Basics of paleontology Case study in false balance in journalism Cure for hiccups Dick Cheney empathy test Donald Rumsfeld: poet Dying language and identity Ethics of drug development Exhibition as social dominance Experience Is the Product Feynman on k-12 textbook acquisition Inside 48-hours magazine James Frey: sweatshop proprietor Justin Long: good guy Nabokov: insightful lepidopterist The appeal of Mad Men The end of men Verifying info online What movie titles are most often adapted in scientific titles? What's happening to my body: a book for cortez wrasses Wonderful review of the plight of isolated South American tribes
Planetarium-polishing Pluto-fetishists sound off about the astronomer they love to hate. Update (Feb 21 2010): Neil deGrasse Tyson talks for a few minutes about the background to this outrage, wherein he doesn’t fix the problem but he does fix the blame.
Dennis Crowley and Christian Bovine (an utterly nondescriptive name!) compare their performances in different events to those of Olympic athletes. It may seem obvious that just because they can do that doesn’t mean that you can, but, hey, it’s nice to have data!
Note the Olympic broad jump record is something like 27 feet. Definitely hang in there to watch them being schooled in how the set the hurdles for “Girls Intermediate” versus “Olympic.” (They do surprisingly well!)
Crowley on the rings: “Chris and I had this master plan to do this routine that had all these fancy moves that we stole from YouTube, but we got here and figured out that … all of them are kind of impossible.”
Ben Goldacre discusses results of different placebo studies and ways that the placebo effect can be harnessed – ethically – to improve healthcare.
A roundup of comments from a survey of more than 200 magicians (fewer than 5% of whom were female).
Women have to invent for themselves ways to do things that men do not. Most magic instruction is designed for men with jackets. Women’s clothes don’t have pockets and women can’t reach into their breast pockets.
Sometimes it just becomes a competition to see who can pee the highest, and generally women don’t want to get involved in that.
Why is this question always asked? Yeesh. Sociological, economic, political and biological reasons.
A must for any Amazon wishlist (and do dip into the customer reviews)
Update February 27 2010: I happened to see this item again today, and – alas! – saw this message: “This item is no longer available.”
Update June 2010: No longer an active page now, either. :(
In addition to Thing-a-Day this month, I’m taking a stab at “365 photos,” which is intended to be a photo a day. I’ve missed a handful of days and refuse to feel bad about it. During the week, I’m even using 365 photos as my daily things. SO LAZY. I’m enjoying reconnecting with my environment.