Dan Gardner is the New York Times best-selling author of Risk, Future Babble, Superforecasting (co-authored with Philip E. Tetlock), and How Big Things Get Done (co-authored with Bent Flyvbjerg). His books have been published in 26 countries and 20 languages. Prior to becoming an author, Gardner was an award-winning investigative journalist. More >

I stand corrected

Presented complete and unedited for the historical record, a reader writes: "This is a load of bollocks! And I don't mean ordinary, common or garden bollocks, no, I mean "arty farty" bollocks: the sort of bollocks that gets right up the nose--sideways. It's the sort of bollocks you find floating innocuously in your porridge some sunny morning, and you're just not expecting it to be there. It's the sort of bollocks that is beyond the pale, which won't go away and is right in your face--stuck there like a huge boil on your one and only proboscis. It's the sort of pure, unmitigated bollocks that gets the goat, not the ordinary kind. This is the sort of bollocks that is--well, as they say for short: it's complete bollocks and that's just the way it is. This is the sort of bollocks that is just "there", all up in the air and hoity-toity with it. It's just something that grates: it's something that has no rhyme or reason to it: It is bollocks, pure and simple. And, mark my words, this is bollocks--this is real bollocks--this is truly bollocks--this is unmitigated, unadulterated bollocks! In fact, it's all a load of old bollocks!"