Pure Pedantry : Miscellany

Reality is always more complicated than you think.

Profile

Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.

Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.

DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision-making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.

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Quotes

Mitchell saw a grain of truth in all things erroneous.
-- a mild critic of economist Wesley C. Mitchell, first director of NBER
There's a grain of truth in that.
-- Wesley C. Mitchell's reply

The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it.
-- Walter Bagehot

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.
-- Sydney Smith

I never read a book before previewing it; it prejudices a man so.
-- Sydney Smith

Oh, don't tell me of facts -- I never believe facts: you know Canning said nothing was so fallacious as facts, except figures.
-- Sydney Smith

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
-- Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found?
-- William James

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
-- William James

[on failing to capture Library ghost]
Hee-he! "Get her!" That was your whole plan. I like it...it was scientific.
-- Bill Murray in Ghostbusters