The Weasel King posted a link to the classic Five Geek Social Fallacies essay, which you have no doubt already read. If you haven’t, and you’re reading blogs, you really should, because you’re bound to recognize some of what it says. Of course, that article dates from 2003, so it wouldn’t be worth noting, had… Continue reading Frat Boys Need Counseling Too
Political Bias of Faculty
There’s a new Zogby Poll on political bias in academia that should warm whatever it is that David Horowitz uses as a heart: As legislation is introduced in more than a dozen states across the country to counter political pressure and proselytizing on students in college classrooms, a majority of Americans believe the political bias… Continue reading Political Bias of Faculty
Urban Legends Confirmed, Children’s TV Edition
A man in Oregon tied 105 helium balloons to a lawn chair, and flew into Idaho, 193 miles away. Do you believe that? A man tied 105 helium ballons to a lawn chair, and flew into Idaho! He flew 193 miles. In a lawn chair, with balloons tied to it. He used 105 balloons. That’s… Continue reading Urban Legends Confirmed, Children’s TV Edition
Speaking of Charity: Help DonorsChoose
You may or may not remember that we did a ScienceBlogs fundraiser last year for a group called “DonorsChoose” that provides small grants to teachers in poor school districts around the country. We’ll probably do another in September this year (discussions are under way), but right now, they’re involved in the Members Project run by… Continue reading Speaking of Charity: Help DonorsChoose
High Stakes Cheating
From EurekAlert, we learn that corporate executives are a bunch of cheaters, when the incentives are right: According to the authors, “Our results demonstrate two factors substantially increase the likelihood of financial misrepresentation: extremely low performance relative to average performance in the firm’s industry, and high percentages of CEO compensation in stock options.” The study… Continue reading High Stakes Cheating
“Nuking” Food: Still a Metaphor
The Paper of Record, unafraid to tackle the really important questions, today addresses the perennial favorite: Is it dangerous to stand near a microwave oven? You’ll be happy to know that the answer is still “No.” I would’ve preferred “No, you dolt,” but you take what you can get: Although microwave ovens can in fact… Continue reading “Nuking” Food: Still a Metaphor
Envy? Hardly.
Dave at the World’s Fair is trying to start a “meme” based on a Science Creative Quarterly piece about physics envy among biologists and vice versa. He’s asking other science bloggers whether there’s another field that they wish they were working in. While I have occasionally joked that if I had it to do over,… Continue reading Envy? Hardly.
Crack Security Screening
I don’t read the local paper regularly, so it took a LiveJournal post to alert me to this story from the Times Union: The unannounced inspection by TSA officials took place early last week. [Albany International Airport’s] security measures failed in five of seven tests, most of the problems occurring at the passenger checkpoint, the… Continue reading Crack Security Screening
Atheist Charity Results
So, you may or may not recall that last week, Matt Nisbet posted about a study purporting to show that religious people were more generous in their charitable giving than atheists. One of his commenters opted to go for the “sour grapes” response, claiming that religious charities were all stupid, and asking rhetorically: How many… Continue reading Atheist Charity Results
Remake Poll 2: Covering Collins
Another pop-culture question for the audience: Jason Hare, in the course of recapping a Top Ten from 1985 makes a shrewd observation: “Sussudio” was a damn catchy song in 1985 and while nobody will admit to liking it now, I guarantee you that once an indie band covers it, Stereogum will lose their shit. So,… Continue reading Remake Poll 2: Covering Collins