Insert a long list of labels masquerading as an “identity” here. You know, the usual stuff that will be deliberately misconstrued by people. Like “you’re an atheist, so that means you’re certain God doesn’t exist!!” and “You’re a feminist? But feminists HATE men!!!” and so on.
(if you’re one of those people, please just go away – even the sweary low-brow stuff will be over your head)
Infrequently Asked Questions
Q. Whaaaaah!! My comment wasn’t approved!!!!
A. Before comments from your IP address can be approved for this site, please write a short essay (ca. 300 words) on your favourite scientist or philosopher, outlining the main themes of their contribution to their field and the reasons for your choice. Marks will be awarded for originality and evidence of engaging with primary literature. While marks will not be deducted for spelling, punctuation and grammar, coherence of thought and sentence structure will be judged harshly.
Q. Who the fuck are you and why should we care?
A. I edited RationalWiki for a while, but that slowly tailed off when I found myself with less time free to contribute good content. My professional background is using selective spin-state synthesis in the enhancement of net nuclear alignment in magn… snore.. yeah, that sort of thing. I started this blog as an excuse to get the more extensive ranty stuff away from my Facebook account. No one wants to hear that shit. And you probably shouldn’t care about me, there is no good reason to.
Q. So, what is the actual focus of this blog?
A. There is no focus. If there was, I’d probably be able to build a consistent audience. And if I had a consistent audience, I’d have to please them. And that would mean writing more. And it would mean placating fans and owing them things. That’s way too much effort. I mean, have you seen the shit people have to put up with when people expect stuff of them? The jet-set life of the professional blogger with their endless hot-tub-and-cocaine parties just isn’t worth it!
Q. You’re an idiot! You’re wrong! You totally misrepresented what they said! You’re such a retard!!
A. If I’m wrong about something, please bring it up in the comments section. Be specific, concise, and targeted in your question and statements, and I will get back to you. There’s nothing worse than endless reams of whining and vaguely coded persecution complexes. So…
Do:
I think where you say “[QUOTE]”, you might have misread the facts. Note that the source you give says “[QUOTE]” and if you do a little digging you can find [LINK] which refutes the central point.
Don’t… well, see the actual comments scattered around this blog. E.g., this one, this one, anything by this guy, or this. I tend to respond with pure facetious sarcasm to that sort of thing.
Hell, the very worst that can happen is that you will be right!
Note
This blog may contain unannounced and sudden instances of or references to the following:
- Profanity (may not be suitable for minors)
- Made-up profanity (may not be suitable for the literal minded)
- British pop-culture (may not be suitable for Americans)
- Obscure pop-culture (may not be suitable for anyone)
- Bayes rule (may not be suitable for people who actually understand Bayes’ rule)
- Condescension and mocking (may not be suitable for the author)
Good luck!
Spherical Bullshit 
Hello. I found your blog when I was searching for “dioxin vs. metadioxin” from yes, that Yes, Minister episode. I’m a nuclear engineer so I know enough to get the humor, and I could certainly have explained what a compound is and what “inert” means, but that’s as far as it goes. I’ve said all this to say that I was curious if you had written the book you mentioned that you were planning.
I would be interested in reading it if it exists.
Warmest regards,
Andy McGehee
You don’t impress me.
Aww, shit. Impressing you, personally, was secretly my long term goal. Drats. Failure!!
I do miss your posts and the entertainment and education they offered me.
Hey, I just were curious if there’s any way of contacting you via e-mail, I wanted to ask you a question on a specific topic but I wouldn’t want that to be public. Anywho, hope you can respond to me soon :), thank you in advance.
Send anything to: spamondikov@hotmail.co.uk
Weirdely enough, it doesn’t let me send the mail. It states “550 Requestsd action not taken: mailbox unavailable.”
It helps if I spell it right.
Haha, thanks.
I don’t know the extension of your knowledge regarding American politics, but could you possibly compile a “Top Five Most Scientifically Illiterate Politicians” list? I’m isolating American politics because, well, you know…
Compiling such a list would be a case of “where do you start?”
You’re talking about a political system that heavily favours folksy individualism, heavily financed business-savvy politicians, anti-elitism and religiosity (in the UK, we just vote for whoever can bang the table the hardest while making a xenophobic rant, it seems). It’s not exactly a recipe for producing scientific literacy as a norm.
From global warming to evolution, the electability of most US politicians demands a certain degree of scientific illiteracy – or at least projecting it or they will alienate their voters. Comments declaring Net Neutrality to be the “Obamacare of the Internet”, or stating that a woman’s reproductive system shuts down in the event of rape, or reacting to questions with “hey, I’m not a scientist!” are good examples of this in action. I could certainly put those in my top-5 list of individual comments, but I’m not sure I could really narrow it down to top 5 individuals as there’s a prevailing culture of scientific illiteracy amongst populist politicians.
Can I reprint some of your feminist photos from the Anti-Feminists vs. Creationists post? I’d be delighted to link back to you.
Sure. The images are not really mine so you don’t need permission.
any chance you could provide an RSS feed? Would really like to subscribe. cheers!
I’ve enabled the RSS widget for posts and put it in the right hand column. Thanks for letting me know there wasn’t one already.