Science and technology links
Best way ever to hammer in a nail.
The truth about tweets and earthquakes.
Possible scientific explanation for near-death experiences.
About the longevity revolution:
Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive now.
China is offering to bring its expertise in high-speed rail to California. (This made me laugh quite a bit.)
The “father of the pc” has died. More.
Useful post about cyberbullying and the law.
Scientists disrupt people’s moral judgements with magnets.
Countries with tolerant attitudes tend to be happier and healthier.
Ranking countries by murder rate: 23 countries have higher murder rates than the US, Oz is 43rd, Kiwiland 52nd.
About a new portal for aid data.
UK windfarms are under-performing.
Lockheed is patenting into quantum radar. More.
Mapping the global growth in mobile phones. Post with lots of links on spread of, and developing world markets in, mobile phones.
Arguing that government funding has corrupted science (pdf).
The US has raised concerns with the Rudd Government over its internet censorship plans.
A case of out and in Wikipedia.
The book The Spirit Level on the effects of inequality has caused some interest: critical reviews here, here and especially here.
About our innate tendency to be religious:
We believe in the supernatural because we believe in the natural and we cannot discriminate between the two. We create gods because we are natural-born supernaturalists, driven by our tendency to find meaningful patterns and impart to them intentional agency. The gods will always be with us because they are hard-wired into our brains.
Marxism works off the same impulses.
About survey evidence that people who identify as (US) liberals are less honest than those who identify as conservatives. Study finds that those who buy “green” products are more inclined to behave badly:
Dieter Frey, a social psychologist at the University of Munich, said the findings fitted patterns of human behaviour. "At the moment in which you have proven your credentials in a particular area, you tend to allow yourself to stray elsewhere," he said.
The study (pdf).
Study of the preferences of young women finds masculinity is at a discount in healthy countries:
In the Face Lab study, women with the weakest masculinity preferences tended to live in some of the healthiest countries: Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Austria. Other countries in the study with low masculinity preferences are Romania, Greece and New Zealand. Women with the weakest masculinity preferences of all lived in Belgium, a country considered to have one of the best publicly funded health-care systems in Europe (alongside Denmark and the Netherlands in the health-care index).
Meanwhile, women with the strongest masculinity preferences tended to hail from the countries with higher disease and mortality rates and some of the poorest scores on the health-care index: Mexico, Brazil, Bulgaria and Argentina. (The researcher included only white subjects to control the experiment, and Asian and African nations were not included in the study.)
The truth about tweets and earthquakes.
Possible scientific explanation for near-death experiences.
About the longevity revolution:
Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive now.
China is offering to bring its expertise in high-speed rail to California. (This made me laugh quite a bit.)
The “father of the pc” has died. More.
Useful post about cyberbullying and the law.
Scientists disrupt people’s moral judgements with magnets.
Countries with tolerant attitudes tend to be happier and healthier.
Ranking countries by murder rate: 23 countries have higher murder rates than the US, Oz is 43rd, Kiwiland 52nd.
About a new portal for aid data.
UK windfarms are under-performing.
Lockheed is patenting into quantum radar. More.
Mapping the global growth in mobile phones. Post with lots of links on spread of, and developing world markets in, mobile phones.
Arguing that government funding has corrupted science (pdf).
The US has raised concerns with the Rudd Government over its internet censorship plans.
A case of out and in Wikipedia.
The book The Spirit Level on the effects of inequality has caused some interest: critical reviews here, here and especially here.
About our innate tendency to be religious:
We believe in the supernatural because we believe in the natural and we cannot discriminate between the two. We create gods because we are natural-born supernaturalists, driven by our tendency to find meaningful patterns and impart to them intentional agency. The gods will always be with us because they are hard-wired into our brains.
Marxism works off the same impulses.
About survey evidence that people who identify as (US) liberals are less honest than those who identify as conservatives. Study finds that those who buy “green” products are more inclined to behave badly:
Dieter Frey, a social psychologist at the University of Munich, said the findings fitted patterns of human behaviour. "At the moment in which you have proven your credentials in a particular area, you tend to allow yourself to stray elsewhere," he said.
The study (pdf).
Study of the preferences of young women finds masculinity is at a discount in healthy countries:
In the Face Lab study, women with the weakest masculinity preferences tended to live in some of the healthiest countries: Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Austria. Other countries in the study with low masculinity preferences are Romania, Greece and New Zealand. Women with the weakest masculinity preferences of all lived in Belgium, a country considered to have one of the best publicly funded health-care systems in Europe (alongside Denmark and the Netherlands in the health-care index).
Meanwhile, women with the strongest masculinity preferences tended to hail from the countries with higher disease and mortality rates and some of the poorest scores on the health-care index: Mexico, Brazil, Bulgaria and Argentina. (The researcher included only white subjects to control the experiment, and Asian and African nations were not included in the study.)