Maybe today was a particularly bad day but I have to ask, are we the "reality based" community or not?
Today's diaries claim:
We can build an immense perpetual motion machine.
Television causes autism.
Giant panty hose full of hair can save the Gulf.
Two square foot wind turbines can replace all other energy sources can generate kilo-watts for pennies Many commentors pointed out that I badly overstated my complaint on this one.
Is it just me, or has there been an unusual number of crank diaries lately?
Just today, there were at least 4 diaries that are just nuts, including one on the Rec list.
Today a diarist speculated that 2 square foot wind mills can power much of ditto the industrialized world. Another diarist quoted 3 business school majors to prove that rainy days cause autism because kids watch more TV on rainy days.
After that, there was a Rec List diary promoting a plan to save the Gulf using panty hose stuffed with hair. Least that seem too ridiculous, it included a cartoon showing a a ship connected to a sock "nailed" to the sea floor.
I'm not going to do the math.
I'm not going to calculate the forces on a mile long pair of nylon hose. I'm not going to invoke the 2nd or 3rd Laws of Thermodynamics against perpetual motion machines. I'm not going to talk about the limits of regression analysis.
I'm just going to ask, What the Hell is geocloth?
I agree that some sort of geocloth would make a good sock. Something that would have a neutral specific gravity, preferably.
"Some sort of geocloth"? That's like in Star Trek when they invoked "dilithium crystals" to solve every problem.
It means nothing.
Are we really the "Reality Based Community"?
Because, if we are, we have to do better than this.
There is a basic numeric literacy which goes with being "reality based". We have to be able to tell when an argument makes sense.
We can't just rec a diary up because it fits our preconceived notions.