Natural Selection of Information – Can Google Help?

A friend of mine brought to my attention an article with the Top 5 Threats to science-based medicine. It mentions the usual state sponsored quacks, but the most interesting one is #5: New Media. Of course, “user generated content” and unvetted health advice and claims are easily made by anyone anytime. And thanks to the… Continue reading Natural Selection of Information – Can Google Help?

Requesting Bulgarian to English speech to text iPhone app

I’m going to TEDxBG in Bulgaria on January 9th. The speaker line-up looks great, but there’s only one issue: not all talks will be in English. Now there’s several ways to deal with that. I could learn Bulgarian. According to Tim Ferriss it’s a piece of cake and won’t take much time.  I already speak… Continue reading Requesting Bulgarian to English speech to text iPhone app

Hans Brinker

I came accross two key recommendations of Hang Together or Separately, Oxfam International’s call to action to Copenhagen: Copenhagen must deliver a fair and adequate climate deal: one that keeps global warming as far below 2°C as possible, and that reflects the historical responsibility for emissions and the economic capability of developed countries. Rich countries… Continue reading Hans Brinker

Weight vs. Sleep

I decided to keep track of my weight for a month, as a 30 day trial. I weighed myself first thing every morning on a cheap digital scale. The result is the blue line in the chart below. I knew there’d be some variation, but I wanted to figure out what is causing that. My… Continue reading Weight vs. Sleep

Scheefwonen

Nu ik opzoek ben naar een baan, is het begrip scheefwonen – in een huis wonen dat te goedkoop is voor je inkomen – ineens weer relevant geworden.Als ik straks een baan heb, ben ik dan een scheefwoner? En is dat erg? Sommige van mijn beste vrienden zijn tenslotte scheefwoners. Vandaag werd er weer klakkeloos… Continue reading Scheefwonen

Adopt a Star

Back in February I watched Travis Metcalfe’s talk about the Pale Blue Dot project, where you can adopt a star for $10 and sponsor scientific research. And not just any star; the recently launched Kepler satellite is looking for planets around these stars. Now that’s a cheap price to pay for so much fame and… Continue reading Adopt a Star