the warm embrace of cold, steely logic
Here, have a dinosaur comic that is very me. I'm the T-Rex, if for some reason you could not guess. Fie on all who cannot handle the steely embrace of logic! Fie!
Every time I do Google image searches for images that I can steal and put into my powerpoint presentations for classes, quantz.com seems to have something relevant. And occasionally something relevant to me personally. And more than once, such as when I was giving a talk on my Whorfian work, it's been both. I recommend Dinosaur Comics as a source of zaniness, cognitive science humor, and other good stuff.
Speaking of cold, steely logic (vaguely), here's something I've been wondering... Why do people sometimes start out a statement with, "Now, I know this is totally woo-woo..." or, "I know this is going to sound totally woo-woo..." and then proceed to talk about something that they obviously take completely seriously? Starting out that way, to my ear, sounds derogatory -- like you openly acknowledge what you are about to say should not be taken at all seriously. Otherwise, why would you yourself call it woo-woo? Or why start out with this caveat that makes it sound like "woo-woo" should mean "flaky and not to be taken seriously", if that's not your opinion? It's never followed by an explanation, either; I could see saying, "I know this will sound woo-woo, but I think there's actually a reasonable factual basis if you investigate further." I mean, I could almost envision saying that myself. :) But I don't understand this particular phenomenon of stating "woo-wooness" and setting up an expectation of flakiness without a further explanation of why it's actually okay. I've heard this phrasing used a bunch now, and I think I'm misunderstanding its intent.
Every time I do Google image searches for images that I can steal and put into my powerpoint presentations for classes, quantz.com seems to have something relevant. And occasionally something relevant to me personally. And more than once, such as when I was giving a talk on my Whorfian work, it's been both. I recommend Dinosaur Comics as a source of zaniness, cognitive science humor, and other good stuff.
Speaking of cold, steely logic (vaguely), here's something I've been wondering... Why do people sometimes start out a statement with, "Now, I know this is totally woo-woo..." or, "I know this is going to sound totally woo-woo..." and then proceed to talk about something that they obviously take completely seriously? Starting out that way, to my ear, sounds derogatory -- like you openly acknowledge what you are about to say should not be taken at all seriously. Otherwise, why would you yourself call it woo-woo? Or why start out with this caveat that makes it sound like "woo-woo" should mean "flaky and not to be taken seriously", if that's not your opinion? It's never followed by an explanation, either; I could see saying, "I know this will sound woo-woo, but I think there's actually a reasonable factual basis if you investigate further." I mean, I could almost envision saying that myself. :) But I don't understand this particular phenomenon of stating "woo-wooness" and setting up an expectation of flakiness without a further explanation of why it's actually okay. I've heard this phrasing used a bunch now, and I think I'm misunderstanding its intent.