The War on Bullshit

12 Bonehead Misconceptions of Computer Science Professors

Kavan Wolfe — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:00:27 +0000

The poster-child for what’s wrong with postsecondary education is the computer science program. Despite the enormous need for competent programmers, database administrators, systems administrators, IT specialists and a host of other technical professionals, computer science programs seem to explicitly ignore the professional skills of which western society has growing deficiency and proceed with materials and [...]

The Real Story Behind Obama Winning the Nobel Peace Prize

Kavan Wolfe — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:32:03 +0000

Last week, U.S. President Barrack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Right-wing pundits predictably attacked him for it. Left-wing pundits predictably then attacked the right-wing pundits for it. But that’s not the story. The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five prizes bequeathed by Alfred Nobel. In his will, it said that the Peace Prize should [...]

Five Things that Make Gyms a Plague Upon Fitness

Kavan Wolfe — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:00:47 +0000

You would think that a fitness center, of all places, would be exempt from the lethargic malaise that pervades western society. In most cases, you would be mistaken. The modern gym is a plague upon fitness. That’s right, the very place we go to improve our health is practically custom-made to prevent us from exercising [...]

6 Reasons Western Morality is so Confused

Kavan Wolfe — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:32:15 +0000

You know a conversation is headed sideways when the topic turns to morals and ethics. For any major social issue of our time – gay marriage, women’s reproductive rights, freedom of speech, religion in public schools, even climate change – you can find normally reasonable people who reach contradictory conclusions on the ethical choice. [...]

Top 10 Injury Causing Machines in Gyms

Kavan Wolfe — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:00:25 +0000

A typical modern gym houses hundreds of individual pieces of exercise equipment, some of which appear purposefully designed to injure as many trainees as possible. Here are ten of the most dangerous exercise machines. Avoid these, and avoid any so-called personal trainer who recommends them. 1. Smith Machine A smith machine is just a bar built into [...]

Golden Rule FAIL – Top 6 Examples Where Reciprocity Does Not Apply

Kavan Wolfe — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:29:38 +0000

The golden rule, AKA The Ethic of Reciprocity is at the very heart of Christian thinking. (Not that Christians actually practice it, but that’s a rant for another time). However, “do to others what you would like to be done to you” suffers from an obvious logical flaw: not everyone wants to be treated the [...]

BS Forms of Exercise and their Athletic Alternatives

Kavan Wolfe — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:56:09 +0000

Western society is plagued by obesity and general ill-health for many reasons: the raging incompetence of medical professionals; fitness snake-oil salesmen; belief in a variety of health-related myths; and desperate confusion about nutrition to name a few. Another serious problem is that people are generally confused about the meaning of exercise. Here are five non-exercises [...]

Parliament/Congress Guilty of Criminal Negligence

Kavan Wolfe — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:00:18 +0000

A while back, I tried to explain why the world was so screwed up. I explained that the ubiquitous societal problems we experience (bad transit infrastructure, dependence on fossil fuels, unnecessary wars, etc.) stem from a fundamental problems with governance: Laws imply the design of the systems that enact them Lawmakers don’t know sweet fuck all about [...]

10 Once Radical Ideas we now take for Granted

Kavan Wolfe — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:00:33 +0000

Recently someone told me I was a radical. With the minor qualification that ‘radical’ is not the same as crazy, I take this as a compliment. The existential threats humanity faces, and the fundamental problems with our social systems cannot possibly be solved by incremental thinking. Without radicals, we’re screwed. Want evidence do I have? [...]

The Farce that is the Body Mass Index

Kavan Wolfe — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:00:10 +0000

I was planning a post for today on why the BMI is bullshit, but Keith Devlin of NPR beat me to it. To summarize their arguments, the BMI is a 200-year-old mathematical hack, created by a man who wasn’t even versed in the anatomical sciences of the day, let alone what we know now. [...]