Tag Archives: links

Contrary to claims of dumbing-down curriculum, it looks like schools are assigning tougher reading material at earlier ages than in the past. To riff off Woody Allen, “I read War and Peace in tenth grade. It involved Russia.” Jai on … Continue reading →

Study shows that banning bottled water on campuses just makes students switch to bottled soda, with obvious detrimental consequences to health and no decrease in bottle waste. Pakistan’s transgender tax collectors. A couple of posts ago, I mocked the Muslim … Continue reading →

Dogs’ reaction to magic tricks (EDIT: more at original source) Automated theorem provers and the changing foundations of mathematics (does not require much math knowledge to read). New American Statistical Association ‘premium’ membership plan will permit members to reject null … Continue reading →

Researchers Find Bitterness Receptors On Human Heart. This wins my prize for “most unintentionally poetic medical headline”. New volleys in the debate about whether moderate drinking is good for your health or it’s all just bad statistics. At the age … Continue reading →

If The Machines Are Taking Our Jobs, They Are Hiding It From The Bureau Of Labor Statistics. An argument that the ‘rise of the robots’ can’t be behind stagnant employment numbers, because increasing the amount of work done by robots … Continue reading →

Perytons are mysterious bursts detected by radio telescopes. Some kind of novel astronomical object? Maybe not – a recent investigation suggested something more banal – microwave ovens in the astronomers’ break room. Greg Cochran on creepy cell line infections. “There … Continue reading →

Is Europe’s Little Ice Age a myth? Apparently temperature records don’t show much of a decline during that period, and the reason the Thames froze was because the London Bridge of the era dammed it up. Peter Singer’s new book … Continue reading →

The OKCupid Bullshit-To-English Filter makes dating site cliches more interesting. “Random” becomes “banal”, “I love X” becomes “I for the most part tolerate X”, and “I like to have fun” becomes “I like institutionalized racism”. And it only gets worse … Continue reading →

Did someone you love die while still single? Do you know anyone of the opposite sex who also died while still single? Time for a ghost marriage! Hottest Heads Of State ranks the US Presidents (h/t Eric Rall). “Here he … Continue reading →

Sometimes called “the most astounding medical lecture ever”, the notorious Brindley lecture is a good example of why your announcements of ground-breaking urology discoveries should not include live demonstrations. FAA: If you can get to the moon, nobody’s stopping you … Continue reading →