Archive for June 2013

The Best Van Canto Songs According to Facebook

Yesterday, Van Canto asked their followers on Facebook to name their top 5 songs (incl. at least one cover and at least one original song). I aggregated the first 337 responses (excluding those that contain less than two songs). Here is the overall hit list (along with the number of votes):

Graph with Van Canto Song Statistics

You can find some more results below.

Continue reading ‘The Best Van Canto Songs According to Facebook’ »

The Best MTX Songs According to Me

Last year I made this compilation of MTX goodness for romance, road trips and overall awesomeness:

  1. Here She Comes
  2. Swallow Everything
  3. Swiss Army Girlfriend
  4. Dumb Little Band
  5. Lawnmower of Love
  6. Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend
  7. I Love You, But You’re Standing on My Foot (live)
  8. As Life Goes on You Get More and More out of It
  9. New Girlfriend (live)
  10. Sackcloth and Ashes
  11. Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba
  12. The History of the Concept of the Soul
  13. Semi-OK
  14. Jill (live)
  15. She’s My Alcatraz
  16. Will You Still Love Me When I Don’t Love You?
  17. I Fell for You
  18. You’re the Only One
  19. Losers Like You (Dr. Frank, live excerpt)

The Best MTX Songs According to Facebook

About a year ago, Dr. Frank asked about the best MTX songs. He never got around to post the final results, so I compiled the frequencies for your entertainment. There were 145 songs mentioned in 211 comments. Despite this diversity, there is a clear winner:

                                   Song | Frequency 
----------------------------------------+-------------
                        more than toast |         33  
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                    sackcloth and ashes |         20  
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           even hitler had a girlfriend |         17  
 the history of the concept of the soul |         17  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                         ba ba ba ba ba |         15  
                         here she comes |         15  
                     tapin' up my heart |         15  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                       dumb little band |         14  
                               velveeta |         14  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                         i fell for you |         13  
     i wrote a book about rock and roll |         13  
                              king dork |         13  
              she's no rocket scientist |         13  
----------------------------------------+-------------
              ...and i will be with you |         12  
                         deep deep down |         12  
                      fucked up on life |         12  
            last time i listened to you |         12  
                         my stupid life |         12  
                         new girlfriend |         12  
                     swallow everything |         12  
  thank you (for not being one of them) |         12  
                            you you you |         12  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                       at gilman street |         11  
                           love is dead |         11  
                                semi-ok |         11  
                     she's not a flower |         11  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                     book of revelation |         10  
          with my looks and your brains |         10  
----------------------------------------+-------------
            alternative is here to stay |          9  
                           hell of dumb |          9  
i love you, but you're standing on my f |          9  
                              you today |          9  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                       i believe in you |          8  
                      she's my alcatraz |          8  
----------------------------------------+-------------
  a song about a girl who went shopping |          7  
                        checkers speech |          7  
                        danny partridge |          7  
            i just wanna do it with you |          7  
         i'm like yeah but she's all no |          7  
             institutionalized misogyny |          7  
        itching powder in sleeping bags |          7  
                  now that you are gone |          7  
                  swiss army girlfriend |          7  
                       together tonight |          7  
will you still love me when i don't lov |          7  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                   i don't need you now |          6  
                                  naomi |          6  
                            psycho girl |          6  
                     that prozac moment |          6  
                        two-minute itch |          6  
                    you're the only one |          6  
                              game over |          5  
                    how'd the date end? |          5  
                            mr. ramones |          5  
            she's coming (over tonight) |          5  
                        so long, sucker |          5  
the weather is here, wish you were beau |          5  
           tomorrow is a harsh mistress |          5  
                            up and down |          5  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                     dustbin of history |          4  
                      god bless america |          4  
                      hangin' on to you |          4  
                   hello kitty menendez |          4  
                i'd do anything for you |          4  
                    love american style |          4  
          oh just have some faith in me |          4  
                           sex offender |          4  
                some foggy mountain top |          4  
                            spy vs. spy |          4  
                              two of us |          4  
            we hate all the same things |          4  
                       we're not no one |          4  
                    who needs happiness |          4  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                        dictionary girl |          3  
                          disconnection |          3  
          everybody knows you're crying |          3  
           god bless lawrence livermore |          3  
                              hey emily |          3  
                         i feel for you |          3  
                                   jill |          3  
                      lawnmower of love |          3  
                                 london |          3  
                         love manifesto |          3  
                             not guilty |          3  
                            on the team |          3  
    our love will last forever and ever |          3  
                                shining |          3  
                     somebody who cares |          3  
sorry for freaking out on the phone las |          3  
             take all the time you need |          3  
                 the end of the ramones |          3  
    the future ain't what it used to be |          3  
        there's something wrong with me |          3  
                                   zero |          3  
----------------------------------------+-------------
                        all my promises |          2  
                      another yesterday |          2  
           big strange beautiful hammer |          2  
    i don't know where dan treacy lives |          2  
         i made you and i can break you |          2  
 leave the thinking to the smart people |          2  
                       marine recruiter |          2  
                          now we are 21 |          2  
                            one big lie |          2  
                              pig latin |          2  
                              self-pity |          2  
                        somebody's song |          2  
       the girl who still lives at home |          2  
   we are the future people of tomorrow |          2  
                           we'll get by |          2  
                            wearing out |          2  
                          what is punk? |          2  
                        when i lost you |          2  
                              you alone |          2  
----------------------------------------+-------------
             a mind is a terrible thing |          1  
                   a weekend in hogboro |          1  
                        a zillion years |          1  
   are you there god? it's me, margaret |          1  
as life goes on, you get more and more  |          1  
               bitter homes and gardens |          1  
                           boredom zone |          1  
                   bridge to tarabithia |          1  
                      christine bactine |          1  
                                  crash |          1  
                                go away |          1  
          i'm in love with paula pierce |          1  
                            knock knock |          1  
                                 makeup |          1  
                                 martyr |          1  
                master of the situation |          1  
                                perhaps |          1  
                         population: us |          1  
                  reactivate your heart |          1  
                           ready set go |          1  
                     send me a postcard |          1  
                                  sheep |          1  
                                slagbag |          1  
          stephanies of the world unite |          1  
                             supersonic |          1  
                   the empty experience |          1  
                          told you once |          1  
                  two martinis from now |          1  
                 unpack your adjectives |          1  
                         viva la france |          1  
                     weekend at hogboro |          1  
                        what went wrong |          1  
----------------------------------------+-------------

And here’s some album statistics:

                                  Album |  Freqency
----------------------------------------+------------
                           Love Is Dead |        136 
       Revenge is Sweet, and So Are You |        110 
                  Our Bodies Our Selves |        101 
    ...And the Women Who Love Them (EP) |         55 
                        Yesterday Rules |         54 
                               Alcatraz |         52 
      Night Shift at the Thrill Factory |         48 
                     Milk Milk Lemonade |         45 
               Making Things with Light |         35 
   Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood (EP) |         33 
Everybody's Entitled to Their Own Opini |         17 
              The Miracle of Shame (EP) |         14 
   Show Business Is My Life (Dr. Frank) |          6 
----------------------------------------+------------

Replicate My Work!

Scientific work requires transparency. There is no mad genius in his/her lonely tower working for years on end on some great invention. While it may be true that professors have little time for anything but their research, they communicate their findings (along with their methods). Science is a social enterprise. Primed by Gary King‘s essay “Replication, Replication” (1995) and lectures by Rainer Schnell, I arrived at the conclusion that a scientific workflow must be a reproducible workflow. I do think that making replication material broadly available is a good thing for everyone involved.

Replication materials for my recent publications can now be found online. Maintaining a reproducible workflow is hard work but rewarding. Looking back, I could have improved a lot of things (without changing the results, mind you). It felt a bit awkward at first. Soon enough it felt even more awkward to have waited so long to put up the material. I wish I could share more of my older publications (and also raw data) but privacy laws, work contracts, and fellow psychologists who are highly skeptical of these ideas keep me from doing so.

Hopefully, the present material is just the beginning. Sadly, most psychologists do not share their materials publicly so I had to figure out most stuff on my own. I decided against third-party repositories because some focus solely on data sets whereas others are somewhat difficult to handle. So I wrote the HTML by hand hoping that a plain format allows for longevity. Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements.