links for 2008-10-02

Nina Katchadourian Short stories told through pictures of book spines (tags: books literature pictures art stories language) Cognitive Daily: Do TV, movie and game ratings actually do any good? A good rule of thumb is that when a paper title asks a question the answer is "no." (tags: games social-science psychology articles science society culture… Continue reading links for 2008-10-02

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Adopted Physicist

I signed up for the Adopt-a-Physicist program run by the APS, and I’ve been “adopted” by three high school classes. The program pairs professional physicists with high school classes, and provides a web forum both groups can access. The students ask questions, and I answer them. I’d love to be able to link directly to… Continue reading Adopted Physicist

links for 2008-10-01

Dr. Rivka – How many US Supreme Court decisions can you name off the top of your head? (tags: law US politics) Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Bloat: threat or menace? A defense of long books. (tags: books writing literature SF blogs) Dynamics of Cats : why are grades confidential?… Continue reading links for 2008-10-01

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Marketing Science

Via FriendFeed, I came across an article by Deepak Singh on attention and science, which spins off a long rant by Kevin Kelly on the idea that Where ever attention flows, money will follow. Deepak writes: Attention can be driven by many mechanisms, marketing being the most effective one. The key is gaining sufficient mindshare,… Continue reading Marketing Science

Go, Barney Frank

The House Republicans blame their failure to pass the bailout bill on Mean Nancy Pelosi, and Barney Frank lets them have it: The key bit, for those who don’t want to watch YouTube: “[T]hink about this. ‘Somebody hurt my feelings, so I will punish the country.’ That’s hardly plausible. And there are 12 Republican members… Continue reading Go, Barney Frank

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Why So Many Words?

Sometime last week, I was directed to Chris Wilson’s article in Slate, which comes with the provocative subtitle “Why can’t science journalists just tell it like it is when it comes to particle physics?” I flagged this as a good jumping-off point for a blog post about how hard it is to communicate science to… Continue reading Why So Many Words?

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Categorized as Science

Unintentional Irony in “Alternative” Medicine

The New York Times today has an article on scientific studies of “alternative” medicine. Quack-bashing isn’t my usual line, but it seemed to me like there was a good bit of stuff that will torque Orac off. I couldn’t help laughing at the final paragraph, though: “In tight funding times, that’s going to get worse,”… Continue reading Unintentional Irony in “Alternative” Medicine

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Categorized as Medicine