What is Digg?160 Comments
- suxmonkey, on 10/10/2007, -1/+104::sigh:: American idols used to be people who ventured into the unknown, flew to the moon ... now they are pop singers regurgitating old sounds on the world stage. Go figure.
- hawkspur, on 10/10/2007, -9/+56The Bush administrations war on science these recent years has certainly not helped the issue.
- RadiantBeing, on 10/10/2007, -4/+32The analysis is flawed because the 86-89 survey didn't have a separate category for health/safety while the later two surveys did. There is a significant overlap in health news and science news. Stories like stem cells, global epidemics, cancer research, diabetes, obesity, etc reside in a grey area between health and science. Perhaps the drop reflects the division of the two categories.
Finally, one must also consider that technology is so ubiquitous now that it may not be considered a news category separate from business or lifestyle. After all, how many people owned personal computers, cellphones, were online, etc in 1986? Google, Microsoft, iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, etc are mainstream topics now. Even if people aren't interested in this kind of news, they have integrated technology into their daily lives more deeply than the richest and geekiest nerd in 1986. - HappyScrappy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+21Well of course their interest has dropped.
We have been taught to be afraid of the future.
In the 80s, the future held great things. We were still riding the space program a bit. You only had to look at cars and watches with their digital displays to see the future was going to be great.
Now, it's all gloom and doom. The religious nutters want to kill us, the environment is strangling us.
It's time for a return to some hope. Then people will be interested in tools of the future, science and technology. - wil2200, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20war on science, medicine, climate, logic - basically everything that has a positive contribution to society has been under attack
- DeusNova, on 10/10/2007, -0/+16More jobs for me!
- badassninja, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14And this is proven by how much they cover Britney Spears and all of the other whores instead of real news.
- Saeka, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11The Idiocracy is upon us.
- jollyholly, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12"Two categories of news -- "Washington Politics" and "Money" -- trended upward."
That makes sense - think about who and what is affecting the bottom line of most families nowadays.. - jcims, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11This is probably the most important comment here... This has nothing to do with religion or Bush. Science is becoming a commodity, for better or worse. The next frontier of economic development in the US is going to be the ability to manipulate the direction of cashflow and influence. We certainly have more practice in litigation than any other country, and when China or India or any of these other rapidly growing economies starts running into legal and economic quagmires, where could they turn for better advice than the US?
Do i think this is good? No...not at all. The loss of scientific capability is going to have similar effects that the lost of manufacturing capability has had, and will increase our dependence on foreign economies. The US needs a solid two decades to fix some of our own problems before we start increasing our codependency with other nations. - Torx, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11Want a perfect example of this trend? Radioshack. Back in the 80's and early 90's radioshack was THE premier place to spark that scientific mind. Now, its nothing more than a cellphone plaza. It used to be a good tool to introducing science and electronics to the public. Now you have to do extreme searching on the internet to find electronics parts and such for that special project.
- nashashmi, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11This year 70,000 engineers will graduate here in the U.S. Compare this to the 350,000 engineers that will graduate this year from India and the 650,000 engineers that will graduate this year from China.
Yup, English-majoring Americans. How we don't long for thee. - Beylan, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11Who cares about science when the lawyers and MBA's own and run everything?
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9I could see the decline coming when Scientific American dropped its 'Amateur Scientist' column many years ago and Popular Electronics magazine went out of business. These things forecast less interest in science and technology. Then Scientific American got sold off to a German company, and made glossy with pretty pictures for mass audiences, and the US got the dumbed-down Discover magazine, which is science-lite. We've been on an intellectual decline for decades in many ways. I see it in the form of engineering college grads who have little experience actually building things. They lack a sense of what is workable and what isn't. And there are few high school shop classes anymore, too.
- gquaglia, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9The real reason. Dumb people are better looking, are getting laid more and are creating more dumb people. Smart people are not good looking (think Wally and Dilbert), don't get laid very often and don't get a chance to create many smart babies. The dumb jocks, ***** heads and hammer hangers got us beat 10 to 1.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8We are a nation of 300 million+ and we have to import doctors and scientist because our own people are too ***** lazy.
- drakethegreat, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9This is AMERICA!!!!! Ya we are *****...
- tomboy501, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10Flawless logic, RadiantBeing. Hat tip on both of your points.
The data that supports the trend of an America ever-obsessed with Paris Hilton stories over stunning science and technology news didn't surprise me one bit though. Just a quick look at digg's top front-page stories at any given time fits the model perfectly. - williamdyer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8China has approximately 4X to 5X the population of the U.S.
China graduates 10X the number of engineers.
The number are even more stark because a significant part of China's population is rural and under-educated and is not suitable for entering universities. - cdiggy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7...also, where are the Sci-Fi movies these days??
- Dumbledorito, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Bush's own policies are what cause so-called "social promotion" and the passing of failing kids, NOT teachers or so-called "liberals." Idiotic "let's hold the teacher accountable without taking into account that they'll be teaching someone who should be in a mental institution and whose parents could give a flying ***** about raising their own brat" policies don't help at all. Administrators are the ones passing flunking kids, for fear of losing money. You want to talk education, go talk with some actual teachers, not that tool Stossel who cherry-picks the BS he puts on the air. You want to "know the truth," read this:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200601200003 - jmpeagle, on 10/10/2007, -5/+11science used to be essential to overcoming the enemy (soviet Russia), now that our enemies are 3rd world countries, the GOP have no problem accommadating the Christian Right to attack science as attacking science is no longer viewed (wrongly) as a threat to national security.
- MioTheGreat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6A pity a degree in English makes Jack of absolutely no benefit to society.
A big reason why people go into science and engineering is because they enjoy challenges. There is their 'play'. A pity so many people have lost the ability to enjoy challenges. - patch6, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6The learning process isn't meant to be boring, but when people are forced to learn subject matter that they fail to find relevant, it is quickly forgotten. The sciences, effectively taught, can easily become life-long passions.
- wil2200, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6i think the interest in USING said technology has gone up, NOT the understanding, making and application of
- octopod42, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Of course. Science isn't FUN anymore. It used to promise to solve all our problems with pills and make our lives easier with new machines. Now? It says we need to drive less and start worrying about boring, long-term, non-self-centered stuff. Ugh, let's PRAISE JEEZUS instead, he'll make everything happy and tell us we're the most important thing in the universe!
- wil2200, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6think about it, its the rich and powerful that control the country that makes policies that continue to hinder education, because a dumber population is so much easier to control, used as cannon fodder and supressed
- Hananda, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Meh. They've never been particularly profitable, and people seem content watching the same six stories over and over again.
- sineyopitty, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5"We" is actually correct.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6What bugs me is the kids who graduate with ***** degree's expect a high paying job...wtf?
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7Not to mention the ***** load of ART and Social Sciences related majors we are pushing out...lol. I am quite sure singing, dancing, painting, sculpting and so on will push technology to the brink...LOL
- mrASSMAN, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5so.. sad.
- digitalhippie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Well I guess it is up to us fellow geeks.
- wil2200, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5i agree, i was told by the principal that i 'had to get kids through the school'
they fired me when i failed the little bastards - williamdyer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5With our booming market in prosthetic limbs and brain injury rehabilitation, you think there might be more news coverage.
I wonder why there isn't. - stockjones, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4So true, but TV and movies make them feel good about themselves.
- MoFoKeR, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4also explains why digg gets alot of bad articles posted
- a1532b, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4You don't have to be a scientist to have an interest in science. I'm sure on occasion you go to the doctor but do you have a medical degree? Your logic is horrible.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7but they are learning Intelligent Design.
- vinwal, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Science and tech??? Let's get a six pack the big game is on.
- kazamx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Science and Tech also gave America a competitive advantage over overy other country in the world. You could design, build and sell products faster, cheaper and of better quality than any other country in the world. As you lose your lead in technology and the infrastructure built on technology you lose your lead and other countries take over.
2 examples of key areas the US is falling behind are Mobile phones and the Internet. Most other developed countries are now at least a year maybe two ahead of the US. the indications are that the major telcos have no intention of catching back up again. You can say "who cares" but the point is that the US used to be ahead in everything. As time passes old tech advantages become less important and new tech becomes key, if you fall behind in new tech you will fall behind overall in time. - spawnfree, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4mentally ill people prefer amusing distractions.
- kazamx, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5I dount they will follow the US. The will just do what the rest of the world is doing and ignore software patents. The US wrapped so much red tape around eveything that you tied your economy in knots. Other countries won't make that mistake.
- FunkyLlama, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6How would the liberals have anything to do with it? Bush is in power, and he's not liberal by any standards.
- Erfman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Come on, all Americans know that airplanes fly via Magic.
- kazamx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Be careful, I know your just being silly but I am sure there are some out there who believe that. If its not magic then its because God holds it up there or something.
- mirunit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3But you know, science and technology are - you know too difficult!
In all honesty this is sad as the advancement of both technology and science are the cornerstone upon which progress stems. - mirunit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I think there is a Plato/Aristotle quote that mirrors that exact thought.
- stockjones, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Rome fell. Who is to say other superpowers wont fall wayside as well. Hate to say that but many Americans are just to caught up in pop culture. People get complacent and someone hungrier than you takes over.
- xSEED, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5typical american ignorance. just like religion
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