Instruction for those who would behave too rationally

Ig Nobel Prize winner Dan Ariely is teaching a new online course called “A beginner’s guide to irrational behavior.” Perhaps irrationally, it’s free. Ariely and colleagues Rebecca L. Waber, Baba Shiv, and Ziv Carmon were awarded the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize in medicine for  demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine. [REFERENCE: “Commercial Features of Placebo […]

Irrational Torque Technique of Hammer Throwers

This study explains that the technique of certain hammer throwers is irrational. Below the citation, you can see a video about the comparatively rational techniques of Soviet hammer throwers. “Kinematical Research on the Whole Pace and the Features of the Kip and Knee of the Throwing Technique of Chinese Elite Female Hammer Throwers,” Zhang Jinyi, […]

The Turing Test and “Bill O’Reilly”

This video clip has been much in the news recently. We believe that people have misinterpreted its nature. Is the “man” speaking here really a thinking human being named Bill O’Reilly?  Or is the “man” really a computer artfully built to look and sound like a “thinking” human? Behold the latest entry in the Turing […]