New Horizons: David Freedman from New Horizons in Education

Bob Kustra interviews David Freedman about his book, "Wrong" about why experts get it wrong and how to discern when their advice is off target.

Download the New Horizons podcast here. Last month, The Atlantic published an article by Freedman called, "Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science." In the article, he describes biostatistician's presentation that asked: "were drug companies manipulating published research to make their drugs look good?" This is the way that the protagonist of Freedman's story is introduced, Dr. John Ioannidis; "Ioannidis has spent his career challenging his peers by exposing their bad science." The article's definitely worth the time; find it here. See also, this New Yorker article, by Jonah Lehrer. The article's called, "The Truth Wears Off: Is there something wrong with the scientific method?" Find that New Yorker article here.

David Helfenbein: How Malcolm Gladwell Misses the Mark in His Recent New Yorker Piece on Social Revolution from The Huffington Post Blog by David Helfenbein

When Malcolm Gladwell spoke at my alma mater during the first week of classes a number of years ago, I believed in him because I thought he believed in the future generations. After reading his latest piece, I'm not so certain that he does anymore.

Read the full Huffington Post, *post* here. Of course the bloggers out there are going to come out in droves. It's kind of a debate that's going on. You're getting all sorts of reactions to this. Check this Guardian piece out, out just a bit ago. And here's the Malcolm Gladwell piece on The New Yorker started it all: "Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted". See also: Outliers: The Story of Success, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Mathematician Claims New Yorker Defamed Him from Slashdot by kdawson

An anonymous reader writes, "Last month the New Yorker ran the article 'Manifold Destiny', by Sylvia Nasar, author of 'A Beautiful Mind.' Now a renowned Harvard mathematics professor, Dr. Shing-Tung Yau, is claiming the article defamed him. His attorney wrote the New Yorker a letter (PDF) threatening that Yau will have 'no choice but to consider other options' if Nasar, her co-author, and the New Yorker fail to undo the damage done."

Read the full post here.