In this podcast, @atrembath's mom talks about the unscientific way that environmentalists wield science --- as an endpoint, a revealed truth that can be cudgelized, rather than a process that uncovers truth in ways that improve over time and self-correct.
It got me thinking about ways that try to replace common unscientific phrasing with more scientific formulations (hopefully without being too awkward).
So I never refer to 'this is proof' or 'the study proves such and such". 'This is EVIDENCE' 'the study DEMONSTRATES ..."
I always try to refer to 'RELATIVE risk' rather than simply 'risk'. I try to use 'hypothesis' rather than 'theory' (though I don't think 'theory' as colloquial for 'hypothesis' is the worst transgression (Transgression! a call back to the podcast)).
(And yes. Sometimes I use a double parenthetical.)

This practice is not just about more accurately conveying what's going to others, but to remind myself and re-internalize over and over that science is a process, not an endpoint called 'Science'.
What are examples you use to rework common unscientific tropes and shorthands? And how do you keep yourself in a 'scout mindset' affirming that science is a project, not a truth-cudgel?

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More from @eatcookwrite

1 Jul
I highly recommend this discussion between @timhammerich and @waiterich of @WRIFood on measuring and building sustainability into agriculture.
bit.ly/3qDpAwA
One comment by Richard at the end really got me thinking about a pet peeve of mine. 1/25
#fafdlstorm
After mentioning seafood as a feed additive could cut the methane emissions in cows by as much as 80% and a commercial feed additive (3-NOP) that could cut methane by 30%, a nitrification inhibitor that could help with managing emissions in crop fertilization ... 2/25
Read 30 tweets
30 Jun
I put laundry in the building's laundry room this morning wearing a mask and just took it out maskless as I saw that the mandate had been lifted in Oregon.

I was unprepared for the jolt of normalcy as one of my neighbors came out of the laundry room maskless as I was going in.
Context is everything. We all stopped wearing masks outside in the neighborhood a month ago, but inside the building, it's still been taboo.
I've seen neighbors in the halls who forgot their masks but it was always accompanied by shame, hunching shoulders, trying to cover their faces with their shirt.
Read 5 tweets
29 Jun
1. People would do well to integrate convenience foods with a bit of scratch cooking embellishment and fortification.

2. I've been saying a for a few years now, the world-beater will be the app that maps and combines convenience and scratch ingredients into DIY meal kits.
Here's an example of what I mean by integrating convenience foods with scratch cooking.
fafdl.org/blog/2015/05/0…
The app that gives the person who isn't good at thinking about this stuff the map to put these together for a meal is an app that people will love. ImageImageImage
Read 7 tweets
29 Jun
And what happens when thousands of massive solar farms have to be scrapped and replaced? What's the plan? What about the impacts of mining the massive amount of inputs needed? Image
I'm for solar, but we can't pretend that nuclear is the only source of energy with environmental downside and risk. By all accounts, it has among the smallest footprint and risk. I don't get all the pretzel logic to act as it was the highest.
It just seems like obsolete, leftover 70s scaremongering because the what risks there are -- are more psychologically salient than forms of energy that have bigger impacts and risks but don't give people nightmares or fuel movie plots.
Read 7 tweets
22 Dec 20
THREAD
I think this reveals an all too common misunderstanding about what that particular group of working people wants help with.

They are a lot less confused than a lot of people think.
1/22
For starters, we generally talking about blue collar royalty. These aren't so much the front line factory workers, they are the supervisors. The guys taking bets on who many poultry workers were going to get sick at the Tyson plant. 2/22
Not the carpenters and drywallers. The contractor driving around from job site to job site in a $60k pickup truck. These are small business owners without college degrees. 3/22
Read 22 tweets
22 Nov 20
Looking for examples of sustainable agricultural systems at scale. That is, they were able to feed a civilization in a steady-state for centuries.

I can think of two. Can you point me to others?
The two I'm thinking of were highly context-dependent ecologically and required very tight governance.
These were not ancient systems that stayed in ecological balance by feeding a small number of people on enormous amounts of land. This allowing them to farm plots of land into exhaustion and then move to a new plot while the previous plot rebounded over decades.
Read 31 tweets

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