Election '08
apalazzo | August 27, 2008Fact #1: There's a clear difference between Obama and McCain on taxes.
(ht: Digby, Crooks and Liars, Washington Post)
apalazzo | August 27, 2008Last night we spent the night at the Cambridge Brewing company and said goodbye to Marius Wernig who is leaving today to start his lab at Stanford. If you are looking for a lab working on a hot topic and want a patient smart and generous mentor APPLY TO HIS LAB. Trust me. (To read more, click here.)
When we got home we watched Clinton's speech at the MSNBC site. It was great. If you missed it, I'll present it to you via the magic of the intertubes:
She said all the right things - "we can't sit on the sidelines" - McCain is just more of Bush. I hope that will convince all these lingering…
apalazzo | August 24, 2008Joe Biden. How do I feel about the pick? It's okay, nothing to get excited over. At least when Biden attacks McCain, the media will echo it.
So we spent the day packing and listening to all the "pundits" on all the MSM websites. It is amazing how vacuous all these shows are. Not one iota of useful information. All sound bites that mean nothing. Listening to all this crap can really fry your brain. Is this why after such a disastrous 8 years McSame is only 2 points behind Obama? And what's up with all this Clinton supporters who are leaning on the fence towards McCain. I know that PP and Gwen…
apalazzo | July 28, 2008As a scientist, I traffic in data, ideas, models and theories.
I spend a lot of time thinking about how the whole process works. And many scientists and science philosophers have thought about this as well. One inescapable fact: humans tend to duck, deny and fool themselves into believing certain ideas even when data points the other way. It's the little voice in our head that says "I am not biased, it's everyone else." Humans are highly prone to much cognitive dissonance. It's just that in science you must confront this reality head on, all the time.
These tendencies exist everywhere and are…