2130

lol this guy thinks talking about Big Tobacco doesn't sound silly in 2019

2129

Every once in a while, Randall's mask of rational equanimity slips, and we are afforded a glimpse at the seething tangle of acid, resentment, and frustration that forever writhes in his soul. Why "respect"? More to the point, why "grudging" respect? It really isn't that hard to tell when "nothing of importance hinges on the truth or falsity" of a statement. The problem is that for people like Randall, "fact checker" really means "shaman". To them, "fact checking" signifies not the mundane process of verifying information but a magical act of conjuration, by which transcendent powers are invoked against the Enemy. They are baffled and (increasingly) enraged that the Enemy seems to withstand these conjurations. The continued presence of wrongthink is a rebuke to everything they understand about how the world works, and they cannot get over it. It is the same kind of venom that ferments in the heart of an incel.

2128

An electrical engineer assures me that if there is a sufficient potential difference for lightning to arc from the robot to the stage, the woman should be getting electrocuted unless she is wearing rubber boots (which she does not appear to be).

2127

What's with the scaling on this one? The image and the text are both weirdly large. Are Randall's eyes going?

2126

Figure 1. :(

Figure 2. Signs of hope

2125

What's all this "we" and "us" crap you commie son of a bitch?

2124

So sad that scientists have to spend valuable time and effort convincing non-scientists to pay for their science, when they could be using that time to do science instead :(((

2123

My hobby: The Apollo 15 postal covers incident was a scandal involving the crew of NASA's Apollo 15 lunar landing mission, who in 1971 carried about 400 unauthorized postal covers (example pictured) to the Moon's surface. American astronauts David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin agreed to receive about $7,000 each for carrying the covers into space. These covers were inside the lunar lander Falcon as Scott and Irwin walked on the Moon, and were postmarked both prior to liftoff from Kennedy Space Center and after splashdown. Though the astronauts returned the money, they were reprimanded by NASA for poor judgment and were called before a closed session of a Senate committee. They were removed as the backup crew for Apollo 17 and never flew in space again; by 1977 all had left NASA. In 1983, Worden sued for the return of those covers that had been impounded in 1972, and the three men received them in an out-of-court settlement. One of the covers that had been provided to West German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger sold for over $50,000 in 2014. (Full article...)

2122

ok

2121

Haha, "the sky king"! So wacky!

2120

The anti-vaxxers are right

2119

In his characteristically gentle and winsome manner, Randall is presenting a common criticism of Hegel's philosophy. The dialectic confrontation between thesis and antithesis, in this criticism, does not necessarily result in an improved state of understanding-- it can sometimes result merely in a useless muddle of concepts where the synthesis is even worse. A less-enlightened soul might have presented this criticism in a less charitable fashion (such as the old line that a pint of dog turds mixed with a pint of vanilla ice cream ends up tasting a lot more like the former), but Randall's is sufficiently mature and grounded to approach even the deepest philosophical quandaries with magnanimity.

2118

Oh I get it, it's annoying because 52.7% is actually more than half.