Lead Exposure and Criminality
If you're a fan of Freakonomics that attributes the drop in criminality in the US to the institution of abortion, here's even more freakish link to criminality: lead exposure. Surges in crime correlate with heights of lead exposure in population. The evidence appears to be more solid than what's used to support the Freakonomics thesis on the abortion-criminality link.

Politically Incorrect Truths
Psychology Today (not exactly up there in academic reputation) published this nonetheless amusing article on "truths" about human "nature": why suicide bombers are Muslims, why men prefer sexy blonds, and so on.

College Buddies
The Harvard Crimson chronicles two college buddies who turned out to be stars in the same field.

Facebook v MySpace
I started using Facebook back when it was only for one school. MySpace, for me then, was just "there". Now here's an ethnographic account (sorta) of the two social networking sites and the kind of people who tend to use them, basically reflecting class division.

Diaspora calling
My intersecting interests in both Filipino diaspora and information technology recently got engaged with a report from the Economist [7 June 2007]. With the falling cost of IP telephony, everybody should be calling, right? Not so fast. It looks like in general there's really not much increase in the time we spend calling other people. But look who's dialing who over the Internet? Peoples in diaspora. Hmmm... no surprise there for me, since I myself spend a great deal of time talking to friends and family abroad. But other than the fact that these people are using Skype or Yahoo or what-have-you more than other groups, availability or accessibility of the VOIP technology doesn't automatically translate into its increased use.

"Scientific Consensus"
Here's one for my friends teaching Science, Technology and Society. "Scientific consensus" is supposed to be a good thing. But what if it stifles dissent and fosters false finality in debates over issues? Is science about consensus, to begin with? The Czech president makes his point.

Booked in NY
When I'm in New York, I stay with my sister. So this is probably something I can't experience for myself. But for my literate friends who are looking for a place to stay in the Big Apple, the Library Hotel is an enticing proposition.

Internet--the biggest generation gap since rock-n-roll
NY Mag has done a wonderful piece on Internet being a dividing line between Before Netters and After Netters. After Netters, the generations that grow up with the Internet, may complain that Before Netters, the folks who might know or not know how the Internet works, are clueless what privacy entails today. Do you have a Facebook profile? A YouTube video? A MySpace account? Oppss... don't tell. What you say might give away your age.

Blogging about blog
Everybody seems to be into blogging these days that it practically lost its novelty already. Here's something to note for my American blogging friends. For the rest of us, we can basically sleepwalk into blogging.

Watch this clip of an interview showing what has to be one of the most mind-blowing distinction from a blonde [www.videoplink.com]. Not that I have anything against blondes, but see for yourself if this woman has helped at all.

An honest wage for a day's honest work
In saying this adage, people may only be agreeing verbally. Reality can't possibly be that easy. Take any computation of *real* wage. You'd expect it to be as straighforward as your pay slip. Not so fast, if we look at this calculator of real wage. Indeed, real wage is function of many things, and your wage, brother, is not even real, much less honest.

Writing your mom a paycheck?
O, well, mother's day, and society is abuzz with mushy adverts on the *idea* of momhood. Momhood, however, may represent opportunity cost. Isn't it better if someone actually compensates your mom?

Bike to work
Sometime ago we did a class report on campus biking. I bike to school and to work 99.99% of the time. Elsewhere the idea is getting more hip everyday, and the Americans are riding along. "Maki-bike ka! Wag matakot!"

Americans are sicker than Brits
so says this story. How do Americans and Brits differ with respect to health? Well, one: vacations! Government mandated time-off is much greater in UK than in America. There could be other more nuanced factors, of course. Skim through a /. discussion on this.

Be able to kill your students
Oops, that's just a quote from the Ninja master Masaaki Hatsumi. How I wish I can truly appropriate that for certain students. :) But before you really get too serious about this killing stuff, go ask a Ninja yourself!

Structured Procrastination
Not all procrastination is bad. One can efficiently structure it to be productive. It may in fact be key to great work.

Elements of Style Now Online

I've always depended on Elements of Style as a grammar book. It's now online.

'Nerds make better lovers'
- so claims this article.

Free Mac mini Desktop
Recently I've been making this pitch to my friends and their friends:

Hi friends and friends of friends! We're close to getting a free Mac mini Desktop, and we're sure we'll get it with a little help from you.

Yep, we're kuripot, they say. Recently we got free DVD rentals. So my partner Helen and I have been watching a lot of movies these days. If you want to know how, email us and we'll share the info with you. Good things are meant to be shared. :)

So here's the 'title belt' I'm going for this time: Free Mac mini Desktop! Of course it's a promotional stuff, but you don't have to eat their marketing bull$%17 nor spend a dime. How? Just choose the trial subscription of eFax, for instance, and cancel it before it expires if you think you don't need it. There are other offers, like the Blockbuster DVD rental that I got. But you decide for yourself.

So the promo is for FREE Mini Macs! No kidding! we've joined and we think you should as well... even if you don't need a Mac. :) Get it here:

http://www.FreeMiniMacs.com/?r=14202315

Thanks for your help in advance!

peter


PS
If you're still skeptical, my middle name is 'skeptical' myself. :) Isn't the deal too good to be true, I asked. Doesn't Economics tell me 'There's no such thing as free lunch'? Isn't it just another pyramiding scam? So I did research on this. Well, it turned out that the deal, IN FACT, is real. It's coming from a marketing company that's been handing out free iPods. See, for instance, the accounts from Wired Magazine and New York Times:

http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64614,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0A13F63A540C758EDDAB0994DC404482

After reading those accounts, please tell me if the deal still doesn't make any economic or marketing sense. Ok?

Reductio ad absurdum in computing
This Kerneltrap interview with Richard Stallman notes of a technique (called 'dependency-directed backtracking') in programming that basically deploys reductio ad adsurdum:

'You make some assumptions, and with those together with some given facts you draw a conclusion. You may reach a contradiction; if so, at least one of your assumptions that led to that contradiction must be wrong. You also record which combination of assumptions actually related to the contradiction, so you can deduce that that combination of assumptions cannot all be true. Then you backtrack by changing assumptions, but you never try a set of assumptions that includes the combination that you know are contradictory.'