Assorted Links

• Five books about cities, including Jane Jacobs: “intellectual success but practical failure”.
• Talk by Beatrice Golomb (UCSD med school prof) about biases in drug research. Impressive. For example, favorable studies are more likely to be published than unfavorable studies. (Favorable = favorable to drug company.) First they buy the politicians. Then they buy the medical journals.
• Golomb shows how the term “placebo effect” deceives researchers.
• Some medicine does more harm than good. “More health care often means worse health.” Before you take any more medicine (e.g., drugs, surgery, screening tests) read this (by Sharon Begley, who covers science for Newsweek).
• Arrival cities: “the world’s next chapter”.

Thanks to Hal Pashler, Dave Lull and Mike Bowerman.