Posted inFun
A new movie rating scheme
Most newspapers rate movies on the star system. Four to five stars are printed, and from none to all of them are colored in. Supposedly, the more stars colored, the…
Posted inCulture Philosophy
CBC’s How to Think Aboot Science series
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has a great web site with a series (so far on-going) How to Think Aboot Science. I recommend the site as a great resource for interviews…
Posted inBook review Philosophy
Relativism: an idea that failed before it started
The Books of Absolutes: A Critique of Relativism and a Defence of Universals William D. Gairdner McGill-Queen's University Press Recommendation: Read Let's play spot the flaw. In 1994, professor Mark…
Posted inFun
A subtle difference
These plaques were placed outside the doors of a toilet in a train station on the outskirts of Taipei. Even with my lack of Chinese, I managed to go to…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
A new cure for insomnia
Just so you don't think it's all work and no play around here, I wanted to show you how we statisticians really unwind and let go. We write papers that…
Posted inBook review Culture Fun
More essential reading
A busy week, with many sending in links and ideas. Thanks everybody! Art That's art, folks. I finally figured out how to get pictures off my crappy phone, so this…
Posted inCulture
Some pieces you should see
Wired article on copulas Reader Scott Bury forwarded this article from Wired on the probability function that many used to quantify the risk of certain financial instruments. You can think…
Posted inPhilosophy
You have no choice but to read this
Your decisions are not your own Our gut instinct, our experience, is that we make the decisions to move, to think, to eat, to steal, to lie, to punch and…