Complex Numbers

Revisited: "The Truth is Out There"

In another astounding coincidence, the random entry I picked to revisit today, from April of 2020, touches on many of the same topics I discussed last week: the search for alien life, and science in general: "The Truth is Out There" 

Hell, it even has a similar title to last Wednesday's entry. Look, I'm closing in on 2800 entries here; I'll get there before August is out. I know some titles have been repeated. Sometimes, I make an effort to avoid reusing a title, but much of the time, I can't be arsed. This isn't even a case of reuse, but variation on a theme.

In any case, I consider last Wednesday's entry to be the update on my opinion on the subject of the search for extraterrestrial life, so I'll try to focus on other things I wrote back then.

I've been following this guy, PZ Myers, for a while now, and while I don't always agree, I appreciate his point of view. Except about movies.

I think I've linked his blog at least once again since then. Still reading his stuff, though he's become utterly obsessed with spiders. I don't hate or fear spiders, but I lack that level of obsession. That's not the only thing he posts. And I've grown to appreciate his point of view about movies, to the extent that he's a negative barometer for me: generally, if he hates a movie, I'll like it, and vice-versa. Especially when it comes to comic book adaptations. Just recently, he ragged on the Deadpool/Wolverine movie, which served to make me want to watch it more. Which I haven't, yet.

Thanks, Myers, you made me look up a word for the first time in years.

The word then was "apophenia." Since then, I've discovered even more words I had to look up (not counting those I chose to look up due to my interest in etymology, which is not the same thing as an interest in entomology, which doesn't include spiders). I count any day when I learn something new as a good day. Well, unless something bad happens to balance it out.

Pretty much everything else is either not noteworthy, or was covered in here last week. Except for a big fucking oops on my part, where I apparently pasted a quotation twice. I try to do some basic proofreading before I post these things, but sometimes, something slips through the process. Still not as bad as when I find a years-old typo. Those are truly embarrassing.

But hey, at least that's evidence that I don't post using Artificial Intelligence; anything I put here is either a quote or Natural Stupidity.