Category: Science
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Hype, Hubs & Hadoop: Some Notes from Strata NY 2013 Keynotes
I didn't physically attend Strata NY + Hadoop World this year, but I did watch the keynotes from the conference. O'Reilly Media kindly makes videos of the keynotes and slides of all talks available very soon after they are given. Among the recurring themes were haranguing against the hype of big data, the increasing utilization…
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The Scientific Method: Cultivating Thoroughly Conscious Ignorance
Stuart Firestein brilliantly captures the positive influence of ignorance as an often unacknowledged guiding principle in the fits and starts that typically characterize the progression of real science. His book, Ignorance: How It Drives Science, grew out of a course on Ignorance he teaches at Columbia University, where he chairs the department of Biological Sciences…
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PRP, Regenokine & other biologic medicine treatments for joint & tendon problems
Science journalist Jonah Lehrer posted an interesting article last week about aging star athletes' embrace of biologic medicine, "Why Did Kobe Go to Germany? An aging star and the new procedure that could revolutionize sports medicine". The article describes Regenokine, a relatively new procedure for treating joint and tendon problems that sounds similar to the…
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Health, science, knowledge, access and elitism: Lawrence Lessig and science as remix culture
I have been an admirer and supporter of Lawrence Lessig's crusade for copyright reform and promotion of remix culture for many years. In a recent talk at CERN, Lessig applied his arguments for a fairer interpretation of fair use in the arts world to opening up the architectures for knowledge access in the world of…
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Innovation, Research & Reviewing: Revise & Resubmit vs. Rebut for CSCW 2012
Research is about innovation, and yet many aspects of the research process often seem steeped in tradition. Many conference program committees and journal editorial boards – the traditional gatekeepers in research communities – are composed primarily of people with a long history of contributions and/or other well-established credentials, who typically share a collective understanding of…
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Reflections on Reviews, Rebuttals and Respect
Having recently served as associate chair for both the CSCW 2011 and CHI 2011 Papers & Notes Committees, I've read a large number of papers, an even larger number of reviews, and a slightly smaller number of rebuttals. In participating in back-to-back committees, a few perspectives and practices that impact the process of scientific peer…
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Virtual Reality, Somatic Cognition, Homuncular Flexibility and Object-Centered Sociality and Learning
Jaron Lanier recently wrote about virtual reality and its potential application to learning, utilizing some evocative terms and offering an educational scenario that reminds me of a seminal 1997 paper that described how a Nobel prize-winning biologist fused with her objects of study. The Saturday Wall Street Journal article gave me a keener appreciation for…
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Creativity, Distractability and Structured vs. Unstructured Procrastination
I have been practicing structured procrastination while allowing a few blog posts to, uh, ferment a bit longer (not to mention other things I want to get done). As evidence, after reading Jonah Lehrer's recent post about unstructured procrastination – Are Distractable People More Creative? – I feel inclined to write about that, rather than…
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Jonah Lehrer’s Metacognitive Guide to College
Jonah Lehrer, the 27 year old author of How We Decide, gave the Opening Days convocation keynote at Willamete University last Friday. After being introduced by Willamette president M. Lee Pelton as “a humanist disguised as a neuroscientist”, Lehrer offered a fun and fascinating whirlwind tour of neuroscience, psychology and sociology, in the context of…