Recently, Sharon Begley of Newsweek wrote about psychologists’ unwillingness to utilize proven scientific methods in their practices.  For example, Begley points out that rigorous clinical trials show that cognitive and cognitive-behavior therapies are effective against depression, panic disorder, bulimia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.  Instead she brings to our attention that:
“Millions of patients are instead receiving chaotic mediation therapy, facilitated communication, dolphin-assisted therapy, eye-movement desensitatization, and… well, ’someone once stopped counting at 1,000 forms of psychotherapy in use,’ says (Univesity of Wisconsin professor Timothy B.) Baker.”
Dolphin-assisted therapy, huh?  …

So, I’m through Newsweek this weekend, and I run across a quote from Goucher College mathematician Robert Lewand, where he said:
“Somebody in the governor’s office was just having a little fun.”
What Dr. Lewand was describing was the result of a recent veto by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  So, what could have brought this so much attention?
Well, it turns out that the statement accompanying Gov. Schwarzenegger’s veto came with a subliminal, more obscene message.  Here’s what the actual statement said:

“For some time now I have lamented the fact that major issues are …

There’s a new book out by NYU Professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita called “The Predictioneer’s Game“.
Bueno de Mesquita combines game theory and computer modeling to make predictions on global events and happenings.  You can read more about his book here.  I’ve read about him before – I think that he’s got a really interesting handle on how people and groups interact with one another…
Just for kicks, here are a few things that he predicts would happen (exerpted from the latest edition of Newsweek magazine):
- If the U.S. doubles its aid …

Here was an interesting post that I saw from a blog (that actually found me!…) from Andy Swan
It resonated with me because I’m actually really lucky at finding parking spaces lately.  Ask Stephanie and Monroe – they’ll tell you…
Or at least tell you how much I tell them that I’m lucky at finding parking spaces…

Cool info that I ran across from Seth Godin about where most of the internet “clicking” comes from:
Turns out that 85% of all display ad clicks come from only 8% of all internet users…  So who are these ads targeting anyway?…
Read Seth’s analysis and also the original article from Jack Loechner…

I was reading through my latest copy of Fortune magazine this morning, and ran across a blurb that I found interesting enough to share…
First off, the way we make progress in anything we do is by being honest with the world presents to us, and then figuring out how to interpret it properly.  So you have to have some sort of metric – like a statistic – to gauge things by.
For example, if you’re trying to lose weight, weighing yourself every morning and keeping track of this metric is, well, …

For a long time, I’ve wanted an outlet to share what I’ve learned and help others out in the process.  I haven’t been very good at getting to the right answer (but, then again, when do we?…)  A great article by Penelope Trunk got me going (so, I should probably thank her for getting me “back in the game”…)
So, I’ve decided to start posting again with what I’m genuinely interested in.  I’ll see how that works – I may switch things around again in the future…
I dig science, math, and …