Author Archives: Willard

About Willard

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Ceci n’est pas un Sokal

Posted on October 9, 2018

Yet another hit piece by Freedom Fighters against “ideologically-motivated scholarship, radical skepticism and cultural constructivism.” Yascha Mounk called it Sokal Squared. On closer inspection, there’s no Sokal there. Inspired by Michael Lukas I contend it’s more of a Veritas scam. The Sokal epithet refers to perhaps the … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, ethics, Philosophy for Bloggers, Politics, Research | Tagged , , | 82 Comments

We Are Science

Posted on September 17, 2018

After a few days of presentations on (gasp!) science communication, a party was being held in Iceland. Many dignitaries, a few allocutions, among them one by a lady from the banking industry, more exactly a PR big boss from a … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, Politics, Science, Scientists | Tagged | 68 Comments

Science Has Always Been Political

Posted on July 27, 2018

The following tweet states a fact many historians of science attest: |￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣| Science has always been Political|＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿| (__/) || (•ㅅ•) || / 　 づ#HistorianSignBunny — Dr. Audra J. Wolfe (@ColdWarScience) July 12, 2018 Scientists were not all pleased. Tweetstorms rained. … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers, Politics, Science, Scientists, Sound Science (tm), The philosophy of science | Tagged , | 201 Comments

The CO2 World Cup

Posted on July 17, 2018

Glen Peters found a nifty way to plug in CO2 emissions per person during the World Cup: Who has the lowest CO₂ emissions per person? France – Croatia (#FRACRO)#FRA – #CRO#WorldCup #CO2WorldCup https://t.co/aqjMTmv8EK pic.twitter.com/2VkmPLo7dr — Glen Peters (@Peters_Glen) July 15, … Continue reading →

Posted in ethics, GRRRROWTH, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 57 Comments

The Pursuit of Crappiness

Posted on May 3, 2018

Let’s take stock. Computers and codes are in shambles. The Law is broken. Schools are useless to most. Sports are dope. Most jobs are absurd. Administrations are plagued. We already are living in a boring dystopia. Yet here we are. Most scientific … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, Contrarian Matrix, Open Thread, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , | 64 Comments

Can Contrarians Lose?

Posted on January 11, 2018

No. Thesis – Contrarians always win Proof. Let the following assumptions hold: (1) science is a corrective process; (2) scientific beliefs are revisable; (3) contrarians could (and probably will, one day, with AI) claim everything science doesn’t claim. Ergo, Betteridge’s Law … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, Contrarian Matrix | Tagged , , | 84 Comments

Going Nuclear

Posted on November 29, 2017

An epic tweetspat with pseudo-modern engineers made me think of the following confutation of the Breakthrough playbook: First, nuclear energy needs to compete with fossil fuels, not renewables like wind or solar. This point rests on the basic observation that the … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, GRRRROWTH | Tagged , , , | 89 Comments