Swans on Tea

It happens in science blog comments, and more so in discussion boards where you get some crank with their pet theory of some science subdiscipline, and how it’s the new paradigm ready to emerge and topple the orthodoxy. And it’s almost formulaic like a Hardy Boys mystery (or even a Robert Ludlum novel) with [...]

Over at Backreaction
Current illusions such as the idea that if it’s on the internet, and especially if it’s in an oft-visited location, then it must be true (argument from popularity), if it can’t be explained in a short presentation, it must be false (argument from incredulity), if it’s not on the internet then it [...]

Babbage’s difference engine #2 has been built and has “just gone on display in Silicon Valley” (Where? Not sure. Make sure you make a left turn at Albuquerque. Then ask.)
Despite Babbage’s reputation and government backing, the machine was never manufactured.
The plans were consigned to the dustbin of history until they were [...]

Bait and Switch, and observation from Entropy Bound. Peter’s argument is in the context of “the lab” being more mysterious when you don’t know what’s going on (the bait) but by the time you get to work in one you’re doing actual science which is (one hopes) quite interesting, even if the apparati have [...]

From one of those “tell us what you do” info dropdown menus, so I can get more targeted spam.

Good to know that Research/Development/Scientific isn’t technology-related. Do you think maybe, just maybe, they sold computer stuff?