A ridiculous one-shot set in ‘Rainbow Rocks’ during the Battle of the Bands:
Geeks, nerds and engineers are good at solving problems, sometimes to a fault. The only thing that normally keeps them from swatting a fly with a sledgehammer is a lack of motivation.
Which the Dazzlings have just fixed.
Celestia help us all.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Raise the question.
Begging the question is circular arguments:
¿is Rainbow Dash the most awesome? ¡As the awesomest pony ever, ¿how could she not be‽
This is a nice proscience story. With the CreaTards (the flat/young-Earth geocentric creationists), I fear for our future:
During the early Middle Ages, the Islamic countries were the most scientifically progressive countries on Earth, but in the late Middle Ages, a belief took hold claiming that the Koran is the only book one should read and that mathematics is diabolical. We know how that turned out for them.
We have CreaTards trying to ruin our educational system. We must fight them.
I like the ProSTEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in this story.
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Whether the US will lead the world or whether the world will leave the US behind depends upon whether we embrace science or deny it. I love the prostem of this story. Compare it to the anti-intellectualism of RealityCheck, who is a young Earth creationist. On the show, we need more proscience episodes like Bridle Gossip and no more antiscience episodes like Feeling Pinkie Keen. The anti-intellectualism of creationists is a threat to education and directly threatens our future.
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⸘Do you honestly believe that we can compete with backwards technology‽ Let me give to you a little historical lesson:
At 1 time, China was the most technologically advanced country on Earth, but it turned inward. England, a small Island-Nation embraced innovation. England found it profitable to sell opium in China. China did not want its citizens to become useless addicts. Long story short, little England won against a larger country which was a hyperpower, but turned its back on science and technology.
War should be a last resort —— ¡not a 1st option! —— but sometimes war is necessary. Soon, the militaries of the world will have autonomous killing machines. ¡We cannot afford an Autonomous-Killing-Machine-Gap! ¡We cannot afford to be dependent on foreigners for our autonomous killing machines! ¡We need scientists and engineers for designing the autonomous killing machines!! ¡We need skilled workers for building the autonomous killing machines! ¡The autonomous killing machines cannot design and build themselves —— yet!
The hypothesis Omphalos, which is the only hypothesis creationists have which fits the evidence, denies science because it states that a deity created the universe with the appearance of age, so that studying the universe is a waste of time. Besides, this lying deity means that theists could not trust the deity either. Indeed, Professor Bertrand Russel pointed out that Omphalos is isomorphic with Last-Thursdayism.
Scientific progress reduces the need for deities. God od the gaps means that biblical literalists must either abandon biblical literalism or deny science.
Kill nonbelievers, rape is a property-crime, be a religious bigot, repress women, sexually mutilate the genitals of babies (christians do not have to do that any more), keep slaves, et cetera
The Atheist Perry DeAngelis saw space-aliens when he had a near-death experience. People experience phenomena congruent with their believe (hindoos experience hindoo-imagery, shintos shinto-imagery, et cetera). We do not know that the phenomena occur when the EEG (ElectroEncephaloGram) is flat. We know that brains go all wacky while dying and that people recovering from near-death-experiences often go through a delirious stage during recovery. Not all people who experience cardiac-arrest have near-death-experiences and people can have near-death-like experiences without cardiac-arrest.
I think the comments section needs to pour itself a drink and calm down just a bit. Yes, this story is pro-STEM-fields, includes the idea that science = good, and is generally very positive about science, technology, engineering and math being taught early and often. But you'll also notice that this story includes a pretty strong 'liberal arts with a business side and STEM can get along,' message as well. That was not unintentional.
Cozy and I generally do not often address the issue of science-denying young-Earth Creationists, for some very good reasons. For one thing, science-deniers are too silly to be worth discussing. We don't even discuss them when we meet them. With practice, it is possible to burst into laughter and compliment someone on their satirical joke, bringing up such nonsense, "you really had me going there for a second," and then riff on the topic for a few moments before changing the subject. It's a remarkably effective bit of conversational jiu-jitsu and has the effect of making the holders of such beliefs seriously question A. the beliefs themselves and B. whether they sound really silly airing them in polite company.
As for people of faith who are pro-science, accepting of evolution and open-minded enough to keep their faith in the one pocket and their understanding of how reality works (at the nuts-and-bolts level,) in the other, well, we rarely discuss them for the same reason fish rarely discuss water. There's a splendid old movie called 'Inherit the Wind,' and while it does a number and a half on strictly-literal, rabidly anti-science Creationism as practiced in the United States, the ending isn't exactly kind to atheist cynics, either. Personally, I see no incompatibility between a belief in God or the higher power of your choice (mine not to judge,) and an understanding of how science works. Deism was good enough for the Founding Fathers and the idea that God/Allah/The Great Will of the Macrocosm/whoever intended for our science to figure out how Creation was done seems perfectly reasonable. I also have nothing against atheists; they just believe in one less deity. Theists, atheists, people of any religion, so long as you aren't obnoxious about it, it's all good in the 'hood. It might, however, be worthwhile to take a library DVD of 'Inherit the Wind' for a spin and check oneself before one wreck'st oneself. (Hint: Gene Kelly's character in that one is not a good guy. The lack of musical numbers should tip you off.)
But mainly, we didn't set out to write a story about engineers and scientists curb-stomping young-Earth anti-science Creationists because they really aren't the enemy. (That, and they seriously aren't even mentioned here. I don't think they even exist in the Equestria Girls universe.) For such people to consider themselves the enemy of science would be like a tin can fancying itself the ancient enemy of rifles. No, such wanton ignorance is much, much worse. Such people are the tools of the real enemies of science and of STEM education in the United States and elsewhere; the political oligarchy who knows science well enough to profit from it and nevertheless seeks to keep the electorate so badly educated that issues this nonsensical still haul out the hillbillies and the hoodrats to the polls. Ignorant people are not the enemy any more than baseball bats and spray paint are the enemy of public buildings during a mass riot. You have to look at who's really holding them, controlling them, and then, with understanding and a basic explanation of how to play follow-the-money with propaganda campaigns, you can begin to loosen the enemy's grip.
More importantly, the idea that STEM cannot exist in a sociocultural vacuum and that it's possible for the STEM crowd to have friends and even find mates in other fields is pretty important to the two of us, personally. As you may have guessed, that's essentially our backstory as a pair. Cozy is an engineer. I work in a field that involves the arts, business, history and politics. Given the nature of the real threats to STEM education, I would posit that engineers making friends outside their academic cluster may be the single best way to ensure the anti-science forces can't succeed.
Oh, and personal note to Walabio: the Islamic revolt against science did not actually begin in the Middle Ages at all, but is a result of a comparatively modern radical-fundamentalist movement called Wahabbism. It's approximately the same age as North American radical-fundamentalist Protestant Christian movements, runs on nearly the exact same principles and is essentially the analogue to the FLDS, the Westboro Baptist 'Church' and the Klan, all rolled into one big ball of crazy. The problem with the Middle East is, essentially, that where American free speech let religious fundamentalism factionalize into too many disparate groups to be especially effective (that is, until the 'Religious Right' was created in the mid-1970s as a political tool to amalgamate disparate elements as a force against progressive reform,) countries like Iran, Egypt and especially Saudi Arabia had no such competition-building atmosphere (free speech is an essential human right for a damn reason!) and Wahabbist Islam overpowered more moderate and progressive variants. There's a reason why Muslims in developed nations tend to be overwhelmingly liberal, progressive and tolerant, much like how Christians in wealthy cities tend to be the same: fundamentalism, hatred and intolerance can only function amid poverty and ignorance, and where it takes over, the smart and rich tend to leave. (Draw what conclusions you wish about the comparative affluence of red and blue counties here.)
I will, however, mention, that Cozy did attend the kind of high school where the Biology teacher, of all people, actually was a vehement, science-denying young-Earth Creationist, and that's one of the biggest reasons why I (as occasional co-writer, editor and all-purpose Mrs.,) often have to tell him to "dial it back," when it comes to such characters. When one is trapped in a situation with such ignorance, especially with ignorance in positions of authority, it can be pretty horrible. 'Emotionally draining' and 'rage-inducing' are the least of the adjectives. And it can still sting, even years after you escape from such hellholes of ignorance and, usually, poverty.
I can therefore, absolutely understand why someone currently forced to live among science-deniers of any variety (really, they have them in lots of flavors, not just fundamentalist-Christian,) would turn to a community dedicated to friendship and acceptance to air views and vent frustrations. My sympathies and those of my husband are with anyone who is in such a trying situation, and I can only promise that really, honest and truly, it does get better. From where we sit in our late twenties/early thirties, high school is but an old scar that stings sometimes, our hometowns are far, far away and the nearest science-denier who poses any threat to us at anything but the ballot level is literally outside the post-code. But that doesn't mean we don't remember how hard it was, or how much it cut at the time to be forced to live in places where ignorance was picked up and used as a tool to beat others.
It gets better. Really. Give it time, save your money as best you can, and plan your escape.
That, and I promise you, there is no sweeter moment for someone who once lived among science-deniers of the young-Earth Creationist variety than the first day, or sometimes the second, of college geology. There is such a treat waiting there, a verbal and moral smackdown the likes of which even the late Spencer Tracy can only just about equal. If it helps to get you through times stuck among such tools, dream of what the average college professor would do to them, smile, and carry on.
Great read
Great quote
Shame about the comments
Would you look at that, almost none of the comments have anything to do with the story itself at all. A shame really, and it doesn't help that my comment isn't doing anything but bemoan the state of the comments either. Woah I'm feeling meta today.
Woah! I LOVE this story! Great job mate ;D
Starting off by mentioning I liked the story. Nice little tale.
Then I read some comments. Hoo boy...
Now, I'm not saying that everyone on my "side of the aisle" is a rational being, nor that everyone on the other side is irrational, but there are WAY too many times where evolution is guilty of blatantly ignoring scientifically proven principles (how mutations actually work, layers of rock forming in seconds instead of eons during major disasters *coughMajorFloodscoughVolcanicEruptionscough*, all the other dating methods having assumptions that could easily or even likely be faulty (high heat adding millenia onto the actual total for instance), etc.) for the idea of "young-earth creationism" to be shut down simply by claiming it does the same.
That line about college professors laying verbal and moral smackdowns? I've seen them (and those far above them in the scientific food chain) completely shut down by extremely simple questions many, MANY times. Still haven't heard an even halfway feasible counter-argument to the First Cause Argument for instance, and that's as simple a thesis as can be conceived!
wasnt expecting that much romance, but not bad, though the words 'air raid organ' certainly set off several warning signs, a title like that gets clicked just to see if its as bad of an idea as those words make it sound, yes it is and its hilarious. i want one.
or even possible
By connecting air hoses to spinning disks with evenly-spaced perforations, the siren timbre is translated musically. Polyphony gives our instrument an organ-like personality: keys are mapped to different frequencies and the pressure applied to them determines volume.
The Siren Organ | Zenodo
I can't believe it this thing exists
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That is awesome : )
This group took the more level headed option and built what is basically an air compressor powered reedless bagpipe. The characters in the fictional story aren't constrained by money and reality so their version uses the centrifuge energy of many spinning compressor wheels to do the same thing. That's why they need to tap into the transmission of a 400 hp truck to drive the thing - it's volume and energy expenditure are nuts. I didn't specify in the story, but I imagine the operator playing while another person handles the gas peddle and up/down shifting as the notes extract energy from the flywheels.
Thank you for sharing that : )
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welcome