The gravitino is the hypothetical supersymmetric partner of the hypothetical graviton, so it is also impossible to predict a more hypothetical particle than this.
—- Are Raklev, Revolutionary theory of dark matter (via alexch)
(via alexch)
(via jinkhet)
(Source: falld0wnnevergetbackupagain, via jinkhet)
You know those little things that keep bread bags closed? Well, the internet would like to tell you about them. If you’re not doing anything too important right now, I think you should visit HORG (that’s the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group) and explore a beautiful, obsessive, hilarious taxonomy of occlupanids.
(ht Metafilter)
(via secxtanx)
the iPhone as a jailhouse
i have always seen it as one
The Internet’s been pretty great for society, and I think that 10 or 20 years from now, we’ll look back and say we were a millimeter away from regulating it out of existence.
The company claims that there are 100 million unused chargers as a result of years of this spurious bundling, and because Olympic sized swimming pools are the standard volume metric in all press releases, they say that this is the same of 4 swimming pools worth of landfill.
A letter to the TEDx community on TEDx and bad science
I also love how an ice bath cured his post-operative pain and he thinks that proves his flaky theory. Icing wounds is a pretty well-known technique.
Remember who got a TEDx talk? Yep, one Dr. Kruse. It’s the infamous one where he claims he had elective surgery without anesthesia and that he injected himself with MRSA too. The TEDx letter markers of bad science are all over the guy:
Has failed to convince many mainstream scientists of its truth
Is not based on experiments that can be reproduced by others
Contains experimental flaws or is based on data that does not convincingly corroborate the experimenter’s theoretical claims
Comes from overconfident fringe experts
Uses over-simplified interpretations of legitimate studies and may combine with imprecise, spiritual or new age vocabulary, to form new, completely untested theories.
Speaks dismissively of mainstream science
Includes some of the red flags listed in the two sections below
Also “Provides data that takes the form of anecdotes, testimonials and/or studies of only one person.” Dr. Kruse is a perfect example of how far the TED brand has fallen through the mediocre poorly-vetted TEDx talks.
Thanks SO MUCH to the folks who visited me at the Bazaar Bizarre.
Holidays can be tricky! I hope this field guide will be of use.
(Oh, and I have a twitter now!)
Nassim Taleb’s Facebook followers are exactly as you imagined them to be. This is party of a rant against journalists and social scientists.
