September 28, 2007
Category: Casual Fridays
The U.S. Department of Immigration unveiled its new U.S. citizenship test today. Whenever these tests come out, news organizations inevitably send reporters out to find out if actual U.S. citizens know the answers we expect immigrants to know. The results,...
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 3:59 PM • 27 Comments •
Category: News
You've seen this illusion before, right? The "grid" defining the light gray squares on the left side of this figure seems to get lighter where the lines intersect. The graph on the right shows that the actual reflectance (or brightness...
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 8:57 AM • 8 Comments •
September 27, 2007
Category: Research
Yesterday, we discussed sex differences at the highest levels of achievement and found that there are some significant differences between males and females. But despite these observations, it's still unclear why the disparity exists, and what can or should be...
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 5:39 PM • 23 Comments •
Category: News
A New York Times article makes the claim that men are now happier than women: Since the 1960s, men have gradually cut back on activities they find unpleasant. They now work less and relax more. Over the same span, women...
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 7:54 AM • 6 Comments •
September 26, 2007
Category: Research
In yesterday's post, we discussed sex differences in achievement and ability. Few were identified. For the most part, however, this research discussed average differences. The problem with only discussing averages is that people engaged in science and math careers are...
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 5:26 PM • 11 Comments •
September 25, 2007
Category: Research
When Lawrence Summers suggested that the reason there aren't more women in the top academic positions in math and science is that they don't have the aptitude for it, a firestorm was created that may have cost him his job...
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 2:45 PM • 20 Comments •
Category: News
The robots in H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds may have been terrifying, but they also had a feature notably lacking in a lot of today's robots: the inherent stability of a tripod. But film realizations of the tripod robots...
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 8:28 AM • 5 Comments •
September 24, 2007
Category: News
Pain is an extremely difficult subject to study, because individuals experience pain differently -- some people have a much greater tolerance for pain than others, and some people just seem to complain more. Doctors typically handle the problem with assessing...
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 9:03 AM • 12 Comments •
September 22, 2007
Category: Fun and games
There's a short interview with me at the Scranton Times-Tribune -- it's their Saturday "Five Questions" feature so it's supposed to be funny rather than serious....
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 6:14 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: General / Site news
Just a quick reminder: The voting on the BPR3 icon contest closes on Monday, September 24. If you haven't voted yet, head on over to BPR3 or this CogDaily post and make sure your voice is heard....
Read on »
Posted by Dave Munger at 11:51 AM • 2 Comments •