Month: September 2008
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The Declining State of Science Writing
With the media frenzy over the LHC’s ‘first beam’ eventually abating, Slate looks at the failing of science journalists to write coherent and accurate articles on this and other scientific topics of interest to the general public. No one ever said writing about particle physics was easy—the field of quantum mechanics shares a kind of…
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On Bias, Rhetoric, and Cognitive Dissonance
Author of The New York Times’ Consumed column, Rob Walker, dissects a Weekly Standard article discussing the first presidential debate between Obama and McCain to answer the question: what’s the difference between rhetoric and cognitive dissonance? Both can result in points of view that are so biased that they have no connection to reality. But…
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Freedoms Lost and Gained
Intelligent Life asks what freedoms have we gained and lost that matter? Freedom is central to democracy. That fact doesn’t change, but the amount and type of freedom that we have does. And it feels as if it has changed dramatically in the past few years. With the Universal Declaration of Human Rights approaching its…
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Observing Primate Behaviour on Monkey Island
In order to study the many facets of primate behaviour, scientists have populated a small island near Puerto Rico with a thousand rhesus monkeys. Access to the island—dubbed ‘Monkey Island’—is granted only for research purposes, creating a vast and unusual outdoor lab. As the researcher interviewed for the National Geographic video on the island says,…
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Earth’s Last Uncontacted Tribe?
When photographs of an uncontacted and unknown Brazilian tribe were released in May 2008, the world went a bit nutty with the photographs making front pages everywhere. Now, however, it seems the story was quite different to what was reported. The photos of grass-roofed shelters and hostile, body-painted Indians brandishing bows and arrows spread like…
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The Warren Buffett Interviews
In my opinion there are two great Warren Buffett interviews; both by CNBC: The Billionaire Next Door, where Buffett discusses a couple of his investments and addresses his personal investment history and philosophy. J.D. at Get Rich Slowly gives a good overview of the interview. His epic three-hour interview with Becky Quick (transcript only).
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Paid Lyrics: Advertising in Music
Following on from the (not so) shocking news that stars from Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age’ were paid a small fortune to smoke on screen, I came across the slightly more shocking news that musicians are getting paid similar amounts for product placement in their lyrics. The practice itself doesn’t surprise me as product placement in music…
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Encouraging Debt With Advertising
In Home Equity Frenzy Was a Bank Ad Come True, The New York Times‘ Louise Story digs up the history on financial advertising encouraging consumers to take on debt – specifically, home equity loans. Advertising historians look back at the ’80s as the time when bank marketing came into its own. Citigroup led the way…
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Google’s ’10 to the 100th’ Project
As part of Google’s tenth birthday celebrations, Project 10100 has been announced as Google’s most recent philanthropic gesture – it’s “a call for ideas to change the world”. Asking for submissions in eight categories (community, opportunity, energy, environment, health, education, shelter and ‘everything else’), Google is pledging $10 million to bring to life five of…
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The Future of Science Blogging
Earlier this month Seed Media, the organisation behind the excellent Seed Magazine, launched Research Blogging – a great new website/hub for disseminating peer-reviewed research. In light of this, The Economist discusses the future of scientific debate on the Internet. Although Web 2.0, with its emphasis on user-generated content, has been derided as a commercial cul-de-sac,…