Contriving

Algae-like structures inside a Sri Lankan meteorite are clear evidence of panspermia, the idea that life exists throughout the Universe, say astrobiologists

I always try to remember that most new studies are later found out to be wrong.  Still, interesting stuff.

edit:  This is the problem with this:  https://plus.google.com/117177689300294532641/posts/dGejdWw9xJw

Looks like this research has some issues.  Like I just said always try to remember that most new studies are later found out to be wrong.  Thanks to +Marko Bosscher in the comments for pointing out some discussion about why this is likely bunk.

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Astrobiologists Find Ancient Fossils in Fireball Fragments | MIT Technology Review
Algae-like structures inside a Sri Lankan meteorite are clear evidence of panspermia, the idea that life exists throughout the Universe, say astrobiologists

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Medical Licensing Examination.

Linked by Marginal Revolution…

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IBM: Watson will eventually fit on a smartphone, diagnose illness
IBM executives are working with healthcare systems to perfect supercomputer Watson’s ability to diagnose and suggest treatments. And by 2020, Watson could fit on a smartphone.

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A bit on how a little bit of UI design ingenuity makes Amazon a less frustrating website to use.

Most dropdown menus have to include a bit of a delay when activating submenus. […]  See the delay? You need that, because otherwise when you try to move your mouse from the main menu to the submenu, the submenu will disappear out from under you like some sort of sick, unwinnable game of whack-a-mole.

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Breaking down Amazon’s mega dropdown
The hover effects on Amazon’s big ‘ole “Shop by Department” mega dropdown are super fast. Look’it how quick each submenu fills in as your mouse moves down the list: It’s instant. I got nerd sniped by….

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I have some serious correlation vs causation thoughts about the women's side of this.

The CEO of OKCupid talks about what correlates with a person's willingness to sleep with someone on the first date.

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 Get it?  HAHA!

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A world-renowned physicist meets a gorgeous model online. They plan their perfect life together. But first, she asks, would he be so kind as to deliver a special package to her?

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The Professor, the Bikini Model and the Suitcase Full of Trouble
A world-renowned physicist meets a gorgeous model online. They plan their perfect life together. But first, she asks, would he be so kind as to deliver a special package to her?

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Nice going, 20th century!

Read some pull quotes and a link to the new paper in Science:  http://www.contriving.net/link/b4

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Using a series of 1:50 gear reductions, this motor, spinning at 200 RPM, will produce one revolution per every couple trillion years at the output shaft.

The output shaft is embedded in concrete.

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Arthur Ganson’s “Machine with Concrete”
The gear train on Arthur Gansen’s sculpture is driven at 200 rpm, and after stepping down 12 times, turns at a rate of less than one revolution per two trillion years. The final gear is embedded i……

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I've been following this for awhile, and it's good to see them out releasing a "product".

MetaMed uses doctors and professionals who understand statistics and the state of research to help you with your medical issues.

By using doctors and researchers who understand statistics and how to evaluate the relative importance of research findings, MetaMed provides a diagnosis, treatment recommendations, and referrals to doctors in their network who can provide the treatments best for a specific patient. MetaMed provides “evidence based medicine” rather than vague suggestions solely based on domain-general knowledge.

Why is such a thing needed?

Many doctors and medical professionals lack a basic understanding of statistics. For instance, in one study, sixteen out of twenty HIV counselors said that there was no such thing as a false positive HIV test (Gigerenzer et al 1998). Another study found that British general practitioners rarely change their prescribing patterns, and when they do, it’s not in response to evidence (Armstrong et al 1996). Gigerenzer and others have shown that statistical illiteracy is ubiquitous among patients and doctors. Many confuse sensitivity and specificity, and most physicians do not understand how to compute the positive predictive value of a test. This can cause them to overestimate the probability of someone having a disease, say breast cancer, by an order of magnitude or more.

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MetaMed — Personalized Medical Research Backed by Peter Thiel and Jaan Tallinn | Accelerating Future
Doctors, like other experts, have limited domain knowledge. The average primary care visit is only 11 minutes, a figure which hasn’t changed since the 1930s, with four minutes of that being the patien…

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