I was a bit shocked this morning to read in an article about the resignation of Laura Helmuth that she has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley. This is the person who went to social media to proclaim with expletives that those who voted for Trump are—what’re the psychological terms? Oh, yes, meanest, dumbest, most bigoted--reminders why she left the corn fields of Indiana where she grew up.
A Reminder for the Meanest, Dumbest, Most Bigoted
Who the corn silk is Laura Helmuth? Until her recent resignation, she was an editor at Scientific American. She’s been in the news since she went public with her expletive-laced comments about those who voted for Trump. Note her credentials, doofuses: Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience. One might think her loyalty to the Biden-Harris Administration suggests that academic learning and commonsense aren’t entangled like two electrons.
Aren’t “scientists” supposed to be keen observers? Aren’t neuroscientists supposed to be familiar with the brain and processes of cognition? Yet, this woman was part of an editorial staff that endorsed the word salad chef, Kamala Harris, and probably would have, had he run again, endorsed Joe Biden, whose obvious mental decline was, well, obvious—to people without degrees in neuroscience.
But endorsing Kamala Harris? Had the editors, including Helmuth, ever listened to Harris speak, to start the answer to every question with a statement that she was reared (raised, she said, like chickens, I suppose) in the Middle Class? Smart people can be some of the dumbest when they let ideology influence them.
Wait, I just had a…thought. Yes, it definitely was a thought. Maybe the reason for the endorsement if not her diatribe lay in the recent Administration’s throwing money at academics for research to use in Scientific American articles: Earth-shaking research, such as that which led to the articles “Miaou! Curly Tails Give Cats an ‘Accent’” and “What’s the Roundest Object in the Universe?” (November 15 posting) **
Too Much Larnin’ for a Corn Husker to Understand?
Maybe there’s great significance in articles published in Laura’s mag. But consider the last statement in the article on round things: “Astronomers love to figure things like that out, even when it means asking what sound like silly questions. That part is fun, sure, but finding the answer is when we really have a ball.” O, that punny science humor!
After resigning, Helmuth said, “I’m going to take some time to think about what comes next (and go birdwatching).” I have a neuroscience-related recommendation for her: When you grab your binoculars to go birding, Laura, take along the Scientific American issue with the article “Birds Practice Singing in their Sleep.”
*https://nypost.com/2024/11/15/us-news/editor-in-chief-of-scientific-american-laura-helmuth-resigns-following-expletive-filled-rant-against-trump-voters/
**https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/curly-tailed-cats-communicate-with-an-accent/ and https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-the-roundest-object-in-the-universe/
A Reminder for the Meanest, Dumbest, Most Bigoted
Who the corn silk is Laura Helmuth? Until her recent resignation, she was an editor at Scientific American. She’s been in the news since she went public with her expletive-laced comments about those who voted for Trump. Note her credentials, doofuses: Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience. One might think her loyalty to the Biden-Harris Administration suggests that academic learning and commonsense aren’t entangled like two electrons.
Aren’t “scientists” supposed to be keen observers? Aren’t neuroscientists supposed to be familiar with the brain and processes of cognition? Yet, this woman was part of an editorial staff that endorsed the word salad chef, Kamala Harris, and probably would have, had he run again, endorsed Joe Biden, whose obvious mental decline was, well, obvious—to people without degrees in neuroscience.
But endorsing Kamala Harris? Had the editors, including Helmuth, ever listened to Harris speak, to start the answer to every question with a statement that she was reared (raised, she said, like chickens, I suppose) in the Middle Class? Smart people can be some of the dumbest when they let ideology influence them.
Wait, I just had a…thought. Yes, it definitely was a thought. Maybe the reason for the endorsement if not her diatribe lay in the recent Administration’s throwing money at academics for research to use in Scientific American articles: Earth-shaking research, such as that which led to the articles “Miaou! Curly Tails Give Cats an ‘Accent’” and “What’s the Roundest Object in the Universe?” (November 15 posting) **
Too Much Larnin’ for a Corn Husker to Understand?
Maybe there’s great significance in articles published in Laura’s mag. But consider the last statement in the article on round things: “Astronomers love to figure things like that out, even when it means asking what sound like silly questions. That part is fun, sure, but finding the answer is when we really have a ball.” O, that punny science humor!
After resigning, Helmuth said, “I’m going to take some time to think about what comes next (and go birdwatching).” I have a neuroscience-related recommendation for her: When you grab your binoculars to go birding, Laura, take along the Scientific American issue with the article “Birds Practice Singing in their Sleep.”
*https://nypost.com/2024/11/15/us-news/editor-in-chief-of-scientific-american-laura-helmuth-resigns-following-expletive-filled-rant-against-trump-voters/
**https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/curly-tailed-cats-communicate-with-an-accent/ and https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-the-roundest-object-in-the-universe/
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