Some of you may have heard about the ‘World Trade Center cross‘. Extracted from the wreckage of the WTC buildings were two steel girders in the form of a cross. Girders are usually welded at right angles to each other so discovering wreckage in this shape was not surprising but for a nation that is …
Monthly Archive: July 2011
Jul 31 2011
The Wrongulator
I never unquestioningly accept the results produced by machines and as much as possible try to find independent ways to check if they make sense. The following story may explain why. When I was in graduate school, my doctoral thesis involved a lot of detailed calculations that required using a computer. This was in the …
Jul 30 2011
Why I am an atheist
This nice graphic puts it quite succinctly, and is consistent with my series of posts on the logic of science. (Via Pharyngula).
Jul 30 2011
Keeping track of the government’s checking account
For those who like to know the details of how much money the US government takes in (and from where) and how much it spends (and on what), the US Treasury publishes a wealth of figures. In particular you can see the activity in its ‘checking account’ on a daily basis. Thursday, July 28th is …
Jul 29 2011
The Norwegian government’s reaction to the mass murder
Following the mass killings in Norway that, on a per capita basis, inflicted a death toll that was greater than that of 9/11, the government is treating it as a criminal matter and prime minister Jens Stoltenberg said that “I hope and also believe that the Norway we will see after will be more open, …
Jul 29 2011
US IKEA plant to unionize
I wrote earlier about how IKEA’s sole US factory was treating its workers really badly (see here, here, and here). Thanks to reader Fu Dayi, I learn that the factory is going to unionize. What helped in the unionization efforts was the public shaming that IKEA received which was damaging its reputation as a good …
Jul 29 2011
Religious killers
It is interesting how mainstream religions react when one of their followers goes on a murderous rampage because of their religious beliefs. The religions immediately disavow such people because they claim, despite the historical record and the very words in their religious texts, that their religion is one of peace and anyone who commits such …
Jul 29 2011
The logic of science-9: Can scientific theories be proven true?
(For previous posts in this series, see here.) In mathematics, the standard method of proving something is to start with the axioms and then apply the rules of logic to arrive at a theorem. In science, the parallel exercise is to start with a basic theory that consists of a set of fundamental entities and …
Jul 28 2011
The Adventures of Dr. Orly Taitz Esquire, Queen of the Nutters
I know everyone has been curious about what Orly Taitz, our favorite lawyer/dentist/performance artist, whose obsession with Obama’s birth certificate has provided many hours of hilarity, has been up to recently. First up, for some bizarre reason, she now refers to herself as “Dr. Orly Taitz Esquire” everywhere. Maybe she is unaware of the origins …
Jul 28 2011
Flowchart with rules for debating religious people
In a comment to a previous post, G provided a link to an excellent flowchart that creates ground rules for debating Christians (though indeed it applies to all topics, not just Christianity or even religions in general) that should prevent fruitless discussions.
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