Dave Munger
dmunger
Posts by this author
January 30, 2007
Publishers spending big bucks to try to stop the open-access publishing movement. Yes, these tactics are slimy, but are they not also a sign that open access is a real threat to commercial publishing?
Speaking of free science reporting, check out Encephalon at Sharp Brains.
Babel's Dawn describes…
January 30, 2007
How much money do you really need? Nearly everyone, regardless of their wealth, responds with an amount higher than what they currently have. Many financial planners suggest that Americans need to save at least $2 million by retirement in order to maintain their lifestyles. Yet what if you die…
January 29, 2007
Are you smart or stupid? Take the test! Not scientific, but amusing nonetheless.
Another "interesting" application of IQ (Warning: photos of swastikas). Data is rather old here, but I'd be surprised if these correlations don't still hold up.
Fish may be more logical than the subjects of the…
January 29, 2007
Nearly all video games that offer a first-person perspective -- where the view on-screen simulates what a real person would see as she navigates through the virtual environment -- also include a virtual map to help in navigation. Even my favorite golf game has one. Such maps can be indispensable,…
January 29, 2007
Suppose you're a granting agency, and you have $1 million to spend to help foster research in your area of interest. Would you be better off giving ten grants for $100,000 each, in hopes that one or more of the funded projects might produce results, or just announce a $1 million prize -- to be…
January 28, 2007
Here's the Cognitive Daily weekly podcast for January 28.
Topics:
Brains can tell the difference between metaphor and irony
Want to drive safely? Talking to passengers may be okay, but talking on the phone isn't
Don't forget that you can subscribe to the podcast using the special RSS feed:
http…
January 26, 2007
Last week's Casual Fridays study was inspired partially by reports we see in the mainstream media so often, proclaiming that Americans are ignorant about the rest of the world. If the rest of the world really is better than Americans at geography, then maybe they can beat us even on our home turf.…
January 26, 2007
As you may have noticed, we've been experimenting with a new posting format at CogDaily. Previously, we posted a "news" post every morning that included brief analysis of one news item followed by a set of "in other news" links to other news items from across the Web. But many readers complained…
January 25, 2007
Senses in the news:
This seems too good to be true:
But apparently it is true. See this paper and this blog post.
If you're lucky enough to have eyes, here's a good analysis of how all your visual inputs get put together into a single representation.
For robots, a sense of smell is important,…
January 25, 2007
I'm currently reading Hugo Münsterberg's fascinating 1916 book, The Photoplay (I'm reading a paper copy, but the link takes you to the complete online text). It's one of the earliest serious works on film, which was unfortunately not well received at the time it was published due to the start of…
January 25, 2007
At the ScienceBlogging conference last weekend, speaker Hunt Willard brought up an interesting dilemma, discussed by ScienceBlogger Suzanne Franks (aka Zuska):
At some point, Willard said, cloning will be so straightforward we'll be able to clone a Neanderthal. He asked, "Can you really believe no…
January 24, 2007
However you spin it, handedness changes with aging.
How Sapir-Whorf may still have life (via Mind Hacks). But see this analysis of the same data set.
How labels help us learn.
How computers help writers.
How you can get a job like Greta's -- or Chad's.
How neurons communicate with each other.
How…
January 24, 2007
Many many studies have repeatedly shown the dangers of driving while using a cell phone. Yesterday, while discussing a new law in Britain imposing heavy penalties not only for driving using a handheld phone, but also while using phones with hands-free kits, commenter Jan claimed that talking to a…
January 24, 2007
The New York Times has an article filled with some interesting anecdotes about the prevalence of magical thinking. Everyone, it seems, even college grads hoping to be admitted into graduate school, has a few superstitions.
Let's face it: magic is fun. At the University of Chicago, there was a…
January 23, 2007
Orac has an insightful post addressing concerns that Big Pharma won't develop non-patentable drugs.
Future worry: Big AI won't develop better robot nurses?
Current worry: Will Nintendo put Weight Watchers out of business?
Steven Pinker tackles consciousness.
Does the brain actually have a "resting…
January 23, 2007
As laws against driving with cell phones continue to go on the books around the world, Britain has upped the ante:
Drivers caught using a hand-held mobile or who do not have control of their vehicle while using a hands-free kit will be hit with a fine of 60 pounds.
They will also get three penalty…
January 23, 2007
This seems like an interesting meme. I was tagged by Babel's Dawn, who asks the following:
What have you learned so far from visitors to your blog? To be aware of who I'm writing to: a very bright, sometimes expert audience -- though not always expert in the particular field I'm writing about.…
January 22, 2007
NYT writer John Tierney discusses why women might want to be thinner than the optimal weight for attracting men.
Learning a second language impairs ability in your first language. A little bit, anyway. Apparently there is some truth to every ninth-grader's excuse for not doing his Spanish homework…
January 22, 2007
Most language processing takes places in the left hemisphere of the brain. When we read, carry on a conversation, or listen to speech, most of the action -- for right-handers -- takes place on the left side of the brain. (For left-handers, the situation is more complex; it's not simply a mirror…
January 22, 2007
The America versus the World Casual Fridays study was our most popular test yet: The 500 survey slots filled in less than 24 hours. I promised to provide the quiz answers, and you'll find them below.
Some of our readers have asked why we don't allow everyone to respond, and the reason is simple: we…
January 21, 2007
Here's the Cognitive Daily weekly podcast for January 21. Don't forget that you can subscribe to the podcast using the special RSS feed:
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/rss-podcasts.xml
To subscribe using iTunes, select Subscribe to Podcast from the Advanced menu, then paste or type in the…
January 19, 2007
This post on Pharyngula made me realize that most non-Americans really have no occasion to learn the names of U.S. states. As one commenter put it:
That map would be much more useful if it labeled the American states as well. The only ones I can pick off with real certainty are California, Texas,…
January 19, 2007
Charles Murray (of The Bell Curve fame) has written a series of articles for the Wall Street Journal on intelligence (available free here). One frustrating aspect of the articles is that Murray doesn't cite his sources. Consider this statement:
Our ability to improve the academic accomplishment of…
January 18, 2007
A group of bloggers has begun an initiative to post on science only for the week beginning February 5. We're in, but then again, that's what we do every week!
Everything you want to know about the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference this weekend. We'll be there.
Everything you want to know…
January 18, 2007
Last week's post on how sound affects perception of visual events was the most popular post ever on Cognitive Daily, with over 15,000 visits. This was thanks to links from both Fark's technology page and digg.com. Yet commenters on both sites expressed disappointment with the demo. I wasn't…
January 18, 2007
Over at Developing Intelligence, Chris Chatham has a fascinating discussion of infantile amnesia, which he tantalizingly terms a "myth." Chris cites research demonstrating that infants can and do remember things, even stories read to them in the womb:
3-day-old infants were capable of…
January 17, 2007
Industry-sponsored articles in medical journals are likely to be ghost-authored. Most often, data analysis is conducted by a person not listed among the study's authors.
New study explores why people believe conspiracy theories. Or so "they" want you to believe.
Stanford Prison Experiment on…
January 17, 2007
Here in North Carolina, for many sports fans, it's considered common knowledge that basketball referees don't call fouls against Duke. The reasons for the supposed bias vary from racism, to payoffs from wealthy alums, to the intimidating atmosphere at Duke's legendary Cameron Indoor Stadium, but…
January 17, 2007
At 15, our son Jim is taller than average for his age. Indeed, he's as tall as me, as this photo illustrates. Our daughter Nora is below average height, 4' 11" at 13 years old, but still squarely in the normal range. But what happens when a child is well below normal -- when, say, a boy's growth…
January 16, 2007
I noticed from last week's mega comment thread and also from the referrer log that many of CogDaily's visitors read the blog via Google Reader. Wondering what all the fuss was about, I tried it out over the weekend. It certainly seems to be a serviceable reader, very similar in appearance and…