San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is going to take the field in two hours and it won't just be a vindication of the decision by coach Jim Harbaugh to replace Alex Smith and his 13-3 run with a passer rating over 100 - Harbaugh can't lose in the eyes of the public even if the team does - it will be a vindication of science. read...
read moreDiagnosed rates of autism around the world have increased a lot over the last decade and a half but there is ongoing debate about whether there are actually more cases or if it is instead a cultural phenomenon, namely that we're getting better at detecting the disorder and more willing to label kids as having it. Some also contend that the increase in autism is due to whatever they happen not to...
read moreThere was a huge jump in GDP per person during WWII, but the war itself wasn't the single cause. The end of the 19th and the beginning of the following century were blessed with remarkable innovations: the locomotive, electricity, the telegraph, the airplane, indoor plumbing, water treatment and sewage. But an invention's impact on a society's material well-being is rarely immediate. It took...
read moreJared Diamond is not impressed by modern social sciences, like psychology and anthropology, because of the need to try and make claims about human nature by doing surveys or visiting a place and then framing the results through their own - not to invoke the most overused cliché of 2012 but just this once it fits - motivated reasoning.The reaction from the social sciences and the mainstream media...
read moreIn a comment on You, Andromeda, And The Largest Structure In The Universe, Mike Crow posted a picture of Andromeda, made from 40 hours of his exposure, 5 minutes at time, in his driveway. read...
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