False Logical Fallacies

False Logical Fallacies

Republished versions of old posts have proven quite popular with my readers, so here's another one from the vaults. OP date 8/20/2014. Discuss: To someone with formal training in logic, the internet can be a strange place indeed. It's analogous to being a pharmacist at an Old West medicine show.…
January 24, 201910 Comments
Keyboard Warrior Tonkasaw

Keyboard Warrior Tonkasaw

Another news item that broke over the weekend, but was overshadowed by more serious events, developed when Morning Kumite host Tonkasaw chickened out of his MMA fight with fellow YouTuber Andy Warski. Mister Metokur does the postmortem [NSFW language]: From the transcript: This was a pay-per-view event that people within the…
January 23, 201910 Comments
Empire Strikes Back Revisited

Empire Strikes Back Revisited

As we watch Disney's ongoing desecration of a classic American franchise, it's comforting to know that there are fans dedicated to preserving what once was good in pop culture. Amateur British film restorer Adrian "adywan' Sayce is one such fan. Adywan's self-directed Star Wars: Revisited project caused something of a…
January 22, 20198 Comments
Brimstone, Millstones, and Stonings

Brimstone, Millstones, and Stonings

Admittedly, I paid little attention to the Covington Catholic story that broke over the weekend, judging it yet another instance of #FakeNews directed against young, white, Christian men that would be swept under the rug with the next news cycle. I was wrong. The story is becoming a watershed moment…
January 21, 201931 Comments
Combat Frame Data: XCD-001-3

Combat Frame Data: XCD-001-3

XCD-001-3 Xanthippe    Technical Data Model number: XCD-001-3 Code name: XSeed Nickname: Xanthippe Classification: energy weapon optimized Sentinel use combat frame Manufacturer: Seed Corporation Operator: [REDACTED] First deployment: CY 1 Crew: 1 pilot in cockpit in chest Height: 19 meters Weight: dry weight 65 metric tons, full weight 80.3 metric tons Armor…
January 18, 20192 Comments

The Primacy of Speculative Reason – Encore

Author's note: Here's one from the vaults. It struck me as particularly relevant now. Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should. -Dr. Ian Malcolm Americans' habitual contempt for speculative reason never fails to dismay…
January 18, 201920 Comments
Movie Ranks: Men vs Women

Movie Ranks: Men vs Women

Seen on Twitter: Cursory analysis: Women like newer children's movies. Men like mature films--with a marked preference for war movies, westerns, and sci-fi--that span all eras of film. Additional observation: Number of entries on each list that also appear on AFI's list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time…
January 16, 201923 Comments
Book vs Movie

Book vs Movie

In my work as a freelance editor, I've noticed a common tendency among the current crop of science fiction authors to write books as if they're writing movies. That practice is understandable since most science fiction and fantasy novels published after 1980 suck, and therefore today's authors are disproportionately influenced…
January 15, 20198 Comments
Who’s Frank Pentangeli?

Who’s Frank Pentangeli?

Perusing this humanist blogger's semi-apt comparisons of various dissident Right figures to characters from the Godfather saga, one comes across this howler: Also, because of excessive pride, Fuentes is too often and too easily dismissive of views and ideas that doesn’t jibe with his paradigm, and this is especially true when…
January 14, 201929 Comments
Combat Frame Data: XCD-001-2

Combat Frame Data: XCD-001-2

XCD-001-2 Kreuzgun    Technical Data Model number: XCD-001-2 Code name: XSeed Nickname: Kreuzgun Classification: energy weapon optimized Sentinel use combat frame Manufacturer: Seed Corporation Operator: [REDACTED] First deployment: CY 1 Crew: 1 pilot in cockpit in chest Height: 19 meters Weight: dry weight 65 metric tons, full weight 78.4 metric tons Armor…
January 11, 20194 Comments