Inside the Meltdown: How Economy Failed

One of the benefits of waking up at 5 AM to exercise is catching interesting documentaries.

The US Economy is Officially in the Recession

Converting Japan to Communism One Manga at a Time

I reported previously that Japanese youth is turning to communism lately. The book Kanikōsen was a hit, and it looks like we might see another one. The “publishing phenomenon of the year” will be unleashed next month: manga based on Das Kapital by Karl Marx…

Global Gender Gap Report 2008

Through the Global Gender Gap Reports, for the past three years the World Economic Forum has been providing a framework for quantifying the magnitude of genderbased disparities, tracking their progress over time and designing effective measures reducing them.

Japan’s Working Poor

I mentioned recently that many young Japanese are turning to the Communist Party. This is another article describing the situation in Japan.

Future of Food in Japan (Video)

The Tokyo-based Groovisions motion graphic design crew has created a stylishly animated educational video for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), which highlights some of the issues surrounding the future of food in Japan. (Pink Tentacle)

Fight Poverty by Playing Games

Today is October 15, a Blog Action Day 2008 to discuss poverty.

Why Current Publication Practices May Distort Science

This is an interesting recent article by Neal S. Young, John P. A. Ioannidis, Omar Al-Ubaydli published in PLoS Medicine. The essay applies principles of economics to the current system of publication in biomedical research.

Science can be viewed from various standpoints, not only from that of epistemology: for example, we can look at it as a biological and or as a sociological phenomenon. As such, it might be described as a tool, or an instrument, comparable perhaps to some of our industrial machinery. Science may be regarded as a means of production…
Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1932