My best bits from Samizdata:

• A summary of Detlev Slichter’s appearance on Start The Week.
• A bit about software patents, in particular Google and Apple.
• Thoughts on selling libertarianism.
• A summary of Detlev Schlichter’s book.
• A discussion of map vs. territory.

The point at which we begin to let a political agenda dictate what science is all about is the point when science ceases to be a viable enterprise.

So says Gordon Gallup, Jr. But he’s not talking about climate change, oh no.

Maybe there is hope for the BBC yet.

In the nefarious world of quasi-credentialing and diploma scams, money talks. Or at least it meows. All I had to do was get Zoe her first credential, which I did by filling out an “application for certification” on a lay hypnosis association’s website. I charged her application fee, and within a few weeks, Zoe had her first piece of paper. Since most lay hypnosis associations have a reciprocity agreement respecting each others’ certifications, it was a snap to obtain additional (and very impressive sounding) certificates.

Zoe is (or was, since I doubt I will pay certification maintenance fees) certified by the National Guild of Hypnotists, the American Board of Hypnotherapy, and the International Medical & Dental Hypnotherapy Association. She is a Professional Member of the American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists

And so on. Eichel says that the proliferation of credentials (and pseudocredentials) is caused by oversupply of practitioners struggling to differentiate themselves, and lots of specialisation into variously dubious fields. All this has lead to a wide array of credentials that confuse the customers.

To his credit, Eichel is not demanding more laws to regulate matters. He doesn’t think government interference would help and doesn’t like the idea of the government telling people which kind of therapies are good and which are bad. Rather, he is seeking to point out the problems and damage the reputations of the pseudo-credentialing organisations. Which seems to me the correct way to go.

He is supportive of medical licensing because it is a matter of life and death, but it seems to me that if people were used to having to check out credentials properly instead of relying on government to do the job for them, they would be less likely to fall for fake credentials.

That’s the same Lord James of Blackheath who has been investigating the mysterious Foundation X, who I think must be socialist extraterrestrials.

Hat tip Joseph Cotterill.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

In which Eliezer Yudkowsky “re-invents Harry Potter as a skeptic genius who sets himself the task of figuring out just how all this “magic” stuff works”.

It’s quite a learning experience, especially if you look up the bits you don’t understand. For example, I now know what arbitrage is.

Here’s a snippet from chapter one:

“Then you don’t have to fight over this,” Harry said firmly. Hoping against hope that this time, just this once, they would listen to him. “If it’s true, we can just get a Hogwarts professor here and see the magic for ourselves, and Dad will admit that it’s true. And if not, then Mum will admit that it’s false. That’s what the experimental method is for, so that we don’t have to resolve things just by arguing.”

The Professor turned and looked down at him, dismissive as usual. “Oh, come now, Harry. Really, magic? When you say that rationality is your favorite thing ever and read so much about it? I thought you’d know better than to take this seriously, son, even if you’re only ten. Magic is just about the most unscientific thing there is!”

[...]

“Mum,” Harry said. “If you want to win this argument with Dad, look in chapter two of the first book of the Feynman Lectures on Physics. There’s a quote there about how philosophers say a great deal about what science absolutely requires, and it is all wrong, because the only rule in science is that the final arbiter is observation – that you just have to look at the world and report what you see. Um… I can’t think offhand of where to find something about how it’s an ideal of science to settle things by experiment instead of violence or violent arguments -”

The author uses the pen name Less Wrong, which comes from a “community wiki devoted to refining the art of human rationality” called Less Wrong.

It’s the sort of site within which I imagine I could spend hours following the cross references. I haven’t yet, but one article about absence of evidence not being evidence of absence ends on this paragraph:

Your strength as a rationalist is your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality; if you are equally good at explaining any outcome you have zero knowledge. The strength of a model is not what it can explain, but what it can’t, for only prohibitions constrain anticipation. If you don’t notice when your model makes the evidence unlikely, you might as well have no model, and also you might as well have no evidence; no brain and no eyes.

Which immediately made me think of global warmists who seem to always strive to fit the evidence to their hypotheses.

That site also contains lots of arguments about how to change your mind. One of these is titled Politics is the Mindkiller. Perhaps this will be a good site to go to to challenge my beliefs.

Take that Frank Furedi!

Today’s race was very wet and there were lots of crashes. I don’t know whether that was because of the weather or the inexperience of the drivers. But they were doing it, boys and girls, post race TV interview by the winner and all.

Total Wipeout USA

This is an actual episode synopsis from a soap opera called The Bold and the Beautiful:

Storm kills himself after accidentally shooting Katie and his heart is used as a transplant organ for her, while Donna and Eric prepare to get married.

The Bold and the Beautiful

A TV commercial for Curry’s is offering £10 money back for every goal England score in the World Cup, when you spend £600 on a TV. I wonder how expensive that will be for them.

I found a good programme. How It’s Made does exactly what it says on the tin, explaining how various items are manufactured. It’s the sort of programme I’d want my kids to watch. It nicely demonstrates the message of I, Pencil.

How It's Made

Now I have found the British Touring Car Championship on ITV4, and the rain is making it interesting. I’ll watch that for a bit.

Live British Touring Car Championship

Sites that provide information about, promote, or support the sale of weapons and related items.

Whether this is the result of an oversensitive Bayseian algorithm or some kind of human intervention I have no idea. It certainly doesn’t seem right.

Between different tuning temperaments, that is.

Some people obviously can tell, because people can sell guitars like these.

Hat tip to the person who runs the Neal Stephenson fan page on Facebook — he seems to know just what sort of articles Stephenson fans will enjoy.

At 2 minutes 45 in, have a look at the crash between the police car and the red Clio. I think that at 2m52s it’s obvious what is about to happen and the police driver could have avoided the accident, even if the kid in the car is technically at fault. The cop never concedes anything like this, and even drags out the old I’ve-been-doing-this-for-fifteen-years / he’s-just-passed-his-test non-sequitir. It takes humility to learn from mistakes; there are very few accidents you can’t prevent yourself.

And two-tones are almost useless. It’s almost impossible to hear where they’re coming from and mostly they make drivers panic.

Then fast-forward to 38m40s. The whole exchange between the Irish bloke and the cops is hilarious. He’s driving on two flat tyres, but he does have a point when he says he was not driving dangerously.

The cops in the show seem like good sorts, but I do enjoy the way that as much as these shows try to make the police look like saints, it’s easy to take the side of the scrote.

It’s worth watching the introductory video in which Bill Gates enthuses about what makes Feynman such a good lecturer. The video player requires Silverlight, and has various extras such as pictures, links and text notes relating to various points in the lectures.

Thanks to zapopaul on YouTube who left a comment pointing to the project. Either I have been asleep or this should have been publicised more.

Under the heading “Learn More”, the creators of the video direct us to a Daily Kos article that explains the lyrics more fully. It’s the Daily Kos, but the author of that article admits to having “Hayekian leanings”.

Economics on Facebook and rap videos? Could economics be cool?

I’m particularly impressed with the high quality of camera-work and editing on display here. I found it using something called Google Reader Play, which is a slideshow of interesting movies and videos, and a good way to waste a Friday afternoon.

The people who made the video are called Britanick and they have made many more.

This quality of production is available to anyone.