links for 2008-06-24

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Good Math, Bad Math : How Mortgages Turned into a Trillion Dollar Disaster "The question is, if mortgages are at the root of the current economic disaster, how can it possibly result in close to a trillion dollars worth of losses?" (tags: US politics humanities math diversity stupid) Easily…
A Misunderstood Monument - WSJ.com "French worked hard to make his huge Lincoln a man and not a god. This is one rumpled icon. The imperfections are hard to miss. His hair is uncombed. His tie is askew. His hands betray a fidgety disposition, and his eyes aren't quite symmetrical." (tags: history…
Why Wine Ratings Are Badly Flawed - WSJ.com "[A] 1996 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology showed that even flavor-trained professionals cannot reliably identify more than three or four components in a mixture, although wine critics regularly report tasting six or more. There are eight…
The gallery of failed atomic models, 1903-1913 « Skulls in the Stars " Most people in physics are taught Thomson's 'plum pudding' model of the atom, but a little investigating* turned up no less than eight distinct pictures of atomic structure." (tags: physics science atoms history blogs)…

NOVA scienceNOW has been a pretty decent science podcast for a while now. I wonder if it's popularity sparked the attempt at a tv series - not that I have any idea how popular it is. NdGT is an excellent public face for science though and really entertaining to watch, I'll definitely check it out for the first few episodes.