I initially read the screen text at 0:16 as “....the air vehicle guided itself around obstacles without TELEPORTATION” and I thought, Oh shit! DARPA accidentally just revealed they’ve developed teleportation.

Thanks...I honestly couldn’t remember. I wonder if there is a Greek equivalent to the Latin phrase (I’m Greek and not sure) given that the execution of this narrative device is older than the origination of the Latin phrase that defines it. I first encountered the idea in reading the Iliad and the Odyssey—-as I’m sure…

Yes! and that is actually a classical narrative hook. start in the middle and then back to the front and work your way to the end.

Opening of Lawrence of Arabia? A bit cannonical as these things go as it finds itself on many such lists, but it’s worthy

Yes. and I’ll say that researchers got away with much more in the past. I remember more than one story from my grad school professors about fairly prominent researchers who everybody suspected of cooking the data to some extent. And although there are downsides to all of the great software out there like SPSS, R, M+,…

Thanks, and I think most of us are trying to do a good job. And as you allude to, this is one of those topics where every postulation can easily branch out to 3 others. As far as the null hypotheses, I agree with you. In my line of work, it’s seldom an explicit taking off point, and in fact, for most of us, the last…

Good stuff. Another scientist here. Too many of these headlines, however, are guilty of gross exaggeration. Saying that a study was not replicated sounds a helluva lot worse than saying that in most cases that lack of replication simply amounted to a diminished effect size or lower level of significance (and btw the…

Sure, and you are preaching to the choir. But the idea that there is enough of a critical mass of people in America to want to adopt a humanistic approach to law and policy without ever implicating religion, is, I’m afraid, naïve. We are not the majority—-not by a long shot. Actually it's frankly remarkable we have…

Ms. Mueller’s horrific final days aside, and how ISIS is so despicable as to be cartoonish at this point, this issue of culture and morality can be tricky business. I find myself bouncing back and forth between the very valid concern that we are too often willing to demonize others because their values are simply…

Exactly, I work in one of the largest stage level bureaucratic systems (the 23 Campus CSU system) and I can tell you for a fact that most of the onerous, silly-sounding, or burdensome paperwork came AFTER some jackass (and quickly jackasses) figured out a way to game the system or follow the letter of the law, but not…

It's a Nixon in China thing. We need more men whose masculinity cannot be easily impugned to deconstruct the dangerous tropes of popular masculinity. It's also sad in a way that the only reason these words from Mr. Crews are notable is because they are exceptional (i.e., rare)

I can personally confirm that. I've spear-fished a dozen times off the coasts of Southern Greece and was using a fish bag belt combo until one summer in the late 90s when I attracted the attention of two very persistent barracuda, which is probably the most aggressive fish we've got in those waters. Sharks are a…

I enjoy this on so many levels. 1) Zeppelin's seemed like such a cool way to travel (assuming you weren't in a rush) 2) How fantastic is it to be in a flying machine on which you can make repairs en route? 3) That someone thought of that and decided to staff the right people and materials on these suckers to…