It seems kind of important that a doctor can correctly interpret the following scenario: A 40-year old woman has a positive mammography in a routine screening. The doctor is told the following about scanning for breast cancer: 1% of women at age forty who participate in routine screening have breast cancer. 80% of women with … Continue reading Why Everyone Needs to Study Statistics, Even Doctors
This story has been making its way around social media over the past week, so some of you may already be familiar with it. From my perspective, it falls into the category of "Outrageous Behavior". As you can see from the image above, this story revolves around a couple (Doug and Dedra) who recently got … Continue reading How to End a Friendship
This post may seem a bit odd coming just one day after I wrote about the controversy surrounding behavioral economist, Dan Ariely. While I personally don't think it looks good for Dan, I'm hoping it's an isolated incident and it doesn't negate all the other research he has done. Plus, people are supposed to be … Continue reading Practicing, Not YouTubing, Makes Perfect
Many readers of this blog will recognize the name, Dan Ariely. Dan is a world-renowned behavioral economist at Duke University and the best-selling author of several books on decision making. He also writes a biweekly column for the Wall Street Journal in which he answers readers' questions. That column has been a frequent source of … Continue reading Say It Ain’t So, Dan!
Hat tip to Dan Pink for this week's blog post. In this week's Pinkcast, Dan shares an idea that can help us to maximize the benefits associated with mistakes. While we can often learn from our mistakes, it is just as important to be able to move on from them, to put them behind us. … Continue reading Tiny Toilet Offers Big Results
Of course, that's assuming I am correctly interpreting the results of a study recently conducted at the University of Michigan, and that the study was conducted properly. The study, published in the journal Nature Food, is based around healthy life expectancy - the length of time a person has a good quality of life and … Continue reading If I Eat 44 Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches Every Day, I Might Live Forever…
I was watching TV the other day and the following commercial came on for the upcoming VMA awards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0kwzTo2ZLg After watching the commercial, I realized I did not recognize a single name. I guess that's a clear sign that I'm not staying up with the times, but if anyone out there wants to tell me … Continue reading Music Monday: Should I Be Worried That I Never Heard of Any of These Performers?
Across the U.S., colleges are getting ready to start a new academic year. For recent high school graduates, and their parents, it is a momentous occasion. For many of these students, it will be their first time away from parental supervision, and for some of the parents, it will be the first time they won't … Continue reading To Track or Not to Track?
Earlier today I decided to see what was on TV so I could just zone out for a while. Sort of the calm before the storm of classes starting on Monday. As I scrolled through my YouTube TV channel line-up, here are some of the 4:00 pm options I came across: 60 Days In - … Continue reading These Are the Kinds of TV Shows People Watch?!
Eleven years ago New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote an opinion piece titled "We're No. 1(1)!" The title was in reference to a Newsweek ranking of the 100 best countries in the world. The U.S. didn't even make the top 10; we came in at No. 11. Not bad, but it seems that for … Continue reading We’re Number 11, Again! 😦
Borden's Blather 