{"id":4309,"date":"2016-07-29T12:23:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T16:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=4309"},"modified":"2016-07-29T12:23:16","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T16:23:16","slug":"faking-reality-in-flint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=4309","title":{"rendered":"Faking reality in Flint"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The state of Michigan has filed criminal charges against <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/news\/local\/michigan\/2016\/07\/29\/schuette-state-employees-ignored-warning-flags\/87699476\/\" target=\"_blank\">six more people<\/a> in connection with the water problems in Flint.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Some people failed to act, others minimized harm done and arrogantly <SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a8f2f5\">chose to ignore data, some intentionally altered figures &#8230; and covered up<\/span> significant health risks,&#8221; he said at a news conference today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The charging documents are online.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The charging document filed by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SchuetteOnDuty\">@SchuetteOnDuty<\/a> for the 6 state employees over their alleged role in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Flint?src=hash\">#Flint<\/a> is here: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/adKnKP5Xcv\">https:\/\/t.co\/adKnKP5Xcv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ryan Felton (@RyanFelton13) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RyanFelton13\/status\/759054650519744512\">July 29, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Of the many disturbing aspects of this sad story, this is among the worst. The people who changed those figures could not have been unaware that the city was pumping contaminated water.  Did they think that changing the numbers would change that reality?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Scientists and engineers live lives governed by the reality principle: Get the variables wrong, the experiment will fail, even if this seems insensitive; do the math wrong, the equation will tell you, even if that hurts your feelings. Reality does not similarly regulate the production of Marxist interpretations of \u201cMiddlemarch\u201d or turgid monographs on the false consciousness of Parisian street sweepers in 1714. Literature professors \u201cdeconstructing\u201d Herman Melville cause nothing worse than excruciating boredom in their students. <SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #a8f2f5\">If engineers ignore reality, reality deconstructs their bridges<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p align=right><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/higher-education-is-a-house-divided\/2015\/12\/18\/1a54f548-a4f4-11e5-9c4e-be37f66848bb_story.html?wpmm=1&#038;wpisrc=nl_opinions\" target=\"_blank\">George Will<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So: We have engineers who surrendered their responsibility, regulators who exceeded their authority, and munchkins who scurried around trying to hide the consequences.<\/p>\n<p>Again, then: This was first and foremost a <i>technical<\/i> failure that should never have happened, but only grotesque failures of character made it possible to perpetuate the problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The state of Michigan has filed criminal charges against six more people in connection with the water problems in Flint. &#8220;Some people failed to act, others minimized harm done and arrogantly chose to ignore data, some intentionally altered figures &#8230; &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=4309\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4309"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4313,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4309\/revisions\/4313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}