As you may well know by now (if you’ve managed to read any of my links), I often post stuff that will make me (& maybe even you) squirm. This one may do so for you – Charlie Stross tries to build common ground between the man popularized as “Jesus Christ” & Osama bin Laden. He has 9 on his list, & the comments add quite a few more! Definite read!
Confirmation bias [article]
Selective truth-seeking is something we are all guilty of, according to this article. The majority of us (who are too busy working, parenting, watching sports, and playing video games) tend to get our information from sources that we trust. It’s a convenient shortcut. Our trusted information brokers are usually determined by tribal affiliation (Fox News, Guardian, MSNBC, ABC)… & so…. To combat our own biases, some deliberately seek out perspectives from people outside our tribe. But even that decision is governed by trust–do I trust that person enough to be a fair interpreter of information, even if I think he’s biased?
Nature Therapy [Article]
Researchers are backing up with studies what most non-city dwellers know already – nature offers the best therapy for all things that are caused by un-natural living.
(Photo: “Mononoke forest, Yakushima island” by Casey Yee)
Flamenco [Guitar]
Doing a job [article]
Admiral Hyman Rickover, retired, of the US Navy, had this to say to the graduating class of the Columbia University School of Engineering on Nov 5, 1981. In Doing a Job, he points out that “There is concern today over the apparent decline in U.S. productivity. In searching for its causes we should not overlook the impact of the many professional administrators who run large corporations. Though trained in management at our leading universities, they are often unskilled in the technical aspects of the company. As a result they manage largely in the terms they learned at school. Technical, operational, and production issues are quickly reduced to issues of numbers and dollars, upon which these administrators apply their management techniques. Although in this way they may achieve financial benefits, an overemphasis on short-term profits often ignores broader issues such as efficient production or planning for the future. How can they act otherwise, when they have knowledge only of management theories learned in school?.
Expired Food [Article]
I used to be very worried about the expiry dates on food (I sometimes still am). But as this article explains, those expiry dates are really “sell by” dates – there to protect the reputation of the food. They have very little to do with food safety. If you’re worried whether food is still OK to eat, just smell it.
Su-doku, solved [Article]
What is the minimum number of clues required to solve a Sudoku puzzle? For me, it is 70(!) But mathematicians have used brute force to prove that 17 is the bare minimum. I’ve got to step up my game here!
Reindeers around the world [Pictures
And they’re not only from the North Pole.
Playing thyself [Video]
People playing themselves on screen. Ooops, that didn’t sound right, did it? 😉
Christmas, explained [cartoon]
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