Good morning! I’m filling in for Amanda this morning, as she is recovering from a bender (lucky bitch).
- Researchers convince people they have three arms — then threaten them with a knife. (from our own Felicia, who was actually a participant in the study.)
- Aspiring female scientists need the help of existing female scientists to succeed. (from James Fox.)
- Natural Medicine practitioner gives bad advice to patients, increases net worth. Surprise! (from Stacie.)
- Intelligent children are more likely to binge-drink as adults. This explains a lot. Including why Amanda can’t do Quickies today. (from Elianara.)
Maybe I’m reading the graphs wrong on the intelligent drunk people story, but according to the article, “very bright” people get drunk every other month on average. According to the graph right underneath it though, it seems like they get drunk less than once every 6 months. Am I reading something wrong?
@FFFearlesss: The way I’m reading it is that the number of times they binge drink and the number of times they reach drunkenness correlate with each other. So every time they binge drink, they get drunk.
I categorically deny that I had anything to do with whatever Amanda’s recovering from….
(for those that don’t know, my name in meatspace is Bender…) ;-)
Though OTOH, perhaps I with that I HAD something to do with it. It sounds as if she had far more fun than I did last night…
I suspect that there is a correlation between the binge drinking of the “very bright” and studies that show the smarter you are, the less action you get. Just sayin’.
The Rubber Hand study was really interesting. I’d love to hear Felicia’s take on the experience.
I love that accompanying photo for the Asa Andrews story…old school snake oil charlatan! Reminds me of that blown-up reproduction of a ‘Hamlin’s Wizard Oil’ ad that was in the hallway at WebMD when I worked there.
So this is what I get for asking for a sub, huh? :) Thanks, Chelsea.
@Amanda: Look on the bright side…I had a night out on the town last night, and I didn’t even get a SNARKY sub ;)
@FFFearlesss: I agree with your interpretation of the graphs. Both show essentially the same thing, and neither jibes with the text of the article. If it was really “every other month”, the numbers in the bar graphs should be in the range 5 to 7, not 1.5, which is more like once every nine months. On the other hand, if the vertical axis is mislabeled, and is actually the monthly and not yearly frequency, then 1.5 means 18 times a year, which also doesn’t match the text.
Innumeracy fail.
My proposed practical explaination:
The smarter you are, the more likely it is that you’ll need some vodka to deal with people who believe that we need to start paying teachers less or that evolution is “only a theory”.