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George Carlin June 24, 2008

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This is, I think, the first time the death of a celebrity has actually felt like a loss for me — in the past, it’s always been more of a “that’s a shame” experience. But to hear the news that George Carlin passed away… well, like I said, I feel loss, as, I should think, just about every American who appreciates free thought, free speech, and the hypocrisies and foibles of being human, to say nothing of the fun-house that is American culture feels.

Here’s DrugMonkey explaining why we shouldn’t be too melodramatic in our recognition of Carlin’s passing.

Here’s the Washington Post indicating that the Kennedy Center is going ahead with awarding Carlin the Mark Twain Prize, a video of a 1997 interview with Carlin is on the page.

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weekly photo #84: Kirche June 20, 2008

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Kirche (edited)
Another Frankfurt photo, from the same bridge (and taken at the same time) as this one and digitally edited to remove the same boom. I believe that’s the Dreikönigskirche off on the right.

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more inequality June 17, 2008

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After finishing “The inheritance of inequality”, I came across this post at Econlog… the bit about lock-in becoming much harder to fight even by the time kids are in elementary school definitely caught my eye, so now I’m reading James Heckman, “Schools, skills, and synapses”.

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weekly quote #30: Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis June 16, 2008

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This week’s quote is from “The inheritance of inequality” (which can be found as a .pdf here), from the conclusion (pp 22-23). After summarizing what factors of wealth and income correlate between parents and their children, and by how much, the authors briefly discuss how their findings could impact policy, first in a more objective sense and then in a more normative one:

“Does a level playing field entail no correlation between parental and child incomes? …There are important values of family life and privacy that would be compromised by any serious attempt to completely disconnect the fortunes of parents and children. Rather than pursuing an abstract (and to our minds unattractive) objective of zero intergenerational correlation, a better approach might be to ask: which mechanisms of intergenerational transmission are unfair, and direct policies accordingly.”

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cult evolution June 13, 2008

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So I just finished reading “Towards a unified science of cultural evolution” by Alex Mesoudi, Andrew Whiten, and Kevin L. Laland, which makes a case for incorporating the techniques and methodology used to study biological evolution into the study of cultural change.

And, here’s a talk at TED by Susan Blackmore, focusing on memes and how they are made more potent by technology (that is, culture…).

Interesting ideas, especially if one is interested in cultural change, and also if one doesn’t agree with the assertions at the heart of the paper and talk.

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weekly photo #83: NYPL June 10, 2008

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NYPL
This week’s photo is one of two I took during an all-too-brief visit to Gotham. It wasn’t even a visit, really — just eight or so hours I had in the morning to poke around while I waited to catch a flight, since I missed a connection the evening prior. Time was limited, as was clothing and cash, so I cruised past the NYPL, the Empire State Building, and went into the AMNH.

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the Clever Hans effect and the placebo effect June 6, 2008

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You might have heard of Clever Hans, the horse that could count and perform other tricks which seemed to indicate a remarkable intelligence — and they did, but not of the sort that would first come to mind. Hans was not actually doing any mental arithmetic; instead, he was responding to cues — conscious or unconscious — from those who were asking the questions.

And it seems, as Mind Hacks posts on, this same “Clever Hans effect” plays a role in the effectiveness of placebos: with patients playing Hans and doctors playing von Osten (or any observer).

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weekly photo #82: Garland June 3, 2008

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Garland
This week’s photo is a couple of years old, from another trip to Garland Ranch Park, photos of which have been slapped up as posts by me before.

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tags June 1, 2008

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Does anyone know of anything (I’m thinking of a widget, I guess) that allows a blog’s readers to attach tags to the posts? If such a feature exists, I’d love to add it…

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