Humanities
Healthcare costs and tradeoffs: Air conditioners and teachers’ salaries edition
Posted by Liz Borkowski on May 21, 2013 Ezra Klein talks to Bill Gates and Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber about investing in disease prevention and the tradeoffs in healthcare spending decisions.
A Lesson in Applied Probability
Posted by jrosenhouse on May 21, 2013 Nate Silver provides the antidote to some dubious statistical reasoning on the part of certain conservatives. He was replying in particular to this column from Peggy Noonan. A column, mind you, that opens with, “We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate.” Goodness! Then she presents evidence like this: The second…
Urban Decay in Istanbul
Posted by Martin R on May 20, 2013 
Last winter I was amazed by the poor upkeep afforded to buildings in central Marrakech. I spent part of last week in fascinating Istanbul, and there it was again: plentiful ruins of recent buildings in the middle of busy shopping and hotel districts. Istanbul is in even worse shape than Marrakech. Many older houses are…
Nature or Nurture?
Posted by Chad Orzel on May 19, 2013 
During our weekly trip to the Schenectady Greenmarket, we took refuge from the rain in the Open door bookstore, where a short while later I saw the following scenes at opposite ends of the kids-book aisle (also the “Featured Image” for this post, but I’ll reproduce it to save the RSS folks from having to…
Weekend Diversion: Against Scientific Racism
Posted by Ethan on May 19, 2013 
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” -Frederick Douglass I thought we were past this, I really did. Having grown up in New York, having lived in eight different states and traveled to 39…
Attempts at how to categorize SciArt
Posted by Vince LiCata on May 19, 2013 I was discussing SciArt on several occasions with different people recently and was fishing for a way to classify different SciArt in order to make a particular point – the point being that the type of SciArt I find most interesting and valuable is in the minority. Basically, it seems there are 3 (or maybe…
Correcting BBC’s Lousy Journalism
Posted by Greg Laden on May 18, 2013 Again and again. Do you have to take a stupid pill every day to be a reporter? Or are reporters like this one speaking down to their audience. Either way, it’s shocking.
Happy Bike to Work Day!
Posted by Liz Borkowski on May 17, 2013 For more safe bicycle commuting, cities should invest in bicycling infrastructure and enforce safety rules.
When Are Nomads Not Really Nomads? (Efe Pygmy Ethnoarchaeology)
Posted by Greg Laden on May 16, 2013 “First, we’re going to collect our data,” Jack, the archaeologist, was telling me as we slogged down the narrow overgrown path. He seemed annoyed. “Then, we’ll leave. Until we leave, they won’t leave. They think it would be rude. After they leave, we’ll go back and map in the abandoned camp.” I had just arrived…
Wage theft in South Florida: Nation’s first county with wage theft protections reports on progress and perils
Posted by The Pump Handle on May 14, 2013 Earlier this month, Florida lawmakers wrapped up their latest legislative session. And nearly 500 miles south of Tallahassee in Miami-Dade County, workers’ rights advocates breathed yet another sigh of relief.
