Latest news with #Kucharski
New York Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Just Because You Can Prove It Doesn't Make It True
In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson sent a document to Benjamin Franklin, along with a note. 'Will Doctr. Franklyn be so good as to peruse it,' Jefferson asked, 'and suggest such alterations as his more enlarged view of the subject will dictate?' The document was most likely the Declaration of Independence, whose second paragraph began, 'We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable, that all men are created equal …' Franklin scratched out the words 'sacred & undeniable' and replaced them with 'self-evident.' A 'sacred' truth implies a religious foundation; a 'self-evident' one is a plain fact. But as Adam Kucharski explains in his useful new book, 'Proof: The Art and Science of Certainty,' it's not as if Franklin's edits immediately settled the matter. Chattel slavery would continue to be practiced for nearly a century. Abolitionists condemned slavery as a moral evil, but there was another kind of argument to be made against it, too. Abraham Lincoln, in a private note to himself in 1854, used a logical formula to convey the practice's absurd contradictions: 'If A can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B, why may not B snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?' Lincoln had been inspired by his close reading of Euclid, the ancient Greek mathematician who had proposed a set of fundamental principles for arriving at the truth. In debates, Lincoln would take care to define his terms as precisely as possible, striving to furnish 'an agreed starting point' for discussion. He used logic both to understand what he believed to be true and to convince others of the same. He knew that proving something was a social act. Kucharski, a mathematically trained epidemiologist, says that the rigor and purity of mathematics has imbued it with extraordinary rhetorical power. 'In an uncertain world, it is reassuring to think there is at least one field that can provide definitive answers,' he writes. Yet he adds that certainty can sometimes be an illusion. 'Even mathematical notions of proof' are 'not always as robust and politics-free as they might seem.' Historically, ironclad logic has also made 'mathematical monsters.' In Zeno's paradox, for instance, a tortoise gets a head start in a race with Achilles, who will never catch up to the tortoise if the race is defined in terms of the distance between them, which is infinitely divisible into ever smaller slices. Zeno went so far to suggest that motion itself was an illusion. Kucharski repeats the story (probably apocryphal) of Diogenes the Cynic getting so annoyed by Zeno's claims that upon hearing them he stood up and walked away. 'Zeno's riddles revealed a conflict between how objects moved according to mathematical theory and how motion worked in reality,' Kucharski writes, going on to show how generations of scientists have grappled with discrepancies between what a theory was telling them and what they could apprehend with their senses. Cultural preoccupations have shaped the realm of mathematical possibilities. At the same time that Euclid was developing his geometric proofs, mathematicians in China were writing about fortunes and debt. The Chinese consequently developed a concept of negative numbers — something that Europeans, whose mathematics was inspired by tangible objects, would shun for centuries. Kucharski quotes an 18th-century English mathematician who grumbled that negative numbers 'darken the very whole doctrines of the equations and make dark of the things which are in their nature excessively obvious and simple.' Needless to say, proving what is 'obvious and simple' isn't always easy. Kucharski offers the delightful example of Muriel Bristol, a scientist who always put the milk in her cup before pouring her tea, because she insisted it tasted better. In the 1920s, a skeptical statistician designed a blind taste test to see if Bristol could distinguish between cups of milk-then-tea and cups of tea-then-milk. Bristol got all of them right. In 2008, the Royal Society of Chemistry reported that when milk is poured into hot tea, 'individual drops separate from the bulk of the milk' and allow 'significant denaturation to occur.' The result is a burnt flavor. Eighty years after Bristol was statistically vindicated, she was chemically vindicated too. Kucharski has his own reasons for writing about proof. Several years ago, he was one of the epidemiologists working on Britain's response to the Covid pandemic. He started receiving abusive messages from people who didn't want to believe his warnings about fatality risks and the importance of vaccines. As more data about the epidemic became publicly available, Kucharski assumed that it would become patently clear to people what was happening. He was mistaken. A few weeks into the first lockdown, his own wife told him that she had not really believed his predictions about the pandemic's impact. 'Despite all the evidence, and all our conversations, I hadn't realized that I'd failed to convince her.' Evidence, as it happens, isn't always sufficient for persuading others. More fundamental are the underlying assumptions that we share — or don't, as the case may be. Doubt can turn especially poisonous, 'replacing a reality that can be agreed upon with one that is forever disputed,' Kucharski writes. Amid such a free-for-all, consensus, which is the foundation of social trust, begins to break down. But sometimes the pretense of consensus can perpetuate attachment to an unjust status quo. In the United States, the unholy compromises with the Southern slave states in the antebellum era is a case in point. Two years into the Civil War, after the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln spoke of a nation 'dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.' Kucharski notes this profound shift: Instead of assuming that equality was axiomatic and universally accepted, Lincoln chose to reframe it as a proposition. 'The construction of the United States, he hoped, could be the proof.'
CBS News
18-03-2025
- CBS News
Michigan man accused of strangling his father's dog sentenced to community service
A 49-year-old Macomb County man accused of strangling his father's Labrador Retriever to death has been sentenced to community service. On Monday, William John Kucharski Jr. was sentenced to 62 days of community service after pleading no contest to one count of animal cruelty, according to court records. On Jan. 14, 2025, Macomb County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a home on Prinz Road in Richmond Township for a report of a possible dead family pet and a threat to a family member. Deputies say the caller was concerned about the welfare of Kucharski and Kucharski's father. Kucharski was reportedly home alone with the dog and is accused of choking and killing the animal. When his father returned home, he allegedly found his son with his arms around the dog and was unable to remove them. Deputies say Kucharski made threats to harm himself. Kucharski was reportedly uncooperative with deputies and was later arrested. "It is alarming to see innocent animals subjected to such cruelty. I urge everyone who believes in harsher consequences for animal abuse and the loss of animal life to contact their state legislature and push for changes in the law that will allow for stricter penalties for these heinous acts," said Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido when charges were announced against Kucharski.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Yahoo
Macomb County man accused of strangling father's dog pleads no contest to misdemeanor
A Richmond Township man accused of strangling his father's dog in January pleaded no contest to a lesser offense this week in district court. William Kucharski Jr., 48, pleaded no contest to animals-abandoning/cruelty to one animal, a misdemeanor, according to 42-1 District Court in Romeo. The original charge of animals-killing/torturing, a felony, was dismissed during a preliminary exam Tuesday, according to the court. Kucharski is scheduled to be sentenced March 18, according to online court records. Messages were left for his attorney, who could not be immediately reached Thursday. Kucharski was being held in the county jail on a $150,000 bond, according to online jail records. Macomb County authorities accused Kucharski of strangling to death his father's fully-grown Labrador retriever named Punky in their home Jan. 14. In a release in January, the sheriff's office stated deputies were sent to a residence on Prinz Road on a report of dead family pet and possible threat to a family member. The caller was concerned for the welfare of the suspect and the suspect's father. Kucharski lived with his father, according to a prior release from the county prosecutor's office. The sheriff's office stated in its release that the suspect was home alone with the dog. When his father returned home, he found the suspect with his arms around the dog and was unable to remove them, per the release. It stated the suspect made threats to harm himself. The suspect was uncooperative with deputies and was taken into custody. Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Jennifer Putney previously told the Free Press that she did not know the dog's age or how long the suspect's father had the dog. The 911 caller, she had said, was the suspect's sister. Putney previously said the dog was beside the suspect when deputies gained entry to a bedroom. The dog was found dead, she had said, and the suspect told deputies that he killed the dog. Contact Christina Hall: chall@ Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @challreporter. Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press. Submit a letter to the editor at This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Macomb man accused of strangling dog pleads no contest to misdemeanor
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Samaritan's December 2024 DAISY and BEE Award recipients
WATERTOWN, N.Y. (WWTI) – Samaritan Medical Center has announced its December 2024 DAISY and BEE Award recipients. Samaritan's Nov. 2024 DAISY and BEE Award recipients The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses® recognizes exemplary nursing staff and the BEE Award honors other outstanding staff members who support patient care, at the hospital and all outpatient clinics, the Award Recipients are as follows: Taylor Kucharski, a Registered Nurse (RN) at Samaritan Medical Center's 4 Pavillion unit received the DAISY Award; and Karen Netto, a unit clerk at the medical center's Intensive Care Unit received the BEE Award. The family of a grateful patient who spoke highly of how the nurse cared for their loved one nominated Kucharski. They expressed how respectful, kind, and compassionate she was each time they interacted. Netto was nominated for the BEE Award by Rodney Dobson, a unit clerk at Samaritan's Progressive Care Unit: 'Her knowledge, helpful nature, and collaborative spirit are invaluable assets to our team, and she truly deserves to be celebrated for her outstanding contributions. Throughout our time working together, Karen has consistently demonstrated an impressive depth of knowledge and a genuine passion for sharing that knowledge with others.' For receiving the DAISY Award Kucharski was presented with certificates commending them as extraordinary nurses, DAISY Award pins and symbolic sculptures hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe called 'A Healer's Touch.' A larger version of this sculpture has also been placed in the Healing Gardens at Samaritan Medical Center in honor of all DAISY and BEE Award winners. It was purchased using funds donated by the Samaritan Auxiliary. Netto was presented with certificates, BEE Award pins and gift bags with other tokens of gratitude. Both awards will continue to be presented throughout the year, and patients, families or colleagues can submit nominations at any time. To nominate or learn more you can visit the Samaritan DAISY and BEE webpage. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Trucking exec 'hopeful' as Trump EPA targets blue-state emissions regs: 'Light at the end of the tunnel'
Truckers are "very hopeful" about the trajectory of the auto industry under President Donald Trump after years of feeling like the Biden administration "completely fell asleep behind the wheel," a trucking executive told Fox News Digital. "We're excited, hopeful, because the new administration will help with the issues that we're having," Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, told Fox News Digital as the Trump administration walks back on Biden-era regulations mandating the sale of more electric vehicles (EVs). Former President Joe Biden granted California a waiver allowing them to enforce emissions standards that are more stringent than other states, including the Advanced Clean Trucks regulation, which mandates that truck manufacturers sell more zero-emission heavy-duty trucks. However, in February, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent the previously granted waiver to the Republican-controlled Congress for review. If Congress decides to strike down the waiver, California could lose its ability to enforce the independent emissions standards, which truckers believe would be "a huge win for the industry," according to Kucharski. Epa Administrator Zeldin Demands Return Of $20B In Taxpayer Money Wasted By Biden Administration "California doesn't dictate the nation," the trucking executive told Fox. "And the frustrating part is, we're in Illinois, we're not in a much better state than California. But we need a technology that we can use across the whole U.S., not one state demanding that they do it." Read On The Fox News App Kucharski says that truckers are in support of green energy alternatives, but that the industry does not have the infrastructure for such strict mandates, citing the 2023 California heatwave when residents were told to avoid charging their electric vehicles due to the heat. Experts Say First Week Of 'Trump Effect' Is Derailing Global Climate Movement's 'House Of Cards' The big-rig executive also raised concerns over the ability to charge a large quantity of electric big-rig trucks in California if the emissions standards remain in place. "Where's that power going to come from? We would need a miracle or some super-alien technology to make that work," he told Fox News Digital. California's standards, which are the strictest in the country, also "cost truckers money," he said. "Right now, we don't have the money, we're still dealing with aftershocks of COVID," Kucharski told Fox. "We hope that this administration can pull us out of this black hole." "Truckers are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm very hopeful," Kucharski said. "This administration, they're at least looking out for the good of the American people and for the truckers. And I hope they can get this economy roaring again, as they did in the first administration." As the EPA pulls back on the green energy push, Kucharski said there are three issues truckers hope to see addressed under the Trump administration: overregulation, the cost of diesel and achieving energy article source: Trucking exec 'hopeful' as Trump EPA targets blue-state emissions regs: 'Light at the end of the tunnel'
