Interesting Articles: Feb 21st-27th 2006

Science: (of some form or another)
* Explaining Ice: The Answers Are Slippery (New York Times). A question nearly as basic as "why is the sky blue?" So simple a question, with such a nuanced complex answer. (Also, I love the double meaning of one quote in the article: "Textbooks are full of it.")
* A Book for People Who Love Numbers (New York Times). A fun source for data miners, with some neat examples of things already gleaned from the book.
* Is Freedom Just Another Word for Many Things to Buy? (New York Times). With a not very appropriate title, the piece summarizes some recent studies regarding the psychology of decision making and how it relates to social class and happiness. If you enjoy it, you may also enjoy the book The Paradox of Choice by the first author of the article. I recently read it and found it to be a good in-depth exploration of these issues, well supported by psychology studies and with thoughtful discussions on how it relates to American culture.

Food:
* Which Cut Is Older? (It's a Trick Question) (New York Times). More ways food producers trick us by hiding signs of freshness.

Medicine:
* Why Doctors So Often Get It Wrong (New York Times). An important read. Fundamentally there are too many different diseases.

Communication and Education:
* To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All About Me (New York Times). While a fairly simplistic article about e-mail in academic settings, I feel like I have to post it given all my past postings of articles about e-mail. The last two paragraphs raise interesting points.
* Science Comes to the Masses (You Want Fries With That?) (New York Times). Bringing the joys of a university to the masses.

Travel:
* A World of Affordable Choices (New York Times). Look for inexpensive housing in up and coming international cities.

Misc:
* A Pop Quiz on Marriage (New York Times). The answers to the quiz (quiz opens in pop-up) reveal some surprising facts. (Apologies that the ugly image-based graphic is hard to read.)