Interesting Links for 06-12-2011

[andrewducker]

• A Dolphin/Human communication breakthrough
  (tags: dolphins humans language communication )
• Information as a Service - one wants to be free, the other doesn't.
  (tags: information services business )
• In case you were wondering whether The Health Lottery was a massive scam
  (tags: lottery uk )
• Ben Goldacre is very happy about the government opening up NHS data
  (tags: Bengoldacre nhs data research uk )
• Possibly the costliest car crash in history
  (tags: crash japan cars )
• How to support victims of sexual harrassment.
  (tags: sex harrassment scifi conventions )
• Everything2.com Seeks New Ownership. Anyone want to buy it?
  (tags: web everything )
• Brains of children raised in violent families are primed to perceive threat and anticipate pain, increasing stress.
  (tags: stress ptsd abuse violence children development )
• David Cameron answers questions from famous people. Terrifying.
  (tags: davidcameron interview politics uk )
• Powerful shareholder group ABI urges bank pay curbs
  (tags: pay banking )
• Your brain reacts differently to paintings if you're told they're fake.
  (tags: art fraud brains psychology )
• The Muppets Are Communist, Fox Business Network Says
  (tags: muppets communism FoxNews )
• The same data, the same map, different stories
  (tags: maps visualization statistics )

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Still, on the bright side, at least they took out a Prius...

[tobyaw]

I suppose it will be good for the Italian economy if they all order a new Ferrari to replace their broken ones.

[tobyaw]

Regarding the health lottery, they certainly found an inventive way to get around the rules. On that basis alone, I applaud them. On everything else, I deplore it.

But many of my negative feelings about the health lottery could also be applied to the national lottery. I object to government-sanctioned gambling being beamed into people's homes by our national broadcaster, pretending that it is all for a good cause while taking vast amounts of money from the poor and feeble minded. The fact that the government and state institutions back it makes it far, far worse than anything Desmond could do.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

could you explain, briefly, what that map thing is about?

I have a statistics exam tomorrow, and haven't a buggering clue what the hell it's saying.

[andrewducker]

It's just saying that you can divide up the bands of colours in a multitude of different ways, and the one you choose affects the message you send.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

When I originally saw the posters advertising the Health Lottery, I honestly thought it was some kind of TV show, or else some kind of weird parody spoofing American views of the NHS.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I didn't realise it was a real thing for ages.

[kmusser]

And that Excel might not be the best choice for mapping :-) Most mapping software comes with a natural breaks algorithm as the default way to divide up data.