Sunday 6 + 3 + 1

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A useful blog for people interested in alternative medicine
via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
Until 2011, Dr. Edzard Ernst was the head of one of the few university departments doing real, unbiased research on the effectiveness and safety of alternative medicine techniques. That’s important, because you can’t just dismiss weird-sounding stuff out of hand, but you also want somebody other than the practitioners of that weird-sounding stuff conducting research and analysing the data. Now retired, Ernst recently started blogging, and I wanted to point you to his new home on the Internet. He can be a bit snarky and caustic (especially with chiropractic and homeopathy). But in general he’s a fair, reasonable, and knowledgeable source on what works and what doesn’t.
Definitely worth a bookmark
Oh yes, it is – even if you are only going to nod wisely when the good doctor tells you something so obvious that it can’t possibly be disputed!

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Science and speculation. Do we know what we’re talking about when we talk about the evolution of the mind? Not really, says Anthony Gottlieb... more

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With no apologies for including an abstract of a journal article in here!
I thought it was interesting and there is nowhere else that I can include it – it is certainly not careers information nor is it mental health issues!
The functional and usable appeal of Facebook SNS games
an article by Kuo-Hsiang Chen (I-Shou University, Taiwan and National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan), Kai-Shuan Shen (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan and TOKO University, Taiwan) and Min-Yuan Ma (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan) published in Internet Research Volume 22 Issue 4 (2012)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the appeal of social networking services (SNS) games from the perspectives of game usability and the functionality that is facilitated by the internet. Why players prefer SNS games to other types of games and what specific characteristics causes them to be addicted to continuous game play are the two critical issues to be probed.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors interviewed 11 experts and surveyed 321 gamers using a questionnaire to gather the data about their preferences. The authors believe that a preference-based study can reveal the underlying reasons for the appeal of SNS games. The collected data were analysed using Quantification Theory Type I.
Findings
The semantic structure of appeal, determined from the interviews of experts, shows the hierarchy of the relationship between the types of appeal or appeal factors, the reasons for gamers’ preferences, and the specific characteristics of SNS games. According to the statistical analysis, the three most important appeal factors of SNS games are “easy and convenient”, “friendly and lively” and “social interaction”, and these are affected in varying degrees by particular reasons and characteristics.
Practical implications
Based on the findings, the paper hypothesises that the popularity of Facebook SNS games can be ascribed to the design of game, which targets the psychological preferences of players.
Originality/value
SNS games have become very popular due to some of their appealing characteristics. The findings provide important information for designers and researchers of Facebook SNS games. The study also contributes to the field of human-computer interaction in cyberspace.

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Why do some people say the Earth isn’t getting hotter?
via Boing Boing by Maggie Koerth-Baker
If you haven't seen the Skeptical Science website yet, you're missing out.
Via Tom Standage
Stunning graph which compares how realists see the rising temperatures and how skeptics view the same data.

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Free markets and fast growth are well and good, but they won’t make you happy. There remain political, philosophical, and ethical questions that markets can never address... more

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Methane: It’s a Gas
via Britannica Blog by Gregory McNamee
Methane.
The world produces the potent greenhouse gas in abundance. We produce it in abundance as a byproduct of the foods we eat. Cows produce lots of it, too – by some estimates, 80 million tons of the stuff, amounting to more than a quarter of all global methane emissions. A single browsing cow emits 600 litres of the gas a day.

A cow surveys her domain in the alpine foothills above Willerzell, Switzerland
Credit: Gregory McNamee
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Fish in a Barrel: 1910
via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive – Vintage Fine Art Prints by Dave

Gloucester, Massachusetts, circa 1905
“Handling a cargo from the fishing banks”
8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
View original post

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Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
John Keats was no mere star-crossed, sickly neurasthenic. He could walk 600 miles, and for a time he considered joining the forces of Simón Bolívar... more

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Albrecht Dürer’s Young Hare on Google Art Project
via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder
Considered to be one of the finest watercolours ever painted, Google Art Project has a nice zoomable scan of Albrecht Dürer’s Young Hare from 1502.
From Wikipedia:

The subject was particularly challenging: because the hare’s fur lay in different directions and the animal was mottled with lighter and darker patches all over, Dürer had to adapt the standard conventions of shading to indicate the outline of the subject by the fall of light across the figure. Despite the technical challenges presented in rendering the appearance of light with a multi-coloured, multi-textured subject, Dürer not only managed to create a detailed, almost scientific, study of the animal but also infuses the picture with a warm golden light that hits the hare from the left, highlighting the ears and the run of hair along the body, giving a spark of life to the eye, and casting a strange shadow to the right.

(Via Lines and Colors)
Heaven preserve me. That is a wonderful site for image lovers!

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What other sci-fi franchise unofficially shares a universe with Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
via on TechRepublic by Jay Garmon
Douglas Adams wrote several early drafts of the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie script – and made a special effort to secretly tie the movie universe into another well-known science-fiction franchise.
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