That's called reductio ad absurdum

No it isn't. Reductio ad absurdum is where you assume the opposite (of what you want to prove) to be true and then after a series of logically correct inferences arrive at a "true" statement that is inconsistent with your assumption or the axioms.

Disproving a conjecture by finding a counter-example isn't a proof of anything except the falsehood of the conjecture. I suppose you could set up the falsehood of the conjecture as a theorem, but it doesn't really tell you anything.

Maybe you should try reductio ad nauseam. That's where you make a series of logically correct inferences until you arrive at the conclusion that everyone in your audience has dozed off. Then you suddenly announce "QED!" in a loud voice and move on to the next topic.

Nah - that's easy to debunk. Just ask for the citations. ;-)

I think the fact that high school maths teachers are recommending calculators at all points to what's wrong with maths teaching, but maybe that's just me.

You will now.

Can't help noticing that the linked Express article says he has beaten prostate cancer, not colon cancer. For the anatomically challenged among you, it's the hole you pee through, not the one you sh1t through.

Just thought I'd mention it.

Let them rape cake.

... or shoot the popcorn and eat anything that moves.

You're talking about immunity from prosecution. This isn't prosecution ... it's a lynching.

I asked about the Airman's Corner excavations at in the visitors' centre when I visited Stonehenge this summer. Apparently they're hoping *not* to find anything interesting there; they are looking for somewhere to put a new visitors' centre, and want to make sure that there won't be any archaeological remains under the car park.

OK here goes ...

Le plus ça change, le plus ça même old joke.

Yeah - if your car loses grip at 75mph in a gentle curve, even in the wet, there's something seriously wrong with either your car or the road surface.

Disclaimer: I live in Germany, and my 7-seater "people carrier" with winter tyres and no ESP can manage 130-140 (80-90mph) round a gentle curve with only perhaps a small bit of understeer at the top end of that range. With summer tyres it's much better --- but allegedly isn't so good in snow, not that I've ever noticed much difference there either.

Besides turning a small portion to wetlands would just increase available farmland, win/win

Not really - your solar collectors wouldn't work all that well any more :-(

I can't argue with your assertion about the amount of desert - I just don't have any figures. However, all I'm trying to point out is that the so-called "renewable" energy sources have their environmental impacts too.

The amount of tidal energy we take would be infinitesimal compared to the energy available.

That isn't really the point. The point is, what happens locally (around the tidal generator/wind farm/solar collector/whatever) when a significant amount of energy is removed just there. There are already examples of this in Europe: altered pollination patterns for wind-pollinated plants (grasses etc.) downwind of wind farms. No-one knows the long-term effects of this - though I guess we might soon find out.