Is cognitive science full of crap? A biophyics researcher recently asked this of a cognitive science researcher. The latter answered with spirit. My own answer is that of course cog sci is full of crap — except when it’s not. Which makes it like most science, only more so. It started when Cambridge University memory…
Monthly Archives: February 2011
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Placebo Power Explained, Really Really Fast
by David Dobbs •
If you take your meds regularly, your chance of survival will be higher — even if the med is a placebo. This is one of many placebo wonders delivered in this ace video by TheProfessorFunk. Only 3 minutes long, but so enthralling it seems about 30 seconds long. Take as needed. H/t the incomparable Vaughn…
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Surfing the Big One … on Skis
by David Dobbs •
My brother ever sees this, we’ve lost him for good. Via kottke, Chuck Patterson skis (not surfs, skis) the Jaws surf break in Maui Those are big waves.
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Steve Jobs Stole My Books. I Want ‘Em Back.
by David Dobbs •
Late yesterday, Tom Levenson pointed me to a MacRumors post that said the latest update of Apple’s iBooks app would disable itself — refuse to show you the books you had bought — if your phone happened to be one that was once “jailbroken.” This made me sit up quick, because a) I have bought a…
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How to Make a Subway Make Music
by David Dobbs •
I should just set up a direct feed from Biophemera, where I found this. Conductor: www.mta.me from Alexander Chen on Vimeo. Alexander Chen’s Conductor turns the New York subway system into a string instrument. Using the MTA’s actual subway schedule, the program tracks and models actual train departures, accelerating the whole business so that a…
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Is Race a Social Construct? Razib Says Ask Your Genome.
by David Dobbs •
Only a government bureaucrat would be happy with this situation. That’s Razib Khan, in a nice post noting how genetic testing, by revealing our infinitely variable genetic heritages, should show how race is a social construct rather than biological fact. The chart to the left shows how race is a social construct. It’s a bar…
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A-glitter in the Net (13 Feb 2011)
by David Dobbs •
One of the big pleasures of the last few days: Steve Silberman, who lately is writing one wonderful thing after another about autism, posted a beautiful piece about a profoundly autistic man who speaks with his photography. “They managed to achieve what we could not do out of fear.” via Nature Middle East scientists react…
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The Great Gatsby Channels Bill Clinton, or Perhaps Vice Versa
by David Dobbs •
I’m re-reading The Great Gatsby, and even this fourth or fifth time, it gives a pleasure beyond anything I’d dare hope for. Fitzgerald, who apparently couldn’t control his drinking or much else in his life, exercises complete command here. He creates a sustained lyricism and economy rivaled in the last century only by Nabokov’s Lolita.…