December 2011
106 posts
I thank to God for my victory -- favela pic
Kibe Loco » PRACAS DO BRAZIU (PARTES 1381 A 1400)
Por uma vida melhor - Caetano Veloso, O Globo
Por uma vida melhor - Caetano Veloso, O GloboEsses linguistas têm grande ciúme do sucesso que fazem os professores de gramática que, oferecendo aquilo de que tem sede a grande massa, ocupam espaços em jornais e tempo no rádio e na TV. Deduzem — e alardeiam — que estes são representantes dos esquemas de dominação de classe. A busca de lógica na criação da gramática — de uma mínima lógica que mantém...
Printer malware: print a malicious document,...
Printer malware: print a malicious document, expose your whole LAN - Boing BoingCui discovered that he could load arbitrary software into any printer by embedding it in a malicious document or by connecting to the printer online. As part of his presentation, he performed two demonstrations: in the first, he sent a document to a printer that contained a malicious version of the OS that caused it to...
Sociedade Rent-Seeking
Sociedade Rent-Seeking - Opinião - Gazeta do Povo O foco da análise foi o setor importador e como a imposição de cotas, ao elevar o preço dos produtos importados, gera uma renda extra para os agentes que operam nesse mercado. Com a elevação dos ganhos, ocorre uma competição para a obtenção de licenças para importação de forma a empregar trabalho e capital de forma não produtiva. Esse tema é muito...
Fair and Open Evaluation May Call for Temporarily...
Frontiers | Fair and Open Evaluation May Call for Temporarily Hidden Authorship, Caution When Counting the Votes, and Transparency of the Full Pre-publication Procedure | Frontiers in Computational NeuroscienceThis does not necessarily constitute a bias or animosity toward particular people, but rather a negative bias against “alien” theoretical approaches and positive attitudes in adhering to...
Top 111 Weird And Wonderful Pictures Of 2011 >>...
Top 111 Weird And Wonderful Pictures Of 2011 » TotallyCoolPix
Jenkins: The Fannie and Freddie Hate Storm
Jenkins: The Fannie and Freddie Hate Storm - WSJ.com The complaint makes plain that Fannie and Freddie held a lot more subprime loans than they publicly called subprime. It makes plain that Fannie and Freddie were co-sponsors with the private sector in driving down underwriting standards. Case in point: Fannie’s backing in 1999 of Countrywide’s “Fast and Easy” program to...
Language Log: The prehistory of emoticons
Language Log: The prehistory of emoticons Urban legend debunker Barbara Mikkelson of Snopes.com recently found just such a forerunner in the May 1967 issue of Reader’s Digest: Many people write letters with strong expression in them, but my Aunt Ev is the only person I know who can write a facial expression. Aunt Ev’s expression is a symbol that looks like this: —) It represents her...
Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us
Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us | Magazine In general, we believe that the so-called problem of causation can be cured by more information, by our ceaseless accumulation of facts. Scientists refer to this process as reductionism. By breaking down a process, we can see how everything fits together; the complex mystery is distilled into a list of ingredients. And so the question of...
"PUC is hard because it feels like highschool"
LeGauss: “PUC is hard because it feels like highschool”Em meados de Setembro de 2011, Flora, inconformada com as cenas presenciadas em sala de aula, acabou desabafando em seu blog no site da Revista Piauí (aliás, uma ótima revista!). O desconforto causado pelas palavras da estudante não deve se aplicar apenas aos alunos da PUC, mas a todos os universitários brasileiros. Seja qual for a...
notes on nanking massacre
ejcjs - The Nanjing Incident: Recent Research and Trends As a result, the historian’s interest in and analysis of this event can be interpreted as an attack on the contemporary Chinese identity, while any demonstrated interest in Nanjing can be viewed in some circles in Japan as Japan bashing or self-flagellation. In this environment, the historian’s ...
Institutional memory and reverse smuggling
wrttn:04af1a Institutional memory comes in two forms: people and documentation. People remember how things work and why. Sometimes they write it down and store that information somewhere. Institutional amnesia works similarly. The people leave and the documents disappear, rot, or just become forgotten (as it were). I worked for several decades at a large petrochemical company. In the early 1980s,...
40 Things I Learned in My First 40 Years, Bryan...
40 Things I Learned in My First 40 Years, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty1. Supply-and-demand solves countless mysteries of the world - everything from rent control to road congestion. 2. Almost anyone can understand supply-and-demand if they calmly listen. Unfortunately, the inverse is also true. 3. Poverty is terrible, and economic growth, not redistribution, is the...
Imprensa amiga omite danos causados ao...
Imprensa amiga omite danos causados ao contribuinte por invasores da USPDanos causados pela ocupação do Bloco G da COSEAS em 2010: Extravio de cerca de 4 mil prontuários do arquivo ativo da Divisão de Promoção Social, que inclui prontuários de apoio emergencial, bolsa de apoio ao programa de permanência, seleção de moradia e seleção de creche; Extravio de cerca de 300 documentos de trabalho, como...
"The Superstition of School," by G.K. Chesterton ...
“The Superstition of School,” by G.K. Chesterton - Classic Essays and SpeechesThe truth, or half-truth, is not that men must learn by experience to be reactionaries; but that they must learn by experience to expect reactions. And when I say reactions I mean reactions; I must apologize, in the world of current culture, for using the word in its correct sense. (…)If a boy fires...
Do you think bears are mammals?
Google+ (Pascal Wallisch)Do you think bears are mammals? Some levity for the end of the week… The linked discussion is amazingly insightful, if in jest. The real issue at hand: As desired, the internet gave a voice to the common man. Should standards of evidence and discourse be expected/enforced on the internet, or is that unnecessarily elitist?Amazon.com: Customer Discussions: Do you...
Scientism as Scientistic Belief -- Rationally...
Rationally Speaking: Scientism as Scientistic Belief (by Paul Paolini) We shall say that a belief is scientistic just in case it is falsely justified by a pro-science belief; that is, if a belief appeals to a pro-science belief that does not in fact warrant it, then that belief is scientistic. Note that pro-science beliefs may themselves be scientistic, though they need not be. Also note that any...
kim jong-il clubbin -- thechive pics
Kim Jong-Il as a DJ in the club : theCHIVE
The British & the Slave Trade by Barbara L. Solow...
The British & the Slave Trade by Barbara L. Solow | The New York Review of BooksCapitalism and Slavery presented two hypotheses: first, that the institution of slavery and the trade flows it engendered were the catalyst of the Industrial Revolution in England; second, that the British abolished the slave trade not solely for philanthropic reasons but because the slave colonies of the British...
Why Pilot Projects Fail - Megan McArdle - Business...
Why Pilot Projects Fail - Megan McArdle - Business - The AtlanticThe resulting meals are much healthier, but apparently also much less appetizing. As a result, participation in the program is down, and the LA Times found students replacing the Beef Jambalaya and lentil cutlets with things like Cheetos. (…)This is one more installment in a continuing series, brought to you by the universe,...
Mapping Out The Revolving Door Between Gov't And...
Mapping Out The Revolving Door Between Gov’t And Big Business In Venn Diagrams
Talking Philosophy | Are Definitions of “Art”...
Talking Philosophy | Are Definitions of “Art” Stupid?Holkins is right that many attempts to define art aim at excluding things from the realm of art. Or, at the very least, as rejecting certain art as bad art. Tolstoy, to use an obvious example, was rather concerned with distinguishing between what he regarded as real art and what he took to be counterfeit art (in his sense of the term). Mill,...
How Computers Work - Boing Boing old pics
How Computers Work - Boing Boing
Lisa Jackson's Power Play : Harming the economy,...
Review & Outlook: Lisa Jackson’s Power Play - WSJ.comThe so-called utility rule requires power plants to install “maximum achievable control technology” to reduce mercury emissions and other trace gases. But the true goal of the rule’s 1,117 pages is to harm coal-fired power plants and force large parts of the fleet—the U.S. power system workhorse—to shut down in the...
'Nasty, Rotty Stuff' L.A. educators flunk a lunch...
Review & Outlook: ‘Nasty, Rotty Stuff’ - WSJ.comReaders might wonder how, with all of the challenges in reading, writing and arithmetic, school administrators decided that reducing fat and sodium at the cafeteria was a top priority for L.A. schools. And it turns out that the city’s decision to ban chocolate milk and chicken nuggets in favor of quinoa salads and pad Thai...
Book Review: A Case for Irony - WSJ.com
Book Review: A Case for Irony - WSJ.comAs for verbal irony, it relies on a contrast between what is said and what is meant. I might say, for example, that the president is doing “a mighty fine job” when I mean the opposite. Mr. Lear finds this understanding of verbal irony, which is indistinguishable from sarcasm, too superficial. Nor does he have much time for the tedious...
Carta aberta aos alunos da FFLCH – João Vergílio...
Carta aberta aos alunos da FFLCH – João Vergílio Gallerani Cuter « ÁgoraMais uma vez, como acontece quase todos os anos, minha aula foi interrompida na última segunda-feira (dia 21) por um grupo de estudantes que buscavam obter na marra uma unanimidade que não conseguiram alcançar por meio da argumentação e do convencimento. Nós todos, professores, funcionários e alunos desta Universidade,...
Freakonomics: What Went Wrong? »Andrew Gelman,...
Freakonomics: What Went Wrong? » American ScientistIn our analysis of the Freakonomics approach, we encountered a range of avoidable mistakes, from back-of-the-envelope analyses gone wrong to unexamined assumptions to an uncritical reliance on the work of Levitt’s friends and colleagues. This turns accessibility on its head: Readers must work to discern which conclusions are fully...
budhist exams -- thechive pics
Daily Afternoon Randomness (49 Photos) : theCHIVE
if you didn't pay your share, don't use --...
the management is socialized, but the usage is capitalized: A decides how B will use C’s money. I Hate My Job Gallery : theCHIVE
OMG icecream -- thechive pics
Daily Morning Awesomeness : theCHIVE
Young Jack Black in XFiles, Bill Paxton In...
Celebs in unknown roles : theCHIVE Celebs in unknown roles : theCHIVE
lip injections look like a monkey's ass --...
Scientists discover more proof that chicks are indeed crazy (30 photos) : : theCHIVE
vegan cookies for Santa Claus -- failblog pic
Sketchy Santas: Santa Accepts No Substitutes
Some Remarks on Wild Observations -- William H....
Some Remarks on Wild Observations * William H. Kruskal** The University of Chicago Suppose that an apparently wild observation is really known to have come from an anomalous (and perhaps infrequent) causal pattern. Should we include or exclude it in our formal statistics? Should we perhaps change the structure of our formal statistics? Much depends on what we are after and the nature of our...
kids happy land --pic at the chive
It’s A Trap!!! : theCHIVE
Buy one for the price of two, and the next one is...
It’s Monday, you could use some motivation (31 Photos) : theCHIVE
Kim Jong Il pics at the chive
Kim Jong Il Has Passed, The War on Staring At Things is Over Gallery : theCHIVE Good night, sweet prince (23 Photos) : theCHIVE Good night, sweet prince (23 Photos) : theCHIVE
The Overjustification Effect « You Are Not So...
The Overjustification Effect « You Are Not So SmartGetting paid for doing what you already enjoy will sometimes cause your love for the task to wane because you attribute your motivation as coming from the reward, not your internal feelings. (…)In a choice between either $80,000 a year, normal work hours, and about eight hours of sleep a night versus $140,000 a year, routine overtime, ...
China’s deserted fake Disneyland
China’s deserted fake Disneyland | Photographers Blog Construction stopped more than a decade ago, with developers promoting it as ‘the largest amusement park in Asia’. Funds were withdrawn due to disagreements over property prices with the local government and farmers.
Occupy Wall Street And The Myth Of The 99%
Occupy Wall Street And The Myth Of The 99% - ForbesAn entire field of economics, known as “public choice,” studies how small, concentrated groups with similar interests generally prevail politically against larger groups of diffused interests. (…)The representative of Occupy in the debate identified himself as a Marxist,claimed that the American dream is dead and buried, and argued the...
Why do people defend unjust, inept, and corrupt...
Why do people defend unjust, inept, and corrupt systems?Why do we stick up for a system or institution we live in — a government, company, or marriage — even when anyone else can see it is failing miserably? Why do we resist change even when the system is corrupt or unjust? (…)In one experiment, students made to feel dependent on their university defended a school funding policy...
Who Are The Young Farmers Of 'Generation Organic'?...
Who Are The Young Farmers Of ‘Generation Organic’? : The Salt : NPR The last time the government counted farmers, in 2002, the average farmer was 55-years-old. But there’s a new surge of youthful vigor into American agriculture — at least in the corner of it devoted to organic, local food. Thousands of young people who’ve never farmed before are trying it out....
Correlation or Causation? - Businessweek
Correlation or Causation? - Businessweek Need to prove something you already believe? Statistics are easy: All you need are two graphs and a leading question
A deeper look into the “80% of PhDs who do not...
A deeper look into the “80% of PhDs who do not become professors” | The Black Hole: Science in Canada, Issues affecting traineesRegarding the 20% number – our statements around rates of PhDs who become professors are NOT from Canada. The NSF in America does collect this data and it can be seen in the following table: Doctorate recipients holding tenure and tenure-track appointments at academic...
Seeding Diplomacy
Seeding Diplomacy - Harvard - Belfer Center for Science and International AffairsLet us take Brazil as an example. The country offers unique lessons on how to build an agricultural system across different geographical regions. With an area of 8.5 million km2, Brazil is one of the world’s largest countries, containing over 250,000 species of higher plants, of which about 60,000 are native to...
The Excellence Gap by Sol Stern, City Journal --...
The Excellence Gap by Sol Stern, City Journal Autumn 2011Further, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 6 percent of U.S. undergraduates currently major in engineering, compared with 12 percent in Europe and Israel and closer to 20 percent in Japan and South Korea. (…) Making matters worse is mounting evidence that America’s best students—kids we’re counting on to...
Gestores de universidades federais são alvos de...
Gestores de universidades federais são alvos de inquéritos - Brasil - Extra OnlineCentros de excelência em formação profissional e pesquisa científica, universidades federais têm construído, paralelamente, uma escola de impropriedades na gestão de recursos públicos. Reitores, pró-reitores e ex-dirigentes de, pelo menos, 16 instituições, em 13 estados, são alvos de processos administrativos,...
Medical Patents Must Die — Marginal Revolution
Medical Patents Must Die — Marginal Revolution We already have significant incentives for producing pharmaceuticals (and thus the instructions required to best use those pharmaceuticals), we support medical research through universities and non-profit hospitals, and there is plenty of opportunity to profit from the manufacture of tests. Will we really get enough additional innovation to justify...
Is Japan's 2020 Olympic bid going up in smoke? --...
Is Japan’s 2020 Olympic bid going up in smoke? ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and DiscussionAt volleyball matches, which are a big deal in Japan, many of the fans are screaming teenage girls, but one tobacco company’s ads are as ubiquitous as the cute mascots, inflatable clappers and TV cameras that broadcast Japan’s games in prime time. (…)Japan Tobacco says it “abides by all laws and...