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• Commented on Hacked climate scientists' emails in context
  I'd also say the repercussions for disagreeing with the Pope tended to be more unfavorable then disagreeing with Al Gore....
• Commented on Hacked climate scientists' emails in context
  I'm going back and forth because you seem reasonable. Assumption truly is the mother of fuck-up. The Pope was not sending probes into space and continually collecting new data. The climate scientists continually are. When Bush was in office, the...
• Commented on Hacked climate scientists' emails in context
  "The science that we know today is here because of the heretics and charlatans." Pope based consensus works less well in understanding the world than scientist based consensus. Science pre-PhD proceeded more slowly back then than it does now. It's...
• Commented on Hacked climate scientists' emails in context
  Galileo was a scientist. Pope wasn't. But anyone can be a scientist if they devote a few years. If you plan on swaying the established wisdom of the scientific world, 4-10 years getting a PhD isn't too much to ask....
• Commented on Chickens terrified of dried sunflower head
  Egyptian sun-god Ra was sometimes represented by a Falcon headed figure. Chicken's wisely fear falcons. Easy to see why they could hold it in superstitious dread....
• Commented on Hacked climate scientists' emails in context
  Having both reviewed and written papers, I can tell you it is far easier to find issues to dispute in someone else's research, and especially in statistical approaches than it is to do your own research and publish it. You...
• Commented on Hacked climate scientists' emails in context
  There's far fewer agw skeptical scientists than those who are not. Majority doesn't have to neccessarily be right of course, but that's where the smart money goes. The burden of proof is on the skeptics. These groups have had their...
• Commented on Hacked climate scientists' emails in context
  As far as the financial argument goes, scientists are typically pretty underpaid, compared to, say, oil executives. Grants don't go directly into scientists pockets, but into the research, and has to be well accounted for. Not so true for payments...
• Commented on Hacked climate scientists' emails in context
  An offhand comment cherry picked from sifting through THIRTEEN years of emails is not a smoking gun or a significant data point. I personally once threatened to knock a colleague down and beat him with a stick if he didn't...
• Commented on It's healthy for kids to get dirty
  There is good hygiene, I'm a fan of plumbing and whatnot, but there may be overkill. I'm against antibacterial soaps as they've become a ubiquitous intervention with no evidence to suggest they make anyone cleaner. The overuse of antibiotics in...
• Commented on Hacked climate scientists' emails in context
  A big part of science is how you make numbers into words, while being honest. Scientists in the course of writing almost ANY paper have to wrangle with themselves and others on how to do this that best conveys reality....
• Commented on Alphabet made of glands
  Spent quite a few years of my life looking at this stuff. Years away from the scope, I still think it looks pretty, and wish I could up the magnification. The "O" is an old friend....
• Commented on It's healthy for kids to get dirty
  Not surprised. Hoping they start discouraging the use of antibacterial soaps....
• Commented on Couple charged with trying to sell fake Warhols
  At least the art involved took more effort, smelled better and was easier to display than an installation containing a pickled shark....
• Commented on Music video is an electronic erotic rendition of a Japanese folk song
  8 bit meaning four times as good as a 2-bit video, so especially good. From the retro-cool meaning of "two bits" back in the pre-steampunk era when they used to MAKE DIY currency by homebrewing their own American currency from...
• Commented on Saturday Morning Science Experiment: Microwave Lava
  This might be part of the process for engineering a frog or mouse into a beer bottle. As a child, fond memories of making carmel by burning sugar in the toaster oven....
• Commented on Owner of trendy Manhattan restaurant Paradou plumbs new depths of evil bad-bossitude
  If nothing else, the owner deserves to receive frequent spam from every business he ever frequented. Which likely adds up to quite a bit....
• Commented on Glowing bacteria that finds landmines
  I'm assuming they could take aerial pictures at night, and then have them mapped for dealing with during the day. Very little glows enough that you can see it easily during daylight. Would be weird if you could then only...
• Commented on Invasive Slugs Run Amok in Canada (Relatively Speaking)
  Well, wikipedia says that Arion Rufus is also called "the chocolate slug" so is likely delicious. Here's some kids braver than men three times their size eating a different species. Some recipes and warnings on tongue numbness. Same thing that...
• Commented on Demonstrating TSA futility by stabbing dead pigs with pens
  Actually, I've relied on pens since before 9/11 as one of the answers of what I'd do if there were a terrorist hijacking. The shoebomber was rendered inert by ordinary passengers holding him down, one by the hair. Of his...
• Commented on The Coming Apocalypse is Pretty Funny Actually
  This is probably my favorite poke with a stick on the subject: http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit/2009/11/16/...
• Commented on Klingon as a First Language
  Agreed. Though it is a great topper for anyone who complains about crazy parents. The kid will probably grow up speaking exclusively Vulcan just to spite him....
• Commented on Animation: Lil Cthulhu
  It seems awful derivative of "The Littlest Shoggoth" by the prolific Stan! http://www.storytimewithstan.com/2009/03/30/shoggoth01/ Stan's version has more pathos and rhymes, so I judge it superior....
• Commented on Secret Diary of a Specialist in Developmental Neurotoxicology and Cancer Epidemiology
  I have nothing against people who choose sex work as a field, just feel frustration that many people in science have to scrape by to survive or leave the field. And that many find it disempowering and negative compared to...
• Commented on Secret Diary of a Specialist in Developmental Neurotoxicology and Cancer Epidemiology
  Second on the "gee if fledgling scientists were adequately funded, maybe this wouldn't have been neccessary". Friend of a friend left her phd program 'cause doing phone sex was way more lucrative....
• Commented on Best exercise for healthy bones
  As a devotee of a stompy tree-kicking school of martial arts, I feel validated. There are sever fogies in the style who seem sturdy beyond their years, always wondered what our bone density was like....
• Commented on Antony Gormley - let's all go barefoot
  I, for one, welcome our new hookworm overlords....
• Commented on Sean Hannity plans to blame liberals for his mis-use of video
  A Muslim Acorn intern. Who is not available to testify, as an Out of Control Bloated Big Government Death Panel just taxed him to death....
• Commented on Sean Hannity plans to blame liberals for his mis-use of video
  The "Hannity being an opinion person, not a news critter" excuse will be trotted out. I wish you were kidding about the liberals being blamed. I'm still not sure how Bush getting parental permission to go chickenhawk AWOL somehow went...
• Commented on Vatican conference on ETs
  Didn't mean to cause distress, and the nice church people fund a free nearby clinic in my neck of the woods, and they help with some people's inner harmony, so I think on average they're a good thing. I think...