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cortex | October 16, 2008Another way that credit cards dupe the brain into spending way too much money on interest payments:
New research by the University of Warwick reveals that many credit card customers become fixated on the level of minimum payments given on credit card bills. The mere presence of a minimum payment is enough to reduce the actual amount many people choose to pay on their bills, leading to further interest payments.
The research, by University of Warwick Psychology researcher Dr Neil Stewart, is to be published in Psychological Science, in a paper entitled "The Cost of Anchoring on Credit Card…
sb admin | October 16, 2008I made a mistake. First, I got a little worked up during last night's debate because, when discussing health problems, both candidates gave shout-outs to relatively rare conditions rather than to the big killers. My second mistake was more grievous. I read something in HuffPo written by Deirdre Imus.
No one brings the stupid quite like Deirdre. When she talks about health, it's like a 12th century peasant talking about quantum mechanics----most of the time, she's not even wrong.
Deirdre's upset. She's upset that the candidates haven't addressed children's healt issues. That's…
grrlscientist | October 16, 2008Here's the most recent carnivalia for you to read and enjoy;
Carnival of the Vanities, 16 October 2008 edition. This blog carnival, the grand dame of them all, focuses on the very best writing on any topic in the blogosphere.
Tangled Bank, 116th edition. This is the classic science and medicine blog carnival that has been ongoing for ... erm, more than three years now.
I and the Bird, issue #86. This blog carnival focuses on wild birds and bird watching.
Festival of Frugality, 143rd edition. This is an extraordinarily large blog carnival filled with all sorts of ways to stretch your…
mspringer | October 16, 2008I follow cheerfully; and, did I not,
Wicked and wretched, I must follow still
Whoever yields properly to Fate, is deemed
Wise among men, and knows the laws of heaven.
- Euripides
Wise advice as quoted in the Enchiridion of Epictetus. With that in mind, let those of us to the right of center contemplate the coming abyss with calm composure. Some things are in our control and others not, Epictetus tells us. This election is in the latter category. In the absence of a truly shocking and unexpected surprise, senator Obama is the next president of the United States.
We would like to have…
gregladen | October 16, 20081) Have a look at this interesting conversation going on about race and racism and related issues.
2) Someobody emailed me with an interest in hosting the Michele Bachmann carnival but I can't find the email!!!!! If this was you, please let me know!
Thank you very much. That is all for now.
drorzel | October 15, 2008
slacktivist: Racism and litigation
"[N]o, it's not an overstatement or an uncharitable characterization to say that anyone swallowing this ACORN-scapegoating is insane and a racist bastard. This is a baseless assertion that begins with the argument that poor people and black people are the powers that be in America -- that they run the show. That's insane. It's laughable on its face to anyone not infected by the voluntary mental illness of old-fashioned American racism."
(tags: US politics race society diversity stupid evil)
Easily Distracted » Blog Archive » What a Beautiful World
"…
gregladen | October 15, 2008.... NOT!
Once again, Barack Obama totally wins the debate.
This is Barack Obama after the debate:
This is John McCain after the debate:
Don't cry, John McCain, Georgie will make you feel better:
gregladen | October 15, 2008Well, ok, there is no Hell. So we're just going to tell Norm the truth and he's going to think it's hell.....
This item, from Tangled Up in Blue Guy (see THIS for more commentary) is absolutely outrageous. Unbelievable.
Watch this piece of video from a Norm Coleman ad showing how Al Franken can get out of control angry:
Now, in case you did not know it, let me tell you something: Paul Wellstone was our senator from Minnesota, widely respected and loved by all. He was one of the best senators that ever, ever graced the US Capitol. But he was killed in a tragic plane crash during is…
gregladen | October 15, 2008
I just wanted to point out the new Web Badge (to the left) that I've stuck on my side bar. This is the Open Access Day Synchroblogging Competition Winner badge.
Only those of us who have won the award can have the badge, so you better not download it and put it on your site. This is not some kind of cheap internet meme, but a real award and, as far as I know, the only real award I've won for blogging (other than cheap internet meme awards, of course).
I thank Dorothea Salo, my co-winner, for creating the badge!
gregladen | October 15, 2008Down below the fold where it says "CLICK HERE" .... don't click there! First, make sure the following things are true:
1) You are alone.
2) Your computer's sound is turned up.
2) Nobody can hear you.
OK, go...
CLICK HERE
Hat tip: Joe
grrlscientist | October 15, 2008Here's the latest carnivalia in the blogosphere;
Carnival of Evolution, 15 October 2008 issue. This is a new blog carnival that focuses on evolution, and there's a lot of material to read there.
And this link is late (my bad!), but better than never: the Carnival of Cities, 8 October 2008 edition. There's plenty of material here to read and enjoy, especially for those of you who like to travel, even if it's only vicariously.
gregladen | October 15, 2008
NEW:Replace Michele Bachmann Blog Carnival #3
Praxis #3
NEW: The Carnival of Evolution
New and Exciting in PLoS ONE
Open Access Day - the blog posts
Carnival of Homeschooling: The Missing Day
Grand Rounds!
cwilcox | October 14, 2008In Ol Pejeta, Kenya, conservationists faced a unique problem. The conservancy is striving to protect native african wildlife, like the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) from poaching and territory loss. Listed as 'vulnerable' by IUCN Red List, only approximately 10,000 elephants are in Africa today, compared to previous numbers of over 300,000. Protection has helped the elephant's numbers a bit, but a new issue surfaced: elephant territories got too close to neighboring farms, and the elephants became a menace.
Bull elephants started raiding villager's crops, wiping out up to six months…
gregladen | October 14, 2008Open Access Day
They said:
"if you publish
in an open forum
your paper'd be rubbish
and clearly hokum"
"pub's commercial know
how to review with the peerage,
how to make data flow
and hurdles clearage"
"limited space on the page
with every new edition
so few make the passage,
it's editorial selection!"
"we have always done
and it's never been changed
the readers we dunn
and the paper's in chains"
"what is ought to be
why change it now
it is so plain to see
must limit the flow"
But in, PLoS chimed,
and challenged that dragon
everyone joined
and the boycott was on
"The authors we'll dunn
when…
jwilbanks | October 14, 2008So today is Open Access Day.
(If you don't know what Open Access is, get thee to Peter Suber's blog for background).
I've spent a lot of the past week in and around OA meetings. I went to the Bethesda 2 meeting on Friday at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where a lot of the people who started the movement were gathered to talk about the next five years. I'm sitting in a meeting of scientists in NYC right now trying to figure out how principles of OA, expanded to include the idea of open for data, databases, biological materials, and more, can transform the way rare diseases get explored and…
mspringer | October 14, 2008Mark C. Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math has an excellent post in which he mercilessly dispatches the misbegotten idea that infinity is a number. It's not.
How do we know? He explains it very well, but the fundamental thing to remember is that number is a word, and like all words it has a specific meaning. The words we use in mathematics and science have to be very carefully defined to make sure we're all talking about the same thing, and the definition of infinity is simply not even remotely compatible with the definition of number.
To take an extreme example, if you define dragon as "A…
gregladen | October 14, 2008Is now up at Almost Diamonds, and contains gems such as:
The latest statement by Bachmann that has the national onlookers up in arms (and falling down with laughter) is her statement that we don't need to worry about the environment and global warming, because the planet's already been saved--by Jesus. Seriously.
Hey, if you are interested in hosting the Replace Michele Bachmann Blog Carnival, send me an email!
cwilcox | October 14, 2008If you're struggling to pick up chicks, perhaps you should change your strategy. Instead of hanging out at bars boasting how much you can bench press, you might spending a few hours with some cute nurses at a Bloodmobile. Why? Because women think that guys who are altruistic are hot.
A new study published in the British Journal of Psychology by researchers at the University of Nottingham has found that being selfless can be sexually attractive, particularly for women. In studies of more than 1,000 people, researchers discovered that women place significantly greater importance on altruistic…