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Luck Pessimism

While we tend to be optimistic about our abilities, we are pessimistic about our luck:We analyze the answers of a sample of 1,540 individuals to the following question "Imagine that a coin will be flipped 10 times. Each time, if heads, you win 10C. How many times do you think that you will win?" ...

Thanksgiving Prayer

At tonight's Thanksgiving, Erin remarked on how this was her first real Thanksgiving dinner away from her family, and that it was an odd feeling to just sit down and eat without any prayer beforehand.  (Yes, she's a solid atheist in no danger whatsoever, thank you for asking.)

And as she said t...

Don't get high on your own supply - enflurane edition

Another in our occasional series of article on the importance of the motto "don't get high on your own supply". This edition concerns the case of an anaesthetist who was testing some of his own anaesthetics while driving.

From a case report from Forensic Science International:

A 42-year-old a...

Dreams of Autarky

From my 2001 book chapter "Dreams of Autarky":

[Here is] an important common bias on "our" side, i.e., among those who expect specific very large changes. ... Futurists tend to expect an unrealistic degree of autarky, or independence, within future technological and social systems.  The cells i...

Modern Depressions

To make you extra thankful today, an excellent summary of what a depression today would look like:The lines wouldn't be outside soup kitchens but at emergency rooms, and rather than itinerant farmers we could see waves of laid-off office workers leaving homes to foreclosure and heading for areas ...