Comments on: Links for March

By: Paul Torek

Paul Torek — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:03:19 +0000

I freakin loved the Castro/second-coming story, BTW. Thanks for this and all the links.

By: Douglas Knight

Douglas Knight — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:20:07 +0000

There are two comment boxes, one right after the post before the comments and one at the very end. Only the first one generates a preview. Probably most people use the other, since it’s easier to find, not to mention in a more standard position.

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By: Scott Alexander

Scott Alexander — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 05:33:52 +0000

I think they are. They should be underneath the box where you’re typing your comment.

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By: Scott Alexander

Scott Alexander — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 05:33:20 +0000

The reason it worries me is that it seems potentially really bad if science consistently solves all of our problems, we get used to be being completely irresponsible and let our problem-solving institutions atrophy because we know science will clean up our mess, and then one day along comes a problem science can’t solve alone.

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By: Deiseach

Deiseach — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:37:27 +0000

Well, that was also raised in Britain a few years back; professional footballers who earned huge salaries and then blew all their money or had no concept of how to manage it when they retired or were ripped off by the people entrusted with its management.

It was pointed out that a lot of these athletes were still relatively young men when they retired, had no other skills except their athletic abilities, had left school early or had only minimum education, and from a young age had been encouraged and trained in only one thing – their sporting skills.

They had nothing else to fall back on when their careers were over, they hadn’t been trained to manage their finances the same way the rest of us have had to learn (when you’re nineteen and clubs are vying to pay millions for your contract, of course you’re not going to worry about what you’re going to live on when you’re thirty-eight) and that it was a case of “out of sight, out of mind” when they left their clubs and were left to their own devices.

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By: Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:06:29 +0000

Re: “hunter-gatherer groups don’t seem to get heart attacks, so what is the difference between their clogged arteries and ours?”

Via the inestimableJohn Hawks: probably the pathogens or parasites they carried.

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By: houseboatonstyx

houseboatonstyx — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:18:13 +0000

I love these well-publicized studies that say that wine, chocolate, and such are good for us. Their vendors have the money to fund and publicize the studies. Because we like those foods … because we evolved to like those foods … because those who liked those foods survived longer … because those foods are good for us.

Yes, yes, they don’t directly buy the studies, and longer survival does not equal better reproduction … except….

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By: Ben L

Ben L — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:48:20 +0000

My tolerance to feel sorry for people who have tens of millions to lose is also rather minuscule.

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By: Ben L

Ben L — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:46:15 +0000

The athlete’s wasted money was really interesting. I’d say I’m tempted to join the rip offs, but really I’d like a 1% service fee to just manage all their money, by which I mean give it to a bank to manage.

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By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:21:13 +0000

In the study of people who kept weight off long term, they found all sorts of diets worked, as long as people stuck to them.

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