Monthly Archives: April 2011

And Now, My Beauties, Something With Poison in it, I Think.

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Chemistry of Morphine, Heroin, and Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

You’ve heard the warnings – don’t eat poppy seeds before taking a drug test. The seeds can trigger a false positive reading for opioids, making your potential employer think you could be a heroin addict. A few years back, Mythbusters reproduced the anecdotes, showing that just two poppy seed bagels was enough to make Jamie test positive for drugs. (Other studies have shown the same thing.)

I like saying that I eat poppy seed bagels for the plausible deniability whenever I’m within earshot of my boss.

We Are Ready to Not Believe You

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The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science

In other words, when we think we’re reasoning, we may instead be rationalizing. Or to use an analogy offered by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt: We may think we’re being scientists, but we’re actually being lawyers. Our “reasoning” is a means to a predetermined end—winning our “case”—and is shot through with biases. They include “confirmation bias,” in which we give greater heed to evidence and arguments that bolster our beliefs, and “disconfirmation bias,” in which we expend disproportionate energy trying to debunk or refute views and arguments that we find uncongenial.

Short version: you can’t use logic and reason to talk someone out of a position they didn’t arrive at using logic and reason.

I think it points a way for arguments like global warming. I don’t understand why energy independence isn’t being trumpeted more loudly as a goal, with the goal of improving our economic situation and that of national security — importing less oil to keep more money in the US and eliminate foreign dependence.

You'll Only Look Like Stretch Armstrong

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Mind tricks may help arthritic pain

“We were giving her a practical demonstration of illusory finger stretching when she announced, ‘My finger doesn’t hurt any more’, and asked whether she could take the machine home with her. We were just stunned – I don’t know who was more surprised, her or us.”

I wonder how closely this is related to the phantom pain solution of amputees

Is Science Fickle?

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The Triceratops Panic: Why Does Science Keep Changing Its Mind?

One of the nice things about growing up is you don’t have to spend time thinking about planets, digestion or awesome dinosaurs if you don’t want to, because what you were taught was “science” so those things are supposed to stay that way forever.

And then, suddenly, there is “news.” Someone in authority says, “Wait a second! New information has come to our attention, and that thing we told you was true may not be true any more. Or not as true. Please pay attention so we can un-teach what we told you.”

“WHAT?” is a lot of people’s first reaction. “I thought you knew this. I believed you…”
And then they get mad.

Perhaps the first failure of science education is the notion that “things are supposed to stay that way forever.” The facts and realities of science are always the best interpretation that we have available at the time, but it’s subject to change as we get more information. New information will always be interpreted according to the best theories of the day. (And someone in the media will always distort it to the point that its wrong.) What science won’t (or at least shouldn’t) do is be dogmatic and push information that’s become outdated, even if it’s for the comfort of the casual observer. There are sources for reassuring lies, but science should not be one of them.

Milo Minderbinder Would Be Proud

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The Real Housewives of Wall Street

Even cleverer than buying eggs at seven cents a piece in Malta and selling them to the mess for five cents and making a profit.

During the financial crisis, the Fed routinely made billions of dollars in “emergency” loans to big banks at near-zero interest. Many of the banks then turned around and used the money to buy Treasury bonds at higher interest rates — essentially loaning the money back to the government at an inflated rate. “People talk about how these were loans that were paid back,” says a congressional aide who has studied the transactions. “But when the state is lending money at zero percent and the banks are turning around and lending that money back to the state at three percent, how is that different from just handing rich people money?”

And that’s not even the worst of it…