MIT Paper Works out Paradox; Fry may not be own Grandfather It would appear that longstanding and tricky paradox of time travel, that one who travels backward in time could conceivably influence it to the point where the time travel couldn’t have happened is dead. All hail the longstanding and tricky paradox. This, the “grandfather paradox,” is so named because of the thought experiment used to illustrate it. A time traveler could theoretically go back in the past and murder his own grandfather, which would render the time traveler non extant, and thus would lead to the paradox of the time traveler never having been able to go back in time in the first place. Pudding. The same holds true in a less dramatic fashion for subatomic particles like quarks and photons, which hold a much higher likelihood of ever traveling into the past, based on the strange, spooky behavior they’ve demonstrated for the people who’ve studied and been alarmed by them thus far. This little conundrum made time travel fundamentally dangerous, if not impossible.
Caltech economist nets MacArthur genius grant A Caltech researcher who fused economics and neuroscience to make sense of human decisions that often don’t make cents has won the MacArthur genius grant. Colin Camerer came to Caltech in 1994 with an MBA in quantitative studies and a doctorate in decision theory from the University of Chicago’s business school, a place he described as “the temple of beliefs in highly rational people who make really good decisions and take into account the future.” “I just thought that was a useful caricature, but not the right model of human nature,” Camerer said. “That’s what got me into behavioral economics.” Veering from the notoriously conservative orthodoxy of economics at the University of Chicago to study human behavior may seem a risky career turn, but things got weirder when Caltech opened its brain imaging lab in 2003. “Caltech is a very adventurous place,” Camerer said. “I improvised,” said Camerer, who is the Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Finance and Economics.
When the scientific evidence is unwelcome, people try to reason it away | Ben Goldacre What do people do when confronted with scientific evidence that challenges their pre-existing view? Often they will try to ignore it, intimidate it, buy it off, sue it for libel or reason it away. The classic paper on the last of those strategies is from Lord, Ross and Lepper in 1979: they took two groups of people, one in favour of the death penalty, the other against it, and then presented each with a piece of scientific evidence that supported their pre-existing view, and a piece that challenged it; murder rates went up or down, for example, after the abolition of capital punishment in a state. The results were as you might imagine. Some people go even further than this when presented with unwelcome data, and decide that science itself is broken. How deep do these views go, and how far do they generalise? The first group were given five research studies that confirmed their pre-existing view.
Progeria Progeria (pronunciation: /proʊˈdʒɪəriə/[1][2]) (Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome,[3][4] HGPS, progeria syndrome[4]) is an extremely rare genetic disorder wherein symptoms resembling aspects of aging are manifested at a very early age. Progeria is one of several progeroid syndromes. The word progeria comes from the Greek words "pro" (πρό), meaning "before" or "premature", and "gēras" (γῆρας), meaning "old age". The disorder has a very low incidence rate, occurring in an estimated 1 per 8 million live births.[5] Those born with progeria typically live to their mid teens to early twenties.[6][7] It is a genetic condition that occurs as a new mutation, and is rarely inherited, as patients usually do not live to reproduce. Signs and symptoms[edit] Children with progeria usually develop the first symptoms during their first few months of life. Cause[edit] In normal conditions, the LMNA gene codes for a structural protein called prelamin A. Diagnosis[edit] Treatment[edit] Prognosis[edit]
Did You Know Archive & 10 interesting facts you probably didn't know - StumbleUpon Fact Source It’s called Paternoster. Fact Source Fact Source Fact Source Fact Source Frank and Louie the cat was born with two faces, two mouths, two noses, three eyes and a lots of doubt about future, but has endured all that to survive for 12 years and continues to live a normal life. Fact Source Most Popular Posts This Week Fossils Of 500 Million Year Old Marine Predator Anomalocaris Discovered | FinestDaily ShareShare A recent discovery in the field of paleontology reveals probably the oldest predator known to man. The fossils found on Kangaroo Island are being studied by scientists from the University of Adelaide, Australia. The fossilized eyes belonged to the 500 million-year-old Anomalocaris, a marine creature believed to be at the top of the food chain in prehistoric times. A full story regarding this subject will be available in December’s issue of Nature. Taking into consideration the studies so far, it seems that the Anomalocaris had extremely acute vision, considered better than any other insects or crustaceans, even by today’s standards. Thanks to the discovery of its eyes, meticulous analysis shows amazing details when it comes to optical design, with some similarities much alike contemporary crabs, flies and kin. These fossils make the Anomalocaris the ancestor of today’s arthropods, alongside other evolutionary implications that affect a lot of species.
Living in America will drive you insane — literally This article originally appeared on Alternet. In “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?” (New York Review of Books, 2011), Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, discusses over-diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, pathologizing of normal behaviors, Big Pharma corruption of psychiatry, and the adverse effects of psychiatric medications. While diagnostic expansionism and Big Pharma certainly deserve a large share of the blame for this epidemic, there is another reason. A June 2013 Gallup poll revealed that 70% of Americans hate their jobs or have “checked out” of them. While historically some Americans have consciously faked mental illness to rebel from oppressive societal demands (e.g., a young Malcolm X acted crazy to successfully avoid military service), today, the vast majority of Americans who are diagnosed and treated for mental illness are in no way proud malingerers in the fashion of Malcolm X. The Mental Illness Epidemic In 2011, the U.S.
How to Disagree March 2008 The web is turning writing into a conversation. Twenty years ago, writers wrote and readers read. Many who respond to something disagree with it. The result is there's a lot more disagreeing going on, especially measured by the word. If we're all going to be disagreeing more, we should be careful to do it well. DH0. This is the lowest form of disagreement, and probably also the most common. u r a fag!!!!!!!!!! But it's important to realize that more articulate name-calling has just as little weight. The author is a self-important dilettante. is really nothing more than a pretentious version of "u r a fag." DH1. An ad hominem attack is not quite as weak as mere name-calling. Of course he would say that. This wouldn't refute the author's argument, but it may at least be relevant to the case. Saying that an author lacks the authority to write about a topic is a variant of ad hominem—and a particularly useless sort, because good ideas often come from outsiders. DH2. DH3. DH4. DH5.
10 Shocking Secrets of Flight Attendants by Heather Poole Heather Poole has worked for a major carrier for more than 15 years and is the author of Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet. We begged Poole to reveal 10 workplace secrets. You know all that preflight time where we’re cramming bags into overhead bins? Airlines aren’t completely heartless, though. Competition is fierce: When Delta announced 1,000 openings in 2010, it received over 100,000 applications. All that competition means that most applicants who score interviews have college degrees—I know doctors and lawyers who’ve made the career switch. But you don’t need a law degree to get your foot in the jetway door. The 4 percent who do get a callback interview really need to weigh the pros and cons of the job. During Pan Am’s heyday in the 1960s, there were strict requirements for stewardesses: They had to be at least 5-foot-2, weigh no more than 130 pounds, and retire by age 32.
Yosemite: Where a Waterfall Catches Fire In nature's game, water beats fire -- which is why I'm dying to see a dramatic interpretation of the opposite at Horsetail Falls in Yosemite National Park. Apparently during the last two weeks of February, orange sunsets are reflected in the falls each evening, which makes the cascading water look like it's on fire. "Fire-water is falling from a cliff" is what your brain thinks. You're sitting at an El Capitan picnic table eating a sandwich, looking up at falling fire-water. What's funny is that even though nature already puts on a fantastic fire-water show at Yosemite, the park put on a similar man-made show for almost a century (as Atlas Obscura points out). But that's OK because, like I said, the sun catches El Capitan's Horsetail Falls on fire every night for a couple of weeks in February. Here's a close-up of the environmentally friendly fire-water:
Greece, the Euro, and Behavioral Economics With Europe’s economic woes dominating the headlines once more, it’s hard not to think of Yogi Berra’s dictum “It’s déjà vu all over again.” As usual, the turmoil centers on Greece, which is in its fifth year of recession and struggling beneath a colossal debt load. This year, in exchange for drastic austerity measures, Greece’s government agreed to an aid package (its second) with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, totalling $174 billion. But three weeks ago furious Greek voters tossed the ruling parties out of office; attempts to form a coalition government failed, and new elections are scheduled for next month. This isn’t an outcome that anyone wants. Rationally, then, this standoff should end with a compromise—relaxing some austerity measures, and giving Greece a little more aid and time to reform. The basic problem is that we care so much about fairness that we are often willing to sacrifice economic well-being to enforce it.