Yesterday, I had a lot of reasons to think about the question of mechanical advantage involving ladders. The 40-foot extension ladder that I ordered (one has to special-order such things) finally arrived and it was time to clean out the gutter on the upper edge of my house.
I made an oblique reference to Bayesian arguments in a postscript to a posting, [stderr] and hadn’t realized that HJ Hornbeck has already been digging into exactly that topic, using exactly that example. [hj1] [hj2] With all respect to HJ, I’m going to use his example as an opportunity to critique some of how Bayesian arguments are used in the skeptical community.
I’m not entirely sure if this is serious.
The International Journal of Science, Spirituality, Business and Technology (IJSSBT) is an excellent, intellectual, peer reviewed journal that takes scholarly approach in creating, developing, integrating, sharing and applying knowledge about all the fields of study in Engineering, Spirituality, Management and Science for the benefit of humanity and the profession. [ijssbt]
We all need one now and again. So here’s a young Carl Sagan, in his pre-turtleneck days, talking about aliens visiting us:
This is somewhat reminiscent of Russell Cameron’s work [stderr] and it gives me a similar delicious frisson of discomfort.
I’ve never understood anti-vaxxers, except as a phenomenon driven by ignorance and fear; I’ve always been content to stand back and assume, “it’s something we don’t understand, yet, let’s let science crunch away at it.”
By now several of the FtB have commented on the bomb threats emailed regarding Concordia University.
When the tuba player is not on your side
“People want to de-legitimize my American-ness, and then April 15 rolls around and suddenly I’m American.” – Roxane Gay
A little salad with a sort of miso/ginger dressing is a typical Japanese restaurant amuse bouche. I liked it so much that, a few years ago, I decided to come up with my own version.