Category: Uncategorized
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Google Chrome? I’m Sticking with Firefox
A month has passed since the release of Google’s Chrome browser. Disregarding the fact that an official Linux port is still not available, there are two further reason why I’m sticking with Firefox: You can enable Chrome’s best features in Firefox. On testing beta releases (of IE, Firefox and Chrome), there was no stand-out candidate.…
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Obama, Science, and 61 Nobel Laureates
In an open letter to the American people, 61 Nobel Laureates are endorsing Barack Obama for President (pdf). As the largest number of Laureates to ever endorse a candidate for office, surely this will have some influence over the undecided voters (then again, Kerry had 48 and we know what happened there).
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The Peter Principle
The Peter Principle is the maxim that in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. Specifically: It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of…
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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…