Crazy On Tap - USAians dumb. Again.

Crazy On Tap - USAians dumb. Again.: "Japanese believe in ghosts. And racial superiority, the sacredness of rice, and the ugliness of weightlifting.

I'd be curious if instead of fixing a specific belief, there was a study that went longitudinal across many, many beliefs.

Beliefs in elves among Icelanders, witches among French, ghosts among Japanese and British. Etc.

Are there societies which believe less (in general, not on one specific thing) than others? Russia perhaps. The last major thing they believed in (Communism) turned out to be such a dud, that they're skeptical through and through.

'Nihilism' is what Turgenov called it in 'Fathers and Sons'. (Then it was the dismantling of the feudal system before a new one found its place.)

Of course, throw in the Russia numbers for homocide and health care rates, and as Marcos points out, this study's conclusion won't float.

Like shirts/skins in pick-up basketball game, I personally think creationism is just something mid-Westerners use to differentiate themselves from their coastal opponents."

ScienceDaily: Brain Imaging Identifies Best Memorization Strategies

ScienceDaily: Brain Imaging Identifies Best Memorization Strategies: "the following four strategies were the main strategies used by participants in this study, according to Kirchhoff, including:

1) A visual inspection strategy in which participants carefully studied the visual appearance of objects.

2) A verbal elaboration — or word-based strategy — in which individuals constructed sentences about the objects to remember them.

3) A mental imagery strategy in which participants formed interactive mental images of the objects — similar to animated cartoons.

4) A memory retrieval strategy in which they thought about the meaning of the objects and/or personal memories associated with the objects.

Visual and verbal strategies improved memory

Selection of the first two strategies described above — visual inspection and verbal elaboration — resulted in improved memory results, according to Kirchhoff."

ScienceDaily: Brain Imaging Identifies Best Memorization Strategies

ScienceDaily: Brain Imaging Identifies Best Memorization Strategies: "the following four strategies were the main strategies used by participants in this study, according to Kirchhoff, including:

1) A visual inspection strategy in which participants carefully studied the visual appearance of objects.

2) A verbal elaboration — or word-based strategy — in which individuals constructed sentences about the objects to remember them.

3) A mental imagery strategy in which participants formed interactive mental images of the objects — similar to animated cartoons.

4) A memory retrieval strategy in which they thought about the meaning of the objects and/or personal memories associated with the objects.

Visual and verbal strategies improved memory

Selection of the first two strategies described above — visual inspection and verbal elaboration — resulted in improved memory results, according to Kirchhoff."

Iron John pre-ironic manhood. By Jess Row

Iron John pre-ironic manhood. By Jess Row: "The solution—to the degree Bly proposes one—involves looking clearly at contemporary stereotypes and acknowledging the unnamed, suppressed, 'unacceptable' aspects of male identity. These include an urge toward aggression, which can never be totally or successfully repressed; a need to 'go into the garden,' to cultivate the psyche through study and the arts; and a desire to be initiated into adulthood by older men. Though he refers to the rituals of traditional cultures, he does not, as many have assumed, argue that contemporary men need to somehow return to nature, re-create tribal ceremonies, or otherwise fetishize what they have lost. Nor does he have any interest in restoring men to traditional positions of power; Bly is, in fact, an unrepentant supporter of the women's movement. Fundamentally, he argues, men and women can share authority, responsibility, and leadership—if they acknowledge that their inner lives, and needs, are different."

Crazy On Tap - Shouldn't we fight the "suicide is glorious" meme?

Crazy On Tap - Shouldn't we fight the "suicide is glorious" meme?: "I don't see why a terrorist meme is a corruption of a religion. Too many people with too much money broke the feedback loop and caused a moral hazard.

If the money and/or land is seen as a birthright, there is nothing to really care about.

With no other way to make life valuable, destroying it becomes an economically feasible option."

Pharyngula: Put the blame where it belongs: God and the Republican Party

Pharyngula: Put the blame where it belongs: God and the Republican Party: "The folks on the top of the evolution list - Icelanders - believe in elves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/international/europe/13elves.html?ex=1278907200&en=5e99759b563f81fe&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

What does this indicate? Probably that every culture has - perhaps even *must* have - shared unprovable beliefs. Though this is likely an emergent property that biologists are too stuck up to explore.

It seems downright high-schoolish to make fun of someone else for their beliefs. More likely to make them more engrained, too."

The Frontal Cortex : Terrorism and Irrational Fear

The Frontal Cortex : Terrorism and Irrational Fear: "The research is interesting of course, but your attempt to connect it to sociological phenomena is misguided. Well, not mis-guided, as the intents are good enough, but not scientific.

People are afraid of terrorism because there is an actual agency behind the acts. There really is a boogey man who if given the chance to push a button and kill 10 million Americans, would do it. He has said as much.

There is no car-accident madman who would press a button to cause 10 million deaths. And there is no such button (the image of a single universal seat-belt releasing button comes to mind, but it's laughable).

Being afraid of an event with a high casualty figure (a few buttons being pushed) over thousands, no millions of *independent* and uncoordinatable events (car crashes) makes perfect sense. The chance of all those car crashes occuring together to cause 10 million deaths is so much tinier than the probability of a single group coordinating their actions toward a single goal.

Independent events occuring together are just less likely than a series of dependent events - they only have to dependent on one casaul event. The chance of billions of cells coordinating to move to another room, is trivially small. But my dog moves around the house all the time. Should you be more afraid of that dog pooping on your yard and causing a stench more than the effects of a billion bacteria doing the same?

We are a social species after all, so sexual selection and resource competition is what we ought to be afraid of, more so than things either under our control (health-related heart attacks) or completely not under our control (predispositioned heart attacks). The intentions of competitors matter. It makes sense for humans to factor them into their fear. Fear is a good, natural, healthy thing when in balance - surely FDR would not want the whole country to go into a 'no fear' manic phase?

Why argue so much with evolution - seems our brains are highly evolved to be afraid of the things which are endangering us. Sure they swing toward hysteria at times. And to complacency at others. But being afraid of people with desires and chemicals to blow up airplanes - any airplane - doesn't seem extreme to me."

The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Development Principles

The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Development Principles: "An employee needs to know that (a) there will be goals and purposes, often contradicting each other, competing for their time/money (b) that someone has to make a decision what balance of goals to follow; (c) who chooses and how to choose; (d) how to evaluate the results of the choice so that more time isn't wasted in having made a bad choice."

The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Identity Alignment, meet "Econ 101"

The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Identity Alignment, meet "Econ 101": "It's not really nationalism, but it is a form of tribalism or corporationism perhaps. Bind the group so that its members work for the benefit of the group rather than themselves. The members benefit as well - they get those nice, warm feelings of belongingness, of beyond-me-ness.

Eating together has been an old trick used to cement social units into a cohesive whole like this. I imagine though not halal or kosher, there is some dietary restrictions that would make members uncomfortable breaking bread with another company. (The way to man's heart is thru his stomach they say.)

By handing out to his developers this sense of bondedness, this sense of togetherness, thie sense of 'group is greater than the sum of its part'-ness, he is fulfilling an emotional demand that other companies supply with actual money.

Of course, developers who have their own pre-existing group loyalties - tight families, church groups, etc - will be less in the market for spiritual payoffs like these and will not be impressed about going to Joel's parties.

I do think that there is a diversification problem as well. Just as with financial investments, getting too much of your income - monetary and spiritual renumeration - from the same source is highly risky."

Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Abbreviations, 3rd Edition

Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Abbreviations, 3rd Edition: "Preguntando se llega a Roma
Spanish: One reaches Rome by asking questions."

Crazy On Tap - 2 realities

Crazy On Tap - 2 realities: "Self-righteousness ia a byproduct of survivor bias.

A tiger hasn't eaten my in the last five minutes. I must be doing something right."

Crazy On Tap - I loathed our weakness, I loathed being born as an Arab

Crazy On Tap - I loathed our weakness, I loathed being born as an Arab: "The ole cause/consequence dichotomy again. Which is why the Niebuhr saying is applicable - figure out where the contingency/agency boundary is. Deal with each appropriately.

I went to a dozen AA meetings with my brother before I realized why people who have been sober 20 years still went to AA.

I also think I came to differentiate between helping and enabling. Sheltering someone from the repercussions of their actions leads to loss of control, not to better control. A manic-phase moral hazard and all that.

(That's curious; I've never made the game theory/addiction therapy connection before.)"

Crazy On Tap - Quest for Knowledge - Busted.

Crazy On Tap - Quest for Knowledge - Busted.: "I think it's pretty obvious. But I would, won't I?

Power determines morality. But not as easily as 'might makes right.' They play a co-dependent game.

Since shit happens, the less powerful blame the more powerful. The problem-of-evil argument brought home: the powerful do not deserve their moral position because they were unable to prevent shit from happening or the powerful intended shit to happen. Consequantalism and virtue ethics, again.

Meanwhile one economic factor and one psychological factor collude to overthrow power.

Economic: The powerful cannot accumulate good ideas. They can accumulate wealth/status. But wealth doesn't have an above average idea ROI, and tends to dissipate (Malthusianism?). Good ideas - ie, not just technologically good, but market-ready good - are both rare and evenly dispersed throughout a population. You just don't know who the next brilliant biologist, ballerina, or businessman is going to come from.

The powerful try to increase the ROI, by hoarding power as long as possible say, thru various oligarchies, or by whatever mechanism they can find (eg, rich American parents getting their kids physician notes so that the can take the SATs untimed). They have survivor bias afterall - they believe God is on their side. Luck has skewed their statistical perceptions.

Psychological: Power corrupts. Or rather the more of it there is, the more it creates a moral hazard, a kind of mania untethered to reality. God must be on the side of the powerful, or He (the all-powerful) would have removed them (argument works for karma, Dao, and other non-Puddlist power forces, too).

Since there is no hope for a utopia, a shit will just be redefined for each new generation.

Yesterday it was slavery, today it's stem cell research and animal rights, tomorrow .. I have no idea, except that the kids will be morally enraged over something (as much as kids used to be over slavery!) and the gramps will be trying to preserve their moral code (as much as the ante bellum South, or the old Russian landlords did).

(I do recommend Alistair McIntyre's work. I'm reworking some of his ideas, if I could give myself that much credit.)"

Cities Shed Middle Class, and Are Richer and Poorer for It - New York Times

Cities Shed Middle Class, and Are Richer and Poorer for It - New York Times: "In New York, fewer than 13,000 of the 2.3 million households that pay income tax are expected to account for nearly 30 percent of city income tax paid in 2006."

Today, It’s Not Easy to Match Noblesse With Oblige - New York Times

Today, It’s Not Easy to Match Noblesse With Oblige - New York Times: "“Society had become complex; its numbers were unwieldy,” the paper wrote. “Western fortunes had produced daughters who knew how to fight to get in, and they won recognition which might not have been accorded them when the old Dutch families walked on one side of the line and the Wall Street families on the other.”"

Today, It’s Not Easy to Match Noblesse With Oblige - New York Times

Today, It’s Not Easy to Match Noblesse With Oblige - New York Times: "“If you go outside that number, you strike people who are either not at ease in a ballroom or else make other people not at ease,” he wrote. “We resolved to band together the respectable element of the city and by this union make such strength that no individual could withstand us.”"

The real reason IPOs are fleeing overseas. By Daniel Gross

The real reason IPOs are fleeing overseas. By Daniel Gross: "For years, Wall Street investment bankers have been telling their client companies that they must seek out the lowest-cost operating environments. That trend has placed great pressure on the wages and earning power of blue-collar workers in the United States. Now it looks as if the bankers may be getting a taste of their own medicine."

Crazy On Tap - Einstein goes to heaven

Crazy On Tap - Einstein goes to heaven: "Even older?

George Bush has a heart attack and dies. He goes to Hell where the Devil is waiting for him.

'I don't know what to do,' says the Devil. 'You're on my list but I have no room for you. But you definitely have to stay here, so I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I've got three people here who weren't quite as bad as you. I'll let one of them go, but you have to take their place.
I'll even let YOU decide who leaves.'

George thought that sounded pretty good so he agreed.

The devil opened the first room. In it was Richard Nixon and a large pool of water. He kept diving in and surfacing empty handed over and over and over, such was his fate in Hell.

'No!' George said. 'I don't think so. I'm not a good swimmer and I don't think I could do that all day long.'

The Devil led him to the next room. In it was Tony Blair with a sledgehammer and a room full of rocks. All he did was swing that hammer, time after time after time.

'No! I've got this problem with my shoulder. I would be in constant agony if all I could do was break rocks all day!' commented George.

The Devil opened a third door. In it, George saw Bill Clinton lying naked on the floor with his arms staked over his head and his legs staked in spread-eagle pose. Bent over him was Monica Lewinsky, doing what she does best.

Bush looked at this in disbelief for a while and finally said, 'Yeah, I can handle this.'

The Devil smiled and said, 'Monica, you're free to go!'"

He Who Cast the First Stone Probably Didn’t - New York Times

He Who Cast the First Stone Probably Didn’t - New York Times: "The results revealed an intriguing asymmetry: When volunteers were shown one of their own statements, they naturally remembered what had led them to say it. But when they were shown one of their conversation partner’s statements, they naturally remembered how they had responded to it. In other words, volunteers remembered the causes of their own statements and the consequences of their partner’s statements.

What seems like a grossly self-serving pattern of remembering is actually the product of two innocent facts. First, because our senses point outward, we can observe other people’s actions but not our own. Second, because mental life is a private affair, we can observe our own thoughts but not the thoughts of others. Together, these facts suggest that our reasons for punching will always be more salient to us than the punches themselves — but that the opposite will be true of other people’s reasons and other people’s punches."

Crazy On Tap - Inequality doesn't matter

Crazy On Tap - Inequality doesn't matter: "Goodness isn't inheritable. In a way, would should shuffle up kids when they are born like the Spartans or kibbutzim did (ans Soviets to a degree), so that wealth is equally distributed for each new generation.

But that would deny good people the just deserts of delighting in their own children's happiness (even though their kids are of average goodness themselves).

And that would desuade good people from being good. To some degree."

Crazy On Tap - Hilarious (Colbert on Wikipedia)

Crazy On Tap - Hilarious (Colbert on Wikipedia): "Most new ideas suck. At least mine do (*). For every Galileo who thinks the earth goes around the sun (it wasn't Galileo's singular contribution, but we'll let that slide), there are thousands of who think butter should not be kept in a fridge or Ally McBeal should be made into a movie or whatever novel silliness pops into their head.

Hence there is a certain amount of sense to take a poll of other people's ideas and /not/ mainstream all new ideas. Imagine the traffic jam alone if everyone's new ideas were just running around all the time! 'Why don't we drive on the left side of the street!' 'Why don't we ghost drive the whip!' Etc, etc.

Choosing Galileo's struggle with authority is a case of severe anecdotal survivor bias: 'Galileo was right, the Catholic authority was wrong, therefore all majorities are always wrong!'

Wish it was just matter of identifying the lone rebel to figure out right- from wrong-headedness.

(*) If yours are mostly good, it's because you're recycling other people's filtered ideas or not paying attention to your own internal filter.
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