Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Thought Police
Posted by William Meloney at 1:58 PM 0 comments
The Thought Polic
Posted by William Meloney at 1:35 PM 0 comments
Why the Facts Don't Matter in Politics
Why the Facts Don't Matter in Politics
If a piece of information doesn’t follow Republican talking points - and Clinton’s deficit reduction didn’t fit the “tax and spend liberal” stereotype - then the information is conveniently ignored. “Voters think that they’re thinking,” Bartels says, “but what they’re really doing is inventing facts or ignoring facts so that they can rationalize decisions they’ve already made.” Once we identify with a political party, the world is edited so that it fits with our ideology.
Posted by William Meloney at 10:56 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
...neutering American men...
Posted by William Meloney at 1:05 PM 0 comments
Cognito ergo ...
Posted by William Meloney at 12:54 PM 0 comments
R.I.P. Phoebe Snow
Phoebe Snow, Bluesy Singer-Songwriter, Dies at 60
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 26, 2011
Posted by William Meloney at 12:10 PM 0 comments
Monday, April 25, 2011
The "Donald" or How I came to love the Republican Party
Posted by William Meloney at 12:54 PM 0 comments
Astroturf
Posted by William Meloney at 12:42 PM 0 comments
The Billionaire's Tea Party (In the heart of Kentucky)
Posted by William Meloney at 12:31 PM 0 comments
Sunday, April 24, 2011
"Schneier's Law"
[T]he Dunning-Kruger effect, named after the authors of this paper: "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments."
Abstract: People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.
Posted by William Meloney at 2:33 PM 0 comments
Good read: The Things To Do by Flemming Funch
Posted by William Meloney at 2:06 PM 0 comments
He's the tax man, er, uh ... collector.
PAKISTAN'S TRANSGENDER TRIBE OF TAX COLLECTORS
From CNN:
Miss your tax deadline in the United States this weekend, and you might get a nasty letter at your door. In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, you might get Riffee and the gang. They are "transgender" tax collectors -- whose weapons include flamboyancy, surprise -- and a little lipstick.
In a move that speaks volumes about the lengths to which Pakistan is going to tackle tax evasion, Karachi officials are using Riffee - who like many people in South Asia works under a single name - and her team as enforcers with a difference. They are sent to the businesses or houses of debtors. The aim -- in this very conservative Muslim society -- to embarrass tax debtors into paying up.
Riffee -- like her tax-collector friends Sana and Kohan -- is physically a man, but prefers to be called and dress as a woman. Their job is quite simple: each morning they turn up to work and get a list of missed payments. One by one, they make house-calls, causing trouble at each debtor's home or office, trying to get them to pay up. It's not clear how effective this tactic is, but officials insist they would not do it if it did not work.
"Their appearance causes great embarrassment amongst the people," said Sajid Hussein Bhatti, the tax superintendent who gives Riffee her orders every morning.
More here.
Posted by William Meloney at 11:58 AM 0 comments
A fitting tribute: A retrospective of Captain Beefheart by Greil Marcus
“GOD, PLEASE FUCK MY MIND FOR GOOD!” Captain Beefheart shouted at the end of Doc at the Radar Station, his second-to-last album. It was 1980, and it was a dare to whatever version of God might be present to receive it: his audience, maybe; music itself. Or it was a dare to time—the fifteen years since he’d made his first record, or the thirty years to come. Can you shut me up? Can you scramble my rhythm and my words until they’re a labyrinth I’ll never escape? I’ll do it first! [Much more... ]
[LINK: A retrospective of Captain Beefheart by Greil Marcus ]
Posted by William Meloney at 12:35 AM 0 comments