Comments for Dave's Archives

Comment on Hopes for 2012 by Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:08:23 +0000

Anyone who’s been to London for more than an airport transfer has consumed recycled water. Singapore, likewise. Its rejection in Toowoomba pushed it off the radar for a while but I think it’s back (or at least on its way).

Your last point is spot-on. But is sport indeed “important”? Well, I suppose it is, but by no means enough to take up 30% of a news bulletin or consume the front (and back) pages of a newspaper. That has to stop. It won’t.

Great post, Dave.

Comment on Unhinging the Bolt by Jason Heeris

Jason Heeris — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 11:47:53 +0000

my esteemed nemesis, the Slightly Disgruntled Scientist

*twirls moustache* nyeh heh heh... You might also be interested in Mark Bahnisch's Andrew Bolt, racial vilification and ‘freedom of speech’:

Free speech, as the judgement in fact indicates, must be speech that is accountable to truth.

Comment on Manoeuvring the boats by Dave C

Dave C — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:11:23 +0000

Yes, I surmise that’s what Labor is aiming for – trying to make Abbott choose between his stated policy goals and his political advantage. But Abbott seems able to get away with whatever policy contradictions he likes, perhaps due to the overall level of anger towards the government (much of which Abbott and his supporters have managed to generate themselves).

(I’ll have to look into my intermittently faulty maths…)

Comment on Manoeuvring the boats by Jason

Jason — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:36:32 +0000

The ALP’s approach makes a bit more sense if you look at it as a clumsy (yet still amoral) attempt at wedge politics. Since they were the ones wedged on this in the first place, it’s hard to see how they could have pulled it off.

PS. Your maths question is intermittently faulty. 6 × 3 does indeed equal 18…

Comment on Manoeuvring the boats by Dave C

Dave C — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:38:44 +0000

You’re most welcome!

Comment on Manoeuvring the boats by CaptainOld

CaptainOld — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:25:49 +0000

A lucid and well-reasoned analysis of the pathetically amoral politics of this situation. Well-written Dave!

Comment on The Galileo gambit movement by GrahamC

GrahamC — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:17:45 +0000

Great post.

I think it’s pretty ironic that the perpetrators of th Galileo Movement have not discovered in all their research that the Galileo Gambit is a well-known tactic of those who promote bogus science.

Comment on Poor persecuted Monckton by Dave C

Dave C — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:33:33 +0000

I was hoping you’d turn up.

…

I have nothing more to add.

Comment on Poor persecuted Monckton by Jason

Jason — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 04:21:57 +0000

If God is mathematics, then given the inherent limits of mathematics and its expression, we cannot be talking about an omnipotent God. Perhaps you are not referring to the Judeo-Christian concept of God, but one of the more polytheistic brands, in which case we could have the various godlike figures of whatever religion we are talking about stand in for systems of mathematical expression, each with their own personalities and characteristic weaknesses. Category theory might have something to say about the equivalence of the soap-opera families of Norse or Greek gods with the various fields of mathematics.

Comment on Poor persecuted Monckton by Dave C

Dave C — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 11:10:28 +0000

I’m not quite sure what to make of your effort there, to be honest. Let’s just say – there seems to be a profusion of concepts one does not ordinarily associate with the scientific process.