Daily Archives: 8/29/2005

Can you tell when people lie to you?

Lisa WIlliams provided an interesting link to this Science article which suggests that most people are very poor at detecting liars. Catastrophically, most people actually think they are good at detecting lies.

Kind of like how more than half the drivers on the road think they are above average in skill.

Or, in the same vein:

“Thus, those who are skilled think that they are skilled because they are competent to judge. Those who are unskilled think that they are skilled because they are incompetent to judge. Therefore, whoever you are, you think that you are skilled, and there is no internal way of finding out if you are deluding yourself. The possibility that we are, in fact, all duffers goes a long way toward explaining the sorry state of so many things in the world, in spite of the fact that we each think we could do better if only we had some say in the matter.”

Jef Raskin

Oakland A’s back on top of the AL West

Oakland AthleticsWell, after a couple of weeks where they seemed to be firmly in reverse, the A’s have won five games in a row and are now back atop the AL West, courtesy in part to the Angel’s complete collapse against the Devil Rays. After trying for the sweep today against Baltimore, the A’s will go to Anaheim and then return for a home series against the Yankees. I’ll be out there cheering this weekend.

Update: A’s complete the sweep: 10-5 in 12 innings.

Katrina comes ashore

As I awaken, news reports are coming in from Lousiana and Mississippi regarding hurricaine Katrina. It doesn’t sound too good. They lowered the storm swell expectation in New Orleans from 28 feet to 15, but it still sounds dangerous. Winds have been clocked at 135 mph. I hope that everyone (including any Brainwagon readers) are sheltering in safe locations.

Update: Boing Boing has this link to the New Orleans metblog.