A nice examination of the scientific method, embedded as it is in human society

by Sarah G…

The science of seeing what you want to see
[Via Butterflies and Wheels]

The weapons we need to defend scientific objectivity are themselves social practices, Kenan Malik points out.

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A very interesting essay which demonstrates that even though individual researchers might make mistake, particularly in interpretation of data –  they are human, after all – the overall process  (the give and take of peer, review publication and replication, etc.) helps us gain better understandings of the world around us.

Our system of science works well BECAUSE we are human, not just in spite of it. Confirmation bias, the bane of all researchers that are human, can confound a lot of work.

But the more people who examine the work, who bring their own views to the work – particularly an adversarial view – the closer we get to an accurate view of the Natural World.

The start of the citizen BBC?

BBC IS Going To Start Live Broadcasting Field Reports From iPhones
[Via Cult of Mac]

The best camera, as they say, is the one you have with you. The BBC seems to be embracing this fact, and so it’ll be rolling out a special app to its reporters hat will allow them to report on breaking news in the field, right from their iPhone.

The new iPhone functionality will go live to BBC employees later this month, and allow their field reporters to upload video, pictures or audio, then upload it directly to the Beeb on either 3G or WiFi.

According to the BBC’s head of news operations, Martin Turner, “Reporters have been using smart phones for a while now but it was never good quality… Now it is beginning to be a realistic possibility to use iPhones and other devices for live reporting, and in the end if you’ve got someone on the scene then you want to be able to use them.”

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How soon after using ‘official’ reporters to upload news will the BBC have an official app that allows citizens to upload video of breaking events?

It would sure make confiscating cell phones by the police much less useful, since the video would already be out there.

I don’t expect them to just use anyone but, just as some bloggers are actually very good journalists, so too would some citizen. They could essentially act as stringers in specific regions.

I wrote about a TV production studio in the front seat of a car. I think it would be very smart for some media to start encouraging this approach from readers.

Another emerging baseball statistic – Night Owl vs. Early Bird

by uwdigitalcollections

Night owls see 45 point batting average boost under the lights
[Via Ars Technica]

The Associated Professional Sleep Societies is busy holding its 25th Anniversary Meeting in Minneapolis, and the meeting has produced 340 pages of abstracts and a flurry of press releases, generally focused on various aspects of nodding off. One of the exceptions tackled the related issue of circadian rhythms, the daily cycles of sleep and wakefulness, using a somewhat unexpected measure of performance: professional baseball. When it comes to batting, it looks like there may actually be morning people and night owls.

On its own, this isn’t a bit of a shock. Chronotypes exist in many animals, and have been linked to a variety of performance tendencies, with different people peaking at different times of the day. There’s even a survey, the Morningness Eveningness Questionnaire, that helps assign people to one of the two categories in the survey’s title. The shock might be how large the impact of chronotype appears to be at the professional level.

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The Night Owls batted over .300 after 10 at night while the Morning batters were at .252. I can see managers taking into account this tendency when it comes to late game pinch hitters.

I wonder if it follows pitchers also? A closer should be more of a Night Owl for example. And what about other statistical measures, such as slugging average?

I imagine there are some interesting sabermetrics being done right now. Baseball has, in many ways, been timeless by definition. There is no clock to watch.

But I can see coaches starting to watch the clock, as will ball players. “Jeter hits 50 points higher after 10 PM. Slow down the game to get him more time to play AFTER 10.”

A small sample but the results are intriguing enough for a larger study.

Apple vs Nokia: Could Microsoft be the big winner?

by CannedTuna

Timing of Nokia agreement suggests a ‘favorable outcome’ for Apple
[Via AppleInsider]

Though Apple will pay Nokia a one-time sum and ongoing royalties as a result of their new settlement, one analyst believes the timing of the agreement suggests Apple was able to negotiate a favorable outcome.

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Apple wins. Nokia wins. And Microsoft scores at the buzzer!

What a difference a few years makes! Nokia, once the top cell phone maker, is now falling fast. Apple is rising. Nokia made a deal with MS to use Windows on its phones sometime in the future. Nokia has new management. MS buys Skype.

MS is supposedly paying Nokia billions to get Windows on Nokia’s phones. Why not just buy Nokia? Maybe that is what MS would like.

But these lawsuits might hamper that. Not only could Nokia lose, really hurting their IP, but the original purpose for all this may have changed.

Supposedly the suits came about because Nokia wanted more from Apple for licensing the IP than it charged others for the same IP. Because of the way these pools of patents were licensed, there was a requirement to charge Fair and normal licensing fees.

Apple felt Nokia was making an exception for them and refused to pay for the licenses, starting all this cascade of lawsuits.

Back when they started, it was to pressure Apple to give up IP of its own. But in the years since, Nokia has bleed money while Apple just hauls it in. The longer the cases went on, the worse the balance sheet for Nokia.

No one wants to buy a company with lawsuits like this hanging over everyone.

Just as it is easier to fix the roof before you sell a house, Nokia removed some doubt from its balance sheet, adding a lot of dollars to its bottom line. Now they have settled. They get a big paycheck and future licensing, just like everyone else does.

Now Nokia looks much better for its future purchase.

As I wrote earlier, MS needs to have a mobile agenda every bit as strong as Apple, especially if it wants to control its future. Thus it needs to have the OS, the hardware and the apps to allow users to carry on a totally mobile lifestyle beholden to no wireless carriers.

Apple has iOS, the iPhone/iPad and FaceTime. MS has Windows and now Skype. They need the hardware under their control.

I expect them to announce the purchase of Nokia in the next few months.