来自北卡罗来纳州的更多科学冒险

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本文发表于《大众科学》的前博客网络,反映作者的观点,不一定代表《大众科学》的观点


众所周知,在北卡罗来纳州,我们喜欢带有疯狂色彩的科学。老牌飞天卷饼兄弟乐队的歌曲唱道:“科学家说一切都会被冲走,但我们再也不相信他们了”,而且我们这里的人热爱乡村音乐,所以我们之前对海平面上升的立法否决引起了很大的轰动。如果你还记得的话,我们曾试图使测量它成为非法行为

现在,州参议员大卫·劳泽,也就是那个反对科学测量的立法闹剧背后的同一个笨蛋,他想简单地取消(用他的话说,在反科学的背景下,用“下放”一词可谓恰如其分)——能源部。并不是因为,比如说,北卡州没有蓬勃发展且不断增长的风能产业(预计到2030年超过10000兆瓦);并不是因为我们不是水力压裂争议的最前沿;并不是因为我们没有生物燃料产业;并不是因为由NSF资助、由北卡州立大学领导的FREEDM中心并没有在智能电网未来方面处于领先地位

不,劳泽想“下放”能源部,是因为……好吧,让他自己说吧:“有一天我去能源部,你走在走廊里,发现大多数拿着六位数薪水的人都在那里看书。”看书!需要我提醒你,“书”的英文单词是以“B”开头的,而且和“P”押韵,意思是泳池吗?你开始看书,这只是从书本到思考的一步,而思考会引向理性,理性会引向逻辑,逻辑会引向关于进化或气候变化等事物的科学理论。而这里是北卡罗来纳州,我们不赞成这种事情。我的意思是,这和,比如说,拥抱跳舞有多大差别?


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好吧,抱歉。有点激动了。

幸运的是,我们这里还有其他科学故事,结果是好消息,并且有一个连通性主题,但遗憾的是,它们也集中在一些古老的北卡罗来纳州的愚蠢行为上。首先:结果发现,当乔纳森·莫斯在度蜜月时,某个笨蛋闯入了他的公寓。莫斯的房东给他发了邮件告知了这件事,莫斯开始行动。他用他的iPad打开了他下载到他的MacBook上的Prey软件。然后,MacBook开始拍摄拿着笔记本电脑的家伙的照片,并告诉莫斯它在哪里。莫斯去了阿鲁巴的警察局;他们给罗利的警察打了电话,警察去了那个笨蛋的家,找到了笔记本电脑。

这很有趣,因为莫斯当时在阿鲁巴。更可怕的是这起犯罪狂潮,它始于三个笨蛋偷了一部iPhone。当然,iPhone是高度可追踪的,所以当警方追踪它的时候,他们能够记录下这些笨蛋的下落,这似乎将他们与几起其他抢劫案(他们偷了披萨!)——抢劫未遂案和一起枪击案联系起来。一旦手机停止移动,警方就去了它的位置,找到了那些笨蛋。令人遗憾的是,没有关于披萨状况的消息。

所以,无论如何。我们的立法机构仍然致力于在与科学和学习相关的愚蠢行为方面领先世界,但我们的公民似乎完全有能力使用技术——尤其是连通性——来改善所有北卡罗来纳州居民的生活,除了那些笨蛋。我没有得出任何结论。但是,如果你来北卡罗来纳州拜访我们,不要让立法者看到你在看任何书。并确保你打开了你的追踪设备。

Scott Huler was born in 1959 in Cleveland and raised in that city's eastern suburbs. He graduated from Washington University in 1981; he was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa because of the breadth of his studies, and that breadth has been a signature of his writing work. He has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as ESPN, Backpacker, and Fortune. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media. He has been a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Raleigh News & Observer and a staff reporter and producer for Nashville Public Radio. He was the founding and managing editor of the Nashville City Paper. He has taught at such colleges as Berry College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His books include Defining the Wind, about the Beaufort Scale of wind force, and No-Man's Lands, about retracing the journey of Odysseus.

His most recent book, On the Grid, was his sixth. His work has been included in such compilations as Appalachian Adventure and in such anthologies as Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Appalachian Trail Reader and Speed: Stories of Survival from Behind the Wheel.

For 2014-2015 Scott is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, which is funding his work on the Lawson Trek, an effort to retrace the journey of explorer John Lawson through the Carolinas in 1700-1701.

He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, the writer June Spence, and their two sons.

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