Swans on Tea

physics and physicists: “I’ll Never Use The Skills I Learned In Physics”
zapperz attacks this in a couple of ways, such as the idea that you (can) learn critical thinking skills
The “skills” that one learn out of a physics/science course goes BEYOND physics. It is a skill of thinking things through and systematically. It [...]

There must be 50 ways to leave your lover — Paul Simon
There must be 50 ways to leave your louver — How to Build a Good Louver
There must be 50 ways to leave the Louvre — design guidelines for the Louvre
38 Ways To Win An Argument—Arthur Schopenhauer
Really a list of dishonest ways to appear to [...]

A correction from an LA Times story editorial
Solar power: A Friday editorial said that according to the U.S. Energy Department, enough sunlight hits a “100-square-mile” portion of the Nevada desert to power the entire country. It should have said “100-miles-square.”
The commentary: On square miles
I’d argue that “square miles” and “square kilometers” really have [...]

YouTube has banned the James Randi Educational Foundation!?!?

How to spot a hidden religious agenda
Misguided interpretations of quantum physics are a classic hallmark of pseudoscience, usually of the New Age variety, but some religious groups are now appealing to aspects of quantum weirdness to account for free will. Beware: this is nonsense.
UPDATE: As the comment below indicates, the article was pulled. [...]

Eruptions of Know-Nothingism
A discussion of recent neuron-deficient attacks on science.
The tricky thing about most basic research, though, is that you don’t always know what you’ll get out of it when you release the funds. Such research often opens up new and surprising avenues that themselves then spin off important innovative technologies that no one could [...]

I ran across Tierney’s latest post in the NY Times, Politics in the Guise of Pure Science and, as it too often does, it left a bad taste.
Why, since President Obama promised to “restore science to its rightful place” in Washington, do some things feel not quite right?
First there was Steven Chu, the [...]

The Pseudoscientific Method
Accuse anyone asking for empirical evidence of being ‘close minded’; try to protect your ideas from this sort of pessimism

Scientific illiteracy all the rage among the glitterati
[T]op prize went to the lifestyle guru Carole Caplin for denouncing a study showing that vitamin supplements offer little or no health benefits as “rubbish” – it is the third year on the run that she has been mentioned in the review. Science author and GP Ben Goldacre [...]

A book review of Trick or Treatment
While no reasonable person can believe in Stairways subliminal lyrics, far too many people do believe in equally implausible things in the realm of alternative medicine. In the book, the authors tackle four main areas: acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic and herbal medicine. The books conclusion is that acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic [...]

Science Is Interested in You
Are you worried about global warming? Should you be worried about global warming? Understanding the dangers posed by climate change and evaluating policies toward it require some understanding of science. How do we know the Earth is warming? What will happen when the temperature increases? What can be done to mitigate [...]

Yeah, right.
Tech puts JFK conspiracy theories to rest
“The question we were trying to answer is, given the spatter evidence in a vehicle, and knowing an individual was sitting at a particular location, is there something we could use to determine where the shot originated?” said Steve Schliebe, a blood spatter and trace evidence specialist with [...]