AUG 07
Next !
Is waiting in a queue an undesirable experience ?
Should the management of organisations in which queuing is commonplace always take steps to reduce waiting times ?
That depends - according to new research, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Consumer Research - on whether you were waiting for an unpleasant experience, or a pleasant one.
If you are waiting in a queue in expectation of a “ nonnegative “ experience ( or, a ‘ positive ‘ one as Really Magazine prefers to call it ) then you will probably prefer to be dealt with promptly. But, if the wait is for a ‘ negative ‘ experience, then – according to the researchers – a longer waiting time might sometimes be preferred.
Leading to the conclusion that :
“ . . . managerial efforts designed to assuage the stress consumers may experience with waiting may backfire in negative service environments. “
The researchers give examples of negative experiences – such as dental and medical appointments – but, worryingly perhaps, they extend further, pointing out that they might also include :
“ . . . more routine services that have become stressful because of potential security risks such as flying or traveling by subway. “
So, is the implication that managers shouldn’t necessarily be aiming to cut waiting times at the check-in or the bus-stop ?
Wouldn’t it be preferable to aim at upwardly-ramping nonnegativeness instead ?
Read the full research paper here :
* We made a mistake in the original post, by assuming that :
' Nonnegative ' meant the same as ' Posivitve '. It doesn't.
' Nonnegative ' includes neutral events as well. Many thanks to reader Geoff H for pointing this out to us.
31 AUG 07
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Routine perhaps best avoided
A new research project from Imperial College London and University college London asked :
‘ Does Quality of Life at Older Ages Vary with Socio-Economic Position ? ‘
The team looked at 50 to 75 year olds in the UK, to find out whether having a higher ' social position ' ( and, presumably therefore, more money ) might help to enhance their Quality Of Life (QOL) .
The answer was found to be broadly characterised as :
Yes.
To quantify it, the difference in QOL between members of the ‘ higher managerial and professional group ‘ and the ' routine ' group was roughly equivalent to “ having a limiting long-standing illness “
Research just published here : ( subscribers only )
30 AUG 07
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Hard or soft pitches examined
“ Society is in need of a safer and more comfortable
sporting environment, not only for competitive sports, but also for recreational
sports that are
currently enjoying great popularity. “
This is one of the goals of the Graduate School of Human Comprehensive Sciences , at the University of Tsukuba , Japan.
As part of their ongoing research effort, they have just published ( along
with the University of Otago , New Zealand ) a
study into
the possible association
of ground-hardness with injuries in rugby union.
They started by bearing in mind that : “ Ground hardness is considered one of the possible risk factors associated with rugby injuries. “
The team studied injuries amongst 271 rugby union players ( there were 52 injuries per 1000 match player-hours ) and correlated the data with the ground-hardness of the pitches where the matches were played.
Results :
No statistically significant relationship was found between injury incidence and ground hardness . . .
There was however a strong correlation between the number of injuries and the season of the year – confirming the results of previous studies [1] [2] which showed that the injury rate roughly doubles duing the summer.
So it’s now clear that further research will be needed to find the causative factor(s).
And some have already been suggested :
• Shoe-surface traction
• Grass type and condition
• Seasonal player-fitness variations.
To which Really Magazine would like to add :
• Psychological factors associated with beginning a new season of
matches.
• Temperature.
29 AUG 07
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Laughing matters.
Can political humour have a negative effect on willingness to trust political figures and institutions ?
Yes, it can – according to new research from prof. Jody Baumgartner at the Department of Political Science at East Carolina University - results of which have just been published in the journal Social Science Computer Review.
Bearing in mind the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion investigators asked college students about their reactions to an online first-person parody of very high profile American political figure - just starting his second term in office.
Subsequent analysis of the responses showed that the online clip did have a negative effect on trust.
Though, counter-intuitively perhaps : “ . . . it had a positive effect on evaluations of the president's evaluations. “
The professor has been investigating the implications of political humour for some time, and has co-edited a book on the subject, ' Laughing Matters: Humor and American Politics in the Media Age ' which has just been published by Routledge.
He also has his own website, featuring, amongst much more, one of his own humour creations : ' Geeky Stick Boy - America's New Role Model '
28 AUG 07
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Zip file
A few weeks ago, Andy Brice at Oryx
Digital decided to see how many ‘ Software
Awards ‘ he could glean for a piece of software which did . . . absolutely
nothing.
To find out, he wrote a text file – containing the phrase ‘ this program does nothing at all ‘ repeated 145 times.
Then he renamed it as a programme file called ‘ awardmestars.exe ’ , uploaded it, and made it freely available on the www. On sites such as this one :
So far, it has won no less than sixteen software ‘ Awards ‘
Though, as Andy points out in his blog :
“ . . . none of them are worth the electrons it takes to display them.“
Tech Note: awardmestars.exe is compatible with Win98, WinME, WinNT 3.x, WinNT 4.x, WinXP, Windows2000, Windows2003, Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home. Where it won't run, and does nothing at all.
27 AUG 07 (late)
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Aiports and the Index of Annoyance.
Do you live near a busy airport ? Does the aircraft noise annoy you ? If so, do you complain about it ?
Airport authorities – and the government departments which ultimately control them – keep a very close tally on the numbers of complaints from members of the public - yet it's not unheard-of for them to be subsequently ignored. Are they right to do so ?
It seems that little is known about the relationship between the ‘ complaint level ’ and the true ‘ annoyance level ‘ of local residents.
An article from Dept. 14, Organisational Psychology, University of Dortmund, published in the latest issue of the journal Noise and Health, examined the Index of Annoyance in detail and flagged some possibly unexpected results : e.g.
“ It was found that noise levels per se are not the crucial factor for residents' decisions to complain or not to complain. “
and :
“ there is a large group of people who declare to be highly annoyed and yet, they do not lodge any complaint. “
Therefore, complaint data -
“ . . . cannot be accepted as an accurate measure of public annoyance.”
Leading to the final conclusion :
“ Further research is required“
27 AUG 07
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Competition #3
We've increased the sample-length (a tiny bit) again . . .
Post-Newtonian Cosmic Approximation Wrangling
Mathematicians who might be stuck trying to minimise discontinuities whilst globally combining approximate solutions to Einstein equations -
( say, for example, in the case of a pair of non-rotating black holes )
- could well be interested in the following strategy for successfully cementing them together.
Frankenstein's Glue :
The gluing method has been developed at the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics at Pennsylvania State University.
And details have just been published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.
Using the glue, a test example showed that " . . . the joined solution does not contain any violations to the Einstein equations larger than those already inherent in the approximations. "
Here’s the full paper
25 AUG 07
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' Accuracy adjustments ' in Indiana
The sludge hit the fan a few weeks ago when the Chicago Tribune printed an article ( subs. only) about BP’s oil refinery at Whiting, on the shores of Lake Michigan, Indiana.
Although the piece allegedly had some ' factual inaccuracies ', it certainly stirred up public interest about BP’s activities in the area.
And the story is still rolling – here’s an item in Advertising Age a few days ago.
Under regulations recently adjusted ( upwardly ) by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management ( IDEM ), BP will be allowed to discharge more than half a tonne of ammonia into the lake each day, - a 54% increase on their previous allowance.
And, although it has largely esacped notice of the media, it seems that increased permitted levels are also on the cards for BP's airborne emissions . . . of PM10s and Sulfur dioxide . . .
The question arise then, why are IDEM - whose motto is ‘ We make Indiana a cleaner, healthier place to live ‘ minded to grant BP increased pollution allowances at the Whiting refinery ?
The answer lies in the fact that if polluters can successfully demonstrate to the authorities that complying with regs will impose “ Undue hardship or burden ” on their activities – then ‘ adjustments ’ can be made.
And in this case :
“ The source [BP] has demonstrated a severe economic hardship. “
[ quoted from here, ( file in Word .doc format )]
؟ ؟ ؟
For more backgound on BP's economic hardship, see : This
There's a chance that, if things carry on as they are, their ( post tax
) profits for 2007 might not exceed $25 billion.
24 AUG 07
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A new kind of faster.
The computer science dept. at the University of Illinois at Chicago has just press-released details of a new search engine called Allinonenews (all-in-one-news).
The new engine is a ‘ metasearch ‘ tool – in that it uses the results of more than 1,800 news-based search engines, and then sifts and compiles the results :
" . . . simultaneous connections to a huge number of search engines can be useful in getting information quickly. "
“ The wide scope of its coverage allows it to find breaking news faster than some of the bigger, widely used search engines “
Really Magazine ran new search facility up the flagpole in
a totally unscientific ad-hoc test.
We tried to pick some unmistakably-unique international current news items, and pitted the new engine against Google News search.
Both search engines picked up all three stories (almost) – but there was a marked difference :
– here are the results : [ you can click the
links to run the tests again ]
• Story regarding Paris Match magazine ‘ retouching ‘ a photo of the French Pres.
Google news : 3 seconds Allinonenews : 49 seconds
• Story regarding Dubai World buying into Las Vegas casino operations.
Google news : 4 seconds Allinonenews : 47 seconds
• Story regarding Bill Murray driving a golf buggy through Stockholm's city centre.
Google news ; 3 seconds Allinonenews : Timed out
23 AUG 07
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Cheesemaking in Academia
Clemson University, in South Carolina, has its own brand of Blue Cheese
The first batches were cured in the abandoned Stumphouse Mountain Railway Tunnel in 1941 - but production ( history here ) has now been moved another location nearer the campus.
“ Since then, the homemade gourmet item has worked its way into the hearts and stomachs of an ever-growing number of aficionados. “
Is Clemson possibly the only university with its own brand of cheese ?
Really Magazine would appreciate tips from any readers who know otherwise.
Many thanks to reader Carmelita who informs us of several more cheese-making universities spanning the globe. •1, •2, •3,
22 AUG 07
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The beginning of colour preferrences
" The long history of color preference studies has been described as ' bewildering, confused and contradictory ' "
begins the abstract of a new study, published yesterday, into gender-based colour preference - from the Institute of Neuroscience and School of Biology and Psychology, Newcastle University, UK.
The experiment examined the colour preferences of ‘ young adult men and women ‘ (students ?) from the UK and China.
They sat in front of a colour-calibrated computer monitor and picked their preferred colour from a pair of rectangles displayed on the screen.
The researchers found that females from both cultures had a preference for reddish tints.
“ The explanation might date back to humans' hunter-gatherer days, when women were the primary gatherers and would have benefited from an ability to home in on ripe, red fruits. “
Might do.
But the tests were performed on adults – who had all experienced two decades or so of cultural conditioning . . . ' Pink for a girl, blue for a boy '
So . . . back to the beginning then ?
؟ ؟ ؟
More details on the experiment here :
؟ ؟ ؟
Really Magazine’s suggestion for further research – a variation of the famous Stroop Test
21 AUG 07
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Studying Corporate (Mis)functions
Over the last century or so, the artificial legal framework which defines
and protects a ‘Corporation’ has been deftly polished – so
that a firm which is ' Incorporated ' has roughly the same
rights and obligations in law as an individual. In other words it’s
not treated as a group of people – but as one single body - a person
in fact.
The idea being that when things go wrong, the directors and shareholders won’t individually be liable – the company itself must be taken to court.
As
many have pointed out – most especially in the recent documentary film
' The
Corporation ' ( Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott and Joel
Bakan, 2004)
- if a company can be represented as a person then it’s reasonable to wonder :
‘ What kind of person ? ‘
We might guess that the range of personality types could run from benign, charming, valuable, and useful members of society – through to rampant psychopaths.
Taking things a step further, many have asked, as The Corporation did, whether it might not be a good idea to apply the same standardised psychological-profiling techniques which are used to rate individuals’ psychological stability – to companies . . .
The idea has moved on quite a bit since the film, and now a UK university is about to offer the world's first (?) MA course in : Psychoanalysis of Organizations.
The new course, starting in October this year at the University of Essex, is combining the skills of two of the university’s departments - The Department of Accounting, Finance and Management and The Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies :
“ Together, these approaches will offer deep analysis of the way organizations (mis)function, the nature of leadership and the way organizational structure and dynamics consolidate poorly - or efficiently - functioning systems. “
The course will examine the psychology not just of corporate structures,
but also governmental organisations – some of which ( Really
Magazine guesses ) might also benefit from some therapy . . .
20 AUG 07
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' Heightening revisit intentions '
Back in January we flagged the imminent publication of an interesting study in the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research – namely :
‘ Does Food Quality Really Matter in Restaurants ? ‘
Really magazine is pleased to see that the research has just been published.
The research team – from the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Purdue University, West Lafayette, applied two mathematical techniques - Structural Equation Modelling followed by Regression Analyses – on their restaurant customer survey dataset, to reveal that :
Yes, it does.
Their findings lead them to make the following recommendation :
“ . . . managers should pay attention to the key food quality attributes that elicit customer satisfaction and enhance return visits in the restaurant business.“
18 AUG 07
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Competiton #3 update :
We've ( slightly ) increased the length of our audio sample today.
Plus . . . a clue :
A common sound almost anywhere in the UK 20 years ago - now it's not.
Clarifying about the smog of unhealthiness.
The city of Beijing has just begun a four-day air-pollution reduction experiment.
Two of the paragraphs quoted below are from the official Chinese govt. website – and two are from the BBC in London
Spot which is which . . .
“ Beijing began a four-day experiment early on Friday to test whether pulling 1.3 million private cars off roads daily would be of effect in enormously bringing down air pollution. “
“ During the test period, cars with registration plates ending in odd and even numbers will each be banned from the roads for two day. “
“ Any driver caught contravening the restrictions will be fined 100 yuan ($13, £6.50) by 6,500 police officers. “
“ A spokesman with Beijing Public Transport Holdings Ltd. said that with the introduction of the alternate-day practice, the usually-clogged city roads were suddenly filled with fewer motor vehicles on Friday . . . “
17 AUG 07
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Assessing the ‘ Aspirin of the Antibacterial Actives ‘
5-chloro-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol a.k.a Triclosan
was developed in the 1960’s in Germany by J.R.Geigy A.G.
Since then, its use as an antibacterial additive has become so widespread that it’s now found in cutting boards, cleaning coths, toys, textiles, bedding, shoes, paints, escalator handrails, socks, mops, rubbish bags, computer keyboards, mousemats, and of course soaps.
And Triclosan-based antibacterial soaps are the subject of new research from the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. [ busy server - try reloading page ]
The team scrutinised 27 previous studies conducted between 1980 and 2006 :
Results :
The antibacterial soaps were :
“ . . . no more effective than plain soap at preventing infectious illness symptoms and reducing bacterial levels on the hands. “
Worryingly, they also found that :
“ Several laboratory studies demonstrated evidence of triclosan-adapted cross-resistance to antibiotics among different species of bacteria. “
And then there’s the issue of what happens to the residues and breakdown products of the chemical. Most of the Triclosan used in consumer products ends up in the sewage system, and, as the UK's Environment Agency points out, even after processing in sewage treatment plants, ‘ small quantities ‘ get through the system and are released into rivers estuaries and coastal waters. Where, unfortunately :
“ . . . there is very little data available
on the toxicity of methyl triclosan, so its risk to aquatic life remains
uncertain. “
So, should consumers try to avoid buying products containing the chemical ?
Some major retail outlets in the UK have already have stated their intention to withdraw Triclosan-based products from their shelves – and [ quoting from the same EA .pdf ]
“ . . . in some Scandinavian countries, health consumer and chemical agencies have questioned the use of Triclosan and called for a phase out of ' unnecessary ' biocides “
An alternative viewpoint can be found on the manufacturer’s
www info page : where they try to clarify details about
the ‘ Aspirin
of the Antibacterial Actives ‘ :
“ The popularity of Triclosan is a reflection of it’s unique combination of efficacy against almost all types of bacteria and safety to man and nature which with the currently known substances used cannot be surmounted. “
They do point out though that :
“ Although Triclosan is perfectly safe
in all current applications it shouldn’t be used mindless and
without a justified reason. “
All cleared up ?
؟ ؟ ؟
Concerned consumers in search more comprehensible comprehensive info
to help them make up their minds could try
here :
16 AUG 07
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From public sources
It’s World Water Week
. . . the Stockholm based yearly forum for global water issues - which seeks to : ‘ advance efforts related to water, the environment, livelihoods and poverty reduction. ‘
One of the subjects which might be on the agenda is the global demand for bottled water - which is growing every year.
It’s a highly contentious subject. As Corporate Accountability International puts it :
“ Bottled water is the most visible - and one of the most pervasive - attempts by corporations to control our water. Bottlers take our water and sell it back to us. Adding insult to injury, they charge us hundreds to thousands of times what our tap water costs. “
Three years ago, global sales had already reached more than 154,381,000,000 litres. ( source : here )
Apart from the questionable ethics involved in re-packaging filtered tap water and selling-it-on at a huge mark-up, the bottled water industry also uses vast amounts of oil for plastic bottle manufacturing. Reckoned to be somewhere around 17 million barrels ( not including the energy for transportation ) in the US alone ( source here : )
Returning to the conference, we say it ‘ might be on the agenda ‘ because, although there are more than a hundred seminars, workshops and poster-sessions scheduled - on just about every water-usage subject imaginable - we haven’t been able to find any mention of the bottled water debate on the conference website . . . perhaps we’ve missed it.
؟ ؟ ؟
Note : The main sponsor of the WorldWaterWeek conference is :
' Worldwide leader of the global bottled water market '
15 AUG 07
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Strange link of the day
Or: From Alpha to Omega via the squeezebox.
Unlikely as it might seem, Mahatma Gandhi and Idi Amin shared a common interest.
viz. Playing the accordion.
Supporting info on these two, and several other very well-known ( though some might think unlikely ) accordion players is provided courtesy of :
klezmusic.com , ( a.k.a. the Home for Wayward Accordions )
- who are also hosting a link to what must be one of the most chillingly disturbing recordings of the last century.
The man CNN called the ' Butcher of Uganda ' playing his accordion and singing along to a jolly song with his chums.
14 AUG 07 (late edition)
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Flurries expected in the Arctic Circle.
In the last few days, Russia, Canada, and now Denmark have all featured in the news regarding claims to Arctic ‘ land ‘.
Seemingly by coincidence, also in the news this week : the continuing meltdown of the Arctic ice sheets – this year predicted to be the biggest on record.
Really Magazine wonders whether perhaps the retreating ice is suddenly making it far more convenient for prospecting ships to investigate the seabed ?
Which, according to the US Geological Survey, holds roughly 25 percent of the world's ‘ undiscovered ‘ oil and gas . . .
[ burn oil : melt ice : find more oil ] repeat
14 AUG 07
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FoundWord of the day :
not found (yet)
Cups : Shadows : Tabletop Cities
If you happen to be in Melbourne Australia over the coming few weeks, why not drop in at the avant garde Black Box gallery and Escape into Experimenta Playground ?
The exhibition’s brief - to :
“ . . .invite audiences to consider social behaviour, identity, real versus imagined, material versus immaterial and the role of play in life. “
The work of more than 40 Australian and international media artists will
be on show. As an example, ‘ Baby Love ‘ from Taiwanese artist
Shu Lea Cheang : providing -
“ . . . the opportunity to ride in giant, brightly coloured teacups beside cloned plastic babies that croon and remix love songs. “
preview video interview with the artist ( in one of her cups ) here
:
Experimenta Playground runs from 25 Aug 2007 - 23 Sep 2007 , entrance
is free.
13 AUG 07
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“ Just watch our men so big and active . . .“ * [1]
The time is coming around again for the now-annual übertoys-for-überboys*[2] contest – namely the Autonomous Vehicle Challenge – scheduled for Nov 3rd. 2007 ( exact location t.b.a. )
This year, the task is to build an unmanned vehicle which can ‘ manoeuvre a 60-mile course of simulated military supply missions in a ‘ mock-urban ‘ setting - by planning an optimal route, avoiding collisions, and adhering to the rules of the road - in less than six hours ‘ .
As always, several university teams are competing, For example, Virginia Tech has developed a ' human-like ' drive-by-wire system for their vehicle - called Odin - a highly modded Ford hybrid Escape™ which sports ‘ computer vision, laser rangefinders, differential GPS and inertial measurement. ‘
This kind of kit doesn’t come cheap of course, and the college has a number of very high profile sponsors who feel that they’d like to be associated with the organiser's declared goal that : ' . . . by 2015, one-third of the operational ground combat vehicles are unmanned '
Oddly though, the college’s sponsor page neglects to mention the taxpayers – who have contributed $1 million to the university in ‘ seed funding ‘ .
( They’ve also given $1 million each to five other universities and five corporations. )
Technically impressive though the project is, Really Magazine is still trying to figure out exactly how :
[ using taxpayers’ money to assist the military in developing autonomous urban combat vehicles ]
- can square with the ‘ mission statement ‘ of the university, which :
“ . . . creates, conveys, and applies knowledge to expand personal growth and opportunity, advance social and community development, foster economic competitiveness, and improve the quality of life. “
Perhaps the clue is in the project's name - Odin . . .
according to wikipedia he was the Norse God of god of wisdom – but also of war, battle and death.
*[1] taken from the university’s anthem ‘ Tech
Triumph ‘
*[2] mostly - our very rough estimate is that 93% are male.
11 AUG 07
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Dissecting a postmodern praxis
The current issue of the journal ‘ Identities : Global Studies in Culture and Power ‘ has an interesting article by Dr. Robert A. Saunders, Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Economics & Politics at the State University of New York at Farmingdale.
Subject : Borat
The paper explores in depth the controversy surrounding Borat Sagdiyev, and his negative portrayal of Kazakshilik ( ' Kazakhness ' ).
On the one hand, as Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbaev stated at the time of Borat’s film launch :
“ We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen [ a.k.a. Borat ] is serving someone’s political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way. We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind.”
On the other, as one embassy official put it shortly afterwards :
“ More people are applying for visas to Kazakhstan than ever “
The journal article is ‘ subscribers only ‘ but here’s some background material written by the prof. for ‘ Transitions Online ‘ in 2006.
The professor is currently completing his manuscript entitled ‘ The
Many Faces of Sacha Baron Cohen: Politics, Ethnic Pantomime, and the Battle
over Borat ‘ which scheduled for publication by Lexington
Books next
year.
؟ ؟ ؟
Link to the unofficial Borat
site ( the ‘ official ‘ one seems to have disappeared )
10 AUG 07 (late)
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Surpassing ‘ Daisy, Daisy * ‘ in Antwerp
If you happen to be in Antwerp, Belgium at the end of this month there’s still time to book a place at Interspeech 2007
The conference will cover all aspects of speech science and technology – notably, speech synthesis, speech recognition, mood detection & etc
Of interest to call-centre administrators, law enforcement departments, toymakers, music producers, and of course, national snooping agencies.
This year, the organising committee is presenting a ‘ Synthesis of Singing Challenge ‘ ( Tuesday, August 28, 2007, at the Astrid Plaza hotel )
Participants will present a short paper describing the techniques behind their work, plus an audio file of computer-generated singer(s) rendering :
‘ The Synthesiser Song ‘
“ Let me sing
Let me sing
Let me sing by bits and bytes
Let me bring
Let me bring
Let me bring devine delights
I sing an /a/
I sing an /i/
I sing an /u/
for you, for you, for you “
Participants will be judged on :
• quality of the voice source
• quality of the articulation
• expressive quality
• overall artistic judgement.
Here’s some examples of the kind of thing to expect :
10 AUG 07
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The axis of CogSci
Sandia labs :
“ the nation's leader for preventing technological surprises “
- has press-released details of a new ( taxpayer funded ) cognitive science initiative which aims to develop :
“ a basic science understanding of the human brain, mind, and behavior . . . “
Quite a challenge.
But they're confident that their prospective " Nobel-class achievements " will :
“ . . . work toward actions that establish and maintain peace worldwide.”
Sandia is a wholly owned subsidiary of the world’s biggest
arms manufacturing company.
09 AUG 07 (midday)
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The Kaizen of Screwdrivers.
The screw, or as some prefer to call it ‘ the threaded fastener ‘ is
thought to have been invented around 500 BC – and was shortly followed
by the invention of the screwdriver.
You might think that over two and a half thousand years, the design of the screwdriver would have evolved to perfection.
Not so, according to the Department of Systems Management Engineering, SungKyunKwan University, Suwon, Korea.
They have been researching screwdriver design for some years now, and have just published a paper regarding the pros and cons of various type of handle.
“ Twelve male subjects performed maximum screw-tightening exertions using screwdriver handles with three longitudinal shapes . . . four lateral shapes . . . and two surfaces . . . “
The results :
“ Screwdriver handles designed with combinations of circular or hexagonal
cross-sectional shapes with double frustum and cone lateral shapes were optimal
in this study. “
09 AUG 07
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Competition two won
Competition #2 has just been won !
So we've posted up a new sample . . .
Cricket or Not Cricket : discuss.
A new book, due for release later this year, will attempt to answer ‘ the deceptively self-evident ' question :
“ What is Cricket ? “
Of interest alike to those who feel that cricket can be seen from :
“ Consequentialist, deontological, and virtue ethics perspectives “ – and those who simply see men hitting a ball with a piece of wood.
The book asks whether :
“ cricket is a language-without-words-game ”
and if , over the years, it could be said to show :
“ an evolution from Lockean to Smithean liberalism “.
Also discussed - the idea of ‘ non-attached action ’, as referenced to :
“ techniques of mental preparation and mental hygiene. “
Finally, the last chapter presents a strong argument against functionalism – in other words those who might feel that :
“ . . . the aesthetic appreciation of cricket, and sport more generally, can be reduced to or is subordinate to the putative purpose of the game, namely winning. “
‘ At the boundaries of Cricket : Philosophical Reflections on the Noble Game ’ is due for publication by Taylor and Francis later this year.
More details here.
08 AUG 07 (midday edition)
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Not busy enough.
Fed up with those holiday snaps that don’t have enough anonymous random people and cars in the shots ? No problem. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research in Cambridge UK have developed a system for ' inserting new objects into existing photographs '
Details of which are being presented at this year’s Siggraph computer graphics conference, currently underway in San Diego.
Here’s a page of results
The algorithm isn’t quite perfected yet – having trouble with ‘porous’ items like bicycles and trees. It also sometimes falls over when transferring objects with shadows.
Full
details here: ( caution : ludicrously slow and sticky .pdf )
08 AUG 07
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Shaving perfectly matched sideburns has never been easier.
If you use the newly patented Styleburn shaving guides.
Full details here.
07 AUG 07 (late edition)
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Bions in València
For those interested in the the Mysteries of the Orgone etc. there’s an upcoming international conference at the Universitat de València, Spain, from the 2nd to the 5th of November 2007.
Entitled ‘ 50 years after Reich – A life of Movement ‘
They are of course referring to Wilhelm Reich - who single handedly discovered ‘ Bions ‘ , devised ‘ Vegetotherapy ‘ and invented ‘ Orgone Accumulators ‘.
The organisers “ sincerely wish to
turn this event into an authentic space of integration and human meeting. “ where
speakers from more than ten countries will discuss Wilhelm’s contribution
to [ insert correct noun here before posting Ed.] exactly
fifty years since his death in a Pennsylvania prison.
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Reichian enthusiasts might be also be interested in this source of ‘ Orgone Energy Blankets ‘ ( also available for pets, including horses )
“ Orgone energy blankets accumulate atmospheric orgone energy and impart a greater charge to your body. “
Not to be confused with Russian Scenar Blankets or Nyvatex Energy Blankets
07 AUG 07
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Countering a waste of shuttlecocks
If it’s farmed responsibly, cork can be very ecologically friendly. The Forest Stewardship Council has been issuing ‘ registered Certificates ‘ for corks for some years now.
Wine
drinkers who would like to confirm whether their corks come from responsibly
sustainable managed cork forests can check
via this online form :
About 80% of global cork production is used for ' bottle closures '. The remaining 20% goes into building materials, pin boards, engine gaskets, hockey balls, dartboards, safety mats, boat decking, fishing floats and badminton shuttlecocks etc etc
A Reuters report released today goes into some detail about the cork production process and the economic and environmental advantages of producing cork in a sustainable eco-friendly way - as well as listing some of the pros and cons of cork and non-cork bottle closures ( see comparison pic above ).
Ironically perhaps, the article also answers the question ‘ Why is cork like a pig ? ‘ because :
“ nothing is thrown away,"
The spokesperson was referring of course to the production process rather than at the consumer end – where, sadly, the vast majority of corks are – thrown away.
Thankfully, there are a number of cork recycling schemes in operation across the world :
E.g. this one in Canada
and this one is Australia – which
has already collected around 10,000 tonnes – that’s a lot of
corks.
06 AUG 07
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I can’t believe it’s not counterintuitive ( of the day ).
[ or: How Capitalism Works ]
The great fire of New York ( 1835 ) destroyed 17 city blocks around Manhattan, Wall Street and Hanover Square.
Within two weeks, land-prices in the devastated area had risen by 900%
Source : Professor Kevin Rozario, author of the book,
The Culture of Calamity, to
be released next week by University Of Chicago Press.
04 AUG 07
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Increased . . .
We've (slightly) increased the sample length for our competition #2 . . .
The wonders of computer graphics
Today’s media release from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIORO) invites us to try a new ‘ virtual lager ’ – a mini-CG movie featuring ' realistic fluid special effects in 3D ' compiled with the aid of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH).
We clicked their link to the video clip - and we’re still mentally thirsty . . .
03 AUG 07 (late)
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Proceed with caution
Assoc. Prof. Martin Burd, from the Monash University School of Biological Sciences in Victoria, Australia, has an ongoing project to determine if ‘ traffic flows ’ in ant colonies might help with our understanding of human crowd behaviour – especially under ‘panic’ conditions.
“ Ants in a panic don't behave the same way as humans. They stay calm and are polite to each other. “
The research could influence future designs of public spaces, buildings, and roadways – and has already thrown up some highly counter-intuitive results.
For instance, the study has found that placing a physical barrier in front of an exit can increase the speed at which ants can evacuate from an enclosed space.
There is of course one overriding factor which - to Really Magazine at least – suggests caution when comparing ‘ herding ‘ behaviours in humans and ants . . .
they can happily walk all over each other without causing any damage.
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And previous ant-based research has Really Magazine even more confused . . .
This study ( from 2002 ) showed that (ant) traffic can flow faster and more efficiently when there is a 50:50 mix of inbound and outbound traffic occupying the same ‘lane’. If all the ants are moving in the same direction, the flow is slower . . .
And this
one ( from the University of Chicago , 2005 ) which showed
that, like humans, ants tend to ( very inefficiently ) herd towards a single
exit – in
a space with two exits - when under ‘panic’ conditions.
03 AUG 07
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Book of the week
The Box:
How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc
Levinson. ( Princeton University Press 2006 )
They might not immediately come across as entirely appealing tech objects, but, in economic terms, shipping containers rate as one of the greatest low-tech developments of the 20th century. Some say the greatest.
Early versions were developed in the 1950’s - but the concept fell into a classic chicken-and-egg trap - since the box is of little use without the supporting infrastructure – which is no use without the box.
Explaining why the system took several decades to really take hold – finally levered across the viability-threshold by its role as a troop supply mechanism during the Vietnam war.
Nowadays though, the box and it’s worldwide support systems mean that :
• You can ship a bottle of wine from Australia to the US for a few cents.
• Since the 1950s, the number of dockworkers in NY has fallen by around 95%
To sum up, as The Economist put it (March 18, 2006) :
" Without the container, there would be no globalization ".
Watch a interview with the author here :
02 AUG 07 ( late edition )
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Hand to mouth and vice versa
The practice of ‘ gesturing ’ whilst talking is widespread – leading cognitive scientists to wonder what might happen if a person is prevented from gesturing and then asked to talk. Would their speech be affected ?
The idea was recently put to the test by researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (US) and the University of Birmingham (UK)
They Velcro’d ™ participants’ hands to a wooden board and then asked them to talk about various subjects.
It should be appreciated that " prohibiting speakers from gesturing is not an easy task. "
Previous work in the same field area found that preventing movement of the forearms and hands sometimes led to increased movement in other parts of the body, including the eyes, lips, fingers, and legs.
This time though, the experimenters chose to overlook these (side) effects:
“ . . . since we know of no ethical way to completely immobilize a speaker . . . “
Moving on to the results :
Some theories predict that speakers might use more words to describe scenarios
under these constricted conditions – as a way of compensating for
being unable to gesture.
But the researchers determined the opposite – subjects spoke less when unable to make hand gestures.
To sum up :
“ It seems, then, that sitting on your hands does influence your tongue, though it does not make you bite it completely. “
All the details can be found in the paper :
Does Sitting on Your Hands Make You Bite Your Tongue?
which
forms part of the programme for the 29th Annual Conference of the Cognitive
Science Society Nashville, Tennessee, USA August 1-4, 2007
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Really Magazine's suggestions for further research :
• Similar study, but with cellphone users.
• International comparisons ; e.g. Japan vs. Italy
02 AUG 07
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Potizomnasthaics
The question ‘ Does water have a memory ? ‘ is of crucial
importance to homeopaths. So much so, that their journal ‘ Homeopathy ‘ is
this month devoting almost an entire issue to discussions about it.
Sadly, all the articles are for ‘ subscribers only ‘ - but you can read a good background on the subject via this webpage, from the journal’s guest editor, Martin Chaplin, Professor of Applied Science Water and Aqueous Systems Research, London South Bank University.
Discussions are currently revolving around –
• Nanocavities
• Icosahedral Expanded Water Networks
• Autothixotropy
• Ultramolecular dilutions
• Macro-entanglement, and
• The jury's still out
01 AUG 07 (late)
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Ten talking paperclips
A ‘ Technological Singularity ‘ is defined as a possible future epoch when ‘ ultra-intelligent machines ‘ could design other, even more intelligent machines so that ( as statistician I. J. Good put it back in 1965 )
“ . . . the first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make. “
• Ask any group of reasonably far-sighted scientists whether this ' Intelligence explosion ' is a possibility, and they’ll almost unanimously say yes.
• Ask them whether its likely though, and the answers will be much more varied.
• Ask them when, and you may as well peer into a crystal ball and guess.
Early next month, similar questions ( and others ) will be examined at a two-day conference in San Francisco - The Singularity Summit 2007 - promoted by the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence Inc.
Director of the institute ( and partner of Ray&Terry’s Longevity products ) is inventor and futurist Ray [230 pills a day*] Kurzweil - here’s what he says on the institute’s ‘ quotes ’ page :
“ Although neither utopian or dystopian, this epoch will transform the concepts that we rely on to give meaning to our lives, from our business models to the cycle of human life, including death itself. “
And here’s Bill [talking paperclip]Gates opinion :
“ If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, so machines can learn, that is worth 10 Microsofts. “
Leaving aside for a moment the fact that no-one has ever managed to come up with a watertight definition of what intelligence actually is, Really Magazine would like to ask -
• ‘ What are the signs that it might be happening ? ’
We hope readers won’t object if we try to answer the question ourselves :
None. Zero. Zip.
In fact, we challenge readers to send us an example of any Artificial Intelligence (AI) project that has ever demonstrated the briefest glimpse of the tiniest spark of a true emergent ‘ intelligence ’ in any man-made machine.
Which is why Really Mag is more inclined towards the quote from professor Jaron [teleimmersion] Lanier
“ Someone is going to have to write the software that gets the process going, and humans have given absolutely no evidence of being able to write such software . . . The whole enterprise of artificial intelligence is based on an intellectual mistake, and continues to expensively turn out poorly designed software as it is remarketed under a new name for every new generation of programmers. “
For further info - suitable for priming sceptics and non-sceptics alike - why not check out the conference -
September 8-9, 2007, Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Cost: $50 per ticket ( includes seating for both days, the reception, and free lunches )
؟ ؟ ؟
* in a recent book he tells readers that he takes
250 supplemental pills a day – but we
hear he’s recently cut
down to about 230
01 AUG 07 (midday)
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To start the month
We've added two new links to our links page - both very well worth a visit.
01 AUG 07
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