I have no words:
Is Mr. Sookdeo trolling here? Over on Bronysay, where I found this, someone claiming to know him says he was serious, just a bit “confused.” The questions seem sincere to me. Ugh.
We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
We Hunted The MammothI have no words:
Is Mr. Sookdeo trolling here? Over on Bronysay, where I found this, someone claiming to know him says he was serious, just a bit “confused.” The questions seem sincere to me. Ugh.
Pseudoscience drives me absolutely batty. It makes a mockery of what my excellent colleagues in biology, chemistry, physics, and geology devote their careers to–rigorous, quantifiable study of empirically observed phenomena.
I have been working in science informatics for about 15 years now, and I no longer have any patience for internet dweebs who claim that their revolutionary new theory that they developed while not actually being any kind of practicing scientist at all somehow upends all the tens of thousands of research studies produced by the people I work alongside and have for my entire career. These theories invariably end up being incoherent gibberish that wouldn’t pass peer review even among other loons. Because the wacky theories never agree with each other, much less reality.
On the other hand, pseudoscience is kind of a rabbit hole of dadaistic absurdism, as disturbing as it is to imagine that, e.g., the timecube guy really believes all the stuff he writes. It’s only when people seriously believe it, and are then duped into investing in perpetual motion machines or bogus medical treatments, that it stops being funny and starts being a serious problem.
in all fairness, experiencing the time war did lead caan to conclude that the daleks needed to be destroyed, which as daleks go i guess makes him one of the better ones
@Alpha Asshole Cock Carousel — shit, my joke failed…I meant that Vindicare’s “science” is about as much science as the pseudoscience of doctor who’s time travel — it’s internally consistent, and looks a bit like real science, but it just isn’t set in our universe.
@Sharculese — <3 Caan! "I fleeeeew!" — so much more awesome than Vindicare; Caan's not really a dalek at that point anymore though, he's…something new, as Yana put it (why did Yana have to be the master! I liked Yana! :'( )
And now I think the laptop is done flipping out and I can actually get back to LoTR without epic lag, w00t!
QuantumSparkle has had it right all along. Much more concisely than me.
Hey Alpha Asshole, have you ever seen “What the [bleep] do we know?”
It will have you banging your head on whatever flat surface is nearest.
Plan for it to take longer than the running time to watch, because you will probably want to regularly pause it to yell at the people who made it and/or who appear in it.
Not only is the science bad, but everything else about it is bad.
You are all beyond reason, there’s no sense to argue with you at all.
How dare you to drag the name of a respectable academic institution into the dirt?
Doesn’t my authority on these subjects matter to you at all? I have two degrees, in chemistry and physics, and my eyes still grow damp to imagine how Salman Khan sent the diplomas as an attachment from his very own mail address to me. I’ve earned better than to be mocked by ignorant defenders of Newton’s rape manual.
@Argenti Aertheri:
I “imply” exactly what the second law says. The entropy of the universe can’t decrease.
Live long and prosper!
How sure are we that’s not a poe?
wut? Citation, please. (the defenders of a rape manual part, not the part where you’ve earned something from us, since that’s obviously wrong)
Vindicare: I see, you all buy into this kind of nonsense. Have you ever thought, that maybe mainstream science is wrong? Yeah, I hear you “Wrong what is teached in college classes? Impossible! That can’t be!… Fine, ok, it makes no sense to argue with you, I see there’s no common ground here.
If you want to argue that QM is misunderstood/wrong, as the dudes who study it understand it, fine. Argue that. Put up some actual hypotheses, and explanations.
Saying, “It could happen” isn’t an argument, and just telling us we’re wrong isn’t persuasive.
Go back and look at why we think EvPsych is bullshit.
Vindicare, let me make just one thing perfectly clear. I have no problem with the Kahn Academy, and I assume that you neither speak for it nor are representative of its alumni. What I have a problem with is you thinking that having those degrees excuses you from having to support your claims with something other than an appeal to the fact that you have those degrees. That goes for everyone and every institution.
Now, how is what I just wrote above “beyond reason”?
I have, and it’s completely horrible. Some of the scientists who appear in that movie were furious that their interview answers were edited to misrepresent their views.
itsrdc:
And whatever our resident trolls may tell you, if a person consents to sex without enjoying it — even if zie knew at the outset zie wouldn’t enjoy it, even if zie didn’t intend to enjoy it — that’s not rape.
Shadow:
Not just you. But at least I haven’t been educated stupid like everyone in the conversation who isn’t Vindicare.
i say actual cretin who thinks doing some sort of weird obtusity troll makes him look clever instead of just boring
Alpha Asshole Cock Carousel (and others):
It seems correcting Vindicare’s use of bad physics in the service of a really stupid, unfunny rape joke released a bit of pseudoscience as well.
Thanks for dealing with all that while I wasn’t here answer Vindicare’s multiple, agitated responses. I made 1 blog comment and apparently it’s enough to “really try” his patience! Hm, I guess it’s unsurprising someone with so little patience also lacks the patience needed to become an expert before declaring himself one. 🙂
If this Khan Academy is actually legit (I haven’t investigated it), and broadcasting decent information and lectures, and has some way to evaluate student’s understanding and knowledge, then that’s a pretty cool way of disseminating knowledge. However, this statement:
is not what I’d expect from an expert in any scientific field, and represents profoundly pseudoscientific thinking.
Also, wtf is all this gibberish about Principia Mathematica being a rape manual? Acutally, you know what? Nevermind – Newton was way into all sorts of non-physics stuff too, (he devoted years of his life to alchemy, for example), and it’s not important either.
Vindicare: So sensitive. And stop trying to read thing into what I said. Macroscopic systems are too complicated to be treated using full quantum field theory, and for an actual solution, classical mechanics is almost always sufficiently accurate for human-sized problems. Don’t be obtuse.
Anyways, here are more corrections for you-
Position is a continuous variable- mathematically. But the measurement of the position is necessarily discrete because of Heisenberg uncertainty. Since physics is an empirical science, talking about whether position is actually a discrete or continuous variable is irrelevant, because that cannot be observationally determined. The position of a particle is discrete because the only measurements that can be made are whether an electron is located within a discrete region.
Um, yeah? Quantum mechanics is fundamentally about the quantization of measureable phenomena. That’s what quantum mechanics is about. Continuous variables are useful mathematically, but are not physical observables in quantum mechanics.
Whether position (or momentum, etc) is fundamentally discrete or continuous in our universe without reference to how measurements are taken is a philosophical question, not a physics question, because there is no way to distinguish the two possibilities experimentally.
PS: Everyone else- sorry about initiating the massive physics derail! Definitely not everybody’s cup-o-tea, and that’s cool.
Oh hey Quantum Sparkles, I’ve been waiting with baited breath for you to come back. So no worries.
And I thought heisenburgs uncertainty principle fit in there! But I didn’t take physics, so I won’t speak to what I have almost no background in.
The Kahn Academy seems to be the real deal. Open access education rocks.
Ontology WIN
Wait, the legendary Bolllywood hunk and star of Hum Aapke Hain Koun teaches physics on the internet?
Oh, different Salman Khan.
Well played. That would explain his fucked up views on relationships and women though.
I’ve got a crush on both Khans, perfect brain and perfect body, too bad it’s not combined in one person.
@Sharculese:
Oh, Sharculese, I understand that you’re angry, but still… if the best you can is to resort to ableist slurs, you’re out.
@QuantumSparkle:
“Discrete” means that there are only certain special values which the measurement can give you. For example, a measurement of the energy of the harmonic oscillator will only give you something like (integer + 0.5)*h-bar*omega, so 1.5001*h-bar*omega or 2*h-bar*omega can never measured.
Question for you: What are the possible results of a measurement of the position in the harmonic oscillator?
And I’m really curious to learn what the Heisenberg uncertainty has to do with discreteness.
Uh oh, the sentient bong hit has returned to tell us all how it is.
lol. called it.
vindicare, at some point you’re going to find out that being obsequious and pretentious is in fact not a substitute for a personality, but until then i guess keep fucking that chicken
Sharculese: you’re a very optimistic man. Some people can go through their whole life without having this kind of revelation.
What is it that you called?
@kyrie
what slur did i use? cretin originated in french as a slang term for the mentally challenged. but yeah, nobody uses it that way and vindicare’s being his traditional dissembling self trying to turn it back on me.
*you mean what slur did i use?