Society & Culture
Summary: Yes, it's been a few weeks, so the boys have some catching up to do. We get a baby update, some literary recommendations, and some insight into how Matt will be spending his time and money this summer. Follow Up Title suggestions for Matt's blog pouring in Blog will also review food trucks encountered in Matt's wanderings (he's invented a separate evaluation scheme just for the trucks) Matt's notebook went down to Miami Memorial Day weekend to try 4 restaurants Recent comments on open science and reproducibility On The Media interview with Ben Goldacre was good. Best pull-quote: “This issue has been protected by a force-field of its own tediousness.” A MUST READ for sci-enthusiasts and skeptics everywhere: http://io9.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1707251800 Good article on “p-Hacking” and other problems with the way scientists use statistics: http://www.nature.com/news/scientific-method-statistical-errors-1.14700 Matt's takeaway from both items above: There are systemic problems that are clouding our thinking and restricting the advancement of science (especially in areas where the data are noisiest; e.g. the Health Sciences and pop-psych), but thought-leaders across disciplines are waking up to this fact. Awareness in growing, and Bayes will have his day soon. Pint of Science was good for Matt, Jody, and respective partners - Matt saw: Nuclear Medicine, epigenetics, immunotherapy for cancer, Haptics/design Jody attended bacterial resistance, archeological 3D imaging, and waste water recycling Fake Follow Up Podcasts are now on Spotify Jody wants to use this as a jump-off for some Solutioneering to re-invent podcasting, but he’s going to restrain himself since it’s not that kind of episode More podcasting news...Merlin and Siracusa now have a podcast together Jody is excited; 1st episode in his queue now Reconcilable Differences Testing, the AP Exam and John Oliver Matt learned something new about Audacity (also related to testing) Turns out, software used to produce this show can also rescue AP exams Matt researches his next phone/carrier Google Project Fi vs Cricket or StraightTalk. Pros & Cons, etc. Jody recommends Ting (at least they advertise loyally on other podcasts) Matt’s Partner made a Square Space site for her business! It’s been fun watching her figure stuff out for herself, and become her own web designer See it at FamilyCenterofTempleTerrace.com The Goodtimes group is gearing up for another Red Bull Soapbox event. Ideas so far: Lebowski theme (various vehicles), Indiana Jones (Motorcycle & sidecar), slinky (possibly with articulated center and double-ended steering) Summer Matt and Summer lists: Watch all the sports (TDF, WWC, Wimbleton, etc.) Learn some R (the open-source statistical programming language) Jody can help with this one: The R Podcast, now defunct and with some rough audio, but it's worthwhile RStudio, cross platform development environment for R Hadley Wickam and his fantastic R packages Shed project 2.0 Office project 2.0 Refinish floors Ship the Foodie Blog Run 25 Times (80 miles) Help my Dad with his move/new house Sailing Adventures TOPIC: ??? We can't be bothered with a real topic when there's all this follow up.