Deal or No Deal - Contestant Doesn’t Recognize Her Sister
Impressive case of inattentional blindness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGR7hh0se2k
May 1, 2008
April 13, 2008
Disagreement Hierarchy
From Paul Graham: How To Disagree
“If we’re all going to be disagreeing more, we should be careful to
do it well. What does it mean to disagree well? Most readers can
tell the difference between mere name-calling and a carefully
reasoned refutation, but I think it would help to put names on the
intermediate stages. So here’s an attempt at a disagreement
hierarchy”
DH0. Name-calling.
DH1. Ad Hominem.
DH2. Responding to Tone.
DH3. Contradiction.
DH4. Counterargument.
DH5. Refutation.
DH6. Refuting the Central Point.
February 4, 2008
Roosevelt on doing something
“In any moment of decision, the best thing
you can do is the right thing; the next best thing is the wrong thing;
and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
— Theodore Roosevelt 26th President of the U.S.
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January 28, 2008
Why Things Cost $19.95
Part of the answer: people end up paying more when the asking price is more specific, and non-”rounded off” price - i.e., use $5240 rather than $5000
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/onlyhuman/2008/01/why-things-cost-1995.cfm
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Pricier Wine Tastes Better
A recent study shows that raising the price of wine makes it taste
better. When tasting wines they’d been told cost more,
testers’ brains showed more pleasure than when drinking cheaper
wines…even when the wines were exactly the same! The
study’s lead author is California Institute of Technology
economics professor Antonio Rangel.
mp3
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2008/01/23/segments/92291
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January 8, 2008
Statistically Significant Stupidity
Is Carl Doomed to be a C Student?
Statistically significant not equal to significant
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December 31, 2007
Desire and Scarcity
A Sense of Scarcity
Wanting something makes it seem rarer than it really is. Another case of emotions affecting judgement.
From Herbert Wray’s excellent “We’re Only Human” blog on the Association for Psychological Science website.
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Orwell preface to Animal Farm
http://www.orwell.ru/library/novels/Animal_Farm/english/efp_go
Makes fully explicit that the target is Soviet Communism
However castigates “Liberals” and the Western Media for its silence (and hence complicity).
Champagne test
Is It Champagne or a Substitute? Refined Palates Can Be Fooled
From NYTimes. Critic’s sophisticate friends can’t tell Champagne from $10 sparkling wines.
Best value for money: Boyer Brut.
December 20, 2007
The Thinker (blog)
Applied critical thinking:
(Perhaps it should go without saying, but I don’t necessarily endorse the particular views expressed.)
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