Friday, July 24, 2015

Doktor RIP: Strange Travel and Olympic Scenes

Whether writing fiction or fact, E.L. Doctorow had a keen understanding of how the past informs the present. He's dead at 84... New York Times... The Guardian... Newsweek... Mother Jones......E.L. Doctorow dies at 84; award-wining (sic) author of ‘Ragtime’ Los Angeles Times. 

Sadly the reports on precise causes are incomplete and the vast majority of deaths and injuries are simply listed as “malfunction,” which could mean either the mechanical surgery unit failed or the operator cocked up, coauthor Dr Ramen told El Reg. There are other loose ends, such as rates of injury and death from “conventional” surgery.

Frequent flyer Ben Schlappig travels the world without paying

Beyond Greece, the world is filled with debt crises Guardian


another pretty caterpilllar links

On World Refugee Day—celebrated on 20 June every year—the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports on global displacement trends using data collected over the previous calendar year. This time last year the UNHCR reported that the number of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people worldwide had exceeded 50 million people for the first time since World War II. This year, in its publication Global Trends 2014, the UNHCR is reporting the highest levels of displacement on record—59.5 million people (19.5 million refugees, 38.2 million internally displaced people and 1.8 million asylum seekers).

Amid angry scenes, ruling parties force security bills through Lower House committee Japan Times


The placebo effect IS real – even when patients know the treatment they are getting is fake Daily Mail

This Wristband Will Tell You Which Chemicals You're Exposed To Every Day
 We live in a pretty toxic world. How toxic? This new wearable will let you know—and you probably won't like the results.


Manage, meddle or magnify? China’s corporate debt threat Reuters


“The Post began testing a new feature called Knowledge Map, which can be seen in “Why the Islamic State leaves tech companies torn between free speech and security”.


What good is training in moral philosophy? Eric Schwitzgebel and Fiery Cushman have an interesting paper (pdf, published Cognition version here) which raises that question rather directly:

We examined the effects of framing and order of presentation on professional philosophers’ judgments about a moral puzzle case (the “trolley problem”) and a version of the Tversky & Kahneman “Asian disease” scenario

Australian dollar tipped to drop below US60¢ in Canadian-style plunge Sydney Morning Herald