Not sure which nudibranch this is, but it's attractive!
I've claimed several times that I was "pretty much done" with my extremely time-consuming "real" job, and intimated that I was ready to get back to a more regular posting schedule. But I was kidding myself, unfortunately. As usual, the less work remained, the more time it took!
Now, however, I really am finished. The project's completely out of my hands, and will make no more demands on my time. So starting tomorrow, I'll be getting back to daily posting, or something very near to it. (Unless, of course, I'm too hungover after celebrating the end of this nightmare, and the bonus I received for dragging my poor carcass to the finish line.)
I must say, I'm really amazed at how many people have stuck with me over the last few months. Thanks!
Friday, August 12, 2005
Friday Nudibranch Blogging
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10 comments:
Glad to hear the project has been completed. Sounds like some serious celebrating is in order. Congratulations, and a very nice nudibranch, too.
Congratulations on the completion of whatever the project was. And thank you for continuing the nudibranch tradition throughout your struggles. It is nice to live in the same world as these incredibly beautiful and mysterious creatures.
I'm looking forward to reading your stuff, but don't let us get in the way of your celebrating.
I must say, I'm really amazed at how many people have stuck with me over the last few months. Thanks!
Quality will out, and people will come back for it once they've found it.
Good news, Phila!
I'm hoping you can spare some time for this wanker here - I'm pretty sure you can do a much more cogent job with him than I could hope to.
I'm only here for the nudibranch.
(I keed! I keed!)
Eli,
Well, I'm catastrophically drunk right now, and have had a very strange night...but after a quick dash through Horgan's article, I'm not sure I'm the one to tackle him. I have something of a love/hate relationship with both science and common sense, and while he says things that raise my hackles a bit, I'm not sure I disagree with him 100%. String theory, for instance, seems to me like the most delirious nonsense imaginable. Doesn't mean it's wrong, of course...but I'm not going to be one of those folks who croaks out credo quia impossibile.
I dunno. I go back and forth on this stuff a lot...what is it that bugs you specifically about that article? Maybe I'm just overlooking it, thanks to my evening of wine, women, and song...
I have to admit, there is much about the bleeding edges of physics that makes me think of the bad old days of epicycles and such (and the unprovability is also bad), but I think the thing that fundamentally bothers me is that he seems to be saying that scientific results that don't comport with your own personal gut feeling (or perhaps with *his* personal gut feeling) must be invalid, that he's inclined to poo-pooh scientific results just because they're counterintuitive.
It's fine to say, "Don't go trumpeting a hypothesis as gospel without solid experimental proof," but automatically dismissing or ridiculing one because it sounds funny is erring in the opposite direction.
Maybe I will try to expand on that if I have a lucid moment today...
Eli,
With a lot of this stuff, it seems like there's nothing to do but err, one way or another.
But given the problems science-minded folk have with religion, I think it is good for theories to have at least a nodding acquaintance with the observable world. on some level. I mean, it's fine if they don't, too. I'm all for pluralist thought. But I fail to see why I should believe in string theory...or in the many-worlds hypothesis, which I think is one of the lamest "scientific" hypotheses of all times.
I wrote a long post on this stuff here, for what it's worth...like I say, I really go back and forth on this stuff. On the one hand, I'm pretty disgusted with the romantic notion of science as something that leads us towards progress, truth, or what have you. On the other hand, I spend a fair amount of time here making scientific objections to, say, environmental policies. I guess it comes down to the old gag that when all you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails.
Hedwig,
Careful what you wish for!
Now that creationism has come back so may mood rings / let us pray
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