How to Report the News

via Mike Schreibman on Facebook.

Keynes vs. Hayek: The Video

J.M. Keynes and F.A. Hayek, as you have never seen them before. At least I don't think you've seen them like this before. Well, probably not...

Cosma Sharizi on The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Cosma Sharizi, who works "on methods for building predictive models from data generated by stochastic processes, and applying those models to questions about neural information processing, self-organization in cellular automata, and so forth...", is not the first person I would have expected to pose the question: "why didn't prints displace paintings the same way that printed books displaced manuscript codices?"  And yet...

Down Memory Lane

JK Rowling Autograph, originally uploaded by baslow.

Now that the kids are both out of the house -- Joel already graduated from college and working, Ruth attending her first year at Grinnell -- I find myself more frequently picking through the memories of family days gone by. This picture is a reminder of a very big day for the family which, curiously, didn't seem like such a big deal at the time.

Social Psychology Studies the "Lake Wobegon" Effect

Lake Wobegon, of course, is the mythical community in upper Minnesota, the creation of Garrison Keillor where, among other things, "all the children are above-average".

Since 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger (along with various co-investigators) have been studying the tendency of incompetent people to over-estimate their competence and of more competent people to under-estimate theirs.  The ability to make judgments about one's (and others') thinking is called "metacognition" by social scientists.  In this book of essays, Dunning summarizes findings about the various factors which can impeded metacognition.


I'd love to buy this book...but it is SO DAMNED EXPENSIVE!