Author: Josh Witten

http://www.thefinchandpea.com

Fixing football at The Paltry Sapien

After a hiatus to move my family back across the Atlantic, I’ve got a new post up at The Paltry Sapien in which I lay out my proposal for fixing American football.

Prior to the NFL draft, pre-season training camp, and a player’s return after a concussion, NFL doctors will determine the medical eligibility of a player. Essentially, this has the NFL set the list of players that are available for teams to employ. The NFL has an economic incentive to declare players at risk of long-term issues from repetitive injuries (especially concussions) ineligible.

Read the rest at The Paltry Sapien.

Eulogy for Jonah Lehrer’s career

There isn’t much left to be said about the unraveling of Jonah Lehrer‘s career (though I suspect he’ll be back).

For a long time, I’d advised family members to take the information from Lehrer’s writing and TV appearances with some serious salt, which would give you the impression that all new discoveries in neuroscience fit neatly into the way Lehrer had been telling you it all worked. Media personalities have the luxury of making the research fit the world view that has made them popular. Quality researchers with true expertise and experience do not.

Lehrer broke the rules of both journalism and science, but was only punished when he was caught breaking the rules of journalism.

I was never a Lehrer fan, but we can’t pretend this is an isolated action by a “bad apple”. Like many science fraudsters, fraudulent journalists are responding to the perverse incentives provided by their field. Good science reporting often takes time and a moderate tone. We reward speed and attention grabbing prose. It makes you wonder if the decision makers either don’t know or don’t care when the journalists break the rules of science.

Skycranes >> Ospreys

I had a nightmare last night. A very nerdy nightmare*.

During the space shuttle’s ascent in to low earth orbit, I was dropped out of the space shuttle’s cargo bay strapped to an osprey. Somehow, both the osprey and I survived our descent. I know what you are thinking. The poor osprey’s wings should have snapped into pieces the moment it tried to provide lift for the two of us. This, my friends, was a key point in my complaint to the NASA authorities. I also suspected that my publicly stated preference for unmanned space exploration was a factor in the decision to drop me into the upper atmosphere. I have no idea what the osprey did to piss NASA off. Continue reading “Skycranes >> Ospreys”

What is wrong with this hypothesis?

Is there anything wrong* with Calvin’s hypothesis and/or experimental design (click-through for full protocol)?

*The answer “Thou shall not tempt the Lord your God” will not be accepted. Really, what is the point of omnipotence if you can’t be tempted**. BOOOORRRRING.

**Can God make something so tempting that God is tempted?

Manipulating variables in “Little Bunny Foo Foo”

 

Don’t worry, “Little Bunny Foo Foo” is not the Song of the Week. Like many children’s songs, it goes through a set number of repetitions1 based on the dubious theory that repetition both appeals to kids AND is good for them.

My daughter, The Frogger, has discovered that, while the number of repetitions (N) has a traditional value (N=3), it is a manipulable variable which can be set at multiple values with effects on the enjoyment of the singers. Continue reading “Manipulating variables in “Little Bunny Foo Foo””