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.

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

The bigger, the better, am I right ladies?????

(j/k)

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.

Really? Even archaeologists?

There are LOTS of crackpotty "archaeologists." They believe in things like Pyramids built by aliens, and Atlantis, and stuff. (Note: they mostly lack actual academic credentials - if they have a "Dr." it tends to be like "Dr. Laura," who IIRC is a doctor of, like, cleaning products as opposed to psychology or medicine.)

Even archaeologists?

For instance.

Also.

And of course.

Every field has its crazy, I guess.

They're lots of crackpotty people. I'd be surprised to see linguists being any crazier than anyone else, but whatever.

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.

No, he cops to it if I ask it differently. I am willing to say the problem is entirely on his end, you just have to phrase questions so "yes" or something similarly simple and affirmative is not a valid answer. Or you'll get it. Always.

Oh, apparently the corpse is on the front page of gawker.

Took me a moment ... I thought, briefly, the corpse in question was the (or an) annoying co-worker.