Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Come to TV! You'll be amazed!

Watch this. I've often used the example of a believer in the flat earth as an absurdity to prove a point. The lesson here, once again, is to never underestimate people.

(I imagine this follow up was inspired by management/PR. I sincerely believe she didn't know)

Friday, September 14, 2007

Well, isn't that interesting...

Sunday, September 09, 2007

The Shock Doctrine - Short Film

Shock Doctrine website (for the new book and various media, including the film below)

Four articles for you

(1) Information wars will likely be even worse now:
The study found that the American participants' belief in the truth of an initial news report was not affected by knowledge of its subsequent retraction. In contrast, knowing about a retraction was likely to significantly reduce belief in the initial report for Germans and Australians.
(2) It seems you shouldn't trust the forecasts of experts:
A study about predicting the outcome of actual conflicts found that the forecasts of experts who use their unaided judgment are little better than those of novices...
(3) "Thinking about God leads to Generosity" This article wins the prize for misleading title because:
In the second study the researchers also investigated the strength of the religious prime relative to a secular prime. They used concepts of civic responsibility and social justice to prime subjects (with target words civic, jury, court, police and contract) and obtained almost identical results.
(4) Greater the income, greater the happiness. And yet...
Deaton writes, “HIV prevalence in Africa has little effect on Africans’ life or health satisfaction; the fraction of Kenyans who are satisfied with their personal health is the same as the fraction of Britons and higher than the fraction of Americans.”

Monday, September 03, 2007

A Born Loser on Canada AM