsula].” Then came the crux of Lee’s message: “Whatever movement you make against Banks do it speedily, and if successful drive him back toward the Potomac, and create the impression, as far as practicable, that you design threatening that line [emphasis added].” Still stinging from his defeat by elements of Banks’ command at Kernstown on March 23, Jackson was more than pleased to comply with Lee’s request.
Within a matter of days, Jackson pounced on a segment of Banks’ force at Front Royal, causing Banks to scurry northward toward the Potomac. On the 25th, Jackson’s “foot cavalry” caught up with Banks at Winchester, where the “successful blow” was finally delivered. Beaten, Banks limped over to the Maryland side of the Potomac. Ever mindful of Lee’s instructions, Jackson now advanced on Harpers Ferry, thereby creating “the impression” Lee had so very much desired. Lincoln and Stanton anxiously monitored these events back in Washington.
Earlier that year, Stanton had astounded many, including Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, with his reaction to the news of the emergence of CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimac) from Hampton Roads. “He was at times almost frantic,” wrote Welles, who went on to describe how Stanton’s hysterics became contagious, even affecting a normally composed William H. Seward. Lincoln, too, was apparently infected by Stanton’s paranoia, so much so that “he could not deliberate,” and was repeatedly observed joining Stanton at the window overlooking the Potomac River, “to see if the Merrimac was not coming to Washington.”
Now, in May, with Jackson lurking threateningly close to Washington’s doorstep, Stanton was exhibiting those same traits. With each new report regarding Jackson’s movements he became more and more nervous until finally he began sending “panic-stricken” messages to state governors. By all indications Lincoln again fell prey to Stanton’s paranoia, and on the 24th he wired McClellan, “In consequence of General Banks’ critical position I have been compelled to suspend General McDowell’s movements to join you.”
On the 25th, Lincoln’s trepidation surged when he became convinced that the bulk of the Rebel army was massing for an attack on Washington. To McClellan he wrote: “I think the movement is a general and concerted one, such as would not be if he [the enemy] was acting upon the purpose of a very desperate defense of Richmond. I think the time is near when you must either attack Richmond or give up the job and come to the defence of Washington. Let me hear from you instantly.” In an attempt to mollify Lincoln, McClellan assured the president that “the mass of the rebel troops are still in the immediate vicinity of Richmond,” adding, “The object of the movement is probably to prevent reinforcements being sent to me.” Others, including McDowell, echoed McClellan’s wholly accurate views. Perhaps due to Stanton’s continued influence, and certainly to Lee’s delight, Lincoln remained steadfast in his conviction, going so far as to write McClellan, “That the whole of the enemy is concentrating on Richmond I think cannot be certainly known to you or me.”
As if to ensure that Lincoln did not have a change of heart, Jackson, whose force barely exceeded 17,000 men, maintained his threatening posture into the opening days of June. By then, “Old Jack” had surpassed even Lee’s wildest expectations. Not only had McDowell not been reinforced, he and the greater portion of his command had been ordered by Lincoln to proceed to the Valley — away from McClellan and Richmond.
Having reached the Valley, McDowell, along with Banks and Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, was directed by Lincoln to combine in a three-pronged effort to entrap Jackson. In one of the most masterful campaigns of the war, Jackson threaded his columns through the Federal pincers, and defeated Frémont and Brig. Gen. James Shields, respectively, at the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic.
By June 15, Lincoln had finally caught on to Jackson’s game. Echoing McClellan’s May 25 counsel, the president now wrote Frémont, “[Jackson’s] assigned work is to magnify the accounts of his numbers and reports of his movements, and thus by constant alarms keep three or four times as many of our troops away from Richmond as his own force amounts to. Thus he helps his friends at Richmond three or four times as much as if he were there.” By then, however, the point was moot. On June 17, his mission accomplished, Jackson slipped out of the Valley to join Lee in a combined offensive against McClellan’s now totally exposed right wing.
McDowell came away from the affair relatively unscathed. Even so, he must have agonized over the knowledge that he, along with 60,000 other valuable men, had been reduced to the status of pawns in what turned out to be nothing more than an elementary ruse. As for McClellan, he eventually gave up on the idea that McDowell would be released to him, as indeed he never was. Ultimately, “Young Napoleon’s” Peninsula campaign came to an inglorious end on the banks of the James River. To what extent Lee’s deceptive strategy had contributed toward that failure is a study in itself. That it did succeed in altering the course of events on the Peninsula is certain, and it is another reminder of why Lee is still known today as the “Gray Fox.”
In his famous treatise The Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote, “All warfare is based on deception.” More than 2,000 years later that tenet still holds true, just as it did on the battlefields of the Civil War. If somewhat rudimentary when compared to those of later wars, Civil War deceptions were no less effective. It is not the means as much as the result that counts.
Our tendency is to ridicule those who have been taken in by deceptive strategies, even labeling them “gullible” or “willing believers.” If not unfair to most of the unwitting victims, this view demeans the sometimes considerable and often canny effort that went into many of those ruses. It might be more fitting if we were to look upon those who have fallen prey to military subterfuge not as dupes but as psychological casualties of war. This is especially so when we consider that throughout history, there have been relatively few military men who could boast that they “saw it coming.” With that in mind, it is entirely fitting that our modern military men should refer to deceptive strategies as psychological operations, or psyops. As for the tricksters, we cannot help but admire them for their cunning and daring.
This article was written by Maurice D’Aoustand originally published in the June 2006 issue of Civil War Times Magazine.
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Possessives with 的 Newbie PREMIUM
In this All the Way to Intermediate lesson, we teach you the most common Chinese character, which shows up in most sentences. 的 is a possessive particle which means it gives ownership of something, turning pronouns into possessive pronouns, but can also be used more less obvious things. Watch to find out exactly how to use this 的 character.
Here are other related lessons from our library that will supplement this lesson and boost your Chinese level.
Who's That Over There?
Explaining Your Job
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Science seeks to describe, explain, and predict features of the natural and social worlds. Scientists try to develop theories or explanations of phenomena by means of producing bodies of empirical evidence that play a major role in determining whether theories are accepted, modified, or rejected. In general, scientists seek theories that are logically consistent, empirically testable, well supported by available empirical evidence (and not too severely contradicted by other available evidence), parsimonious or simple, and that continue to be a source of new ideas and lines of research. Scientists also generally seek to produce theories that yield a unified understanding of the phenomena they study. For example, Wilson (1998) talks of consilience, and some physical scientists claim they are moving very close to a ”theory of everything” (Barrow 2001).
In the early decades of the twentieth century the Vienna Circle of logical positivists insisted that science consisted only of those propositions which could be verified by facts drawn from experience. However, Popper (1959) responded by arguing that theories could never be verified because a scientist can never possess all of the possible facts bearing on a theory. Popper’s solution to this problem was that the scientist had to proceed in a sort of reverse manner, by trying to falsify rather than verify a theory. In fact, for Popper, whether a theory was falsifiable or not was the line of demarcation between science and nonscience: science consists of falsifiable statements, and theories are retained so long as they survive these falsifying tests.
Popper recognized that a theory could rarely be falsified by a single disconfirming instance. There are degrees of falsification. In this regard, he spoke of the corroboration of theories. Theories are corroborated by being submitted to the most, and the most severe, falsifying efforts possible, and by withstanding them. But corroboration is not ”truth.” It simply means that a theory is provisionally accepted pending further testing. Better theories are those that are logically stronger, that contain greater empirical content, that have greater explanatory and predictive capabilities, and that have been more severely tested. Any newly proposed theory should also be independently testable, have new and testable consequences, and must predict the existence of phenomena thus far unobserved. And, in the end, Popper admits verification back in, because he contends that, just as science would stagnate if it fails to produce refutations, it would also stagnate if new theories failed to produce verifications (i.e., supportive evidence).
Popper’s philosophical model is not without its problems, yet his notion that no theory can ever really be ”proved true” stands, as does his notion that statements that are unfalsifiable are not to be regarded as scientific. For Popper, science was perhaps the only epistemic activity in which errors can be identified and corrected over time (Harris 1979: 27). This is what allows science to progress toward greater verisimilitude, or increasingly accurate approximations to the truth.
Lakatos (1970) argued that Popper’s falsificationism was highly inconsistent with actual scientific practice and that it was so strict that it would make scientific advance impossible. Literally applied, Popper’s falsificationism would bring science to a halt because virtually every scientific theory that has ever been proposed has anomalies, or facts that are inconsistent with it. Indeed, Lakatos contended that every theory is born in an ”ocean of anomalies,” and that scientists often retain theories for decades or even longer even though they know there are many inconsistencies.
However, Lakatos’s critique applies largely only to the very early Popper, who was a naive falsificationist. Later, Popper became more nuanced in adopting a far less restrictive, or sophisticated, falsificationism in admitting degrees of falsification (or corroboration). Lakatos regarded sophisticated falsificationism as an improvement on naive falsificationism, but thought it was still limited in the sense of conceiving of scientific testing as simply a comparison between a single theory and a body of evidence. What is needed is a three way comparison in which one not only compares a theory to evidence, but at the same time judges it with respect to its main rivals.
Moreover, Lakatos argued, it is not really theories that scientists test, but series of theories or research programs. Even if individual theories end up being decisively refuted, the research programs of which they are a part can still stand. Lakatos then went on to identify what he called theoretically progressive problem shifts. These are research programs that can explain everything their rivals explain, and at least some additional content. They can make novel predictions not made by their rivals. Lakatos’s own philosophical model of science he called the methodology of scientific research programs. Every research program contains a negative heuristic or ”hard core” of fundamental assumptions or principles, around which scientists build a ”protective belt” of auxiliary hypotheses. And it is the auxiliary hypotheses, rather than the hard core, that is subjected to empirical test.
There is also a positive heuristic, which consists of suggestions, hints, and insights that help the scientist to modify the protective belt in order to save the irrefutable hard core, and it is this positive heuristic that ”saves the scientist from being confused by the ocean of anomalies” (Lakatos 1970: 135). The anomalies are acknowledged but temporarily shoved aside in hopes that they will eventually be shown to be explainable in the basic terms of the research program. Progress in science, for Lakatos, is therefore a matter of theoretically progressive research programs. However, progressive programs seldom last forever. They often become theoretically degenerating research programs, or programs in which too many (or too severe) anomalies accumulate that can no longer be explained away. Such a research program will then give way to one or more rivals that are theoretically progressive.
Following somewhat in the Lakatosian tradition is Laudan (1977), who agrees that science is a matter of evaluating research programs, and also that one can only evaluate them comparatively. However, Laudan points out that scientists do not consider only empirical evidence when evaluating theories. They also use conceptual problems, which may play at least as large a role in scientists’ acceptance or rejection of theories as empirical evidence. Moreover, scientists are rational to consider such conceptual problems if they have been a reliable guide to past knowledge. Conceptual problems are problems that arise from either the internal inconsistencies or ambiguities of a theory, or from conflicts between a theory and another theory (or non scientific doctrine) that is thought to be well founded.
One type of conceptual problem is methodological disputes. For example, Laudan avers that much of the opposition to psycho analysis and psychological behaviorism turned on methodological concerns, and many of the arguments over quantum mechanics also involved methodological questions. Another type of conceptual problem is worldviews, which are moral, theological, or ideological stances. Examples abound. After Darwin published Origin of Species in 1859, biologists fairly rapidly came to accept the reality of evolution, but there was great resistance to the mechanism he proposed to explain how evolution occurred -natural selection. This was because natural selection eliminated the concept of purpose, to which scientists were deeply attached as a worldview. It was only after about 1930 that an empirical foundation was developed that was capable of convincing scientists to abandon their entrenched concept of purpose and accept natural selection. Worldviews play a particularly crucial role in the acceptance or rejection of theories in the social sciences. For example, there has been great resistance to sociobiology, especially among sociologists, because it clashes with the entrenched Durkheimian worldview -”explain social facts only by relating them to other social facts” – and is seen as a threat to the discipline’s identity. Sociobiology has also been resisted because it is widely viewed as promoting a conservative view of society, which clashes with sociologists’ strong left leaning political views.
An important difference between Laudan on the one hand and Popper and Lakatos on the other concerns the debate over realism and anti realism. For Popper and Lakatos, who were scientific realists, science is truth seeking and is progressive in the sense of producing cumulative knowledge. Laudan, however, advocates antirealism, which means that, as Kuhn (1962) famously argued, science only solves puzzles or problems. Laudan emphasizes that in scientific change there is genuine progress (something Kuhn denied), but this change is not cumulative because new theories (or research traditions) cannot explain all of the phenomena explained by their predecessors. There are losses as well as gains when new research programs replace old ones.
In the 1970s there emerged a whole subfield of sociology, the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK), which has grown and expanded by leaps and bounds. (For citations to the very large literature, see Laudan 1996: 183-209; Kincaid 1996: 37-43; and several essays in Segerstrale 2000). Although its proponents vary in the degree to which they hold it, the essential premise is that the content of scientific knowledge is influenced much more by social and cultural factors than by canons of scientific rationality. This is one of the legacies of Kuhn. In addition to his argument that science is a problem solving rather than a truth seeking activity, Kuhn also contended that scientists operate within paradigms that are regularly overthrown by the advocates of rival paradigms, and that scientific progress only occurs within paradigms, not between them. Kuhn often spoke as if commitment to a paradigm is more a matter of group psychology or sociology rather than the rational weighing of evidence, and that paradigmatic change is much like a type of Gestalt switch. Many philosophers of science regard Kuhn’s views as highly problematic because of what they see as their subjectivism and relativism.
More recently, science has come in for enormous criticism at the hands of postmodernists and other “antiscientists,” who regard science as undeserving of its epistemically privileged position and as just one way of knowing among others. This is one of the legacies of the ”epistemological anarchism” of Feyerabend (1975), whose views were considerably more radical than Kuhn’s. For Feyerabend, all modes of knowledge are essentially on the same plane, whether science or witchcraft, and thus his basic methodological rule was that there should be no methodological rules – ”anything goes.” The postmodern attack on science has emphasized its alleged ”Eurocentrism” and claimed that commitment to science as a superior epistemology is rooted in western cultural values rather than objective criteria (since, for postmodernism, there can be no such criteria). (For excellent summaries and commentaries, see Segerstrale 2000.) Those philosophers and sociologists who see science as a mere social construction seem to be engaged in a completely self refuting argument, since they do not ”think their own work is only a social construction with no claim on evidence and truth as traditionally understood” (Kincaid 1996: 41).
Sociology is a very immature science, and most sociologists have an impoverished understanding of real science. For example, the majority of sociologists study only one society (usually their own) and no general theories can be built on the basis of one case. (It would be like trying to build biological science by studying only penguins.) Many sociologists resolve the acrimonious debates among rival theoretical camps by settling for an eclectic position, but eclecticism as it is understood by sociologists is a strategy rarely if ever favored by natural scientists. Eclecticism violates the principle of parsimonious and highly unified explanation -one of the most fundamental of all scientific goals – and it makes the comparative evaluation of theories impossible (Sanderson 1987). Many sociologists who do highly quantitative survey research build unwieldy models that contain a large number of variables, but real science does not work that way. What results is a kind of ”multivariate chaos” that is the antithesis of parsimonious explanation.
Sociology today lacks a highly cumulative body of knowledge, and there is very little agreement on key epistemological, methodological, and theoretical questions. Conceptual problems are particularly acute in sociology, especially in the form of political ideology and its role in settling theoretical debates. From the stand point of the enormous successes of the natural sciences, sociology is an extremely immature discipline in terrible disarray. At the most general theoretical level, the vast majority of sociologists continue to adhere to the standard social science model, which assumes that human behavior is overwhelmingly determined by the social environment. However, this is a massively degenerating research program, for the accumulated anomalies are extreme. Sociologists cling to it for conceptual, not empirical, reasons.
Although the overall picture in sociology and social science more generally is not an impressive one, the social sciences do have some genuine research programs that may be regarded as at least mildly to moderately progressive. In anthropology, there is the cultural materialism of Harris (1979), which is coherent and unified and has made some impressive accomplishments. In psychology, anthropology, and to some extent sociology, there is a very coherent research program that now goes under the name of evolutionary psychology (Barkow et al. 1992; Crawford & Krebs 1998). Thus far it has proven to be a highly progressive research program.
A closely related research program in anthropology is evolutionary ecology (Smith & Winterhalder 1992). And in sociology a good example of a coherent research program is rational choice theory. This program has been attached to the study of early modern and modern states (Kiser et al. 1995), to the study of human sexuality (Posner 1992), and to numerous other substantive areas. There are also dependency and world system approaches to economic development, which have the merit of being research programs that have been subjected to extensive empirical testing, even though, unfortunately, the anomalies have become severe and in many ways these approaches are now degenerating programs (Sanderson 2005a). There is also the state centered approach to revolutions (Wickham Crowley 1992; Goldstone 1991; cf. Sanderson 2005b), which is something like a research program and seems to be a highly progressive one.
So the situation is by no means totally bleak. Natural scientists do not really need to study the history and philosophy of science, and few do. Indeed, scientists are often highly antagonistic toward philosophy of science. The reason natural scientists do not need philosophy of science is that they have a keen sense of what they are doing, and they generally do it extremely well. Social scientists, by contrast, very badly need to study the history and philosophy of science because they need to gain a much better understanding of how real science actually works and try to emulate it.
One major barrier to success in social science is the complexity and relative unpredictability of the phenomena being studied. The other major barrier is conceptual, and mainly ideological. Ideology is an enormous barrier to scientific objectivity, and indeed to the very practice of science at all. Sociologists and other social scientists can do nothing to alter the nature of the phenomena they study, but they are entirely free to embark along the path of objective social science if they choose to recommit themselves to doing so.
It should be clear that proof is not really possible in science, if by proof we mean ”establishment with certainty.” It has long been noted by philosophers of science of many stripes that theories will always be ”underdetermined” by empirical evidence. (This is the famous Duhem Quine underdetermination thesis, which has often been used by postmodernists and other relativists to attack science. However, such conclusions are complete non sequiturs.) There is only disproof or, lacking that, provisional acceptance. Proof must be restricted to the domains of logic and mathematics. As for laws, these certainly exist in the physical sciences and to some extent in the biological sciences, but they rarely exist in the social sciences. Social scientists still have enough work to do to bring themselves up to minimal scientific standards. The development of widely agreed upon laws of social behavior, organization, and change are far off into the future.
- Barkow, J. H., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (Eds.) (1992) The Adapted Mind. Oxford University Press, New York.
- Barrow, J. D. (2001) Theories of Everything. Oxford University Press, New York.
- Crawford, C. & Krebs, D. L. (Eds.) (1998) Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
- Feyerabend, P. (1975) Against Method. Verso, London.
- Goldstone, J. A. (1991) Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World. University of California Press, Berkeley.
- Harris, M. (1979) Cultural Materialism. Random House, New York.
- Kincaid, H. (1996) Philosophical Foundations of the Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press, New York.
- Kiser, E., Drass, K. A., & Brustein, W. (1995) Ruler Autonomy and War in Early Modern Europe. International Studies Quarterly 39: 109-38.
- Kuhn, T. S. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
- Lakatos, I. (1970) Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. In: Lakatos, I. & Musgrave, A. (Eds.), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Laudan, L. (1977) Progress and Its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth. University of California Press, Berkeley.
- Laudan, L. (1996) Beyond Positivism and Relativism. Westview Press, Boulder.
- Popper, K. R. (1959) The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Basic Books, New York.
- Posner, R. A. (1992) Sex and Reason. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
- Sanderson, S. K. (1987) Eclecticism and Its Alternatives. Current Perspectives in Social Theory 8: 313-45.
- Sanderson, S. K. (2005a) World-Systems Analysis After Thirty Years: Should it Rest in Peace? International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 46: 179-213.
- Sanderson, S. K. (2005b) Revolutions. Paradigm Publishers, Boulder.
- Segerstrale, U. (Ed.) (2000) Beyond the Science Wars. State University of New York Press, Albany.
- Smith, E. A. & Winterhalder, B. (Eds.) (1992) Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
- Wickham-Crowley, T. (1992) Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
- Wilson, E. O. (1998) Consilience. Random House, New York.
Back to Sociology of Science


Integrating Coding and Robotics into the Classroom
Coding and robotics programs in classrooms reflect how integral technology is in our lives. Educators like Angie Kalthoff, Technology Integrationist in St. Cloud, MN, and Ann Bartel, Instructional Technology Specialist in Chilton, WI, teach K-8 students about technology through coding and computer science programs that incorporate the 4 Cs of learning: collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication. In a recent edWebinar, Kalthoff and Bartel explain that they want to coach students and not just tell them what button to push or the correct sequences to move a robot across a mat. By being challenged to take ownership of their learning through design thinking, students grow to understand that it is okay not to get the right answer the first time and that failing is part of the learning process.
The best approach to introducing robots to K-8 students is as an exploratory program that will interestingly evolve into coding programs that challenge students with more complex projects. Designing activities such as missions where students create simple coding programs that move robots along a course can be useful with younger students. Interactive activities like “call and response” and a question of the week can engage students as a whole class or small group while reinforcing coding terminology and concepts. When pairing students for programming activities, ensure that all students have the same learning experiences by intentionally assigning and rotating jobs such as who holds the iPad or handles the robot.
A Place for Everything
Classroom organization is essential for introducing coding and robotics programs into classrooms. Kalthoff emphasizes that the storage and efficient labeling of robots and coding materials are especially important to ensure that students spend less time getting robots and more time using robots. Kalthoff and Bartel recommend that all materials needed are on hand and categorized to hold students accountable and keep the classroom organized. Collaborate with other educators in the school building to determine whether coding and robotics programming is a separate activity during the day or incorporated into the core subject areas. Since there are times when the entire class may not be involved in coding activities, designate a flexible learning space where stations and rotation activities take place. Set classroom rules by creating a classroom chart that identifies expectations on everything from taking turns to respecting the robot and being a good partner.
Kalthoff and Bartel both realize that there may be funding concerns when trying to initiate a coding or robotics programs in schools. They recommend seeking out funding sources such as DonorsChoose.org, GoFundMe, and Google that can support and sustain coding and robotics programs in classrooms and school districts. There are also professional learning funding options for professional development, curriculum writing and robot programs from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
This edWeb broadcast was sponsored by Wonder Workshop.
This article was modified and published by eSchool News.
About the Presenters
Angie Kalthoff is a former English language (ELL) teacher and current technology integrationist for a large public school district in central Minnesota. She has a master’s degree in teaching and learning and is an advocate for computer science (CS) for all and a Code.org facilitator.
Ann Bartel is an instructional technology specialist for the School District of Chilton in Wisconsin. She started her teaching career as a gym (physical education) teacher and was bitten by the technology bug when spell check came out. In her current role, she supports teachers and students in their search for innovation and provides teachers with the PD they need to reach their goals. In addition, Ann says, “I could be on a poster that says, ‘Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks.’” She has presented at local, and state, conferences on a variety of topics and is a Google Certified Educator.
About the Host
Dylan Portelance is a product manager at Wonder Workshop, where he enjoys thinking and learning with educators about coding and robotics in K–8 classrooms. Previously, Dylan spent three years with the ScratchJr team-leading design research teams and developing curriculum for young children. He also spent two years writing code for design studios creating data visualizations and web applications. A creative coding tutor and musician, he is always searching for new ways to bridge computing with the arts. Dylan earned his MA in child development and BS in computer science and music from Tufts University.
Join the Community
Coding & Robotics K-8 is a free professional learning community on edWeb.net that supports teachers, administrators, and all educators to help students explore coding and robotics and develop math, logic, critical thinking and problem solving skills, and challenges them to think creatively
Wonder Workshop creates engaging, hands-on learning tools, programming languages, and curriculum that bring STEM and coding to life for grades K-8. Robotics fosters critical thinking skills at an early age, encourages creativity, and turns students into makers rather than consumers. Wonder Workshop is the creator of the Dash and Dot robots. Let’s inspire students to be future leaders in technology. Find out more at makewonder.com


In an interview earlier this year with the New York Times (paywall), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said he could have never imagined a future in which the software he developed would be used to interfere with elections. But many have warned about the potential for misuse, and it’s not a stretch to think that the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which involved the misuse of data from millions of Facebook users, is just the tip of the iceberg. Shortly after that interview, Facebook announced a new dating service, extending its reach further into our personal lives and our personal data. How will people use—or abuse—this tool, and what will the consequences be?
Tech ethics may seem like an abstract concept best left to philosophers and lawyers, but you don’t need to pass the bar or get a PhD to predict the unintended consequences of technology—you may just need to read books and watch movies.
If you want to understand how technologies like artificial intelligence may shape the future of health, romance, law, and government, you could do worse than to ask a sci-fi writer.
Through fictional stories, creative thinkers of the past and present can help technologists anticipate challenges and opportunities created by technology. Lowe’s Innovation Labs and ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination are already employing science-fiction writers to better understand the future of technology and humans. The Design Futures Initiative hosts conferences and meetups on “speculative design” that bring scientists, researchers, designers, writers, and filmmakers together to envision the future.
As Facebook and Uber dominated headlines, the fiction enthusiasts at Luminary Labs generated a list of books, movies, and television shows that should be on every technologist’s radar. We came up with nearly 100 suggestions in less than an hour and whittled the list down to 40 works of fiction; If you care about the impact of technology on our lives and want to imagine a wider range of possibilities, start with this small sampling of stories.
The following list may include spoilers, and links point to Wikipedia sources that summarize plotlines in further detail.
- 1984, in which “Big Brother” and the “Thought Police” use surveillance and manipulation to maintain power.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which a trusted computer malfunctions in a malicious way.
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence, in which post-climate change humans create advanced robots capable of thoughts and emotion.
- Altered Carbon, in which human consciousness can be downloaded and installed in other bodies.
- Back to the Future, in which altering seemingly insignificant moments of the past results in big changes to the future.
- Battlestar Galactica, in which humans are struggling to survive after a battling robots in space.
- Bicentennial Man, in which a domestic servant robot becomes sentient.
- Big Hero 6, in which an “inflatable healthcare robot” is programmed to anticipate unethical human behavior.
- Black Mirror, in which unintended consequences of current technology play out in the near future.
- Brave New World, in which human life is engineered in artificial wombs and drugs enable a “pain-free society.”
- Chappie, in which an AI law enforcement robot is captured by gangsters.
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, in which androids become indistinguishable from “real” humans and animals, and the defining characteristics of humanity are tested.
- Dune, in which consuming a rare spice allows humans to assume brainpower beyond advanced computers, at the expense of a planet’s natural resources.
- Ender’s Game, in which complex games turn children into real-life killers.
- Foundation series, in which psychohistory — a combination of history, sociology, and mathematics — is used to predict the future.
- Frankenstein, in which a scientist’s bioengineering experiment goes awry, and humans become more monstrous than actual monsters.
- Gattaca, in which genetics and reproductive technologies are used to determine employment opportunities.
- Her, in which a lonely human develops a romantic relationship with an AI operating system.
- I, Robot, in which Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics are put to the test.
- iBoy, in which human and device merge.
- Metropolis, in which a high-tech city depends on the labor of underground workers.
- Minority Report, in which mutant humans predict violent crime and law enforcement uses eye-scanning technology as surveillance.
- Oryx and Crake, in which a wonder drug induces a global pandemic and the dangers of a post-apocalyptic world include genetically engineered hybrid animals.
- Paris in the Twentieth Century, in which “society places value only on business and technology.”
- Planet of the Apes, in which human intelligence atrophies due to overreliance on technology.
- Player Piano, in which widespread automation causes socio-economic conflict.
- Ready Player One, in which humans use virtual reality software to escape the dystopia of the real world.
- REAMDE, in which hackers unwittingly start a global war when they release a virus into a popular online role-playing game.
- Ripples in the Dirac Sea, in which transformational technology can’t solve the most human of problems.
- Short Circuit, in which “an experimental military robot … is struck by lightning and gains a more human-like intelligence.”
- Star Trek, in which a crew of humans and aliens “have altruistic values, and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas” as they explore space.
- The Circle, in which a young employee’s job at a tech company isn’t quite what she expected.
- The Incredibles, in which humans lose control of a “learning robot.”
- The Jetsons, in which cars fly and robots do most of the work, leaving humans to live a life of comfort (and comedy).
- The Matrix, in which humans are enslaved by sentient machines and experience life as a simulated reality.
- The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, in which humans escape the pain of climate change through illegal drugs, wearable technology, simulations, and space colonies.
- Tron, in which a tech exec is blackmailed by his own virtual intelligence software.
- WALL-E, in which pollution destroys the earth and humans retreat to space, where they become obese and weak “due to microgravity and reliance on an automated lifestyle.”
- WarGames, in which a computer simulation attempts to start a nuclear war.
- Westworld, in which humans live out their wildest fantasies in a theme park staffed by enslaved androids.
While many popular books and movies lean toward the dystopian, the future is unwritten. Awareness of possible consequences can help us make better choices; the key is to be able to foresee as many different outcomes as possible. Every technologist needs an education in ethics, and that education should include fictional stories that expand the imagination.
An earlier version of this post was published in the Lab Report, Luminary Labs’ publication for future-ready executives. Sign up here.
This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers.


Israeli Researchers Find a Way to Stabilize and Control Discrete Magnetic States
The research team says that their achievement could be used towards applications such as data storage, magnetic sensing, and neuromorphic computing.
A group of researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel claim to have found a way to stabilize and control an “exponential number of discrete magnetic states,” which they hope will pave the way for multi-level magnetic memory which will in turn potentially lead to applications in data storage, magnetic sensing, and neuromorphic computing.
In the journal Applied Physics Letters, the researchers describe their method which enabled them to fabricate structures consisting of two, three, and four crossing ellipses, which exhibit shape-induced bi-axial, tri-axial, and quadro-axial magnetic anisotropy. The very large number of accessible remanent magnetic states observed in the simple magnetic structures could lead to new spintronics applications including memory devices, the paper says.
Exciting New Applications
The study focused on magnetic thin films that were aligned in the form of N crossing ellipses, possessing two to the power of 2N magnetization states. During the study, the research team found that they could switch between different magnetic states by generating different spin currents. Through trial and error, they found out how to stabilize and control an exponential number of discrete magnetic states in a relatively simple structure. This, according to the researchers, is a major step forward in the spintronics field.
"This finding may pave the way to multi-level magnetic memory with extremely large number of states per cell (e.g., 256 states when N=4), be used for neuromorphic computing, and more," said lead researcher Prof. Lior Klein.
Researchers have shown that relatively simple magnetic thin film structures of N crossing ellipses can support two to the power of 2N magnetic states and demonstrated switching between the states with spin currents. Image credit: Lior Klein, Bar-Ilan University.
Increasing Memory Density
The emerging field of spintronics concentrates on the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its electronic charge, in solid-state devices. It is considered to be one of the most important emerging areas of research due to its potential to provide high speed, low power, and high-density logic and memory electronic devices.
Spintronics devices typically consist of magnetic elements that are manipulated by spin-polarized currents between stable magnetic states. When they are used for data storage, the number of stable data states sets a limit on memory capacity. If researchers are able to increase the number of magnetic states in a magnetic memory cell—currently, there are two magnetic states corresponding to two memory states—it will potentially increase memory density and lead to novel types of memory solutions.


published on Whats Up With That
April 2nd, 2019
More Evidence for Rapid Coral Adaptation
Good news continues to accumulate regards corals’ ability to rapidly adjust to changing climates. The view of coral resilience has been dominated by the narrative of a few scientists. In the 1990s they advocated devastating consequences for coral reefs due to global warming, arguing coral cannot adapt quickly enough. Since the Little Ice Age ended, they believed rising ocean temperatures had brought coral closer to a “bleaching threshold”, a more or less fixed upper temperature limit above which corals cannot survive. Their model predicted the speed of recent global warming “spells catastrophe for tropical marine ecosystems everywhere”. Their assertions that “as much as 95% of the world’s coral may be in danger of being lost by mid-century” was guaranteed to capture headlines and instill public fear. However, a growing body of scientific research increasingly casts doubts on such alarming predictions. Unfortunately, that good news gets much less attention.
A recent peer-reviewed paper titled A Global Analysis of Coral Bleaching Over the Past Two Decades (Sully 2019) compared 20 years of ocean temperatures at which coral bleaching was initiated. From 1998 to 2006, the average sea surface temperature that initiated bleaching was 82.6 °F. But that temperature "limit" proves not to be “fixed” as earlier researchers incorrectly believed. From 2007 to 2017 the average temperature limit that initiated bleaching was higher, 83.7 °F. This indicates coral have been rapidly adapting to warmer regional climates much faster than once believed.
Based on these new observations the scientists concluded, “past bleaching events may have culled the thermally susceptible individuals, resulting in a recent adjustment of the remaining coral populations to higher thresholds of bleaching temperatures.” Furthermore, they suggested, “Localities that commonly experience large daily, weekly, or seasonal SST ranges [Sea Surface Temperature] may harbor corals, and strains of coral symbionts, that are more resistant to SST extremes.”
Other studies also observed similar rapid adaptations. Studies in Indonesian waters determined that two coral species, both highly susceptible to bleaching, had experienced 94% and 87% colony deaths during the 1998 El Nino. Yet those same species were among the least susceptible to bleaching in the 2010 El Nino despite a similar increase in water temperatures with only 5% and 12% colony deaths.
In the context of coral evolution over thousands and millions of years, such rapid adaptation was suspected by many scientists. After all, none of the coral reefs we observe today, that depend on symbiotic algae, existed 18,000 years ago. The last Ice Age Maximum lowered sea level by 400 feet, killing all coral above those depths. As ice sheets melted, oceans warmed, sea levels rose, and coral rapidly adapted to those ever-changing conditions. More recently, estimates of ocean temperatures just 3000 to 5000 years ago range from 1.8°F to 9°F warmer than today. And clearly those warmer temperatures did not result in massive coral extirpations, thus casting further doubt on predictions of massive coral deaths by 2050. Evidence of bleaching thousands of years ago also reveals it is not just a recent phenomenon.
Studies of coral reefs that existed thousands and millions of years ago, find the lowest extinction rates occurred in the warmest tropics. Sully 2019 similarly found “coral bleaching was less common in the equatorial regions.” In contrast to earlier “models that predict minimal coral survival in the tropical oceans within the next 100 years, recent field work shows considerable geographic variability in both temperature stress and coral survival”. Thus, they argue there is an “urgent need to develop bettermodels” to more accurately predict coral bleaching.
Sully 2019 hypothesized “localities that commonly experience large daily, weekly, or seasonal SST ranges may harbor corals, and strains of coral symbionts [symbiotic partners], that are more resistant to SST extremes.” Increased resilience to a variety of bleaching events, whether induced by anomalous warmth or cold, prompted the Adaptive Bleaching Hypothesis first proposed in 1993. That hypothesis suggests that although bleaching events are a response to stress, by ejecting susceptible symbionts, coral create the potential to acquire totally new and different symbiotic partners that are better suited to new stressful conditions. A broader analysis of the Adaptive Bleaching Hypothesis is discussed in the article “The Coral Bleaching Debate: Is Bleaching the Legacy of a Marvelous Adaptation Mechanism or A Prelude to Extirpation?”
Because coral live in nutrient depleted environments, many species require single-celled photosynthesizing symbionts that typically provide ~90% of the coral’s energy needs. Just 40 years ago it was believed all corals were host to just one photosynthesizing symbiont. But thanks to technological advances in genetic sequencing, we now know a coral species can harbor several potential symbionts, each capable of responding optimally to a different set of environmental conditions. As predicted by the adaptive bleaching hypothesis, genetic techniques have now revealed a wondrously diverse community of symbionts with which coral can partner.
The more alarmist researchers had argued coral can only adapt very slowly over thousands of years via genetic mutation and natural selection. They incorrectly believed coral’s upper temperature limit is “fixed” for decades and centuries. But corals are now seen as an “eco-species” that can rapidly evolve and adapt to changing climates by expelling and acquiring new symbionts. Various symbionts enable various temperature tolerances.
To summarize Sully 2019, they found:
1. Coral now require higher ocean temperatures to bleach than the temperatures that caused bleaching a decade ago. This suggests rapid coral adaptation.
2. Coral bleaching was significantly lower in localities with a high variance in temperature anomalies. Localities with high variability likely maintain a wide variety of symbionts and coral genotypes.
3. There has been no universal response to global warming. Despite similar changes in temperature, bleaching was much less likely in equatorial region where coral diversity was highest.
4. Rapid changes in temperature can result in more bleaching, but the causes of rapid temperature change, such as an El Nino, were not analyzed.
Unfortunately, the last sentence in Sully 2019, reveals how some editors and journals are politicizing the science, and downplaying any optimism. Sully 2019’s last sentence read “immediate action globally to reduce carbon emissions is necessary to avoid further declines of coral reefs.” But Sully 2019’s research never tested or analyzed the effects of CO2on temperature and bleaching. Their research only revealed resilience and rapid adaptation to warming, whether that warming was natural or CO2induced. Furthermore, their research reported susceptibility to bleaching varied over time and location and did not detect a CO2fingerprint. Their research did not determine whether rapid changes in regional ocean temperature were caused by changes in El Nino, shifting ocean currents, changes in upwelling, cloud cover or CO2 concentrations. In the past, honest and objective scientific journals restricted comments to conclusions based on the author’s actual research.
Over the years I have had several researchers thank me for posting information in my blogs that their editors had not allowed. They tell me editors have insisted on more catastrophic CO2-biased conclusions in order for them to publish. We also know from published emails that alarmist scientists like Michael Mann and Kevin Trenberth have actively “persuaded” journal editors, via bullying or other means, to obstruct publication of any skeptical scientific research that undermines Mann’s and Trenberth’s dire predictions. Sully’s CO2-alarmist, non-sequitur closing sentence is most certainly the fingerprint of another such enforced distortion that is now being superimposed on otherwise objective science.
Jim Steele is retired director of the Sierra Nevada Field Campus, San Francisco State University
and authored Landscapes and Cycles: An Environmentalist’s Journey to Climate Skepticism


How long does the flu last?
The flu is a highly contagious, respiratory virus that is uncomfortable, and is usually fought by your immune system. In a healthy individual symptoms usually develop within one to four days after being exposed to the virus can last up to seven days. If you have previously received the influenza vaccine your symptoms might resolve sooner or be less severe. Individuals with weakened immune systems are at an increased risk for developing complications from the flu such as pneumonia, and can be fatal if left untreated. It is important to notify your doctor right away if you are experiencing flu symptoms so that you can be promptly evaluated.
Getting a yearly flu vaccine is very important especially given the Covid-19 pandemic. Covid-19 symptoms are similar to that of the flu. The bottom line is, get vaccinated!!
How do you cure the flu quickly?
Although the flu virus is self limiting, it is important to know when to reach out to your medical provider for further treatment. If you contract the flu you should drink plenty of fluids and get plenty of rest. Pain relievers such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and naproxen can be taken to lower your fever and relieve body aches. If you have a weakened immune system or are at high risk of complication, your doctor can prescribe an antiviral medication to treat the flu such as Tamiflu. Antiviral medications such as Tamiflu are most effective if started within 48hr from the start of your symptoms.
**On the telehealth platform we are able to prescribe antiviral therapy, again you need to reach out to your medical provider quickly upon having symptoms to get this prescription in an attempt to shorten the course and severity of your flu.
What are the stages of the flu?
The flu can affect individuals in various ways and not everyone who contracts the virus will experience the same symptoms. Typically before any flu symptoms appear an individual is contagious. After day 1, flu symptoms may appear abruptly and consist of headache, fevers, chills, body aches and fatigue. On day 2 symptoms might progress to cough, congestion, and continuing fevers. You may even feel too fatigued to get out of bed. It is recommended that you stay away from others while you are sick to prevent the spread of your illness. On day 3-4 your symptoms may be at their worst while they peak. Besides having sore throat, body aches, cough and congestion you may start to experience gastrointestinal symptoms as well. By day 5-6 you may start to feel better as your fever and congestion start to subside. It is important that you should stay home, rest, and continue to drink plenty of fluids during this time. Your cough may linger after other symptoms have subsided. By day 6 or 7 you should likely be feeling better on the road to recovery. If your symptoms have not subsided or you develop additional symptoms during this time it is important to reach out to your doctor as you may have developed a secondary infection.
Each case of the flu is very different and the severity of your symptoms may vary depending on your overall health and if you have previously received the flu shot. Remember that antiviral medications are most effective after 48hrs of symptoms onset, therefore call your doctor right away if you feel you may have contracted the flu virus.
The take-home message is GET YOUR ANNUAL FLU SHOT!!!
How do I prevent the flu?
Although there is no way to guarantee you will not contract the influenza virus, there are several preventative measures you can take to reduce your risk
-As mentioned above: Obtain an annual flu vaccine at your medical providers office or local pharmacy
-Wash your hands with soap and water frequently, avoiding touching your face, eyes, nose and mouth.
-Quit smoking: Individuals who smoke are at a higher risk of getting the flu than nonsmokers.
June 9, 2021
May 26, 2021


Obesity is a condition when excess body fats get accumulated and has negative effects on health. This problem is caused due to excessive intake of foods, less or no physical activity, lack of sleep, genes or medications. Age, height, and body frame help determine ideal body weight. A study of the National Cancer Institute looked at eight separate investigations around the world, comparing body mass index (BMI) and sex hormone levels in an almost 3,000 women. Scientists discovered that obese patients had an 18% higher risk of developing breast Cancer than those with a healthy weight. This study helps us to better understand the role obesity and certain hormones play I the mechanism that increases risk of the diseases. Alternative therapies treat obesity without drugs or surgery. All emphasize proper diet and regular exercise. However, here we have some best natural tips and remedies to cure obesity.
Natural Tips to Cure Obesity
Green Tea to Cure Obesity
Green Tea is an expert when it comes to weight loss. It has to be used continuously for visible results without dieting or weight loss medicines. Just add one to three cups of green tea to your daily routine. For better and faster weight loss results, add two to three pieces of ginger, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves to your daily green tea. Consume this species filled tea for two to three times a day to see effective results in a month.
Tomato to Cure Obesity
Eat one or two tomatoes or juice every morning instead of breakfast, and this will really help with weight-loss.
Lemon Water with Honey to Cure Obesity
Drinking a glass of hot water mixed with honey and a spoon of lime juice is filling and also helps cut down bad fats. This home remedy works best if you drink on an empty stomach.
Lime Juice with Honey to Cure Obesity
This is one of the best remedies for helping to combat the effects of obesity, mix one teaspoon of fresh honey with the juice from half of a lime. This should be added to a glass of warm water and consumed at least thrice a day.
Calcium Rich foods to Cure Obesity
Each day, drink 3 cups of low-fat or fat-free milk. Or, you can get an equivalent amount of low-fat yogurt and/or low-fat cheese each day. 1.5 ounces of cheese equals 1 cup of milk. If you don't or can't consume milk, choose lactose-free milk products and/or calcium-fortified foods and drinks.
Ginger and lemon to Cure Obesity
In a glass of boiling water, add ginger and lemon slices. Steep for some time and strain the water. Have it when warm. Not only would it treat obesity, it would also control overeating tendency.
Fennel Seeds to Cure Obesity
Fennel is one of the very popular ancient home remedies to reduce appetite. Boil about 6 to 8 fennel seeds in a cup of water for a few minutes. Remove the seeds from the water and drink this plain water everyday in the morning on an empty stomach to reduce your urge to eat.
Apple Cider Vinegar to Cure Obesity
Before sleeping, you can drink a teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar with 1 glass of water. This will burn your body fats while you are asleep.
Plum Leaves to Cure Obesity
Soak a handful of fresh plum leaves overnight. Boil and Strain the water in the morning and consume on an empty stomach. It will prove beneficial in curing obesity.
Mint Leaves to Cure Obesity
Mint leaves known as its best properties for healthy stomach. Boil a few mint leaves in water and green cardamom, drink it after you have taken your meal. Boost your metabolism and good for a healthy weight. If green mint is available you can make a paste with some spices and mix it with yogurt, use it with every meal especially at lunch.
Spices to Cure Obesity
Spices like cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, black pepper etc. are good for reducing fat. Drink ginger tea 2-3 times a day with lemon. It is also a good remedy for obesity.
Vegetables and Fruit Salads to Cure Obesity
Your diet should include green leafy vegetables. They are low in calories, but high in vitamins. Increase consuming more fruits and vegetables that are low calorie foods. Adding more vegetables and fruits salads is also the best way to reduce obesity.


Skin is the largest organ or human body. It protects our internal organs. There are many other important functions performed by skin. It also prevents harmful microbes from entering our body. It is a sensory organ and helps to give feeling of hot, cold or pain. There are many substances that cause irritation, and inflammation of the skin. It may produce redness, swelling, itching and burning of the skin. There are other skin conditions such as allergies, rashes, hives that may be produced when your skin comes in contact with irritants.
People suffer from a variety of skin disorders and diseases. Some of the common skin diseases are:
Sunburn: It is a common skin problem faced by many people due to exposure to the sun. One should avoid exposure by using sun protective creams and lotions.
Blisters: Blisters of all sizes may occur on any part of the skin. The skin appears bumpy and makes the skin look raised. These may be red and irritating.
Acne: It is the most common skin problem that occurs in young individuals. Though it may occur at any age but it commonly affects young individuals. It occurs mainly due to change in hormones.
Bruises: Bruises may occur due to some injury or accumulation of blood in the skin. It occurs when there is obstruction to the flow of blood.
Chilblains: These mainly occur during winters. Skin becomes painful, and itchy. There are bumps on fingers and toes during cold weather.
Dermatitis: It is also a common skin disease that may occur due to some allergen. It causes much redness, itching and burning of the skin.
Eczema: It is a common skin problem that occurs due to weak immune system. It is an autoimmune disorder and occurs when immune cells start affecting healthy cells of the body.
Psoriasis: It is also a skin disorder that occurs due to weak immunity. Skin becomes white and flaky. There is itching on the affected body part.
Ringworm: It is a fungal skin infection and red colored round patches in the form of a ring are formed on different parts of the skin.
The skin is made up of several layers. Skin performs many functions in human body. It helps to keep us cool during summers by evaporation of sweat from the body. It also helps to remove the excessive salts and toxins. It is important to keep our skin healthy to prevent internal organs from diseases. Skin is the main route through which germs and disease causing microorganisms enter into our body. Thus, skin is an important organ that helps to keep our body fit and healthy.
Causes of skin disorders and diseases
- Skin diseases are generally caused by viral or bacterial infection.
- It may also occur due to physiological imbalance of the skin.
- Some chemical substances present in cosmetic products can also produce skin irritation. It occurs when there is prolonged exposure to chemical irritants.
- One should use natural skin care products to protect skin from the harmful effects of the sun and environmental pollutants.
Natural acne remedy
Kayakalp vati is a wonderful herbal acne remedy. It is made up of natural and herbal remedies that help to get rid of acne naturally. People suffering from various kinds of skin diseases can take this natural remedy to get rid any kind of skin diseases and disorders. The herbs found in this remedy supplies proper nutrients to the skin and helps in quick recovery of the skin symptoms. It is a mixture of traditional herbs that supplies nutrition to the skin cells and help to get rid of all the symptoms of skin problems. Kayakalp vati is an excellent natural acne remedy that helps to get rid of acne and its scars. You can get fresh looking skin by taking this product every day. The herbal remedies found in this produce rejuvenate your skin and provide essential nutrients for the growth of new skin cells. It makes your skin to glow naturally and also prevents your skin from the harmful effects of sun and harmful environment pollutants. It is a natural remedy for various types of common skin diseases.
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