Wednesday, September 6, 2017

"None had ever performed such wonderful things in so short a time"

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One more from Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions . On the 29th of May, the stock had risen as high as five hundred, and about t...
Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Like we said before one more time, levels of automation, schedules of implementation

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Apologies to regular readers who've been through this before, but probably the two most important concepts when discussing the potential...
Monday, September 4, 2017

The following video clip should challenge cherished assumptions about Tesla, Silicon Valley, and self driving cars (it probably won't, but it should)

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Before we go on, if you haven't, take a few moments and read this (we'll be quoting from it later but you really need to read the w...
Friday, September 1, 2017

Good science reporting can be popular if it comes with enough obscenity and cute photo-shopped memes

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A while back (the queue is long), Joseph and I were discussing the post I was about to run on the treatment of autism in that godawful New Y...
Thursday, August 31, 2017

If you indefinitely allow economic and political power to grow more concentrated and unchecked, it will be abused (even by those who promise not to be evil)

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My surprise at the following story is somewhat blunted by my low opinion of the New America Foundation.  It always struck me as the sort of ...
Wednesday, August 30, 2017

“Bubbles and mere cheats"

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Another hump-day except from Charles Mackay's  Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds . Contrary to all expectati...
Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Conspiracy theorists don't just imagine improbable connections; they create them.

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Many years ago I purchased a paperback copy of  Proofs of a Conspiracy by physicist John Robison (who also invented the siren [I'm sure ...
Monday, August 28, 2017

Positive Thinking and Party Loyalty

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It is difficult to find situations where, once you have started a task, there is a negative correlation between positive attitude and likeli...
Friday, August 25, 2017

GOP's Dream Scenario

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I tend to have an overwhelming dislike and distrust for any piece of news analysis built around a tweet, particularly an anonymously sou...
Thursday, August 24, 2017

I suppose I should've known it would involve Tesla

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I've been meaning to revisit the ddulite thread for a while. I coined the term (derived from Luddite) to refer to those people whose lov...
2 comments:
Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Narrative bias at NPR

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One of the points we keep coming back to on this blog is that, while liberal ideological bias has long been held up as a bogeyman by critic...
Tuesday, August 22, 2017

The Republicans' 3 x 3 existential threat

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I've argued previously that Donald Trump presents and existential threat to the Republican Party. I know this can sound overheated and ...
Monday, August 21, 2017

That's not to say that sleeping around can't be a plus

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Over the past few years I have gotten in the habit of making a quick (or, to be honest, often not-so-quick) visit to Wikipedia when I read s...
2 comments:
Friday, August 18, 2017

Employer sponsored Health Insurance

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This is Joseph Via Mike the Mad Biologist was this gem : Even people who do not switch jobs are vulnerable to losing their health insura...

Feeling stressed? Overwhelmed? Give me three minutes of your time.

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Just hit play [Assuming you can read this in under twelve seconds.]