Category: Links Dump

For Free Throws, 50 Years of Practice Is No Help – NYTimes.com "Since the mid-1960s, college men’s players have made about 69 percent of free throws, the unguarded 15-foot, 1-point shot awarded after a foul. In 1965, the rate was 69 percent. This season, as teams scramble for bids to the N.C.A.A. tournament, it was… Continue reading links for 2009-03-06

The Verne Gun — KarlSchroeder.com "I call it the Verne gun because frankly, a name like THE ATOMIC CANNON would just not go over well in certain circles. In any case, the principle is the same as Verne’s original idea, but using modern technology: you set off a nuclear charge underground where the blast, heat,… Continue reading links for 2009-03-05

Science in the open » What is the cost of peer review? Can we afford (not to have) high impact journals? "I believe in post-publication peer review because it reduces the costs and time wasted in bringing work to community view and because it makes the filtering and quality assurance of that published work continuous… Continue reading links for 2009-03-04

Foodie Politics | The American Prospect "Good food — the sort Waters features at her restaurant — is considered a luxury of the rich rather than a social justice issue. As Waters frequently argues, no one is worse served by our current food policy than a low-income family using food stamps to purchase rotted produce… Continue reading links for 2009-03-03

The Neon Season – Why I Would Not Have Greenlit Dollhouse "Last night I watched an episode of a show I had been avoiding due to issues I had with the premise, despite the creator having written some of my favorite TV shows. It had every single problem I would have expected it to have… Continue reading links for 2009-03-02

Cowbirds in Love Mad science vs. mad engineering (tags: science comics silly) Analysis of the price of a piece of a lego set | Dot Physics There’s nothing you can’t do with a least-squares fit. (tags: blogs math statistics kid-stuff toys dot-physics)

Setshot: Basketball for the Aging and Infirm: "That guy is better than he looks": Appearance vs. ability "Here’s a topic I think about all the time: What factors most affect opinions about players’ skills, and by what process do those opinions change? In pickup basketball, there are often unknown players rotating into the playing roster.… Continue reading links for 2009-02-28

362 – Greek To Me: Mapping Mutual Incomprehension « Strange Maps ""Has there been a study of this phrase phenomenon, relating different languages on some kind of Directed Graph?” Well apparently there has, even if only perfunctorily, and the result is this cartogram. When a Hellenophone has trouble understanding something, his or her preferred languages… Continue reading links for 2009-02-27

The Problem of Pretension. « The Internet Food Association Is it pretentious to insist on fresh food for school lunches? (tags: food politics class-war) the physics arXiv blog » Blog Archive » Calculating the cost of dirty bombs Basically the same analysis that’s in "Physics for Future Presidents," with some added financial figures. Bottom line:… Continue reading links for 2009-02-26

slacktivist: Saving newspapers "I’m glad at least though that Time and Isaacson are trying to deal with the question of newspapers’ survival. That’s more than I can say for many of the newspapers themselves. Take for example my employer, the largest newspaper chain in the country. They own dozens of newspapers, small and large, which… Continue reading links for 2009-02-25