Tag: Maggie Koerth-Baker

At the PsySociety blog, Melanie Tannenbaum looks at the meta-analysis cited by Erik Erikson of Redstate.com as proof that low-income families fare worse when mom works outside the home — and finds that it says exactly the opposite. This post is notable not only for deconstructing a “common sense” belief, but also for doing a great job of explaining what a meta-analysis is and why it matters. Also provides a full daily serving of Fox News schadenfreude.

via Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2013/06/04/actually-its-good-for-low-i.html

At Download the Universe, i09 editor Annalee Newitz critiques a new e-book about epigenetics — the science of how environmental factors can influence genetic expression — and violence. The book makes some pretty terrible (and non-scientific) insinuations about the idea of an inherent propensity towards violence and Newitz does a good job of both taking down the specific book and explaining the nuance behind a complicated topic.

via Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2013/04/10/read-this-before-you-read-anot.html

This amazing photo was taken by astronaut Don Pettit on board the International Space Stations—of which you can see a chunk at the top of the frame. It’s part of a whole series of absolutely stunning photos that you need to go check out as soon as you have a free 20 minutes to spend staring at your monitor and going, “Woah,” to yourself over and over.

Here’s what Pettit had to say about the process.

“My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, the ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.”

Via Smithsonian, which is where you can find the rest of Don Pettit’s photos.

via Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2012/06/08/this-is-real-life-not-tron.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29

Domestic airlines in the United States are failing financially. Fine. Sure. We knew that. But here’s the kicker: They’ve been financially failing for 40 years, almost the entire time they’ve been popular. And that? Is fascinating. Back at the turn of the 20th century, a lot of the first electric utilities and long-distance railroad companies went bankrupt, because people couldn’t figure out how to make a profit in an industry with huge, fixed overhead costs. This is some evidence that the kinks haven’t totally been worked out on that, even today. (Via Matt Yglesias)

via Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2012/06/06/airlines-have-never-been-a-gre.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29