downer99's comments

It's tough in a court of public opinion, though. Especially when it comes to artistic works of fiction as interpretted by adversarial critics. Some of this is just so much gossip. Such is the life of the cartoonist who courts controversial topics, I suppose.

If the guy tries to explain himself, and only comes across as even more batshit insane, then I suppose that's his own tough luck (...or grand design, if that's what suits him). At any rate, when a person winds up in a hole, it's usually best to stop digging. From the sound of things, it seems entirely possible that he probably doesn't even really care, either way, anymore.

Well! Those certainly are some, eh... curious... statements, aren't they?

I never read Cerebus cover-to-cover, because, well, it's freaking huge. I've only perused a couple of volumes, in particular, the first and last volumes.

I'm reading his wikipedia article now. I never realized he'd become mired in a controversy and gained such a weird reputation. He doesn't seem to self-identify as misogynistic though.

Woah! So wait. Dave Sim is a misogynist? Like, a card-carrying member of the Misogynist party?

THE Dave Sim, creator of the Cerebus comic book?

How do you kick off an article with a bold statement like that, and not include at least a link to an interview or something? Is he like, the founder of some kind of Men's Rights Advocacy group or something? Does he run a political action committee?

Is he quoted anywhere as explicitly stating anything like:

  Hello, my name is Dave Sim, and I hate women. Yes, all of
  them, and as a general rule. You may know me as auhor of 
  the independently published comic book, Cerebus. At this
  time, I'd like to go on the record about my opinion of 
  women: I hate them. Make no mistake. Much like racists 
  hate other races, my hatred of women is similarly general, 
  and all-encompassing. To reiterate, I, Dave Sim, am a 
  self-proclaimed misogynist.

Like, really? He's simply a misogynist, and it's a bald fact?

At least we can rest assured that, in the event of some horrible cataclysm, there will always be plenty of human fossils hanging around somewhere, to preserve humanity's legacy.

Agreed, linking through Stanislaw Ulam turned out to be evermore interesting, even though the Ulam Spriral itself is a good starting point, given its relevance to the field of programming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislaw_Ulam

It seems strange that there wouldn't be an English word to describe what MSG tastes like.

In general, I think MSG simply tastes salty, even though I understand and agree that it doesn't precisely taste like a salt.

MSG doesn't have a flavor unfamiliar to western cuisine. Chicken soup has flavors that fall within the realm of MSG (even without the MSG found in canned soups). Gravies too.

The worst offender for all time has to be Oracle.

Outside of '01-JAN-1999', I am forever Googling "TO_DATE Oracle" because the string formats for precision time stamps always turn out to be counter-intuitive, and the exact opposite of what I expect.

Like:

  TO_DATE('01-JAN-1999 23:59:59', 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS')

God damn you, Oracle!

It's Science as much as any social science is Science.

The only reason we can't transform social sciences into hard sciences is because it would be horrifically cruel and unethical to exert rigid, inflexible rules on thinking, breathing, feeling human beings.

You can't turn human beings into raw predictable numbers without killing them, or throwing them in jail (however intangible such a prison might be, loss of choice and free will is enslavement).