Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Most published research findings are false:

Among the 45 most highly cited clinical research findings of the past 15 years, 99 percent of molecular research had subsequently been refuted. Epidemiology findings had been contradicted in four-fifths of the cases he looked at, and the usually robust outcomes of clinical trials had a refutation rate of one in four.

This is about biomedical research; I expect things are somewhat better, but not enormously better, in the mathematical fields.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Traveler's Dilemma, where common sense and the Nash equilibrium collide.

Monday, May 21, 2007

The New York Times has an article about getting kids away from video games and outside to play "traditional childhood games", a topic I touched on earlier.
How to play rock-paper-scissors:

Haven’t a clue what to throw next? Then go with Paper. Why? Statistically, in competition play, it has been observed that scissors is thrown the least often. Specifically, it gets delivered 29.6% of the time, so it slightly under-indexes against the expected average of 33.33% by 3.73%.

The article also offers some tips on how to cheat. My conscience prevents me from quoting them.

Friday, May 18, 2007

A lot of interesting stuff in this article from the New Scientist. One sample:

The results revealed that people experience the emotion associated with their expressions. Those with a forced smile felt happier, and found the cartoons funnier than those who were forced to frown.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Feeling north and seeing with your tongue:

Figure out how to change the sensory data you want — the electromagnetic fields, the ultrasound, the infrared — into something that the human brain is already wired to accept, like touch or sight. The brain, it turns out, is dramatically more flexible than anyone previously thought, as if we had unused sensory ports just waiting for the right plug-ins. Now it's time to build them.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

I think the hat problem is interesting.

Monday, May 14, 2007

To decrease carbon emissions, don't raise fuel economy standards. Raise gas prices.
The five-second rule works.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The dark side of capitalism:

The genius of capitalism turns the simple and easy--meals, relationships, joy--into things complicated and hard; it commodifies all of life. With a click of the mouse and a credit card number it also offers instant pleasures. What once could be done outside the market--for instance, games and sports--now requires money and purchases.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Two articles today that show some journalistic courage: Emily Bazelon says you don't have to be a religious nut to be concerned about Giuliani's family history, and Pamela Constable says something that needs to be said about the relationship between Islam and domestic violence.
The UN agrees with me about biofuels; they're promising but potentially problematic.

Monday, May 7, 2007

How weddings got ridiculous:

Today's marriage ceremony is indeed a statement of love: the love of buying things, and, more particularly, buying things that have been personalized to express one's taste and, so the industry tells us, the essence of who one is.
The secularization hypothesis - the idea that as societies modernize, religion will fade away - is false. John J. DiIulio Jr. explains that this has consequences for foreign policy:

It is bad to doubt the overwhelming empirical evidence that religion matters to domestic politics as well as the delivery of social services. But it is far worse to treat religion as a back-burner reality in global affairs when it is boiling over in so many places. The State Department needs to wake up and smell the incense.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Atul Gawande on aging:

It happens to power plants, cars, and large organizations. And it happens to us: eventually, one too many joints are damaged, one too many arteries calcify. There are no more backups. We wear down until we can’t wear down anymore.

He argues that doctors don't deal with aging very well, and he makes a pretty good case.
Your unconscious is smarter than you are.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Just add iron: using plankton to fight global warming.