My friend asked for my thoughts on this article a sociology post-doc (as far as I can tell) wrote on flat-Earthers. This is basically me complaining about the article itself, and offers no real insight on the subject. Posting it anyway, assuming a couple other friends will also read it. It boggles my mind that…
Category: Rant
Stop Saying Exercise Cures Depression
Saw this on my news-feed tonight. If I ever take myself out, it’s going to be in a jogging suit in one of these asshole’s offices. Exercise is good for many reasons, and from what I’ve gleaned, we honestly know very little about why it’s good. If you want a good textbook on the science,…
How Chocolate Milk Epitomizes Corruption in Academia
Academia is absolutely rife with corruption, and it’s a dirty, disgusting secret I’d love to let you in on. Somewhere along the lines, a maternal authority figure should have advised you against crying over spilled milk. It’s a great little aphorism of stoicism, but in the case of an incident at the University of Maryland,…
Useless Advice
“Live each day as if it were your last.” I doubt it’s a recent saying. I know Horace phrased it “carpe diem” in antiquity. I’m sure it predates the written word by aeons. It’s such insipid, useless advice, and it’s continued existence is a testament that mankind has never actually figured out much of anything…
Most Kids Are Too Busy to Destroy Society
The Kids These Days TM are making demands on their colleges. They use a lot of hashtags, so it ends up circulating through to the media. From there, we go on to judge the opinions of 18-22 year olds and come up shocked when not all of them seem to be completely well thought out….
The Great Wall of Scott Walker
Came across this article. Did a Google search. Came across 5 others just like it real quick (see comments). What’s the impression you walk away with? “Scott Walker wants to build a wall on the Canadian border, and if he’s elected, he plans on doing it, the madman!” That’s what they’re going for. If you…
SciAm Goes Full Buzzfeed
Part 1: Fisking View post on imgur.com http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/men-are-attracted-to-nonconformist-women/ This article is stupid for like 10 different reasons. “Men are often advised to stand out from the crowd to attract women—there can be only one alpha male.” Somebody watched Highlander recently. There can be only one alpha-male? Sure. Okay. “Women, on the other hand, are told…
Commentary on: 15 Facts About Sea Level Rise That Should Scare the S^*# Out of You
More in my series of “Shit like this is why I am sympathetic to climate change skeptics” and “maybe the 1st Amendment should not apply to journalists”. Bullshit clickbait is bullshit clickbait, not a productive discussion on science and science policy. Holy shit, how is anyone at CNN okay with this title? This is just…
What If People Treated Physical Illness Like Mental Illness? The corollary:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/13/mental-illness-physical-i_n_6145156.html I have a problem in that I hate shoddy journalism, so that will detract from what is probably a more reasonable comment on the topic of mental health awareness. Forgive me. HuffPo posted an article that caught my eye. And by article, I mean ~150 word comment on a webcomic the author found. “It’s…
La Vie en Rose
Paris was hit by multiple, coordinated terrorist attacks on November 13 that left 130 people dead. I do not live in France, so I don’t know how the French processed their grief. The President made a speech, there were vigils. One of the guys at Charile Hebdo made a little cartoon that went around that…