The Adventures of Shylock Holmes

Most people don't make public, verifiable predictions. Everyone is an expert after the fact, and they're sure that they knew what wa...

"List of Animals with fraudulent diplomas" Pure gold. (via Hector Lopez, who is on fire at the moment).

Cultures change slowly, but they do change. Sometimes, even more rarely, they can be changed from without by a deliberate effort. One of t...

...to be a double agent working against the Nazis in WW2. It takes even bigger brass balls to be so good at it that you manage to receive ...

...of The Economist , circa 1843. Check out how eloquent, well-reasoned and thoroughly grounded in economics their arguments against slave...

If I had to nominate a fact in the 'most significant under-appreciated truth about western society', it's that western societies...

-Western Australian police invade clubhouse of outlaw motorcycle gang using a battering ram . Bikies cry like babies about 'police vanda...

One of the most entertainingly useless statistics touted by insurance companies is the average amount of money that customers save by switch...

One thing I find surprising in modern America is the number of women with high-pitched voices. Now, I may be imagining this, but to my ear...

"Man, it smells like another person suffering from glaucoma! It's like there's a glaucoma epidemic going around or something...

A demonstration of evolutionary algorithms in physics to generate a car. Totally, totally cash. It produces awful cars at first, but as ...

When I drive on the freeway, there are electronic signs up that give information, usually about traffic times. But every now and again, you ...

One of the things I've noticed when watching people say goodbyes is that they become very awkward when it's likely they will never s...

From the Washington Post: DA: Pa. abortion doc killed 7 babies with scissors Uh, isn't that what he's paid to do? A doctor who pro...

SMBC nails it with their motivation for science study. This : seems very prescient given this : JAPANESE researchers will launch a project t...

So I meant to post this about a month ago, but forgot. While fishing around for the link for the Johnny Cash post, I found it again, and wit...

The current corner solution in my listening playlist is the song 'Gives You Hell' by the All American Rejects: It's a classic o...

Models of adverse selection in insurance suggest that you have to charge people according to their expected cost, and that fixed price insur...

Fair-minded people attempt to reserve judgment about others until they've given the other person a good chance. You don't want to wr...

Is it just me, or has there recently been a big increase in the number of bogus friend attempts on facebook from completely fictitious names...

Yesterday I received my Green Card, that famous piece of plastic for which so many billions of the world's poor yearn. Since I've ...

It is a ubiquitous fact about the world that wages and prices differ sharply from what people consider fair. Witness the perpetual outrage a...

In the category of 'old but awesome': Let me finish! Accents are a minor hobby of mine, and the idea of duelling impersonations is a...

In many studies in asset pricing, it is common practice to not include stocks with prices less than $5 - they're too small and unreliab...

The Fijians that I spoke to seemed universally lovely people and very friendly.They always greet you with a loud 'Bula', which appar...

I'm now back in the US of A, and back to full-time work and part-time work procrastinating, so expect blogging to be back to pre-holiday...

The essential quality of pornography is not sex. The fact that is usually involves this is ultimately incidental. No, porn involves more b...

You know what the worst phone call is that you can receive from your manager if you're in the music business? "We think you shoul...

'Excuse me, what gender are you?' If there's a snappy comeback to that one, I don't know what it is.

Via Hector Lopez comes the feel good story of the year : THE cleaners arrived first - to hose away the filth beneath Clovelly beach's sh...

Nothing.

Men are both the principal suppliers and the principal demanders of public nudity. Sadly, what is supplied is not what is demanded.

In their hit 'It's Like That'. If there have been better ambassadors for conservatism in the hip hop world, I'm yet to find ...

The English language is extraordinarily flexible in terms of how it adapts over time. Pick up a copy of some Chaucer if you don't bel...

Ikea is an awesome store. The real genius of the place is that they make everybody feel like they’re a cross between a master craftsman and...

A few years ago (I couldn't tell you exactly when or why) I started to get the tiniest bit anxious when airplanes would land. Only in a ...

Thusly: Any food described as being 'a delicacy' is in fact stomach-turningly revolting.

It is a categorical mistake to think that actions should be judged by their intentions alone rather than their consequences, at least when t...

The desire to resist the truth of opportunity cost is embedded deep in the human breast. This trait is not without its significant benefits,...

Following on from the previous post on hyperbolic discounting, the other example where people seem to show much too much short term impatien...