2024-03-28

Books 2014

I just realized I never did a books post for 2014! Ah well, better late than never. Goodreads did this nice summary for me (click through the graphic for a full-size version which links to all the books), which shows that apparently I gave lots of books 4 stars and didn’t give any books only […]

Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Jan 07, 2015

"Motivated by the search for Genghis Khan’s tomb, participants were tasked with finding an…" “Motivated by the search for Genghis Khan’s tomb, participants were tasked with finding an archaeological enigma that lacks any historical description of its potential visual appearance. Without a pre-existing reference for validation we turn towards consensus, defined by kernel density estimation, […]

Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Dec 24, 2014

"So, what about Christmas? On Dec.25, 2013, the percentage of all orders that were for Chinese food…" “So, what about Christmas? On Dec.25, 2013, the percentage of all orders that were for Chinese food increased by 152 percent. By comparison, the fraction of orders from restaurants listed on the site as American, pizza, or Mexican […]

Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Tue Jul 29, 2014

"To ascertain the extent to which people are insensitive to patches of serious conversational…" “To ascertain the extent to which people are insensitive to patches of serious conversational incoherence, we generated such patches in the laboratory by repeatedly crossing two unrelated conversations. Across two studies, involving both narrowly and broadly focused conversations, between 27% and […]

PTSD

Quotation of the Day for July 2, 2014 “I think the deepest sacrifice of those that we ask to go to war is not the possibility that they may die or their colleagues may die, but the sacrifice of their normal unwillingness to kill – and in particular that when they come back we don’t […]

Yep, that’s an accomplishment

I just got back home after being on the road for three weeks. I was in Jordan in the Syrian refugee camps, the United Nations, I was signing books in Norway and in Sweden and in Spain. And I got home, and waiting for me was the board copy of “Chu’s Day,” which they’d just […]

Books! 2013

Books! According to Goodreads, on which I track the majority of what I read, I read 114 books (give or take) in 2013. This year I diverted more time into reading magazines, since the TPL started carrying e-versions of such, and I also spent a chunk of time doing time-consuming things with my hands such […]

Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Dec 18, 2013

"Anecdotal evidence suggests sharks generally take swimmers from behind. This would make sense from…" “Anecdotal evidence suggests sharks generally take swimmers from behind. This would make sense from the shark’s point of view, since its approach would not be detected. But it does depend on its knowing what “behind” means when applied to such an […]

Neat Stuff from Elsewhere Wed Dec 11, 2013

PLOS ONE: Who Needs Cream and Sugar When There Is Eco-Labeling? Taste and Willingness to Pay for “Eco-Friendly” Coffee PLOS ONE: Who Needs Cream and Sugar When There Is Eco-Labeling? Taste and Willingness to Pay for “Eco-Friendly” Coffee: Carrying the “people enjoy expensive wine more than cheap wine even if it’s actually the same wine,” […]