Colin Manning

Sex with 21 Women Lowers Risk of Prostate Cancer I saw this story reported today and it stuck me as particularly poor science. As click bait, it is irresistible. It has it all: sex, cancer, an excuse to use the word ejaculation and the conclusion that promiscuity is better than monogamy, unless you're gay. The study found that men who had slept with more than 20 women had significantly lower instances of prostate cancer than those men who slept with less. I have no reason to doubt the numbers.  But many reports of the findings illustrate the classic fallacy of confusing correlation with causation.  I have noticed that on on days when lots of people carry umbrellas, the buses are much fuller.  But it would be wrong to jump to the conclusion that umbrellas cause busses to fill up, and that increasing the  number of umbrellas on our streets would improve bus company revenues.  It is similarly incorrect to conclude that the full busses cause people to c...

I caught an interesting episode of Freakonomics Radio today, and it got me thinking. It described an experiment by Uri Gneezy of U.C. San Diego. He wanted to explore attitudes to competition in men and women and determine if the differences he has observed are innate to the sexes, or if they are acquired from the culture.  He conducted an experiment that gauged people’s attitude to competition and risk, in two different cultures. The first was the Masai in Tanzania.  This is a very patriarchal society and women are not held in high esteem there.  The second culture was the matriarchal Khasi society of India. In this society women have most of the power and make most of the decisions. Participants in the experiments were tasked with throwing tennis balls into a bucket from a distance. The more balls they got in the bucket, the more money they could win. However each participant could chose from two payment options.  A participant could chose the first option and...

I found the photos in this shop window an interesting application of web aesthetics to the real world. They are clearly inspired by Instagram. They have the colour washes, borders, and the square aspect ratio. And note the grids of thumbnails.

My iPhone 3 is like a penis that has lost a few inches.  It was once very impressive and I was so proud of it.  I relished every opportunity to whip it out of my pants and show if off to admirers.  And they were many.  But now not so much. Other men’s are much more impressive these days, and I have had to console myself with the knowledge that although mine isn’t as impressive as it used to be, it’s still perfectly fine and meets my needs. That was until recently. A few of my favorite apps no longer work.  FourSquare was the first to go.  But that was a bit of harmless fun and was no great loss.  Next went Skype.  That was a huge loss.  Even, audio-only Skype was really useful.  I found it so useful that I even switched to a network that allowed it to work without WiFi.  The most recent departure was WhatsApp, which is the messenger of choice in Spain where many of my friends and family live.  I’m quite annoyed by a...

Earlier this year there were a large number of ceremonies in towns small and large, up and down Ireland commemorating the loss of the Titanic 100 hundred years ago. Why? Why are some events considered worth commemorating and some lost lives special? In the next ten years there will be a number of anniversaries in Ireland. It will be interesting so see how each is commemorated. The Great War, the 1916 Rising, the foundation of the state, and the civil war, all occurred just over 90 years ago. Historically Ireland has not placed much value on those who gave their lives in the Great War. Their sacrifice was largely ignored and was in stark contrast to the mythical place that the 1916 Rising occupies in Irish culture. So what about the Titanic? How has it come to occupy such a special place in the popular culture? Perhaps because the tragedy occurred in an era of mass communication, it captured the public imagination. It was a big news story. Perhaps because some rich people died...

When I first caught a glimpse of Supernatural I dismissed it as derivative and more of the same.  All of this territory had been covered before by the X-Files, Buffy, Angel; and Medium and Ghost Whisperer of late.  But the TV universe of the undead is very big and there is plenty of room in the genre for shows like Supernatural to eek out a corner.  The show is bizarrely self-aware of its place within the the genre and often makes references to other shows and movies.  One character is prone to visions and the other compares him to Patricia Arquette and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Although the X-Files had its share of monsters and mutants, most of them had a pseudo scientific explanation. Agent Scully was always on hand to find a mutant gene or toxic chemical to explain them. The other worldly elements of the stories were literally from another world, rather than inhabiting some place between this world and the next. The other story arc of a massive an...