OCT 07
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Up the High Street - soon(er than you think )
[ Op. Ed. on the Urban Challenge ]
Readers might want to brace themselves for an imminent media-surge of thought-free press-release regurgitation - subject :
Autonomous Combat Vehicles . . .
The word ‘ university ‘ appears more than 40 times in the competition brochure – unusually perhaps, considering that many universities - up to their necks in über-tech arms R&D - tend to keep rather successfully quiet about such activities.
But on this occasion, they are happy to ‘ out ’ themselves : for the Urban Challenge.
MIT, Cornell, Princeton, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, Caltech & etc etc etc - all competing ( with funding from taxpayers and private companies running into 10$ of Million$ ) towards the US government’s stated goal that :
' . . . by 2015, one-third of the operational ground combat vehicles are unmanned '
In this case the focus is on urban combat vehicles, but necessarily, the brochure neglects to say which towns and cities they might have in mind – my guess is that near-future Autonomous Urban Combat Vehicles probably won’t be reading many road signs written in English. And they'll still be running on Middle-Eastern oil.
And it goes without saying that the coporate $ponsor$ includes all the usual suspect when it comes to blue-chip multinational weapons manufacturers.
Slightly less expected perhaps :
And one which is hedging its bets across several teams
Happy ? Hope so, because one way or another, it’s your round.
30 OCT 07 (Op.Ed)
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Expanding Within-Forest Mysteriousness.
Professor Herzog from Grand Valley State University, Michigan, has been exploring forests for more than twenty years now.
He’s particularly interested in a property they have - a property called :
' Mystery'
Back in 1984 one of his first forays into the subject used Factor
Analysis to
discover three important ' dimensions ' in forest settings
:
• Unconcealed Vantage Point
• Concealed Vantage Point , and
• Large Trees.
( Especially Large Old Trees. And even more so, Large Old Trees next to Curvy Pathways. )
This led in turn to more research on the Mystery ( and the perceived dangers ) associated with Curvy Pathways ( as opposed to straight ones ).
The professor has just provided a further update on the subject, with the publication of the Nov 1st edition of Environment and Behavior.
The new study looked at the reactions of participants to 70 Within-Forest Settings – and has concluded that :
“ . . . when properly understood, mystery tends to be positively related to preference. “ [ for forest settings ].
And, to try to clarify the forest/mystery effect still further, a new definition of Mystery has been developed ( one which excludes surprise ) -
' Expanded Mystery ' .
29 OCT 07
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Optimism Bias in Greenwich Village.
The latest research from New York University has taken us a step closer to possibly understanding why humans tend to be optimistic. Some say overly optimistic.
The answer lies in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala.
Using realtime fMRI to examine volunteers’ brains ( while they tried to imagine positive future events relative to negative ones ) it was determined that both regions of the brain were involved in optimistic thoughts and feelings.
“ . . . suggesting a key role for areas involved in monitoring emotional salience in mediating the optimism bias. “
Sadly though, the researchers go on to point out that :
“ These are the same regions that show irregularities in depression, which has been related to pessimism. “
Rendering the university’s press-release headline “ Study Reveals How the Brain Generates the Human Tendency for Optimism “ perhaps slightly overstated.
Either way, we now know that these parts of the brain are likely to be involved. The
details though are still sketchy . . . But we have no idea how.
26 OCT 07 ( midday edition )
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A lucky strike in the archives
What was ‘ Project Big Boy ‘ ?
Think :
• ‘ Provides macho/assertive image enhancement. ‘
• ‘ 27 or 28mm circumference. ‘
• ‘ Possibly longer lasting ’
Yes, it was (maybe) going to be a cigarette.
‘ Project Big Boy ‘ was the brainchild of US tobacco company Brown & Williamson ( later to become part of the R.J. Reynolds and British American Tobacco (BAT) group )
While you’re reading the relevant document, bear in mind that it was part of a batch of several thousand pages ‘ donated ‘ unsolicited to the University of California’s Tobacco Control Archives in 1994.
Brown & Williamson went to the San Francisco Superior Court, then the Court of Appeals, and eventually the California Supreme Court to try to prevent their public release.
They failed, and the documents were finally made publicly available in July 2002.
Since then, Project Bigboy has been languishing in the archives - largely in repose - until now.
؟ ؟ ؟
Readers wondering what Brown_&_Williamson are up to now may like to visit their website : but unfortunately will find it’s dead. ( though the domain registration is still alive-and-well in Wilmington, Delaware - registered to BAT )
Some may find this decidedly low-profile stance odd, since several of their old brands are going strong to this day ( though BigBoys are not amongst them. )
In any event, although the website has expired, thanks to another archive – this time the Internet Archive - we’re able to retrieve some of their old pages : like this one which poses ( and then attempts to answer ) a still very poignant question . . .
26 OCT 07
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Monkey #2
Dario Maestripieri, Associate Professor in Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago, has been studying monkeys – specifically Rhesus Macaques – for more than 20 years.
Over the years, the professor has been struck by the complex social strategies used by the second most successful primate on the planet.
Some examples :
“ High-status macaques maintain their rank through deft uses of violence and manipulation . . . “
“ Dominant monkeys use frequent and unpredictable aggression as an effective form of intimidation. Less powerful members of the rhesus macaque group are marginalized and forced to live on the edges of the group’s area, “
“ When warfare begins, even a low-ranking rhesus loner becomes an instant patriot. Every drop of xenophobia in rhesus blood is transformed into fuel for battle,”
Sound familiar ? Check today’s international news headlines.
The professor has coined a new word which sums it all up :
Macachiavellian.
Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World has recently been published by University Of Chicago Press.
25 OCT 07
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Net
The Royal Netherlands Lawn Tennis Association (KNLTB) has just published the results of a meta-study ( a review of the results of 46 previous studies ) examining the question of whether playing tennis is good for you.
Results : broadly yes.
“ People who choose to play tennis appear to have significant health benefits, including improved aerobic fitness, a lower body fat percentage, a more favourable lipid profile, reduced risk for developing cardiovascular disease, and improved bone health. “
The results are published in the latest issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine. (BJSM).
Intriguingly ( and perhaps confusingly ) though, the very same Tennis-Special issue of the BJSM also carries reviews of some of the injuries caused by playing tennis : e.g.
Lunate stress injury
Overuse-related dorsal wrist pain
Lateral epicondylitis
Generalised Elbow injuries
Stress-induced injury to the middle and distal humerus
Apophyses of the ischial tuberosity
Calcifications in the rotator cuff tendons
Pars injuries
Facet joint arthroses
Peroneal tendon disorders, and
Rectus abdominis muscle strains
؟ ؟ ؟
Possible further research : The health tradeoffs in spectator consumption of champagne and strawberries.
Update:
Further research may not be needed after all. Reader Carmelita kindly points us towards this press release from the Royal Society of Chemistry earlier this year.
24 OCT 07
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Postfailure satisfaction enhancement possibilities
Two universities from Virginia in the US have pooled resources to come up with a radical new concept for improving relations between ‘ service providers ‘ and their customers.
In their paper, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Service Research, the authors introduce the concept of :
Recovery Voice . . .
Their idea “ . . . entails a service provider asking a customer ( after a failure has occurred ) what the firm can do to rectify the problem. “
Theory is one thing, but could this new against-the-grain approach really be successfully shoehorned into call-centre work-practices ?
Answer : Yes.
In two studies - with a total of 424 participants, it was discovered that the application of Recovery Voice “ resulted in higher overall postfailure satisfaction “
23 OCT 07
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Consumerism - Bluff City
If you happen to be in Memphis towards the end of this week, why not check out the four-day 2007 North American Conference of the Association for Consumer Research which will be held at the elegantly refurbished Peabody Hotel.
There, you’ll be able to find out about :
• Inaction inertia
• Populence-popular opulence.
• Two-sidedly communicated advertisements.
• And which is best : “ buy one, get one free ” or “ buy two, get 50% off ”
The conference is designed to facilitate “ intellectual exchanges, research collaborations and professional development. “
( Conference registration also includes a free bus ride to and from Tunica, a town known for its casinos and restaurants, and all attendees will receive $10 casino money plus a $3 discount coupon for their buffet dinner. )
Here’s some quotes to give a flavour of what’s on offer :
“ . . . Findings suggest that a price increase
due to a decrease (increase) in supply (demand) is fairer than a price increase
due to an increase in
consumer wealth. “
“
. . . We predict that viewers evaluate happy commercials more favorably than
sad commercials following happy programs, and that they evaluate sad commercials
more favorably than happy commercials following sad programs. “
“
. . . Conspicuous consumption enables relatively worse-off consumers to jump
ahead of more people (and hence gain more status) in equal societies than
in unequal ones. “
“ . . . It has been claimed that consumers do not seek products and services as such, but rather the positive experiences these may yield. “
Note : Really Magazine has tried its best to navigate the ACR07 website - but has singularly failed to find out one rather important detail about the event - the price.
Maybe you’ll have more luck,
22 OCT 07
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*Sensible advice.
There’s rarely a shortage of ‘ happiness studies ‘ being
published, and yesterday a new one appeared – from the University of
Virginia.
Psychology professor Shigehiro Oishi surveyed more than 350 college students in Japan, Korea and the United States over a three-week period.
Participants completed daily surveys on 50 personal ‘ events ‘ ( positive and negative ) along with their daily satisfaction levels - the subsequent dataset was then subjected to multilevel random coefficient model analyses, revealing that, in general :
“ . . . the more positive events a person has, the more they feel the effects of a negative event "
The professor gives an example :
" It is like the person who is used to flying first class and becomes very annoyed if there is a half-hour delay. But the person who flies economy class accepts the delay in stride."
And he's distilled the findings into a tenet for those who wish to achieve the highest levels of contentment.
His advice: " Don't try to be happier."
20 OCT 07
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Wormholes in South Lambeth
Enthusiasts of Yilmaz theory, Brans-Dicke theory , and the Krasnikov Tube will no doubt already know about it – but Really Magazine can inform others that the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) is hosting a symposium on the 15th Nov. in London – subject :
' Warp Drive, Faster Than Light : Breaking the interstellar distance barrier. '
A series of distinguished international guest speakers will discuss Flyby Anomalies, Warp Drives, Traversable Wormholes and more.
The experts' consensus is that physics theory, as currently understood, implies that Warp Driving is feasible ( though technologically well out of reach at present )
“ In 1994 Miguel Alcubierre used Einstein’s theory of gravity to design a metric that resembled a bipolar distortion otherwise known as a spherical warp bubble in spacetime. This suggested the possibility of effectively enabling a vehicle to move across enormous stellar distances in a short transit time “
Since then, more than 50 international scientific papers have been published about the subject.
( Entry to The Warp Drive Symposium costs around £60 and a free vegetarian lunch is included. )
؟ ؟ ؟
Dr. McCoy -- " Please, Spock, do me a favor ... 'n' don't say it's `fascinating'..."
Spock -- " No... but it is... interesting..." ( Star
Trek : The Ultimate Computer – 1968 )
19 OCT 07
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“ Leicester – we have a problem . . . “
Regrettably, Really Magazine was one of the few publications on the planet that missed last weeks press-release from the University of Leicester which, in partnership the UK’s National Space Centre has been instrumental in the development of ( the concept of ) a new unit of currency for Travelex United Kingdom .
The new cash is for use in – the universe.
They have boldly decided to call the new form of cash Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination or QUID.
The PR campaign seems to have worked astronomically well – it’s only been on the cyber-streets for a week or so, and has already generated more than 45,000 references in Google.
The university’s Space Research Centre clearly have a well developed sense of humour too :
“ . . . the currency should be meaningful for any intelligent life we might encounter in other planetary systems.”
Odd then. that when the tongue-in-cheek campaign had the finger
of fun pointed at it by the Laboratorytalk blog – a ‘ sense of humour failure ‘ (SOHF)
quickly seemed to take hold in Leicestershire .
The university department’s response was rapid – and even
went so far as to include the L-word ' lawyers '
But Russ Swan – editor of laboratorytalk – was not deterred – and is now asking centre ( and its director ) :
“ How much (in Earth money) are you being paid
? “
Seems like a reasonable question – in fact, Really Magazine was wondering almost the very same thing.
Watch this space . . .
؟ ؟ ؟
Update: Further archival-digging has persuaded us that yes, the University of Leicester does have a keen sense of humour.
18 OCT 07
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The fruits of Bayesian AI
from G**gle . . . (follow their link)
17 OCT 07 (midday edition)
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Emitting or Omitting brilliance
There is of course a long history of studies on Light and Luminosity – but
until now there have been very few which have looked at :
“ . . . how lightscapes and shadows are used socially to manipulate, orchestrate, and affect the experiences and materiality of places, people and things relating for example to notions of identity, cultural heritage, security, honour, personhood, hospitality, etc. “
This lack of anthropological illumination was highlighted in a 2006 article on the Material World blog from NYU.
And now the author has addressed the problem, with a research paper which has just been published in the Journal of Material Culture - pointing out that :
“ . . . understanding light as a powerful social agent, in its relationship with people, things, colours, shininess and places, may facilitate an appreciation of the active social role of luminosity in the practice of day-to-day activities. “
Light : where would be be without it ?
17 OCT 07
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EU-phemisms
PPP is the official EU acronym for ‘ Plant Protection Product ‘. They have been in the news recently because of a new European Space Agency backed satellite service to compare agricultural crop sites across Europe – in other words, to remotely monitor the activities of Big Pharma and Big Farmer.
But Really Magazine has struggled to find a definition of exactly what PPPs are – and why they’re not just called ‘ pesticides ‘.
Here’s some help from the German Govt.’s Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety :
“ Plant protection products are substances which
are intended to protect plants or plant products against animals, plants,
micro-organisms or diseases.
Substances which destroy plants, regulate growth or inhibit germination are
also regarded as plant protection products. “
[ We’d normally try to insert a poignant punch-line here – but our verve has been sapped and has withered on the vine. ]
16 OCT 07
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MDEs @ Work
Full-time workers who feel they have the most depressing job imaginable now have a yardstick.
Just published by the Office of Applied Studies in their NSDUH Report. They cross-referenced a list of occupations against the likelihood of suffering an MDE ( Major Depressive Episode).
The worst-off occupational categories were found to be Personal Care and Service – where 10.8% reported suffering an MDE in the past year.
Closely followed by Food Preparation and Service - at 10.3%
And anyone contemplating an escape-route by choosing a career in the Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports and Media, will be disappointed to find out that the rate in those fields is still a disheartening 9.1%
The list reveals that Engineers, Architects and Surveyors are the least likely to become depressed – with only(!) 4.3% suffering an MDE.
؟ ؟ ؟
Further reading :
The OAS has also produced a list of the US states where MDEs are least ( and most ) likely to occur.
Combing the two reports, it’s clear that if you are considering becoming
a Personal Care and Service worker then it might be best if you can adopt
Alaska as your home ( rather than California or New York )
15 OCT 07
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Lord of the Boardroom.
Mythopoetics
may not have been fully explored as a corporate leadership strategy – but at least a start has been made.
The latest research on the subject has just been published in the journal Organizational Dynamics.
Unluckily, the journal abstract is a little light on details – but Really Magazine has managed to track down more solid info here : as provided by the Southern Methodist University - Cox School of Business.
Where we learn :
“ Mythopoetic leadership is a framework for developing robust corporate cultures based on myths “
Bearing in mind that employees of large companies can at times feel baffled trying to unravel the underlying wisdom of the leadership strategies adopted by their corporate bosses – the research team advise that Mythopoetics might help.
“ The language of myth helps people make sense out of their organizational life. “
Think : Storytelling, Rituals, Living Books etc etc
؟ ؟ ؟
Disambiguational note :
The mythopoetics referred to above lean more towards the thoughts of Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces) rather than, say, J.R.R.Tolkien (Lord of the Rings) - who coined the word mythopoeia in the 1930s - but whose ideas may or may not be all that appropriate as a leadership style guide.
13 OCT 07
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Being there
Computationalism ( the idea that the workings of the human mind can be meaningfully compared to a computer ) has its fans but also its detractors. Many have pointed out that, taken to a logical extreme, the theory would necessarily imply the possibility ( the probability even ) of Philosophical Zombie-ism.
But now William Randall, Associate Professor in Gerontology St. Thomas University, Canada, has come up with an alternative mind-metaphor – a more organic approach which sidesteps some of the computationalist enigmas.
The Compost Heap.
His ideas are described in a paper just published in the journal Theory & Psychology
“ . . . the paper considers four entailments of the compost heap analogy that may serve, very roughly, as counterparts to such concepts as encoding, storage, and retrieval. They are: laying it on, breaking it down, stirring it up, and mixing it in. “
Perhaps the answer really does lie in the soil . . .
11 OCT 07
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The Beyond . . .
Later this week Malaysia’s first astronaut will be taken into orbit.
He has been maintaining a blog outlining his aspirations, preparations, duties and worries.
Today’s entry concentrates on food : what will he eat in space ? – especially considering the implications of any possible religious requirements.
Find out here :
Oddly perhaps, religious philosophy didn’t seem to have featured all that strongly in the core-reasons facilitating his trip in the first place : the $25 million excursion was negotiated on the back of a Malaysian arms-deal with Russia in 2003. Worth nearly a billion dollars.
( Source: AP via International Herald Tribune )
Readers who want to further explore some religious implications of space travel – e.g
Recommended dress code in space :
(males) ‘ covered from navel to the knee.’
(females) ' entire body covered except for her face and hands below the wrist. '
could try this ( apparently genuine) document provided online by Wired Magazine
09 OCT 07
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Turning 'problems' into opportunities :
The big majority of humans are not truly ambidextrous – and that of course includes cricketers.
A team from the Australian Institute of Sport, and the School of Human Movement Studies, at Queensland University of Technology recently set up an experiment to test whether perhaps high-performance cricket players would be at a disadvantage if they bowled with the ‘ wrong ‘ arm.
Analysis of 140 experimental digitized-video test throws showed that, yes, they were.
But the researchers feel that this can be looked upon as possible advantage rather than a drawback.
“ Training a non-dominant limb may increase a
competitor's ability to perform with either side of his or her body and confer
an advantage over competitors
that use one side of the body exclusively. ”
The research has just been published in the journal Sports Biomechanics
08 OCT 07
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Quick means bad ?
In the consumer research field, ‘ Duration Heuristic ‘ theories refer to the idea that consumers often rate a service’s quality depending on the time it takes.
Previous research has shown that usually, the longer a service takes, the better value it’s considered.
Now researchers from the National University of Singapore and the University of Toronto, Canada, have verified the theory again – and have taken things one step further - showing that even when it would be advantageous for a service to finish quicker, consumers still feel they are getting better value if it takes longer.
For example, they found that consumers evaluated the price of a lock-picking service as a better value when the service took longer than when the lock was picked faster.
Disheartening as that may sound, the team continue to urge respect for the consumer :
“ Human beings use heuristics because they are smart – they come up with shortcuts to simplify decisions that are less important so that they can spend more resources on decisions that are more important ”
The paper has just published in the current issue of the rarely disappointing
Journal
of Consumer Research. - here's a link to the full paper.
05 OCT 07
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The AMG6T moon.
Thursday ( 4th Oct ) is International Sputnik Day.
A number of events are scheduled across the globe ( dinners, discussions, gigs, parties etc ) to commemorate the launch of the first man-made Earth-orbiting object on October 4, 1957.
It inaugurated a decades-long international taxpayer-funded military-industrial-complex tech-fest at the time - and appropriately enough, to this day, considerable controversy exists regarding various aspects of Sputnik 1. . .
various replicas have been made, but they don’t look 100% like the original –
and several ‘ recordings ‘ of its famous broadcasted bleep exist – but some are clearly fakes.
Here’s what it really looked like, ( probably )
and what it really sounded like ( probably )
02 OCT 07
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The Scientist Who Mistook Humans as Unique.
Dr. Oliver ( man/mistook/wife/hat ) Sacks is about to launch his new book about Musicophilia.
As part of the launch-effort he gave an interview to Brazil’s O Globo newspaper, published yesterday – here’s a quote :
“ . . . no other animal has the capacity to hear and analyse complex sounds with tones, semitones, rhythms, and words. This capacity is specifically human .“
Really ?
And how can we be sure of that ?
What about Birds ? Whales ? And who knows, Dolphins, Bats, Elephants, Cicadas , Snapping-prawns ?
How do we know they can’t send complex and meaningful emotionally charged sound-poems to each other ?
Like all his other books, Musicophilia will undoubtedly be replete with thought-provoking, perplexing, and mind-expanding examples – but to make the assumption that we are the only animal which can appreciate the subtleties of ‘ music ‘ ( whatever that is ) can only be described as deeply myopic at best, or as species-ist at worst.
01 OCT 07
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