I am not feeling very well and might go home after I make this post, so sorry for the anemic output.
When I wrote a recent post on the cost of colonizing the moon I commented that sometimes the government …
Month: January 2012
This is going to start a shitstorm…
Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice
http://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conservatism-racism.html
This is actually an interesting report that, while likely incendiary to those in the right-wing, should non-the-less be considered. The article makes several caveats, the most notable below:
…A study of
My own little bit of promotion
Birth Control Matters
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nita-chaudhary/kathleen-sebelius-plan-b_b_1241653.html
This is a big deal, but the topic has been hijacked by people who have no stake in the matter and want to revert us to a reproductive stone age. I recently read an article in …
A book on our broken health care system
How doctors do harm
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/30/health/how-we-do-harm-brawley/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
Astounding:
…American medicine is big business. It is about 18% of the U.S. economy and growing. The average cost of a health insurance policy for a family of four is $19,400 per year. The expense
A moon colony is a waste of money
I couldn’t say it better than they did, so left off the cute title:
A moon colony is a waste of money
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/30/opinion/frum-moon-colony/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
I put this here because I want my reader(s) to know that while I am intensely personally …
Security theater in the police state
TSA rail, subway spot-checks raise privacy issues
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/28/travel/tsa-vipr-passenger-train-searches/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7
So, in addition to the complete waste of time we now have in our airports, we are pissing money away on totally useless efforts to screen road and rail customers. The moronic …
Monkey see, monkey do
Can A Monkey Beat A Hedge Fund? New Study Reveals Disturbing Stats
http://wire.kapitall.com/investment-idea/can-a-monkey-beat-a-hedge-fund-new-study-reveals-disturbing-stats/
This reminds of the story that goes something like this: researchers trained monkeys to throw darts at a board that was then used to pick stocks for …
The art of scapegoating
The thrill of blaming others
We’ve always loved scapegoats, in politics and our own lives. Now science offers a new glimpse into its appeal
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/29/the_thrill_of_blaming_others/singleton/
I see bits of myself in this article, which perhaps makes me someone who isn’t …
I loop, therefor I am
Self as Symbol
The loopy nature of consciousness trips up scientists studying themselves
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/337947/title/Self_as_Symbol
I used to subscribe to Science News and had been receiving it for decades (my parents started getting it for me when I was a teenager). …
Even more stuff we didn’t know about
Deep Life
Teeming masses of organisms thrive beneath the seafloor
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/337918/title/Deep_Life
I love this sort of stuff. Sometimes (often) scientists in mature (or thought to be mature) disciplines get all cocking thinking they know everything (or at least know what …