links for 2010-05-31
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"ResearchBlogging.org
Imagine this card trick. A statistician divides a regular deck of cards into two sets: one of 20 and one of 32 cards. Next, he urges two groups of students to investigate the cards, and hands out one set of cards to each of the groups. Both groups start counting the cards, and cross-tabulating the numbers based on several ways they can come up with. [...] This must be magic: in the complete deck of cards no association is present, while in the two subsets of cards a positive association is found."
links for 2010-05-30
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"Apparently, some people think that talking or merely thinking about an event can actually bring it about. To me, that's incomprehensible. When I was young, I assumed that the concept of 'tempting fate' was a poetic metaphor. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that some people take it literally!"
links for 2010-05-24
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Because this blog is about Lady Gaga
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"The Mongoliad is a rip-roaring adventure tale set in 1241, a pivotal year in history, when Europe thought that the Mongol Horde was about to completely destroy their world. The Mongoliad is also the beginning of an experiment in storytelling, technology, and community-driven creativity."
links for 2010-05-23
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"To date, evidence from the sign language literature has been less than supportive of the role for the mirror system in action understanding (Corina & Knapp, 2008; Knapp & Corina, 2010). A recent study by Karen Emmorey and colleagues continues this non-supportive trend."
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"The beauty of typography has no borders. While most of us work with the familiar Latin alphabet, international projects usually require quite extensive knowledge about less familiar writing systems from around the world. The aesthetics and structure of such designs can be strongly related to the shape and legibility of the letterforms, so learning about international writing systems will certainly help you create more attractive and engaging Web designs."
links for 2010-05-21
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"Yet, a big question mark has been hanging over the validity of the technique for over a year and, furthermore, the way in which fMRI data are interpreted has also been called into question..Using a novel combination of fMRI and a recently developed state-of-the-art technique called optogenetics, researchers now provide the first direct evidence that the fMRI signal is a valid measure of brain activity."
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It's not really surprising there's no catharsis from violent video games – catharsis is entirely ineffective for anger.
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The Story of Andrew Wakefield, in comic form.
links for 2010-05-20
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Apparently Google is now hosting open fonts for public use on websites. This is brilliant news.
Goals for the Week
Just need somewhere to get my head straight.
1. Watch at least one episode of JDrama a day.
2. Read from a Japanese book daily (no lower bound).
3. Buy a study guide for the GREs. (Any suggestions?)
4. Buy a new drain stopper for my sink.
5. Finish Grave Peril (probably don’t really need to make this a goal, since I’ll do it anyway).
Creating RL Communities via the Web
There’s been a lot of rhetoric about how cities are much less safe because you don’t know who your neighbors are. I’ve never really bought into it; as far as I know, the majority of the horrible crimes that people think of when they’re using this argument are committed by people the victim knows.
Now, I live in an apartment complex. There are hundreds of people within the same complex, and I know three of them. I certainly don’t feel unsafe, but I do feel a little bit odd about it, sometimes. I grew up in neighborhoods where I did know at least my immediate neighbors, and there were a lot of benefits to that. It was nice to be able to go outside, say hi to the people I saw every day, maybe chat for a little bit. When I see people here, I basically just ignore them, and they ignore me.
I don’t find this horrible, but it seems to me that, in an apartment complex of hundreds of people, there are probably a few that I’d like to meet. It seems to me that the Internet should be able to provide a way to meet people that live nearby you, and build a larger community of acquaintances.
Continue reading “Creating RL Communities via the Web”
