My post on physics researchers searching for the Higgs particle needing to get the chance of statistical errors down to below the five-sigma level (or 0.000028%) generated some discussion on the problems that can arise (mainly the increased likelihood of false positive results) in other areas such as the social sciences where the threshold for …
Monthly Archive: June 2012
Jun 27 2012
Cue the war on Catholic nuns
I have written before (see here and here) about how the Vatican has cracked own on American nuns because they seem to be more interested in wasting their time doing such things as teaching and helping the poor and sick, leaving them little time to do the true work of god such as propagating Papa …
Jun 27 2012
How times have changed
Slightly less than a year after all the fuss about the elimination of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the US military officially commemorated Gay Pride month which is currently going on, although the most senior service chiefs did not attend., which is being interpreted as a sign of lingering discomfort among the old guard.
Jun 27 2012
Ousted president of University of Virginia reinstated
After fierce protests at their high-handed action, the trustees at the University of Virginia had to humiliatingly reverse course and voted unanimously to reinstate the president Teresa Sullivan whom they had just forced out.
Jun 27 2012
Crazy Arizona
On Monday, the US Supreme Court struck down most of the provisions of the Arizona law SB 1070. As NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports, the sections that were struck down were “provisions that made it a state crime for illegal immigrants to seek or engage in work or to fail to carry documents proving they are …
Jun 26 2012
Elitist Mac users?
Apparently the data collected by the online travel site Orbitz indicates that Mac users tend to spend more on hotels than PC users.
Jun 26 2012
How should we measure the value of time?
This cartoon from xkcd made me think about how we measure the value of time.
Jun 26 2012
Mormon underwear update
At the risk of this blog becoming all Mormon underwear all the time, I want to make a final (?) comment on this topic based on something BrianX posted in response to my earlier post on Mormon’s Secret. He mentioned a site Recovery from Mormonism that serves those who are, as the site says, “Questioning …
Jun 25 2012
‘Shades of grey’ optical illusion
I have a fondness for optical illusions and what they tell us about how our brain processes visual information. I have written before about the moon illusion and the rotating snakes.
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