Steed Wheeled Into Brussels at Night
In what many are hailing as a breakthrough solution to Greece’s crippling debt crisis, Greece today offered to repay loans from the European Union nations by giving them a gigantic horse.
Mitt is reputed to say whatever an audience wants to hear, but that’s not quite right. In reality he says nothing, but does it in such way audiences believe they’ve heard what they want to hear. He is the chameleon candidate. To call Mitt Romney an empty suit is an insult to suits.
which reminded me of one of my favorite quotes, from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation:
“That,” replied Hardin, “is the interesting thing. The analysis was the most difficult of the three by all odds. When Houk, after two days of steady work, succeeded in eliminating meaningless statements, vague gibberish, useless qualifications—in short all the goo and dribble—he found he had nothing left. Everything canceled out. Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn’t say one damn thing, and said it so that you never noticed. There are the assurances you had from your precious Empire.”
The same SF quote can be applied to many other (most?) American politicians who make the national stage.
So if youre living in Florida on October 1, 2011 and would like to have sexual intercourse with a consenting adult, please check with your veterinarian or local livestock breeder first to make sure you abide by accepted animal husbandry practices, conformation judging practices, or accepted veterinary medical practices.
Via Skepchick.
From the Skeptical Teacher.
Now, if you are confronted by a birther and there is no way to avoid the conversation with them, how should you engage them? I have one piece of advice on this, and — thus far — it has never failed me. Tell them that in order for them to have a valid opinion on the issue of President Obama’s citizenship, they must first prove, using their own standards of evidence, their own status as a natural born U.S. citizen. In short, they must provide to you the following:
- Their original birth certificate.
- A newspaper clipping that highlights their birth.
- Records proving that their mother was present in America at the time of birth.
- Investigations from multiple fact-checking organizations that have held the documents with their own hands to verify that the documents from #1-3 exist and are authentic.
- A press release by at least two officials within the state of birth, verifying that these records are on file.
After the birther has provided said evidence, which seems to sum up the current standard of evidence which they demand that President Obama provide, then tell them they can go on and spin their claims all they want.
A couple weeks ago I went to the going out of business sale for the Borders bookstore in St. Paul. While being a vulture browsing the sale, I glanced through 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know: Math Explains Your World and saw this story from the Russian Civil War:
See the MIT NSE Nuclear Information Hub. Via this post by mdlbear, who also linked to this summary and warning about media hype. The summary dates from early yesterday, but the updates from MIT so far seem to be consistent with it.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 