[ExI] New Yorker article: The Truth Wears Off

[Damien Broderick]

>> On Dec 9, 2010 4:12 AM, "spike" <spike66 at att.net

>> Is it not a remarkable coincidence that the efficacy of any medication
>> tends to decline in such a way that it reaches zero at the exact moment the
>> patent on that medication expires.

On 12/9/2010 8:41 AM, Giulio Prisco wrote:
 > A very pragmatic, common sense and probably correct explanation of this
 > effect.

It's hard to see how that applies to most of the cases mentioned in the 
article under discussion, and the attempted generalization from Dr. 
Schooler's findings.

Does corporate manipulation really explain why observed symmetry in barn 
swallows declines over time? Why "a wide range of subjects in ecology 
and evolutionary biology" shows decline effects (according to the article)?

Damien Broderick