Includes stuff about anything where feedback causes the system to adapt, including the systems of nature, those that are man-made or cultural, and those of the human mind.
I never knew how the vaccination/autism link first started. It seemed to be ridiculous: a plausible idea that was tested and found lacking, but that a few very loud voices insisted on believing anyway. So I was interested to hear about The Facts in the Case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a short comic-strip-panel-style treatise which …
When George Lucas came up with The Force, he was just looking for a plot device for a story. But I’ve often thought that he’d tapped into an idea whose power even he didn’t realize. Now there’s some evidence for that theory.
That explains a lot about politics.
This is exactly why organizations like the Pirate Party or Wikileaks need to be kept around — because even if they espouse illegal or semilegal behaviors, or provide a safe haven for whistleblowers to air the proverbial dirty laundry, they act as a check to governments and the corporations that essentially run them. If they …
Continue reading ‘“Australian seniors ask Pirate Party for help in accessing right-to-die sites”’ »
From the Dilbert Blog: […] I have a related hypothesis. I believe that political conservatives can be identified by their faces, even after you control for haircuts and eyeglasses. Not all the time, of course, but more than chance. (Another way to say the same thing is that political liberals can be identified by their …
I find the placebo effect to be utterly fascinating. It’s almost certainly responsible for the successes of shamans, faith-based healers, and homeopathy. And, on the other side of the coin, the documented successful witch doctors’ curses. But it’s literally all in your head. Which means that everyone who has ever been affected by any of …
This article may sound insightful, but it isn’t. Tech companies, like all large and successful publicly-traded companies, “lean” whichever way the political winds are blowing… if it looks like party X is going to win, they back party X, regardless of their personal opinions, because the X candidate is most likely to be the one …
I wonder how long it’ll be before this is featured in a CSI episode? I’m betting they’ll do it next season, probably with an application somewhere between highly implausible and scientifically ridiculous.
This is just ludicrous: The [Australian group] insists that the site should follow Australian law because, although the site is hosted in the US, with free speech protection, articles which can be read and downloaded in Australia are considered to have been published in Australia. It doesn’t take a genius to follow this thinking to …
Curious. And it sounds awfully familiar too.