haystacks
continuing from yesterday... when science studies something new, the reaction to the first such studies is skepticism. ie that can't possibly be right. that's gotta be some sort of outlier. so more studies are done. and a fuzzy picture starts to emerge. now the scientists are thinking, huh how 'bout that? things get fun when the results are unpopular. take asbestos for example. though i could have picked smoking, global warming, red dye #5, hiv, vaccines, gm crops, court cases, racism, etc. anywho, people make money selling asbestos as insulation. they have a financial motivation to deny this emerging science. which is a losing strategy. eventually. the best they can do is delay the inevitable. a very effective strategy is to focus on the outliers. and make sure they get way way more attention than they deserve. the media is especially bad in this regard. they don't get paid to report boring consensus. controversy is newsworthy. even if it's manufactured. sigh. eventually that haystack becomes a mountain that can't be ignored. which is good. unfortunately, a whole lot of damage can be done during the haystack period.