Psephology (“Lore of Pebbles”) is the statistical analysis of elections.

How do you pronounce it – [Sifolodschi], I guess?

– via Basti

In the US, polygraphs (lie detectors) are still widely used by law enforcement – in spite of the fact that they rely on measuring physiological excitement.

“You have not slept and were treated badly for the last 24 hours. We are three bullies in police uniforms, and we are armed. We want to know if you commited a crime. We are screaming at you.
Wait, the polygraph tells me … you are sweating! And your heart is beating fast! You must be guilty!”

This is unbelievable.

In 1988, the “Employee Polygraph Protection Act” was signed. It states that companies must not force (potential) employees to take polygraph tests in order to employ or sack them.
The idea behind this law is not that polygraphy is nonsense, but that employees’ privacy (!!) must be protected.

Again, unbelievable.

(Source: tagesschau.de)

“Der Augenblick ist nichts als der wehmütige Punkt zwischen Verlangen und Erinnerung.

– Robert Musil

Come to the dark side, we have cookies.
In the mailbox :) …

Thank you so much.

(1) Why pirates save the environment
The pirate raids in the seas east of Africa have had a significant impact on the environment: international trawlers that were illegally fishing there for years have apparently been avoiding the shores, which led to a dramatic increase in fish stock. In Mogadishu (capital of Somalia), the growing supply has led to decreasing prices, thus people who live there can actually afford to eat fish for the first time in many years. So far, most of the fish was exported.
(Source: sz-online.de)

(2) Why there is beauty in architecture
I have not seen anything like that before … take yourself 12 minutes, relax, get a cup of tea and a blanket, and watch this. Please.
And after you realize that this is nearly 100% rendered (this is not filmed, it was created with a computer), I hope you’re as amazed as I am.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bike-activists repainted a previously removed bike lane in Brooklyn. The anonymous civilians also made a video in which they document and explain their actions.

Treehugger.com states:

A few sources are reporting that men were arrested yesterday for trying to re-paint a bike lane on a 14-block stretch on Bedford avenue in Brooklyn. The bike lane was recently removed by the city because of complaints by some local groups (the usual stuff about having fewer parkings and “hurting local businesses”).

Unfortunately, the men were arrested. And since the whole thing took place in the US, let’s hope they are not going to get their hands hacked off (or something similar).

“Maybe it gets easier to believe once you go somewhere new, once you get to be who you are – instead of who you had to be in order to get by
where you were.”

– Joey Comeau

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”

– Bertrand Russel

I like weird data and facts.

The magazine brand eins just released a book full of numbers – “Die Welt in Zahlen – 2010” – which is highly recommendable. I hope they don’t mind if I translate a couple of items into English to make a bit of advertising.

• Pirate assaults on ships in 2003: 445
• Pirate assults on ships in 2008: 293
• Increase in piracy-insurance in the last 12 months: 900%

• Turnover made by Real Madrid in season 07/08 (in million Euro): 366
• Turnover by all German football, handball, icehockey and basketball clubs together in the same time: 500

• Worldwide turnover with digital music in 2004 (in billion dollars): 0.4
• Worldwide turnover with digital music in 2007: 3.7
• Number of illegal downloads per legal download: 8