Category: Uncategorized (Page 24 of 53)

Ok, so I am easily distracted. I seem to have gone off the claimed topic a bit in my previous post. This time, I will actually attempt to stay on point.

Expertise is an important indicator of the soundness of a science. There are a number of metrics by which we can measure degrees of expertise. The difficulty is in ascertaining the consistency of the parts. That is to say that if a discipline is real, its practitioners should be able to readily identify experts in the field while just as easily dismissing charlatans out of hand. Another feature which we generally overlook is that the tendency is for real science to arrive at solutions independently from different directions and in agreement. This is the case, that is, for mature sciences. In newer topics, we expect merely that disparate groups or disciplines are converging towards a solution or model.

We generally find that new publications do not disprove old theorems. Rather, they propose refinements. Adjustments of models over decades of rigorous science is expected. Overturning of well-established scientific principles, on the other hand, would require an enormous amount of incontrovertible evidence inconsistent with theory.

Long, long ago, a little known spot on the body journalistic happened upon a new World War in the making. Powered by such luminaries as Peter Arnett and Christiane Amanpour, the world populace was informed of the goings-on of a then little-known patch of the world known as Iraq. Fast-forward what seems like a hundred years and you will find a smoldering shell of tear-inducing toxins presented by the comically dim (and pornstar-named) Wolf Blitzer. This enterprise has reached the point where any group of reasonably intelligent, college educated people could outperform the entire cast (i.e. non-technical personnel) of CNN in presenting a greatly superior product. You could limit their instructions to 1) require strong evidence for reporting, and 2) discard ridiculous bullshit.

… but I digress…

We all want to know what happened to, say, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. But this craving for news won’t be sated with the fluff and bullshit proffered by CNN’s clown show. While they do not intend to mislead (see propaganda organization Fox News), they must be aware that any “reporting” done on this subject is as substantial as cotton candy (and equally nourishing). If they were interested in real reporting, they would add minor updates to a piece covering all known details. They would not elevate each crackpot theory that comes along to headline “BREAKING NEWS”.

In modern America, health care appointments must be made ridiculously far in advance. I recently scheduled an eye exam, but couldn’t get an appointment for six weeks. Today was the day. I took the day off work. After dropping off the kid at school, I sat down to catch a TV show or two. Only minutes after sitting down, I developed a rather strong headache. I rarely get headaches. When I do, they are usually of the mild variety that are just annoying. Within a couple of minutes of this headache’s appearance, however, it suddenly became intense. It was worse than any headache I have ever had (caveat: excluding actual head injuries). It took all the effort I could muster just to drag my carcass to the medicine cabinet for some Motrin. I forced down a couple and tried to lay on the couch. Nothing helped. I lay on the floor, on the bed, and tried every resting position I could imagine without effect for the next half hour or so. It then receded to a mere bad headache. Though I had become nauseous at the apex of the experience, I forced myself to eat some lunch. The dull ache has continued for about 11 hours now. The eye examination, of course, included such things as pressure tests and pupil dilation which made the experience barely tolerable. I only hope that a good night’s sleep can do something for it.

I doubt I have enough focus for entries longer than 140 characters. Thanks for giving me the attention span of a 4 year old, Twitter.

I have been increasingly distracted by that most terrible of current social media beasts, Twitter. One unfortunate side effect is a near absence of other online production. I will try to remedy that.