Economists Say Movie Violence Might Temper the Real Thing – New York Times “From 6 p.m. to midnight on weekends — when the largest numbers of people are in theaters — violent crimes decreased 1.3 percent for every million people watching a strongly violent movie, the study found. Violent crimes dropped 1.1 percent for every… Continue reading links for 2008-01-08
Author: Chad Orzel
Dorky Poll: Just One Lecture
I unwisely agreed to cover the first class for one of my colleagues with a late-arriving flight back from break before finding out when the class met, which was 8:00 this morning. As a result, my whole morning blog routine was disrupted. I’m saved from having the site go completely dark, though, by an email… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Just One Lecture
Teacher Compensation
On Friday, Steinn was playing dictator of the universe, and presented a modest proposal to reform US public education. It’s a mix of pretty good idea and cosmetic changes to make things more like Europe, and I agree with a good deal of it. I do want to highlight one thing, though: Teachers could probably… Continue reading Teacher Compensation
links for 2008-01-07
BBC NEWS | Magazine Monitor 100 things the BBC didn’t know until last year. (tags: culture politics review society science education environment humanities history)
Happy or Cranky?
Myers: There are atheists who look on a tragedy and cry, “There is no god,” in despair. But we are atheists who look on beauty and complexity and awesome immensity and shout out, “There is no god!” and we are glad. That’s the distinction we’ve got to get across. We are fulfilled, happy atheists who… Continue reading Happy or Cranky?
Idle Question: Does “Fisking” Ever Work?
The context for this would take too long to explain, so I’ll just throw it out there: Can anyone think of an example of an Internet troll changing their opinions or behavior because of the savage wit of people responding to their comments? I ask this because I spent a good seven years on rec.arts.sf.*… Continue reading Idle Question: Does “Fisking” Ever Work?
The Giants Are Doomed…
… because it’s evidently a bad weekend for teams Jim Henley is rooting for. (Edit: typo fixed.)
links for 2008-01-06
World Hum | Travel Books | The Trouble With ‘Smile When You’re Lying’ Thoughts about what’s wrong with travel writing, and why. (tags: travel writing books review journalism) What if the BCS Ran the NFL – FanHouse – AOL Sports Blog “Cowboys fans are upset that they have been shut out of the Bud Bowl… Continue reading links for 2008-01-06
The ScienceBlogs Diet, Year Two
A couple of years ago, I decided to lose some weight. Because I’m a big ol’ nerd, this involved keeping a more-or-less daily record of my weight, and inevitably, I made a graph of it. Here’s the latest version– the blue points are from 2006, the green from 2007: (It’s not science without graphs.)
Nerd Joke of the Week
Tommaso Dorigo, in reviewing an assessment scheme for science projects: Ironically, in the same table Knuteson includes the SBFB [“Scientific Bang for the Buck” factor] of the experiment of flipping a coin: the SBFB of the experiment is zero, not that different from the global search for new physics at the LHC!, although, to be… Continue reading Nerd Joke of the Week