ita I've seen a fan like that in the store. It actually felt nice. Maybe it was at Costco so it wasn't $499, but it was this magic circle of cool air.

ita,

I think of most anthropologists as social scientists. Why do you believe your sister is not a scientist?

Do you mean she does not practice hard sciences?

Oh yeah, totally. Not only was it on Ask This Old House, but I've seen them at the store and, predictably, stuck my arm through it. I now believe that it is, in fact, a fan, however I also have concluded that my arm has superhealing powers.

I am also the sort of person who opens drawers at museums marked "Open This" with no other indication as to what it contains, so I am not really to be trusted with accurate product testing.

I don't know what definition of science would include what my sister studies or does. It's a discipline, but what makes anything a science?

Dyson fans use fairly well known principles. And the function is dependent on the form. Just not the form you are used to.

Okay--definition of scientist--does it include a) anthropologists b) archaeologists c) lingusts?

They all are sciences. But I don't know any other sciences that have a bigger history of attracting racist/xenophobic/hypernationalist/religious/or-just-plain crackpots than these. Maybe geology. I wouldn't blame anyone who wanted to be extra careful of checking the credentials of anyone in these fields.

That makes as much sense as my JD entitling me to be addressed as "Doctor". Heh.

Doo eet!!

I have a BS in film. I am a movie scientist!

So, I think that "scientist" tends to have a much narrower connotation than "science." But I work in social sciences so I may have a perspective that someone in the natural and physical sciences do not.

I think science refers to a systematic way of gaining knowledge about the physical, natural world or of people and societies.

So I don't think (broadly) literary studies are science, but psychology is.

"When the baby's coming down the birth canal, remember, it's going through the exact same positions as something going in, the penis going into the vagina, to cause an orgasm,"

Uh, but as Jessica pointed out, penises and babies are remarkably different in shape, weight, and, most notably, circumference.

He also has a tendency to default to saying things affirmatively, if there's any wiggle room. So he'll say "It works" even if something fails a test case, because failing the test case was actually executing a given portion of code.

Huh. That sounds less like a communications problem (which implies some kind of interference on both sides of the communication) and more like the coworker is being untruthful.