army1987 comments on Rationality Quotes February 2013 - Less Wrong

2 Post author: arundelo 05 February 2013 10:20PM

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Comment author: jsbennett86 02 February 2013 03:36:42AM *  31 points [-]

It seems that 32 Bostonians have simultaneously dropped dead in a ten-block radius for no apparent reason, and General Purcell wants to know if it was caused by a covert weapon. Of course, the military has been put in charge of the investigation and everything is hush-hush.

Without examining anything, Keyes takes about five seconds to surmise that the victims all died from malfunctioning pacemakers and the malfunction was definitely not due to a secret weapon. We're supposed to be impressed, but our experience with real scientists and engineers indicates that when they're on-the-record, top-notch scientists and engineers won't even speculate about the color of their socks without looking at their ankles. They have top-notch reputations because they're almost always right. They're almost always right because they keep their mouths shut until they've fully analyzed the data.

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics' review of The Core

Comment author: [deleted] 05 February 2013 12:35:50PM 3 points [-]

See also the extra panel (hover onto the red button) in yesterday's SMBC comic.

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 06 February 2013 03:04:14PM 8 points [-]

... I had not known about red buttons on SMBC.

roll d20... success on 'resist re-binge' check.

Comment author: Daniel_Molloy 07 February 2013 03:25:11AM 0 points [-]

Umm... how do I use the red button on a mobile device? (I also have this problem with xkcd.)

Comment author: TobyBartels 07 February 2013 04:04:02PM *  2 points [-]

I know that you crossed this out, but the answer to the parenthetical implied question is this: Use the xkcd viewer app.

  • Android (used by me regularly on my Android phone)
  • Apple (never used by me because I don't have an Apple product)
Comment author: [deleted] 07 February 2013 04:46:40PM 1 point [-]

Thank you!

Comment author: [deleted] 07 February 2013 04:46:29PM 1 point [-]

You just press it. It also works with karma scores on LW to see the percentage of positive votes (at least on Android). I didn't know how to read title texts on xkcd until reading TobyBartels's comment, though.