OCT 05
EGG pinpoints liars.
Despite the fact that conventional ‘lie-detector’ tests have been proved, time and time again, to be unreliable, their use is still widespread. Perhaps because of a lack of reliable alternatives ?
Experienced and determined liars can learn to fool machines which measure skin resistance ( i.e. sweating ) and even, using well-known relaxation techniques, alter their own heart rate.
But could a determined liar under investigation control their autonomic stomach reflexes ?
Not according to the American College of Gastroenterology which has today issued a press-release on the subject.
They report a study which “ demonstrates a clear link between the act of lying and a significant increase in gastric arrhythmia.”
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) used electrogastrograms (EGGs) performed on 16 healthy volunteers, and found that the EGGs were more reliable than heartrate monitoring as a measure of efforts to deliberately deceive.
EGGs ( developed in the 1920’s ) monitor electrical activity caused by muscle activity in the stomach wall.
“ The communication between the big brain and the little brain in the stomach can be complex and merits further study.”
It seems that prospective criminals, subversives and blue-chip management candidates had better start practicing control of their ' little brain ' p.d.q. if they want to keep one step ahead.
See:
31 OCT 05
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Ridding in Sheffield.
The University of Sheffield's Department of Geography has found that " People and households use numerous methods of ridding themselves of objects, including giving things away, selling or even quietly forgetting them.”
The 12-month investigation titled ‘ Disposal, devaluation and consumerism: or how and why things come not to matter ‘ made use of in-depth digitally recorded interviews and focus groups to determine how households disposed of ridded themselves of unwanted goods in the north of England.
“ Rather than think in terms of disposal, a better terminology is ridding. This encompasses the various meanings implicit in ‘getting rid’ (ejecting, destroying, abandoning, holding, forgetting about, passing on), without presuming that such acts are intrinsically ones of waste making, or necessarily about rubbish value. “
In fact
“ Ridding emerges as one of the primary ways in which we make our social identities. “
Perhaps then, even the humble car-boot-sale could now be viewed in an entirely new light ? A kind of social identity hothouse ?
* * *
The full report can be accessed via the .pdf link on this page : and there's a summary here.
Note: The research came under the aegis of a ‘Research grant large ’ (£160K) from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which is itself funded by the UK government’s Office of Science and Technology. (OST).
P. K. e-mails from the US to ask : “What’s a ‘car boot sale’ ? ”
It’s like a ‘Trunk Sale’ but the DVD players aren’t so up to date. .Ed.
29 OCT 05
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" Blue-on-blue " incidents. ( avoidance of )
For some reason, Really Magazine was not sent an invite for the ‘ Urgent Quest ’ media-day back in September.
‘ Urgent Quest ’ was an international military exercise held at the UK’s Salisbury Plain , the object being to evaluate a new ‘ Radar-Responsive Tag ’.
The tag, developed in the US by Sandia Laboratories, “ can be used to identify both U.S. and coalition forces during combat to avoid fratricide.”
Fratricide ?
” During war, fratricide is the act of killing one’s own soldiers. “
Sandia issued this press release yesterday, which doesn’t go into much tech detail, but a previous text, from March last year, does . . .
Here we learn that “ According to the Department of Defense, 24 percent of the 146 American battle deaths during Operation Desert Storm were by friendly fire. A further 15 percent of the 480 wounded were also by friendly fire. Historically, fratricide accounts for 10-15 percent of wartime casualties.”
So it’s obvious that a tag which could reliably identify every vehicle, aircraft, and soldier could prevent an enormous loss of ( so-called blue , i.e. ‘friendly’ ) life.
There are, of course, already several electronic indentification systems in operation ( Google “ blue-force tracking ” and “ combat ID ” )
As an example, for decades now, every commercial passenger jet has been fitted with radio transponders which identify them as civilian aircraft.
But the new tag is different in the sense that it operates in the radar waveband ( rather than the lower frequency radio tags currently in use ). It ‘ reflects ’ a radar ping with embedded data that identifies it as ‘ friendly ’.
It
is not however a ‘ passive ’ device. It’s a radar transmitter rather than a passive reflector.
And it’s powered ( at this stage ) by what look for all the world like four AA batteries, just like your 35mm camera from the 1980’s.
see photo ( provided courtesy Sandia Labs - click for full-size image )
If your life depended on the failsafe operation of your tag – you
sure wouldn’t want your batteries to go flat. You might be rendered
permanently non-viable p.d.q.
* * *
Editor's comment :
One other potential problemette springs to mind. Any enemy unit which managed to get hold of a working tag ( say from a captured ‘blue’ vehicle ) would presumably then be able to penetrate deep into ‘blue’ territory - ID’d all the while as ‘friendly’.
The stuff of nightmares.
Sandia and the military are sure to have thought
of that though. Really Magazine wonders what the workaround is ?
28 OCT 05
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Inibap
“ Working with partners to build a better future for bananas . . . “
The common dessert banana , Musa sapientum , is, of course, a clone. Having no seeds, it has to be ‘bred’ by propagation, meaning that all the plants are genetically identical. It’s an evolutionary dead end – a recipe for a disaster when it comes to vulnerability to disease.
And banana disasters have happened before. The ‘ Gros Michel ’ variety ( a.k.a Big Mike ) was all but wiped out in a global pandemic of ‘ Panama Disease ’ during the 1940-50’s.
But the International Network for the Improvement of Bananas and Plantains ( INIBAP ) is admirably optimistic.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of INIBAP, there is an exhibition – titled ' No end to the banana ' - at Leuven, Belgium from 19 October - 18 November 2005. Entrance is free. It will later go on tour across the EU and beyond. ( on-line promo here: - follow lnks )
There are hundreds of varieties of banana, and many do have seeds. It’s high time that producers, consumers and supermarkets across the EU and US get used to the fact that there are many other varieties available. And it’s certain that new, more genetically viable varieties will eventually be developed by cross-breeding methods.
An excellent .pdf entitled ' Building a better banana ' is also available from INIBAP
It goes into detail about the history, biology, and the dangers of ‘ Tropical race 4 ’ – a deadly fungal disease now threatening the banana’s future.
* * *
If you’d like
to have a go at the ( notoriously tricky ) subject of banana breeding, here
is a source of at least 15 different variety’s
seeds :
Also see : ProMusa - the global programme for Musa improvement
27 OCT 05
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The third leg of the New Triad
Following on from yesterday’s news about ‘ Weasel Words’ , readers who sometimes find themselves trying to understand military-speak might like to take advantage of a free on-line dictionary called the
Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms
The dictionary could be seen as an example of ' open-source intelligence ' , in other words “ Information of potential intelligence value that is available to the general public. ( Also called OSINT.) ”
And it’s a handy resource for decrypting jargon such as :
and, the current Really Magazine favourite
It’s not by any means comprehensive though – the acronym section has no mention of slang for instance - e.g. SNAFU or FUBAR.
Somewhat disappointingly too, there is also is a lack of up-to-date phraseology. So you won’t find essential terms such as :
or
and you'll have to look elsewhere to find out the crucial significance of :
• The third leg of the New Triad
- which is worth checking out - although some might see it simply as White Propaganda , others assert that your life may depend on it . . .
* * *
The 746 page dictionary is available here ( in .pdf format )
Alternatively though, for those without an extensive supply of free time on their hands, there’s an HTML version here
26 OCT 05
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Weasel words.
Hot on the trail of “ Your call is important to us ” comes a new book entitled “ Weasel words : The Dictionary of American Doublespeak “ *.
Penned by Professor Emeritus Paul Wasserman and colleague Don Hausrath from the University of Maryland, the new book has nearly 1,200 examples of misnomers, euphemisms, evasions, “ and simply delightful forms of flim-flam.”
Here’s what their publisher, Capital Books, says - somewhat cryptically perhaps -
“ They you and other connoisseurs of clear English and fed-up progressives to help them stamp out weasel words “
errrrrr . . . yes . . . .
The authors point out that “ Academia is a wonderful place for double talk. Examples of doubletalk are all around us. “ And to confirm this, Really Magazine did a search on the University of Maryland’s own website. Sure enough, we got results, here they are –
‘
mobile home community ‘ ( instead of ‘ trailer park ’.)
UofM results = 4
‘ negative economic growth ‘ ( meaning ‘ recession’.) UofM results = 10.
‘ economically disadvantaged ‘ ( translates as ‘poor’.) UofM results = 237
You can read a straight-talking interview with professor Wasserman on the
ever expanding subject of weasel words here :
* Note : It’s always tricky coming up with a title. The publishers were originally going to call it “ Your call is important to us ” – and then evidently changed it to “Weasel words”.( Not to be confused with “Weasel words” by Philip Howard - 1979, Oxford University Press ).
25 OCT 05
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Give ‘em enough rope and they’ll shoot themselves in the foot with it.
The smell of cordite and disappointment is drifting across Brazil this morning.
As predicted, the referendum on gun law went with the ' NO ' voters, meaning that small arms sales to the public will continue. The ‘right’ to own a firearm has been preserved, thus guaranteeing that the total number of guns in the country will increase as the years go by.
So, unless some kind of social or psychological miracle happens, the number of killings is set to continue its relentless rise ( up roughly 700% in the last 20 years ).
The country’s gun manufacturers - who provide about 80% of the weapons
and ammunition used to kill 100 ( mostly young ) people every single day
of the year – are not complaining. Their shares have surged about 25%
in the last few days.
24 OCT 05
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A.I. food-bot.
The United States Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) issued guidelines yesterday regarding ‘ Keeping food safe during an emergency ’.
The advice seems to focus fairly exclusively on how to keep one’s freezer cold during power outages.
With tips such as “ Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic-foot full freezer for two days. “
[ Note : Obtaining ‘dry ice’ ( solid CO2 ) is not going to be all that easy in some areas though. Really Magazine could suggest that possible supply sources may include local hospitals, funeral parlours, and heavy-metal rock concert venues. ]
To further assist with food safety issues, the USDA is providing an ‘avatar-based’ online query system called ‘ Ask Karen ’ – who will answer your meat, poultry and egg related queries. 24/7.
Karen appears to have a lot in common with an ‘ Oddcast ™ ’ character.
If you haven’t come across Oddcast ™ characters yet, here’s
a page where you can design the visual appearance of your very own avatar
assistant.
Bear in mind though, that if you want to get to the same level of excellence as Karen you’ll need to link your character into an ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) backend – such as A.L.I.C.E.
As a demo of the A.I. capabilities, our reporter asked Karen :
[OP] . How long will sun-dried meat stay fresh ?
[Karen] The Random House College Dictionary defines food as any nourishing substance that is eaten or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, or promote growth.
[OP] I know, but how long will it stay fresh ?
[Karen] I'm sorry, I don't understand your question. Please check your spelling, or reword your question, and try again.
[OP] There are a lot of snails in my garden, could I
eat them in an emergency ?
[Karen] I'm sorry, I don't understand your question. Please check your spelling, or reword your question, and try again.
[OP] How long could I survive just eating chocolate
?
[Karen] The Random House College Dictionary defines food as any nourishing substance that is eaten or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, or promote growth.
[OP] Mediaeval monks used to make beer as a way of purifying water. Is that still a good idea ?
[Karen] After thoroughly washing surfaces with hot,
soapy water, you can sanitize them with a solution of 1 teaspoon liquid chlorine
bleach in 4 cups of
water.
[OP] Could I safely eat my pet parrot in an emergency ?
[Karen] The Food Marketing Institute's "Food Keeper" storage chart lists the ideal storage time for honey at 12 months.
[OP] Thanks Karen, I feel reassured.
[Karen] I'm sorry, I don't understand your question.
Ask your questions here . . .
21 OCT 05
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Rat facts from the University of Auckland New Zealand.
• Rats can comfortably swim across one kilometre of open sea. That equates to about 4000 ‘body lengths’. If there are suitable mudflats, rocky islets etc. they can reach two kilometres.
Source : ' Rodent incursions on New Zealand islands '
• Here’s a rat identification table :
• Also see ' Elusive rodent gives conservationists slip for four months '
* * *
Please note that the University of Auckland does not research the Kiore ( Rattus exulans ; a.k.a. the Pacific rat ) " out of cultural respect. ".
The Kiore is possibly the only rat which has a dedicated website.
See: ' Celebrating Kiwi rats ' at www.kiore.com.
20 OCT 05
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Extreme golfing.
With regard to dangerous sports, golf might not be the first to spring to mind.
If, however, you play golf in the southern US, you should be aware that 9.5% of severe alligator attacks occur as players try to retrieve lost golfballs.
A study from the North Carolina Dept. of Health and Human Services revealed the problem in an analysis of gator attack data from 1948 onwards.
Other attack-inducing activities included “ attempting to capture / pick up / exhibit (17.5%) “ and “ working on / falling out of boat ( 2.6% ) “.
Luckily though, “ alligators are not generally aggressive towards humans “. But animals which have become habituated to people, especially where food is involved, can become extremely dangerous.
Our Recommendations : Do not feed. Never accept one as a pet. Do not attempt to retrieve a submerged golfball in Florida.
In a word ‘respect’.
The research is published in the current issue of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. And is available on-line here :
Note :
The same WEM issue covers crocodile menace in Australia - and reveals that 29% of people attacked by crocs between 1971 and 2004 were drunk at the time . . .
See: ( subscribers only )
19 OCT 05
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Quicquid nitet notandum *
In 2004, the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) set up a commission to investigate whether the UK should break with tradition by funding human spaceflight.
Today, they are publishing the findings of the commission – which can be briefly summarised as : ‘ Yes.’
“ the direct involvement of humans in situ is essential if we are to pursue science of profound interest to humankind . “
Exploring the frontiers is a ' human given ' , but all explorations have to be undertaken within the constraints of technological and financial practicalities at the time the journey commences.
Given that technology has now moved the goalposts to the local solar system, it’s possible, in theory at least, to send human explorers to, say, Mars.
“There appear to be no fundamental technological barriers to sending humans to the Moon or Mars. “ says the commission.
But what of the financial barriers ? The RAS puts the figure at £150Million per year over the next 20-25 years. ( assuming the UK pays a 15% share of costs ) That’s £3.75Billion.
That’s ( roughly ) just £10 per taxpayer per year. Hardly an insurmountable amount.
Really ? Really Magazine would have guessed the final costs of a manned round-trip to Mars at a very much higher figure.
viz. astronomical. ( roughly ten times that of a robotic mission )
But the RAS have obviously done a cost / benefit analysis. Though exact details of it seem to be a little sparse in the report, which you can find here.
It does, howveer, go into a lot of detail about the tech challenges. Don’t miss the paragraphs on potentially ‘lethal’ radiation problems of a manned Mars mission.
* Note : The RAS motto. " Whatever shines should be observed ".
18 OCT 05
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Technology meets psychology.
By this time next week, we will know the result of the Brazilian referendum on gun and ammuninition sales.
Voting is compulsory, and its raison dêtre is to ask the public to ratify a new law which will might clamp down on the ‘commercialisation’ of small arms sales to the public.
The votes will be cast electronically ( see voting instructions , below ).
Given that there are more crime-related deaths by shooting in Brazil than any other country on the planet, ( currently running at around 36.000 a year ) and that the new law would obviously mean less guns in circulation, you might think that the question is a no-brainer.
Tens of millions, however, will be voting NO ( i.e. against the ban ), in the belief that their ‘right’ to carry a gun ‘to defend themselves’ is sacrosanct.
The logic behind the origins of the ‘right’ to own a gun is, to say the least, hazy. Why stop at guns ? Perhaps everyone has in innate right to own, say, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher too ? A canister of nerve gas ? A mini-nuke ?
Logic aside, astonishing as it may seem, the predictions are that on the day, the NO lobby may well call the shots.
Not many Brazilians though ( yes or no ) believe that a ban would make an immediately noticeable difference to the number of guns in criminal hands ( currently running at 20 Million – yes, that’s twenty million ).
After all, the criminals don’t buy guns from gunshops – they steal them ( or buy them in under the table deals with - ahem ! - legitimate owners ).
And it’s not just the quantity of guns in criminal hands which worry the public and police – it’s the quality too. It’s now taken for granted that many of the favelas ( slums ) in Rio are far better tooled-up than the police are.
So much so that there are huge no-go areas for the police - even in daytime.
That’s been highlighted recently by the plight of several (ex) luxury-car owners who had recently installed anti-theft GPS trackers in their vehicles.
The cars were stolen – were tracked to the favelas – and the police are still refusing to go in and get them back, despite knowing their exact location - down to a metre or so. ( source: O Globo )
It’s highly unlikely they’ll be going to fetch them any time soon, even if Sunday’s vote goes to the brainers from the ' Yes ' camp . . .
[ Voting instructions : The electronic voting machines
don’t have
YES and NO buttons. Therefore it has been decided that 1 = NO ( i.e. a vote
against the ban,
meaning yes, the gun sales will continue ) and 2 = YES ( i.e. no to more
gun sales ) ]
* * *
p.s.
Two ‘Golden Machineguns’ were recently unearthed by police raids on the favelas. Their ‘owners’ had had them gold plated as an über-status-statement.
Two or three days later, however, the police announced that, after forensic tests, it had been shown that they were, in fact, brass plated.
Tip for the electroplater : maybe a good time to take a long holiday
from the favela ?
17 OCT 05
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More on ‘ Unintelligent Design ’
Professor emeritus Don Wise from the geosciences dept of University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will be giving a lecture at the Geological Society of America, Salt Lake City, on Monday, Oct. 17th.
The talk will form part of the admirable ‘ Geoscientists and Educators Take On Antievolutionists ‘ sessions. ( there are twenty four sessions in total )
The subject being ‘ Unintelligent Design ‘ (UD) - for the professor specialises in “ undeniable facts served up with a sense of humor.”
He will ask, for example. “ What is so intelligent about our sinus drainage system, so clogged that they would embarrass the local plumber ? ”
The professor will also be drawing attention to many more examples : e.g.
• The highly problematic forward-slope of the human pelvis.
• The fact that we have too many teeth.
Etc etc etc.
Perhaps we could add :
• Those bits of skin around the nails which are for ever peeling off.
• Overly ambitious nostril hairs.
And , ( we’ve mentioned it before, but it’s well worth another gripe, )
• The appendix.
Etc etc etc.
For a preview abstract of the talk, see: ' Intelligent
(incompetent ?) design versus evolution: new tactics for science (?) '
* * *
Also see :
http://www.theshrubbery.com/udn/
Prof. Wise has contacted us to say that : " My presentation at the GSA meetings last week went better than could be hoped. The finale, with a standing room audience of about 300, had all of them singing along, lustily and completely off key with the video of the "Marching Song of the Incompetents"
The professor has also kindly provided us with a video clip (Realplayer format) showing him and his associates singing their compostion.
15 OCT 05
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ingestion suggestion
“ The BFDG is an interdisciplinary grouping of scientists dedicated to studying human ingestive behaviour and associated conditions, such as eating disorders and obesity. “
It’s a way off yet, six months in fact, but Really Magazine would like to remind interested parties that there’s still time to register for the British Feeding and Drinking Group (BFDG) 30th anniversary conference next year ( 20-21 Apr 2006 @ University of Birmingham Conference Park.).
But what will the BFDG actually be focussing on ? We’re not sure. The website ‘Programme’ page doesn't reveal much as yet.
But there maybe some clues on the ‘accommodation and meals’ page :
The conference accommodation will supply “ a hospitality tray with
fresh fruit “.
Then “ A special banquet dinner will be held in evening on 20th April.“
Next “ There is a pub (the Gun Barrels) nearby the campus.”
And “ 10 minutes walk to the south-west of the conference park, [ there are ] a wide variety of baguette and sandwich bars, pizza houses, fish-and-chip shops, and balti houses. “
p.s. the page also has contact details for : Buonissimo:Valentinos:Michelle’s Brasserie:Chez Jules :Fino:Shogan Sushi and Noodle Bar:& Le Petit Blanc .
14 OCT 05
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Is that ‘ threat object ‘ in your pocket ?
If you have €35 to spare and you happen to be around Munich for the next couple of days, you could visit the 15th Inter Airport Europe exhibition.
One of the items on show is a new ‘millimeter wave’ (mm) scanner – called Tadar – details of which were press-released today by the European Space Agency.(ESA)
The scanner “ will detect the presence of metal and non-metallic threat objects [using] safe, natural energy reflection “ – at around 3mm wavelength.
Unlike some other mm wave scanners, this one doesn’t ‘illuminate’ the subject with mm waves – but uses the body’s naturally-emitted heat-radiation instead. In that sense, it's a 'passive' device.
The scanner can detect temperature differences of 1°C – so, providing the subject is not carrying ‘threat objects’ which have reached body temperature, they will show up on the display screen.
Bearing in mind though, that the scanner can ‘see through clothes’, it will presumably be subject to the same allegations of indecorousness which have been leveled at other mm wave scanners - already trialed at various airports, including London Heathrow.
Time for 'naturist only' flights ?
* * *
Here's a spec. sheet for the scanner (.pdf )
For more details on terahertz imaging see
this page from St*rTiger, which carries a link to
this slightly unnerving .avi video clip courtesy of Qinetiq.
Why Tadar ?
We would have guessed that the word Tadar was derived from 'TeraHertz' (i.e. mm wave) and 'radar'. But we would be wrong.
Somewhat
confusingly perhaps, the Tadar is apparently ‘ named
after the Tadarida bat ‘ , which - in common with dozens
of other bat species – does of course ‘scan ‘ its
targets by emitting (ultrasound) pulses and
then analysing the reflections. A bat is not a passive device.
13 OCT 05
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Thought the DVD standards battle was over ?
Decided whether to commit to DVD+ or Blu-Ray ? If not, it may be a good time to consider your options again . . .
Bearing in mind the ever-present price/strorage-capacity tradeoff, there’s also Taiwan’s FVD (Forward Versatile Disc) system, ( holds around 11GB or so ). And soon we’ll have EVD (Enhanced Video Disc) – from mainland China.
See:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
“ The Chinese format will produce higher definition, better sound
and safer way for copyright protection “ and will be available by 2008.
Exact tech details are hard to come by, but we might guess -
• Capacity ? - Large (very)
• Price ? - Cheap (very)
• Compatible with DVD ? - Not (very)
12 OCT 05
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Taking the High Ground.
Spiritual Leadership Theory (SLT) is examined in some detail in the October issue of the journal ‘ Leadership Quarterly ’.
For readers unfamiliar with SLT “ The Theory of Spiritual Leadership is developed within an intrinsic motivation model that incorporates vision, hope / faith, and altruistic love, theories of workplace spirituality, and spiritual survival. “
The US Army might not be the first organisation to spring to mind when searching for examples of Spiritual Leadership, but that did not dissuade researchers from Tarleton State University, Killeen, Texas.
They decided to focus their research on a newly formed Apache Longbow* helicopter attack squadron of Army soldiers at nearby Ft. Hood, Texas – “ A key combat unit in the war on Iraq.” [ shouldn’t that be the war ‘in‘ Iraq ? Ed. ]
The author of the paper ' Spiritual leadership and army transformation: Theory, measurement, and establishing a baseline ' points out that “ People with a sense of calling and membership will become attached, loyal to, and want to stay in organizations that have cultures based on the values of altruistic love “. e.g. the Army.
But can we first define ‘ Altruistic Love ’ ?
Think : Trust / Loyalty Forgiveness / Acceptance / Gratitude Integrity Honesty Courage Humility Kindness Compassion Patience / Meekness / Endurance.
In short “ a sense of wholeness, harmony, and well-being produced through care, concern, and appreciation for both self and others. “
Using a questionnaire, soldiers were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 5, statements such as :
• My organization really cares about its people.
• I have faith in my organization’s vision for its employees.
• The leaders in my organization are honest and without false pride.
It has to be said that there were, apparently, some voices of disgruntlement “ Certain soldiers did not feel that there was any team building. Instead, they felt as though they were merely numbers that could be easily replaced. “
Nevertheless though, in general, the authors felt that “ The military is closer than most businesses in achieving the positive results of the spiritual leadership model. “
Final Conclusions ?
“ The results of this study [ provide ] strong initial support for spiritual leadership theory and evidence that those followers who have hope/faith in a transcendent vision within a context of the values of altruistic love have a higher sense of calling and membership, are more committed to their organization “
The paper is published in Leadership Quarterly ( subscribers only )
but you can see a draft document here : ( Word .doc
format )
* Note:
For more info on the Boeing Apache Longbow, see the Boeing website, where you can download a selection of posters ( in .pdf format ) such as :
“ Expect no Mercy ”
and the refreshingly frankly entitled “ Dealers in Death and Destruction “
etc etc.
11 OCT 05
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Thanks to Robert Fisk at www.robert-fisk.com. who is currently compiling a collection of war photos from Iraq. Many thanks, also, to the photographers. Click on any photo to see the full collection.
11 OCT 05
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Another push for PLC
Power Line Communication (PLC) ( sending internet signals over the existing
power-cable network ) currently has less than one per cent of the broadband
market in Europe.
But the small market share may be set to grow with a €20Million R&D push from Opera ( the Open PLC European Research Alliance – [ no relation to the Opera browser ] ).
The consortium consists of 37 partners from twelve European countries and Israel – including electricity utilities, PLC technology providers, manufacturers, universities, telecom operators, and engineering and consultancy firms.
For a good overview of the project, see :
Check the site. Perhaps you might be able to find some mention of one of the main drawbacks of using the electricity grid to transmit data – namely the potential for lack of security.
We searched the site as best we could, but could find nothing on the subject.
Power cables are ‘unscreened’. When www data is sent down an unscreened power cable, the ‘transmission’ will radiate into the surroundings – and can be picked up and decoded ( with the right equipment ) from many tens of metres away - perhaps even kilometres.
Any un-encrypted PLC system will suffer from the same problems plaguing wi-fi networks. Www data flow can be surreptitiously monitored by a third party – completely ‘invisibly’.
If the system ends up being configured in such a way that all data is routinely encrypted before it leaves the ‘modem’ which connects the user’s computer to the PLC system – then, providing no-one ever cracks the encryption algorithm – all will be well.
To sum up : if someone wants to hack into your data as it’s transmitted down a fibre-optic link, they’ll have to physically link into the cable in some way – but with PLC ( or WiFi) they just have to hang around nearby with the right tech kit - and ‘snoop’ the signals.
So, if you’re thinking of using PLC with internet banking, electronic funds transfer, or simply don’t want anyone to be able to monitor your www activity – it might be a good idea to never, ever, forget to encrypt your www connection.
10 OCT 05
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Rosaries, Poetry, and Silence . . .
Music’s effects on health has been in the news in the last few days,
after the journal Heart published
research relating musical genres to heart-rate.
Headlines varied from “ Music Keeps Heartbeat Humming “ (drkoop.com) to “ Music training 'good for heart' “ ( BBC)
The coverage didn’t really pick up on the crucial suffix to the paper’s title though “ The importance of silence “.
By use of transcranial doppler ultrasonography, the research found that although listening to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers can ( not surprisingly) raise your heart-rate – silence does a pretty good job at lowering it.
Members of the same team did another study back in 2001 on the possible health benefits ( this time focusing on breathing rates ) of ‘rosary prayer ‘ and ‘yoga mantras ‘. It concluded :
“ The rosary might be viewed as a health practice as well as a religious practice. “
* * *
Also see this paper from 2004 , entitled :
“ Oscillations of heart rate and respiration synchronize during poetry recitation “
(
hexameter verse is highly beneficial apparently )
By the way, Really Magazine always
has a couple of these knocking around the office . . . Has anyone done any
research ?
08 OCT 05
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Poems for Aliens.
Yesterday, Adrian Mitchell’s ‘ Human Beings ‘ was voted ' the poem that people most want to send into space.'
The press release from the Poetry Society says that “ The Poetry Society continues to investigate ways to launch the poem into space ! “
Really Magazine suggest that perhaps an electronic transmission method would be best. There are a number of advantages. Not least of which . . .
• Its’ very cheap .
• Any electromagnetic wavefront transmitted on Earth carries on into space ( almost ) for ever. For an eternity. For all time. Permanently.
If the Poetry Society could ask, say, BBC Radio 4’s ‘ Poetry Please ’ to read it out on air, that would do the trick.
In fact, we’ve taken the bold step of e-mailing the programme to suggest the idea . . .
* * *
Alternatively, here is link to a purpose-built facility which claims it can fulfill just such an undertaking ( for a few $ ) . . .
Comment from the Poetry Society :
" We were aware of this way of 'launching' the poem, but decided that, as poets are largely attached to the printed page, we should still try to find a way of getting a piece of paper (or some equivalent) out there too. "
07 OCT 05 ( late late )
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Crunch time for SUV’s ?
The Irish Medical Organisation has called on manufacturers of Sports Utility Vehicles ( SUV’s ) to ‘ Display warning notices on the vehicles [ in showrooms ] to advise purchasers of the increased risk of severe injury or death to pedestrians.’
“ Resistance to the initiative is likely to be
strong “ says a report into SUV- induced pedestrian injuries
in this
week’s BMJ.
( The risk of death is nearly doubled when a pedestrian is hit by an SUV rather than an ordinary car.)
07 OCT 05 ( late )
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The fifteenth IgNobel® prizes
- were awarded at a ceremony at Harvard last night.
To save replication, just click here to see a list of the winners. ( the page has a link to a [ appropriately problematic ] video of the proceedings too )
Perhaps Really Magazine can mention its favourite though – it
went to John
Mainstone and the late Thomas Parnell of the University
of Queensland, Australia,
for patiently conducting an experiment that began in 1927. It involved allowing
a block of pitch to slowly drip through a funnel – at the rate of one
drop every nine years ( approximately ) . Click
here for details. ( there's no hurry though )
07 OCT 05
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“ By the time you see it, it’s too late. “
Runs the copy for an ad which appeared in the National Journal magazine
on Sept 24th.
The ad attracted a fair amount of media attention, because it depicted ‘special forces’ taking advantage of an ‘insertion point’ – which just happened to be a mosque.
( We can tell it’s a mosque, because it has ‘ Muhammad Mosque ’ written on it in Arabic.)
Not surprisingly, the ad, with the strapline “ It descends from the heavens : Ironically, it unleashes hell “ caused a fair bit of offence.
The ad was for the CV-22 ‘ Osprey ’ aircraft – a product of Textron Inc ’s subsidiary Bell Helicopters.
If you haven’t heard of Textron, maybe you should have. The founding
company started business 82 years ago, and they have a very wide range of
products
and services. For instance, they make the ‘ turf
grooming ’ machines
used at Buckingham Palace .
Wonder if Her Majesty knows that they also produce the CBU-105 – “ the weapon of choice for anti-armor, anti-air defense and other air combat missions. “ ?
( Curiously, the relevant web-page doesn’t mention the phrase ‘ Cluster Bomb ’ although this one, from the BBC does . . . )
Going back to the offending ad though, it was published as “ the result of a clerical error “ at the magazine – Bell had pulled the ad, but the message didn’t manage to get through the comms fog.
so, By the time they saw it, it was too late . . .
Nevertheless, the ad was conceived and produced on behalf of Bell – but by whom ?
Could it be T:M advertising ?, the Texas-based agency who devised another Bell ad with the copy :
“ What makes a navy V-22 pilot’s day ?
:
Helping an F-18 pilot ruin somebody else’s ”
Whatever the whacky creative processes going on at the agency, it is of course, bordering on inconceivable that any ad agency would release an ad without getting client approval first - so the buck must stop with Bell / Textron ?
A spokesperson for the company said “ Bell and our partners are evaluating creative processes to prevent this from happening again.”
Smart move. ( way above Category IV ( see yesterday)).
* * *
For a good overview of the sorry story, go here:
To see the full ad, check this link provided by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, who scanned it and have made the file available here :
06 OCT 05
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Influencer-targeting fails to influence enough.
“ When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either. “
It’s a quote from Leo Burnett – founder of the famous ad agency which devised the recent US taxpayer-funded ad campaign aimed at increasing the numbers of army volunteers.
The ads were ‘ influencer-targeted ‘ – in other words, they were squarely aimed at the principal ‘ influencers ’ of prospective young GI’s, a.k.a. Ma and Pa.
Unfortunately though, the army still isn’t getting enough throughput to maintain its All-Volunteer force at requisite size. In fact, it’s currently around 7000 recruits short of a full battalion.
But the army is not going to stand around doing nothing. No Sir. It’s taking (at least) two proactive measures.
• Measure one : Increase the advertising budget by another $130Million.
• Measure two : 'Lower the bar' for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. ( the entrance exam for recruits )
Curiously, the army has, for some time, had a policy of allowing a small percentage of people who obtain very low scores on the ASVAB to enter the service anyway – but, according to this piece from the LAtimes, that percentage will now be doubled.
What duties will be expected of the burgeoning numbers of these so-called ‘ Category IV ’ troops is not, as far as we can tell, made clear on any of the army recruitment websites.
We wouldn’t want to have disillusioned Leo, but we can’t help wondering if it might perhaps involve mud . . .
* * *
If you’d like to see what sort of questions you may face on an ASVAB, here’s an on-line example where you can check your scores, and see if you’re fit for Category IV ( or above ) .
( Tip : Solder should be Shiny )
05 OCT 05 ( late edition )
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Ever wondered what Chernobyl looks like nowadays ?
Wonder no more. Here’s an extensive set of photos - taken March this year.
( thanks to Matthew K for the link.)
Wonder if Alan Johnson has seen them ?
05 OCT 05
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Initial shock.
If you have an unfortunate monogram, are you likely to die sooner ?
- asked researchers from a ' petite academic powerhouse ' known as Pomona College, Claremont, California.
Firstly though, they had to categorise some monograms according to unpleasantness. Students at the college rated initials such as P.I.G. and Z.I.T. as severely negative, whilst J.O.Y. and F.O.X. were considered desirable.
Next, the researchers correlated the unfortunate initials with death records from the California Department of Health Services mortality database - stretching back to 1905.
So, did having an undesirable set of initials mean that you might D.I.E. earlier ?
Errrr . . . No.
The findings - “ Monogrammic Determinism? “ - are published
in this month’s journal of Psychosomatic Medicine.
04 OCT 05 ( late edition )
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15th Igs.
If you happen to be anywhere near Cambridge Massachusetts, on thursday ( or even if you’re not ), it will almost certainly be worth the effort of travelling to Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, for this years IgNobel prize winner’s ceremony.
It’s the fifteenth time that the Improbable Organization has awarded
prizes to researchers who are “ - honored for achievements that first
make people LAUGH, and then make them THINK “.
If you’re not familiar with the Igs, last year’s prize winners included:
• the inventor of karaoke,
• the father and son team who patented the comb-over,
• and the authors of the report " The Effect of Country Music on Suicide."
This year, ten new winners will be travelling to the US from slightly more than four continents. ( Intriguingly, there is a rumour that one of the prizewinners has garnered added frisson by being denied an entry visa – and will appear instead via video. )
Proceeding start at 7.30 p.m. EDT. Tickets are, at the time of writing, still available from here:
( if you can't make it to Harvard, you will still be able to watch the proceedings via a live TV Webcast issuing from the profundities of www.improbable.com )
Really, do not miss . . .
04 OCT 05
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Do the math(s).
What
does this sound like ? > > > >
Unfortunately, we can’t tell you, because the new Wolfram Research website “ WolframTones ” doesn't work on our system.
The site ( apparently ) generates one-off ‘compositions’ , rendering them in various styles ( e.g. ‘classical’, 'jazz', and ‘country’ ) by using the maths of ‘ cellular automata ’.
“ It's a taste of what it's like to explore the computational universe--and a hint what's to come . . . “
Errrrr, yeesssssss. Exactly.
If you’d like to find out more about the highly innovative math tech
behind the music, and possibly a whole world of ‘new science’ ,
you could attend the Wolfram
Technology Conference – 6-8 October, Champaign,
Illinois.
The extensive programme includes items, such as - Building Large-Scale Websites with Mathematica “.
Maybe best to master HTML first though ?
If you’d like to attend, you’ll need to bear in mind that registration costs a numerically significant $695 ( plus a $150 late fee ).
( students though, can subtract $500 from the price. )
03 OCT 05
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New ' Bookshop '.
Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted a new feature on our menu – the Really Magazine ‘ Book Shop ’.
It's a list of the books we’ve featured on the site so far, with direct links to the relevant Amazon pages where you can buy them – prices start at an astonishing $0.01 – yes , one cent.
If you feel like being intrigued, amused, informed, challenged or even provoked – we can think of no better place to look than our bookshop.
Note: Apologies for the poor visual formatting
of the links : They’re
generated off-site by Amazon themselves, and they haven’t
managed to take account of font-sizing yet. Doh !. They’ll get there
eventually.
01 OCT 05 (late)
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"One sniff is better than a thousand words."
“ Manure is a complex mixture of undigested and partially digested feed material along with intestinal endogenous secretions “ and, as anyone who has the misfortune to live near a piggery knows – it stinks.
Time perhaps for a high-tech scientific solution to swine odo(u)r ? But first the ‘key odorants’ need to be identified.
That’s the purpose of a new study by the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering dept of Iowa University.
Using a combination of Solid Phase Microextraction (SPMe) and Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry Olfactometry (Gc-Ms-O) the university managed to identify no less than 64 odorous compounds.
They included hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, guethol, p-cresol, indole, and the aptly-named skatole. ( one of the smelliest substances known to science. )
Using the knowledge gained, “ The next steps in [the] research are to make synthetic swine odor from a few of the characteristic odor ingredients. “ says the press release.
The full details can be found here :
" The Use Of Spme And Multidimensional Gc-Ms-Olfactometry System For Identification Of Key Odorants From Swine Manure."
Published by the aptly-named Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
01 OCT 05
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