Monthly Archives: July 2012

Sally Ride Shirked Her Cookie-Baking, Baby-Making Duties By Living an Exciting Life

Posted on July 31, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

Sometimes, in the dark fringes of the Internet, I will encounter something of such unspeakable, singular stupidity that I will have no choice but to simply wave my hand and dismiss it as parody. And then there are times when … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Why Scientists Should Read Science Fiction

Posted on July 28, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

Every so often, one of my (older) colleagues will find me reading a science fiction novel. “Ah, science fiction,” they will say. “I used to read quite a bit of that. Of course, I can’t really get in to it … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Physics, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Ideology as Market Segment

Posted on July 28, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

There are no Chick-fil-A outlets in Canada, so I have been watching the fall-out from the Company President’s recent explosion of mind-numbing theoconservative assholery from a safe distance. It’s quite the interesting spectacle. I say ‘interesting’ rather than ‘amusing’ because … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

How Not To Write Comprehensibly

Posted on July 26, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

Here’s a new rule by which I think that everyone should at least try to abide in their blogging: unless you are writing for exclusively specialists, whenever you make use of an initialism, take a few seconds to spell-out what … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Is Economics A Science?

Posted on July 25, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

There’s a bit of an ongoing debate among hard scientists as to whether or not we should count economists among our number. On the one hand (say those who claim that economics is a science) they perform non-trivial mathematical analysis … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Science, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

“That Sucks.”

Posted on July 25, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

It might come as a shock to you to learn that, by and large, I actually talk in real life in exactly the same way that I write upon this blog. Needless to say then, I don’t talk like a … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Stuff, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

TV That Makes You Think

Posted on July 24, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

So let me make a few things clear: I am a skeptic*; I do not believe in supernatural phenomena of any kind, and when I hear an extraordinary claim being made (one which, for example, violates the known laws of … Continue reading →

Posted in Skepticism | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Of Spambots

Posted on July 23, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

I’m sure that every civilized denizen of the Internet can by now agree that anyone who devises an advertising campaign which makes use of spambots should be boiled in a vat of their own saliva. But usually these spam campaigns … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging Technicalities | Tagged | 4 Comments

The People Have Spoken

Posted on July 19, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

Well, it’s been a few days since I asked about format changes to this blog, and since that time, the overwhelming majority of respondents (a margin of 100%, in fact) have made clear that they do not want me to … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging Technicalities | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Losing” An Argument

Posted on July 18, 2012 by thevenerablecorvex

When you think about it, talking about arguments in terms of winning and losing doesn’t actually make much sense. Think about it; assuming that the argument is based exclusively upon facts and logic (which is usually a pretty big assumption, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academics | Tagged , | 3 Comments