Author Archives: Dustin - Page 48

Delete all the code you can

Posted by on February 13, 2016 No comments
Every line of code written comes at a price: maintenance. To avoid paying for a lot of code, we build reusable software. The problem with code re-use is that it gets in the way of changing your mind later on.

Also, welcome to my new code collection. 

Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend.
“ “Every line of code is written without reason, maintained out of weakness, and deleted by chance” Jean-Paul Sartre’s Programming in ANSI C.
”
Every line of code written comes at a price:…


This post has been reshared 1 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+

Well, I guess if you think democracy is good (you should), then you'll think…

Posted by on January 31, 2016 4 comments
Well, I guess if you think democracy is good (you should), then you'll think this is bad news.

Every year since 2006 more democracies have experienced erosion in political rights and civil liberties than have registered gains

Democracy Takes a Global Hit
Mark P. Lagon and Arch Puddington write that in 2015 democracy took a global hit as powerful dictatorships—China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia—extended their antidemocratic influence abroad. But there were a few promising signs.


This post has been reshared 1 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+

The image highlighted below from this article feels wrong to me as someone who lives…

Posted by on January 26, 2016 3 comments
The image highlighted below from this article feels wrong to me as someone who lives in the United States.

It seems like every global map I see has North and South America on the left side of the map…

Zika’s alarming spread: CDC investigates link to paralyzing condition, adds 8 countries to travel warning
Infectious disease experts are becoming increasingly concerned about the spread of the tropical virus which has been linked to brain defects in infants.


This post has been reshared 1 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+

Sites exist to make you think every drug has every side effect

Posted by on January 20, 2016 No comments
 

Side Effects May Include Anything
A couple of days ago I had a patient who said he became depressed after starting Xolair, a new asthma drug I know nothing about. On the one hand, lots of things that mess with the immune system can…

View this post on Google+

This is why you should save money.

Posted by on January 20, 2016 2 comments
This is why you should save money.

A Story of a Fuck Off Fund — The Billfold
You will be the kind of woman who can tell anyone to fuck off if a fuck off is deserved, so naturally you start a Fuck O…


This post has been reshared 1 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+

Posted by on January 20, 2016 2 comments

View this post on Google+

More people than you realize are stupider than you realize

Posted by on January 20, 2016 1 comment
A common bias among the smart is to overestimate how smart everyone else is.  This was certainly my experience in moving from top rank universities as a student to a mid rank university as a teacher.  A better intuition for common abilities can be found by browsing the US National Assesment of Adult Literacy sample questions.

For example, in 1992 out of a random sample of US adults, 7% could not do item SCOR300, which is to find the expiration date on a driver’s license.  26% could not do item AB60303, which is to check the “Please Call” box on a phone message slip when they’ve been told

Overcoming Bias : Stupider Than You Realize
A common bias among the smart is to overestimate how smart everyone else is. This was certainly my experience in moving from top rank universities as a student to a mid rank university as a teacher. A better intuition for common abilities can be found by browsing the US National Assesment of …

View this post on Google+

57 trillion three-word addresses for every 9 square meters on the entire planet

Posted by on January 16, 2016 2 comments
 Intended as a once and for all solution to addressing physical locations.

Unfortunately, like many good ideas, it doesn't become terribly useful until its in widespread use.

what3words | Addressing the world

View this post on Google+

What Star Wars and many other romantic stories get wrong

Posted by on January 16, 2016 5 comments
(romantic as in an idealized view of reality, not love)

Human intuition is often completely wrong and it takes good judgement and constant attention to recognize when to ignore your intuition.

Today, safe flight inside clouds is possible using gyroscopic instruments that report the airplane's orientation without being misled by centrifugal effects. But the pilot's spatial intuition is still active, and often contradicts the instruments. Pilots are explicitly, emphatically trained to trust the instruments and ignore intuition—precisely the opposite of the Star Wars advice—and those who fail to do so often perish.
— Gary Drescher "Good and Real"

View this post on Google+

Chickens like pretty people

Posted by on January 10, 2016 No comments
We trained chickens to react to an average human female face but not to an average male face (or vice versa). In a subsequent test, the animals showed preferences for faces consistent with human sexual preferences (obtained from university students). This suggests that human preferences arise from general properties of nervous systems, rather than from face-specific adaptations. We discuss this result in the light of current debate on the meaning of sexual signals and suggest further tests of existing hypotheses about the origin of sexual preferences.

Chickens prefer beautiful humans. – Seriously, Science?
Many people believe that our perceptions of human beauty are primarily determined by societal norms. But could there be something innate in our brains that influence whether we think a face is beautiful? Here, a group of researchers tested this hypothesis by determining whether chickens have any innate preferences for certain human faces. To do so, they trained …


This post has been reshared 8 times on Google+
 View this post on Google+