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Weekend Reads 5/19/18

Why you hear “Laurel” or “Yanny” in that viral audio clip, explained

“There’s just enough ambiguity in this fairly low-quality recording that [some] people are hearing it one way and some people are hearing it another,” Brad Story, the associate department head of speech, language, and hearing sciences at Arizona State University, told me.

Humans typically pay attention to three different frequencies when they’re listening to speech. Story said the lowest of the three frequencies is “absolutely essential” for the L’s and R’s — the consonants that make up “Laurel.”

Meet the financial adviser who tells pro video gamers how to spend their $250K incomes

Some gamers find themselves suddenly “accidental business owners,” Herbst de Cortina said. As independent contractors, he advises them to separate their business and personal finances. There’s a growing cottage industry of lawyers, e-sport managers and accountants who advise gamers.

How Shoddy Statistics Found A Home In Sports Research

The spreadsheets then calculate whether an observed effect is likely to be beneficial, trivial or harmful and use statistical calculations such as confidence intervals and effect sizes to produce probabilistic statements about a set of results.

In doing so, those spreadsheets often find effects where traditional statistical methods don’t. Hopkins views this as a benefit because it means that more studies turn up positive findings worth publishing. But others see it as a threat to sports science’s integrity because it increases the chances that those findings aren’t real.

Senate votes to overturn Ajit Pai’s net neutrality repeal

Democrats face much longer odds in the House, where Republicans hold a 236-193 majority. Republicans have a slim majority in the Senate, but Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) broke ranks in order to support net neutrality and common carrier regulation of broadband providers.

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