My workplace is very safety conscious, which is laudable as we regularly deal with a wide variety of unpleasant substances that scientific tradition teaches us to treat with a cavalier attitude. This sign appears to be warning me about the slips and trips[1]. Unfortunately, what one says and what one means are not always the same thing. Continue reading “This Poster’s Grammar Could be a BIG Problem”
Like I didn’t have enough problems already, now I’m convinced that my mouthwash is conspiring[1] to provide me with less than adequate dental hygiene. How do I know? The evidence is hiding in plain sight:
The Most Advanced & Complete Mouthwash
Let’s parse this bitch:
This analysis clearly shows that Big Mouthwash knows the recipe for the Platonic Mouthwash, but is not providing it to us, for some reason[1]. I feel betrayed. Minty fresh; but betrayed.
Or, it could all be meaningless marketsperanto devoid of any other meaning than “BUY ME!”, which I did. God, I feel worse about myself now than when I made that self-immolation joke.
NOTES
Sean Carroll at Cosmic Variance recently commented that the recent history of dramatic revolutions in physics, together with the incomprehensible but widely covered debates over string theory and other physical theories at the frontier, tend to make people think that the foundations of everyday physics are much more volatile than they really are.
He makes a fairly basic point, one that I would guess is accepted by the vast majority of scientists, and yet this point is surprisingly controversial in popular science discussions:
Continue reading “The Distorting Effect of Scientific Revolutions”
We’ve come a long way since computer worms were just random acts of destruction created by overeager college students. They’re now the means of highly targeted, possibly state-sponsored cyberwarfare:
A powerful computer code attacking industrial facilities around the world, but mainly in Iran, probably was created by experts working for a country or a well-funded private group, according to an analysis by a leading computer security company.
The malicious code, called Stuxnet, was designed to go after several “high-value targets,” said Liam O Murchu, manager of security response operations at Symantec Corp. But both O Murchu and U.S. government experts say there’s no proof it was developed to target nuclear plants in Iran, despite recent speculation from some researchers….
U.S. officials said last month that the Stuxnet was the first malicious computer code specifically created to take over systems that control the inner workings of industrial plants.
Once again, sci-fi is hard pressed to beat reality.
Martin Robbins at The Guardian demonstrates how to cover a hot scientific finding:
In the standfirst I will make a fairly obvious pun about the subject matter before posing an inane question I have no intention of really answering: is this an important scientific finding?
The whole thing is hilarious, including the links at the end. And consider yourselves warned not to read this hunched over your laptop while sipping a hot beverage, as liquid damage is generally not covered by laptop warranties.
The sad thing is that Robbins is dead-on.
(Hat tip to Climate Progress.)
The Finch and Pea 