Links for you. Science:
The Viagra Of The Himalayas Brings In Big Bucks And Big Problems
The Importance and Neglect of Variation – part 1
The hype cycle starts again
Black Swans, Frankenfoods and Disaster Fairy Tales
An investigation of the false discovery rate and the misinterpretation of p-values
Other:
The Only Government I Know: How the Criminal Justice System Degrades Democratic Citizenship (very good)
The system worked
An Interview with Scott Bonner, Ferguson Librarian
Morning Thought
Barack Obama, Ferguson, and racial wounds unhealed
Please, writers, don’t stoke unnecessary panic over affirmative consent laws
Officer Darren Wilson’s story is unbelievable. Literally.
Vilna Shul finds 230 needles in a haystack
This Day in Labor History: November 25, 1865
How the World’s First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap
Where UVA Went Wrong: Students Need to See Rape as a Felony, Not Just a Campus Infraction
‘Blended-learning’ programs grow in D.C., with students relying more on computers
3 Lessons For Building Tech for Low-Income Americans
mikethemadbiologist
Re: The importance of variation.
In American English, “98.6” sounds like it has some sort of scientific validity. But it doesn’t. In the rest of the world, it’s rather obvious that 36 degrees is an arbitrary number from which we expect to see variation.
Actually living in another country can be an eye opener in a variety of ways. But the insanity of the English system of measurement shouldn’t be one of those. (In a Navy ROTC course I took as an undergraduate (my undergrad school had letting the rest of us crash (oops, I mean, take) their courses as a condition of being on campus), the prof. said something to the effect “We will now calculate the density of sea water in slugs per cubic yard.” Sheesh. And he was serious.)