All That Experiments Is Not Science...

All that glitters is not gold.  Not all who wander are lost.  And some people who do experiments are not scientists, but just hacks pursuing an overtly ideological agenda.


Invisibility Cloaks and Knapsacks: How the Advantaged Work to Conceal Privilege 

Taylor Phillips & Brian Lowery 
Stanford Working Paper, January 2016 

Abstract: We suggest the experience of unfair advantage pits two critical motives: the merit motive and the maintenance motive. Together, these motives lead people to mobilize their advantage in order to secure desired outcomes, but to conceal these advantages under the cloak of merit as they do so. In Experiments 1a and 1b, we find that when their advantages are exposed, the wealthy (but not the non-wealthy) claim increased effort at work. In Experiment 2, we show that the social elite claim their social advantages (family connections) were the result of effort, but suggest others’ social advantages were not. In Experiment 3, we find that the wealthy not only claim, but commit greater effort when their class advantages are exposed. Finally, in Experiment 4, we show that the educational elite claim that advantage resources are not useful, but then continue to take these resources and use them to their benefit anyway. 

Lest you think this is an isolated incident, there's more.  A remarkable piece of work.

Show me your O face!

Clic the pic for a more glorious image or go here for individual photos.

Almost heaven

"A West Virginia man found wearing women's underwear and standing over a goat's carcass told police he was high on bath salts.

Mark L. Thompson of Alum Creek was arrested at his home Monday. A criminal complaint in Kanawha County Magistrate Court charges the 19-year-old with cruelty to animals.

Sheriff's Deputy J.S. Shackelford says witnesses reported Thompson standing near a neighbor's pygmy goat in a bedroom. He was wearing a bra and female underwear. The goat, a male named Bailey, had at least one stab wound."


1. Isn't a bra already "female underwear"?

2. bath salts? Party tonight at Bath & Bodyworks people!!!

3. do you snort, inject, drink, or just marinate in the bath salts to get high?

Full article (self recommending), including mug shot is here. I would have posted the mug shot, but didn't want Mungowitz to rip me for doing so!

Chavez's Venezuela is more honest that Kirchner's Argentina

At least in some things. Venezuela's inflation rate last year was the world's highest at 28.2%, Argentina was second at 26.6.

But the big difference was that Venezuela actually reported its inflation rate, while Argentina's government reported an official rate of 10.9%, less than half of the actual rate.

Not only that, but the Kirchner government is attempting to silence critics by fining organizations who dispute the official number!

(earlier we discussed the financial incentives the government has to fudge the number)