Good Entropy

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10/29/2008

Leaving George W. Bush out of consideration, what former U.S. president would you most like to have waterboarded?

by @ 7:50 pm. Filed under economics

Woodrow Wilson. Jailed political dissenters, created the Federal Trade Commission, got us into World War I. He also enacted the first federal income tax, the first modern military draft, and the first federal drug prohibition. Wilson also re-segregated the federal government. When blacks protested, he told them to consider segregation a “benefit,” not a debasement. An all-around loathesome human being.

Radley Balko

10/06/2008

Confirmation Bias – vigilance needed

by @ 7:04 pm. Filed under economics, Human Nature, Intelligence

From Megan McCardle

In a discussion of the causes of the Financial Crisis:

Confirmation bias: The tendency to look for data that confirms your theory, rather than data that falsifies it. Yes, we all know how this works in politics, but it’s a much broader problem. People will repeatedly devise tests that give positive proofs of their theories, but much less often devise tests to falsify them.

And this harmonious chord from Hamming referencing Darwin:

Darwin writes in his autobiography that he found it necessary to write down every piece of evidence which appeared to contradict his beliefs because otherwise they would disappear from his mind.

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jour·nal n. A personal record of occurrences, experiences, and reflections kept on a regular basis; a diary.

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