Today's featured article
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Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions, independently of whether they are true. As a result, people gather new evidence and recall information from memory selectively, and interpret it in a biased way. The biases appear in particular for emotionally significant issues and for established beliefs. Biased search, interpretation and/or recall have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a stronger weighting for data encountered early in an arbitrary series) and illusory correlation (in which people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations). Explanations for the observed biases include wishful thinking and the limited human capacity to process information. Confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Hence they can lead to disastrous decisions, especially in organizational, military and political contexts. ( more...)
Recently featured: La Cousine Bette – 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry – Clements Markham
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Did you know...
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From Wikipedia's newest articles:
... that using concepts described in Sefer ha-Temunah (pictured) the 13th-century Kabbalist Isaac ben Samuel calculated the age of the Universe, a number relatively close to the one estimated by NASA?
... that Chinese MiG pilot Zhang Jihui was credited for shooting down American Sabre ace George Davis on February 10, 1952, until Russian pilot Mikhail A. Averin disputed the claim 40 years later?
... that before "the mouth that roared" was mayor of Jersey City, he was vice-president of Hudson County Community College?
... that the Alma-class ironclads were designed by Henri Dupuy de Lôme as an improved version of the [[French ironclad Belliqueuse ({{{3}}})|French ironclad Belliqueuse ({{{3}}})]] suitable for foreign deployments?
... that the Laurel Run Dam, an earthen embankment dam that failed during the 1977 Johnstown flood, caused a total of US$5.3 million in damages?
... that Garrett Rivas, a placekicker, is the all-time leading scorer in Michigan Wolverines football history?
... that in the history of Gaborone, the city was attacked by South Africa four times, in 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1988, after being accused of harboring African National Congress terrorists?
... that the Hudson Utility Coupe could be used "either as a car or a truck"?
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In the news
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In the final Test match of his career, Sri Lankan international cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan (pictured) becomes the first bowler to take 800 Test wickets.
Greek investigative journalist Sokratis Giolias is fatally shot in Athens, becoming the first reporter assassinated in Greece since 1985.
Two trains collide in West Bengal, India, killing more than 60 people and injuring over 160 others.
In golf, Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa wins The Open Championship at St Andrews, Scotland.
Divers uncover a store of champagne, believed to be the world's oldest, off the coast of the Åland Islands.
Typhoon Conson makes landfall near Hai Phong, Vietnam, after devastating the Philippines, leaving at least 72 people dead.
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On this day...
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July 23: Revolution Day in Egypt (1952)
1793 – After a siege of 18 weeks, French troops in Mainz surrendered to Prussian forces, effectively ending the Republic of Mainz, the first democratic state on the current German territory.
1881 – The International Federation of Gymnastics, the world's oldest international sport federation, was founded in Liège, Belgium.
1983 – The Sri Lankan Civil War began after members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ambushed a convoy of Sri Lanka Army soldiers in northern Sri Lanka, which was followed by large-scale riots carried out by Sinhalas against Tamils that became known as Black July.
1983 – Air Canada Flight 143 crash-landed in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, without loss of life after the crew was forced to glide the aircraft when it completely ran out of fuel.
1995 – Hale-Bopp (pictured), one of the most widely observed comets of the twentieth century, was discovered by two independent observers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, at a great distance from the Sun.
More anniversaries: July 22 – July 23 – July 24
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