purepedantry
Posts by this author
July 14, 2008
Happy Sizzle Day!
Today numerous bloggers from ScienceBlogs and elsewhere will be reviewing a new movie Sizzle directed by Randy Olson of Flock of Dodos fame. Sizzle is a documentary/mockumentary/comedy partly about the science of global warming, but more in my opinion about the nature of the…
July 9, 2008
One of the difficult things about economics is that you can't really see an economy develop from scratch. There is no visible State of Nature. All you see is the continuous process.
In that light, here is a very interesting article. R.A. Radford was an economist taken prisoner by the Germans and…
July 9, 2008
Kenneth Chang, guest-blogging at TeirneyLab, laments the use of the word "organic" in both the contexts of organic chemistry and as a term for natural foods:
Organic derives from Greek, organikos. The original meaning was, logically, something related to an organ of the body. The meaning later…
July 8, 2008
At least someone is benefiting from the economic stimulus package:
An unforeseen and surprising beneficiary of the Economic Stimulus Plan, a plan that George Bush contends will "boost our economy and encourage job creation," has surfaced this week. An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult…
July 7, 2008
I often rant about bad coverage of the psychology of sex differences, so it is always satisfying to see an article that really has their facts straight.
Amanda Schaffer and Emily Bazelon, writing in Slate, have an excellent article reviewing Louann Brizendine's The Female Brain and Susan Pinker's…
July 7, 2008
Human beings use stereotyped facial expressions to identify the feelings of others. We can tell what another person is feeling in part because of how their face looks. However, this says very little about why the particular changes in facial musculature are associated with particular feelings.…
July 7, 2008
Found in an abstract:
The medial PFC, as well as the ventral tegmental area, also seem to participate in the generation of pelvic thrusting.
July 2, 2008
Publishing in Science, Gormley et al. compared the benefits of Oklahoma's TPS pre-K program to Head Start. Conclusion: preschool matters in cognitive development.
Early childhood education programs in the United States face enormous challenges. The overwhelming majority of Head Start program…
July 1, 2008
New York Magazine has an interesting article about fertility in Europe. Most European countries have a huge fertility problem. Since they have gone through the demographic transition, their populations are actually declining. Many do not have the relatively liberal immigration policies of the US…
June 30, 2008
A lot of people have read The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. In the book, he gives an example of a group of people forced to estimate the weight of a cow. (This was actually an experiment that geneticist Franics Galton attempted.) When you do this, you find that the accuracy of the…
June 27, 2008
There is a must-read paper in Nature about the limits of functional MRI as an experimental tool by one of its pioneers, Nikos Logothetis. (Also discussed by Jonah and Vaughan.)
This paper is pretty technical, but Logothetis hits the important points of what it is we think we are actually…
June 25, 2008
There was a very sad article in the NYTimes about the regular practice in some long-term care facilities of treating demented patients with anti-psychotic medications like Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa:
The use of antipsychotic drugs to tamp down the agitation, combative behavior and outbursts of…
June 24, 2008
Presh has a great post on game theory and voting power using nominations to the Israeli Supreme Court as an example. Take homes:
Here is what you can take away when creating your own voting structures:
1. Vote size does not equate to voting power
2. Smaller voters can still hold great power
3.…
June 23, 2008
PsyBlog is soliciting your favorite psychobabble. Head over there to give your favorite instance of the complete misinterpretation of psychology in pop culture.
My favorite is number one on their list of examples: "Their brains lit up in the scanner." Brain activity is not phosphorescent. There…
June 23, 2008
Two great articles on energy policy.
1) One of the major points of resistance to carbon taxes or caps is that developing countries won't have similar quotas giving them a comparative advantage in the production of goods. However, some economists don't think that comparative advantage will be very…
June 23, 2008
George Carlin died yesterday.
I always loved his comedy, but more important to me Carlin affirmed my atheism at a time in my life when I didn't really know anyone else who felt that way. He poked fun at religion, and listening to his comedy made me feel like I wasn't weird to note the considerable…
June 19, 2008
Well that is not good:
In a survey last year of nearly 2,400 physicians conducted by a physician recruiting firm, locumtenens.com, 3 percent said they were not frustrated by nonclinical aspects of medicine. The level of frustration has increased with nearly every survey.
...
In surveys, increasing…
June 18, 2008
There have been a lot of salmonella outbreaks in food in the news lately, but who is to blame? Last year, Paul Krugman set the responsibility squarely on the Bush administration and ideological libertarians like Milton Friedman who want to limit food safety regulations:
Without question, America's…
June 18, 2008
Sales of Vespas are up -- largely because of high oil prices. Vespas and other motorcycles have significantly greater fuel economy than your average car.
Part of me is happy about this because it illustrates that people are making more fuel-efficient choices. When prices go up, people use less…
June 18, 2008
This is pretty funny:
Why God Never Received Tenure at the University
1. He had only one major publication.
2. And it was in Hebrew.
3. And it had no cited references.
4. And it wasn't published in a refereed journal or even submitted for peer review.
5. And some even doubt he wrote it himself.
6.…
June 17, 2008
Lots of people get mad behind the wheel, but who are the people likely to try and kill you at the intersection? A CSU psychologist found that road rage correlates with large numbers of bumper stickers:
Szlemko and his colleagues quizzed hundreds of volunteers about their cars and driving habits.…
June 16, 2008
One of the most interesting aspects of human behavior is our nearly infinite capacity to arrange and coordinate symbols. Think of the symbols that permeate our existence. Paper money has no value in and of itself. A wedding ring is just a band of metal. The progress of the science might even be…
June 12, 2008
Grad student Joel Corbo has a guest post at Cosmic Variance where he laments the lack of emphasis on teaching in physics PhD programs:
My relatively rosy view of physics education was shaken up not long after starting grad school at UC Berkeley (By the way, I don't want to single out Berkeley as…
June 12, 2008
I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
Strange things I have in head that will to hand,
Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd.
-- MacBeth Act III, Scene 4, Lines 162-166
I have a book to put on the reading list. Stanford…
June 12, 2008
Crooked Timber has a great post on using what you think ancestral man ate to argue for various types of fad diets:
There seems to be about as much theorising relative to evidence in the discussion of what cavemen ate and did, as the ev psych crowd try to get away with about their family and…
June 12, 2008
Here is an interesting article showing the cross-over between neuropharmacology and decision making. Crockett et al. show that if you use acute tryptophan depletion to lower the levels of serotonin in subjects, they are more likely to reject unfair offers in the ultimatum game.
Background
The…
June 9, 2008
Encephalon 47 is up at Channel N. Thanks Sandra!
The best of it is a video describing equipment for measuring the flight of tethered fruit flies. You can train them do to all manner of things but changing the visual stimulus in the area around them.
The video is provided by Bjoern Brembs. Neat…
June 9, 2008
NIH has agreed to some suggestions from advisory panels about how to change the grant peer review process:
One year ago, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni asked external and internal advisory panels for advice on how to cope with a record number of applications, a flat NIH budget, and a shortage of…
June 4, 2008
Related to the question of why there is a gap between the genders in math and the sciences is whether there are possible means of remedy. With respect to possible remedies it is often a good idea to look internationally at which countries don't have this problem -- to see what they are doing right…