Recently we have had some studies showing the remarkable intelligence of crows as problem solvers and their ability to use tools. Given this information, it was thought that they would also be good at inferring causal relationships. But as often happens, we find that intelligence is not a simple thing and that success in one aspect of it does not necessarily transfer to other areas.
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We have got used to polls being so reliable when it comes to predicting election results in the US that actual elections seem to be just a pro forma exercise to validate the polls. So last evening’s result in Virginia, where Republican House majority leader Eric Cantor lost his primary race was shocking.
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As part of my ongoing quest to convert readers of this blog into becoming cricket fans, I thought I would share a short clip from 1975 in which West Indian Alvin Kallicharan gives a gorgeous batting display. What makes this even more remarkable is that he scored these runs not off some journeyman bowler but against Dennis Lillee of Australia, a magnificent fast bowler who, along with Michael Holding of the West Indies, had the smoothest and best bowling actions that I have ever seen.
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Jonathan Turley provides a good take-down of Hillary Clinton’s self-serving assertions in her new book, where she tries to minimize her culpability for endorsing the invasion of Iraq and tries to bond with economically struggling people by saying that she and her husband were ‘dead broke’ when they left the White House and had to struggle to pay their mortgage their daughter’s college tuition.
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No one who has seen me in real life will ever consider coming to me for fashion advice. But that does not stop me from giving it when I feel strongly about it. And the introduction of the ‘short suit‘ had me rolling my eyes and thinking, “Really? Men are going to wear this in public and maybe even to work?”
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Science depends on its practitioners behaving ethically. This is important for three reasons. One is because scientists depend upon each other’s work and fraud in one area can really mess up the work of those who use those results. Another is because science has acquired a hard-won credibility with the public that has to be preserved so that those who deny the scientific consensus on important questions like climate change and vaccinations are not given ammunition to claim that science cannot be trusted. And the third is because much of science depends on public funding and that can be threatened by misconduct.
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America seems to be obsessed with the issue of obesity. Hardly a week goes by without this being mentioned as a serious public health crisis and that urgent measures need to be adopted to combat it. One can hardly blame people who do not fit into the perceived body-size norm for feeling beleaguered by society’s pressures and feeling that they have to take all manner of measures, even extreme ones, to try and lose weight. But as I wrote last year, there a lot of myths surrounding weight and weight loss that work against the idea that losing weight and keeping it off is a straightforward matter.
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The recent exploits of members of the group Open Carry Texas carrying massive guns around in public places and into restaurants and other business venues, and the reaction to it, has been a good example of how rubbing your rights into other people’s faces may not always be in your best interest. The best way to support the right of free speech may not be to stand on a street corner and talk to every person who passes by. Instead of being impressed by your commitment to upholding free speech, they are more likely to think you are a crazy person.
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[UPDATE: Other computer scientists are saying that the computer actually failed the test, and badly.]
People who have interacted with Siri, the helpful guide on the iPhone, are usually impressed with her ability to carry on what seems like a normal conversation. But it is not hard to discover that you are talking to a computer. How good would ‘she’ have to be to completely fool you?
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Via reader Norm, I came across an article in The Onion that contains an exclusive interview with god where he was asked about what happens after we die. It appears that despite his omniscience, god is as mystified as the rest of us about what happens after we die, and he struggles with the same hopes and fears about it that many people have.
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