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The Lion’s Breath Project is now complete.
The Violence & Society Research Group ( part of the School of Dentistry – click the link to find out why ) at Cardiff University , Wales, interviewed over 1000 city-centre drinkers in Cardiff over a period of a year.
The results, to say the least, are slightly staggering.
The average male interviewee spent 7 hours on a drinking session, and females 5 hrs 40 min .
The average male drank the equivalent of 8 pints of lager, the ladies 5 glasses of wine.
Remember these are averages, not maximums . . .
Thankfully though, the report points out that
“ - the majority of drinkers do seem to drink reasonably sensibly and appear to thoroughly enjoy their time in the city centre is reassuring “
and “ - violence was observed rarely, and was more frequently based on ‘boisterousness’ and ‘wrestling’. “
***
Perhaps the official tourist website sums it up best :
“ The Welsh are a race who know how to enjoy themselves ! “
***
Cardiff’s most famous local beer is; Brains SA. ( over 18's only )
***
Well Lechyd da !
28 APR 06 (late edition)
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The Dalai Lama is currently visiting Brazil
In a collective press interview in Sao Paulo, he reminded journalists that they have what he called a ‘ duty to investigate ‘.
He suggested that they must have " a long nose - like
the trunk of an elephant " to sniff out and analyse what they find.
Really Magazine hasn’t been able to determine if the Dalai Lama had any specific examples in mind – but it sounds like excellent general advice.
We'll try our best . . .
Source: O Globo 27th April
***
also see: This, re:
'Fake News' on a TV near you . . .
28 APR 06
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The (w)hole UK N-waste plan ( draft ).
After extensve ' public and stakeholder engagement ' CoRWM, the UK .gov appointed committee on radioactive waste management, have today press-released details of their ( draft ) findings on the subject N-waste disposal .
As the chairman of the committee points out :
“ For 50 years the UK has been creating radioactive waste, without any clear idea of what to do with it. ”
And there’s now around 470,000 cubic metres of it - including roughly 70 tonnes of plutonium, enough to make 11,000 or so Nagasaki-sized weapons . . .
The CoWWM report - which currently considers ' geological disposal ' ( burying it ) as the best option - points to the need for a contingency plan in the event of any technical problems that might emerge during design or construction of the disposal sites “ or any delays arising from social or ethical challenges related to finding a host community. ”
As Really Magazine highlighted back in April last year, the ‘social challenges’ ( code for NIMBY’s ) are very likely to be the stumbling block of the (w)hole scheme – so it will be very interesting to see what the committee’s contingency suggestions are when the full report is released in July 2006.
Here are Really Magazine’s predictions for the contingencies :
• It’ll get buried at Sellafield – where most of it already is anyway.
or :
• It’ll get shipped to Russia – which is currently accepting
N-waste ( 
) from
several countries - e.g. the Netherlands - in
return for commensurate quantities of hard currency.
؟ ؟ ؟
• CoRWM's draft report here:
• Possible further clues in this
piece, from the Sunday Times, May 15th 2005.
27 APR 06 ( late edition )
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rattle-rattle-warble-warble
The editor of the journal Nature sums
it up neatly :
“ - perhaps there is no single property or processing
capacity that differentiates human language from non-human communication
systems.”
The editor is commenting on a paper in today’s issue regarding a new study from the University of California into the singing skills of the European starling.
The study casts (more) doubt on the idea that ‘ generative grammar ’ – a description of language structure originated by Noam Chomsky in the 1950's - is a uniquely human ability.
Eleven starlings were trained over a period of several months with ‘artificial’ ( i.e. sampled/remixed/mashup ) starling songs.
Nine of the birds subsequently managed to reliably distinguish patterns in other ‘remixed’ recordings – i.e. they could recognise the ‘grammar’ of the songs rather than the samples themselves.
For an excellent overview of the research, see this page on Stephen Hart’s Animal Communication Project website - featuring qt recordings of the mashup starling remixes.
؟ ؟ ؟
for a slightly less dan fully reverential interview with Noam Chomsky, go
here:
27 APR 06
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Concerned about N-waste ?
Especially high-level N-waste ?
To put things into perspective, the US government's Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has made available an on-line resource, aimed primarily at young students, but which may prove enlightening for anyone interested in the subject.
viz. The design for a ‘ Nuclear Waste Cube ‘.
“ In the United States, one person’s share of high level nuclear waste from nuclear powerplants for a 20 year period could be placed inside the cube. “
Really Magazine tried to replicate the cube, but got stuck at the first hurdle. How much cardboard do we need ? ( and should we line it with tinfoil ? )
؟ ؟ ؟
Also not to be missed: from the government's Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI)
‘ Nuclear
Power Plants Are Good for the Environment ‘
26 APR 06 (late edition)
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Where there’s gain, there’s pain : (discuss)
The May issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine will be is devoted to tennis.
As might be expected, the journal concentrates on the medical aspects of the game.
And there is, it seems, no shortage of subject material. Apart from the well-known condition of tennis elbow, the sport has also been known to cause, for example, strain injury of the internal oblique abdominal muscle.
Further, “ the combination of tensile forces medially and shear forces posteriorly can result in ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) tears, flexor–pronator mass injuries, neuritis of the ulnar nerve, posterior impingement, and olecranon stress fractures. “
The situation is not helped by the fact that over recent years, the trend has been for increased stiffness of racquets, and tennis balls have got harder – contributing to increased shock transmission from the racquet to the player.
؟ ؟ ؟
The BJSM is subscribers only, but you can read abstracts of all the articles here :
Further reading :
“ Playing it safe on the tennis court ” from the American academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
26 APR 06
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S t at e of th e a rt
The Conference on Human Factors in Computing ( a.k.a CHI2006 ) is underway at the Palais des Congrès * de Montréal, Canada.
This year, one of the core components of the conference is the theme of ‘ Usability ’. And the event is featuring an extensive series of workshops, lectures, courses on the subject - such as :
• Designing for user efficiency
• Repositioning user experience as a strategic process
• Usability Design : A new unified process discipline
The organisers have made available the entire conference programme - a 108 page .pdf
Really Magazine highly recommends that you view it - to get a realworld and accurate feel of the current state of the science/art of computer usability . . .
Click here for the full .pdf experience
( * tip : scroll to page 108 for a location map )
25 APR 06
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. . . . . . . to change a lightbulb ?
Imagine that there is a solvable, but tricky logical problem to unravel. Would it be better for people to work individually on the task, or form a group to solve it ? If so, what would be the optimum number in the group ?
The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘3’.
That is according to new research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
It was also shown, however, that increasing the team size over 3 did not necessarily bring any benefits with regard to the rapidity and accuracy of the problem solving.
The researchers do point out though that the optimum team-size would probably vary according to the task in hand.
To illustrate, perhaps Really Magazine could perhaps make some practical analogous examples :
• Optimum number of people to put up a lightweight, 2 meter-long shelf : 2
• Optimum number of captains for a supertanker : 1
• Optimum number to write a romantic poem : 1
• Optimum number to dig-over a patch of land : depends.
• Optimum number to tango : 2 ( n, groups of )
• Optimum number of cooks to make broth : not too many.
( Note : it may, or may not, be psychologically significant that
there were 4 researchers to write the paper )
24 APR 06
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Junk food advertisers much content.
A new study, of 548 Boston schoolchildren, has directly correlated hours of TV viewing to increased calorie intake.
Specifically -
“ each hour increase in television viewing was associated with an additional 167 kcal/day “
To put that into perspective, the online Diet & Fitness Today Calorie Calculator reveals that to ‘burn’ those extra calories, you’d need to ( for example )
• Do 30 minutes of general, greek, middle eastern, hula, flamenco, belly, or swing dancing
• Or, for those of a more conservative nature, you could just sit ( reading religious matters ) for two hours.
؟ ؟ ؟
Intriguingly though, another paper in the same (April) issue of the Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that “ when parental obesity is taken into account, television viewing hours do not significantly relate to increased odds of childhood overweight “
Seeming to suggest that if your parents are obese you can watch as much
TV as you like and it won’t affect your weight . . .
22 APR 06
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Off the board: throw again.
Another group of eminent scientists have felt the need for direct communication with their ‘leader’. Ninety Canadian researchers sent an open letter to their Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday to draw attention to the need for action on global warming.
“ We urge you and your government to develop an effective national strategy to deal with the many important aspects of climate that will affect both Canada and the rest of the world in the near future. “
The letter may have been prompted by the Canadian government’s decision to quietly scrap 15 climate research programmes last week.
And more research is certainly needed.
Back in January, the journal Nature (439, p128 ) reported an extraordinary story pinpointing research from the prestigious Max Planck Institute , which discovered that plants – i.e. all plants – are responsible for 10 to 30 per cent of the methane released into the atmosphere each year.
Methane is over 20 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, and the researchers estimate that plants worldwide have been quietly producing between 60 and 240 million tonnes of it every year - without anyone noticing.
As Dr. Frank Keppler, from the Institute put it " Until now all the textbooks have said that biogenic methane can only be produced in the absence of oxygen. For that simple reason, nobody looked closely at this."
It seems that the textbooks, however, were wrong.
If the methane producing mechanism is confirmed by other studies the implications are huge - for, at the very least, it will severely compromise the credibility of every single climate research model produced up until now . . .
Thanks to researcher Carmelita Mc’Q for the story lead.
21 APR 06
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iPOD’s as life savers.
A new(ish) download facility from the UK’s Sussex Ambulance Service is offering copyright-free mp3‘s – of first aid advice.
The service is evidently proving extremely popular. Really Magazine tried
to download
and got
“ Bandwidth Limit Exceeded :The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later. “
Hope you’re not in a hurry.
( Via The Guardian )
( Note: The server has now been revived 22/04/06 )
20 APR 06 (late edition)
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Why we won’t be joining the dinosaurs ( probably ).
“ Are you losing sleep at night because you're afraid that all life on Earth will suddenly be annihilated by a massive dose of gamma radiation from the cosmos? “ asks Tuesday’s press release from Ohio State University.
It’s believed that Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB’s) are generated when :
• massive stars collapse at the end of their burn.
or
• during the merger of two Neutron stars.
A GRB at less than 3000 light years away would pose an extreme danger to all life on Earth, but new research OSU suggests that worries about such an event may have been exaggerated.
Confusingly perhaps, the press release says
“ astronomers only detect a GRB once every few years “
though this
NASA site, which gives an excellent overview of the phenomenon,
says “ GRBs are detected
roughly once per day from wholly random directions of the sky. “
And this site from Sonoma State University even gives a near real-time map of recent GRB events. ( the last one, GRB 060418A, happened the same day as the OSU press release )
Whatever the frequency of the events, researchers found that the chances of a GRB was greatly diminished if the host galaxy was rich in metal content ( as is ours, the Milky Way )
Really Magazine would like to point out a psychological/philosophical/physiological, rather than cosmological, reason for not worrying about GRBs.
If one were to occur near us, the wavefront of deadly high energy photons would of course be travelling towards us a light-speed. Thus we could not have any possible warning of its approach, and, after its arrival nothing would really matter much anymore . . .
GRB’s were discovered during the late 1960’s by the Vela military satellites on the lookout for telltale radiation from nuclear weapons tests.
20 APR 06
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Like taking candy from a baby . . . ( again )
As a promo for their upcoming information security event in London, Infosecurity Europe decided to see if they could glean sensitive information from Londoners in exchange for ‘ the opportunity to win an Easter Egg Bonanza worth £60.’
They could.
81% of those questioned willingly handed over details such as their name, address, postcode, date of birth, pets name, mother’s maiden name etc etc - for the chance of some chocolate.
The potential scamees were seemingly unaware about “ identity theft, and blackmail using techniques that are becoming more sophisticated, combining hacking, phishing, spyware, denial of service attacks, botnets, worms and viruses.”
Not as bad as last year’s survey though, when 92% gave away their
details . . .
( the press
release informs that all the data collected were destroyed
- but sadly doesn’t mention if anyone actually won the Easter Egg
Bonanza . . . )
The 11th Infosecurity
Europe exhibition will run from 25th to 27th April
at Olympia, London.
19 APR 06
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Therapeutic recordings.
If the foregoing piece left you with the feeling that you could benefit from some therapy, perhaps Really Magazine could recommend Charles Vald’s ‘ Sound Of Laughter ' CD ( £6.49 ) . It’s an hour long, and features recordings of 30 different types of laughter.
“ Laughter stimulates circulation, produces a sense of well-being, exercises the face and stomach muscles, stimulates the production of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, provides more oxygen to the brain, helps the immune system and is fun .”
Click here for an mp3 sample :
Why not also experiment with the ‘ Gibberish ’ CD ($16.98 ) from US-based laughter therapist Pragito Dove. It’s founded on the ideas of the Sufi mystic named Jabbar.
“ To start with you might want to try 5 minutes of gibberish followed by 5 minutes of silence. Then build up to 15, 20, 30 or even an hour of gibberish followed by the equivalent time of silent sitting. “
[ Editor's note: There is some controversy over the true origins of the word ‘gibberish’. It may instead have come from the 11th century Arabian alchemist ( or chemist ) Jabir ( or Geber ) ]
18 APR 06 ( late edition )
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26 years of complete consistency.
Thirteen of the US’s most prominent physicists yesterday published an open letter to their leader, pointing out that “ Using or even merely threatening to use a nuclear weapon pre-emptively against a non-nuclear adversary tells the 182 non-nuclear weapon signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that their adherence to the treaty offers them no protection against a nuclear attack . . . “
The letter was prompted by recent articles in the New Yorker , the Washington Post and others which suggested that the use of nuclear ‘bunker busters’ was on the table as an option for “ changing the power structure in Iran “
The government position is, however, very consistent. In 1980 the US vetoed a UN resolution calling for a ‘ Declaration of non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states. ’
In that respect at least, nothing much has changed in the last 26 years. So the letter was long overdue - but better late than never.
***
The next year, 1981, the UN requested that the country in the middle east with the keenest interest in nuclear weapons ( the only one, in fact, to ever develop them ) “ should renounce, without delay, any possession of nuclear weapons and place all its nuclear activities under international safeguards “ It didn’t happen of course – and it wasn’t Iran . . .
***
For a very revealing list of 101 times the US vetoed UN resolutions
1972 > 2002
see :
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk
18 APR 06
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New entry for the Terms & Conditions Leaguetable . . .
The latest entry strorming its way into the Really Magazine Online Terms & Conditions Leaguetable is . . .
Lycos - pushing Vaio/Sony into second place with a highly impressive 12,880 words of small print.
17 APR 06 ( late edition )
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Prune futures
Really Magazine would like to share the answer to the question ‘ What is a dried Plum ’ ?
californiadriedplums.org provide the answer here :
Further
prune-related info, especially regarding prune pricing strategies, goto http://www.prunebargaining.com/
17 APR 06
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If you’d like to know . . .
How many Indian restaurants there are in the UK [10,709 ]
How much desperately needed ‘third-world’ cash is being ‘looked after’ by UK banks [$385Billion ]
How many tonnes of potatoes the UK exported to Germany in 2005 [1,500 tonnes]
How many tonnes of potatoes the UK imported from Germany in 2005 [1,500 tonnes ]
And how many planet Earth’s would be required to sustainably support everyone at current UK lifestyle levels [ 3.1 ]
Then download and read the newly released UK Interdependence Report from the New Economics Foundation.
35 pages of highly disturbing reality-checks for grown-ups.
***
also see : www.interdependenceday.co.uk for details of the upcoming Interdependence Day , 1 July 2006
15 APR 06
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Small was beautiful ?
Vernor Vinge , emeritus professor of computer science at San Diego State University describes what he calls ‘ The Creativity Machine’ in the current issue of Nature magazine.
The machine is the www and the people who interact with it. He describes the astonishing possibilities for the internet in fifteen years time, when computing power will have increased by ( at least) 1000 times.
The commentary has no mention though of the major flaw in the system – the
lack of any reasonable level of quality control.
Phenomenally powerful as it is, the internet is awash with junk. Without
any intelligent guidance, as the system gets ever more potent, it will
also become ever more dross-laden.
The fact that things get faster and bigger doesn’t meant they’ll get better. So, you can now tune-in to 300 TV channels – how many are worth watching ? Has the level of mindless spam in your e-mail inbox gone up or down in the last five years ? Is travelling around your neighbourhood getting easier or more difficult ?
As E.F. Schumacher put it in his 1973 ‘ Small is beautiful ’ series
" Ever bigger machines, entailing ever bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment, do not represent progress: they are a denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful. "
Any signs that that is the direction in which ‘ The Creativity Machine ’ is headed ?
14 APR 06
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Peach tree boring work yields fruit.
" To find out the answer, I lay down on the ground and fixed my eyes on the snail-like borers on a nearby tree for days “
said 80 year young Zhao Huaiqian, a Chinese botanist, who has single-handedly discovered an important link in the reproductive cycle of the peach borer insect.
His findings will allow tree growers to avoid the pests by simple pruning methods rather than by using environmentally toxic insecticides.
Read the full story here at the China Daily.
13 APR 06 (late)
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" Joy is a citrus mix "
Aldous Huxley invented the ‘Scent Organ ’ for his ground-breaking 1932 book ‘Brave New World’.
Since then, there have been various attempts to implement olfactorially assisted viewing experiences in cinemas.
Notably ‘ Smell-o-Vision ’ from 1960 :
However, “ Problems propagating scents in sync with the film and flushing the scents out between each showing led to Smell-o-vision's early demise. “
Then, in 1981, a ( more practical ?) variation on the idea surfaced again when director John Waters introduced Scratch-and-Sniff ™ ' Odorama ' cards ( allegedly including Eau de Sock ) for his cult-classic film Polyester.
Now, according to AP, Japanese communications giant NTT is having another crack at the idea.
Across Japan, synchronised smells will be exuded from special machines during cinema screenings of the appropriately named ‘The New World ‘.
Given NTT's prodigious tech backing, will Aldous’s idea at last become viable ? Don’t hold your breath. ( see quote above )
13 APR 06
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"Two PA's and a packet of potato crisps please."
The Journal of Psychopharmacology is carrying a special feature on alcohol and its problems.
The journal’s editor, Professor David Nutt , of the UK's University of Bristol, has two articles in the May issue - currently on-line.
His critique examines what could be done to ameliorate the social and health problems caused by alcohol consumption - not by cutting down on its use, or making booze less strong – but by developing and making available a chemical ‘cocktail’ with all the pleasurable attributes of a drink, but with no collateral-damage potential.
There are already a number of drugs available which target the brain’s GABA-A receptors – causing effects similar to a stiff drink. And perhaps so-called ‘partial agonists’ (PA’s) could be developed which don’t cause aggressive tendencies, and which can instantly be reversed by a special chemical antidote, says the author.
Really Magazine would like to point out though that developing a new technology always brings with it a new set of problems. How would the availability of these new compounds be regulated ? How could we be sure there were no long-term side-effects ? And if the drug’s properties can be instantly ‘turned off’ with a dose of Flumazenil , then presumably the tendency would be to get even more substantially legless on a Friday night than is currently in vogue.
And there is another major sociological problem which, en passant, the author mentions in his editorial ( comparing the social/health risks of Ecstasy and Ethanol ):
• Alcohol’s ‘cost to UK society’ per year
- £18.5 Billion
• Contribution to the exchequer in taxes per year - £50
Billion
If booze sales make a tax profit in excess of £30 Billion a year, it’s a fair bet that no government will be minded to allow a tax-free alternative to appear in the shops any time soon . . .
12 APR 06
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Avast above !
There’s till time ( just ) to bid in the Bonham’s auction of meteorites. Like this one from the Namibian desert : which “ evokes the work of Barbara Hepworth “ ( Estimate: $22,000 - 25,000 )
Or this one “ Willamette — partial slice of the crown jewel of meteorites “ ( Estimate: $8,000 - 10,000 ) The 15.5 ton Willamette meteorite, ‘ the crown jewel of the American Museum of Natural History’s Rose Center ‘ had a piece lopped off 1997 – now’s your chance to own a slice of it . . .
If you don’t manage to get in a bid today, you could take a trip to
Antarctica instead, where
over 35,000 have been discovered since the 1970’s. You could pick
one up for next to nothing.
؟ ؟ ؟
If the thought of buying a meteorite doesn’t raise a smile, maybe yesterday’s news from the European Space Agency (ESA) will . . .
11 APR 06
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Swords to ploughshares and back again ?
The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility’s 10Kw Free Electron Laser(FEL) has found a possible new use – zapping cellulite.
After initial experiments with ' human fat obtained from surgically discarded normal tissue ' -
“ researchers then exposed fresh, intact pig skin-and-fat tissue samples, about two inches thick, to free-electron laser infrared light centered around the two most promising wavelengths, 1210 and 1720 nm. ” Says their press release.
They found that the 1210 nm wavelength preferentially heated pig fat up to 1 cm deep, without damaging the overlying skin.
“ We can envision a fat-seeking laser, and we're heading down that path now ,” said the lead author of the new study.
If the laser eventually proves too unwieldy ( and pricy ) for use in the average beauty salon ( see photo ) – then presumably it could still fall back on the application for which is was originally developed - as a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) . . .
“ The FEL is principally funded by the Department
of the Navy's Office of Naval Research.” ( source here: )
10 APR 06
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Olfaction attractions
Saturday,
April 29, 2006 is the13th Annual National Sense of Smell Day. And
a list of eleven organisations will be staging smell-related activities aimed
at children. For example, the New
York Hall of Science will be hosting a ‘ smell IQ quiz ’ ,
and ‘ Whose Nose is it? ’ – ( reunite noses with the animals
they belong to )
The events are being sponsored by the ‘ Sense
of Smell Institute ‘ ( part of the Fragrance Foundation )
who, in the 1980’s developed the concept of Aroma-Chology, which
“ refers to collection of scientific data under controlled conditions to study the interrelationship of psychology and fragrance technology to transmit a variety of specific feelings and enhance behavior through the olfactory experience .”
08 APR 06
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OhPurleese and Really Magazine
Eagle eyed readers will have noticed the name swap . . .
Why the change ?
Two reasons :
Firstly, [ deleted ] [ deleted ] [ deleted ] [ deleted ] [ deleted ] already . . .
The second reason was that the previous name tended to imply that the magazine content was always going to be predominantly ‘negative’ comment – which it isn’t.
When the magazine wanted to support / plug story items, the name was making things difficult . . .
Hopefully, both problems are now resolved, and the new name has a nice quadruple-entendre to it . . .
You can now reach the Magazine via
Or if you prefer,
07 APR 06
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Walking on ice.
A joint study from the Department of Oceanography, Florida State University, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, Florida State University, the Department of Statistics Florida State University, the Department of Biostatistics, Columbia University, and the Department of Atmospheric Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem asks :
“ Is there a paleolimnological explanation for ‘walking on water’ in the Sea of Galilee? “
The answer is published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Paleolimnology , ( subscribers only - but Really Magazine has located a copy here )
Clue : Florida State University Professor of Oceanography Doron Nof suggests the possibility that Jesus may have walked on an isolated patch of floating ice.
The professor also
published a paper in 1992 which suggested that ' the Parting of the
Red Sea ' could have been caused by a wind set-down which exposed a usually-submerged
ridge ( and that a fast non-linear gravity wave subsequently drowned the
Egyptians )
05 APR 06
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“ I also hope that such magic on you.”
A series of articles explaining some of the the über-maths behind Google’s automatic translation software is starting today on their official Chinese blog page. (in Mandarin (?))
However, using this
cunning link which Really Magazine has contrived, you can
see their Chinese page translated into English using their very own translation
engine . . . . . . and thus get a very good handle - a reality check in
fact - on their current state of progress.
“ Google's system is not only the best in the world, but all the rules-based system is a lot. “
“Now, readers may have to feel the wonderful mathematical point, a number of complex issues that it has become so simple.”
“I hope that the efforts of a number of sub-Google users search on the likely we're happy.”
Etc
04 APR 06 (late)
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Unrelated link of the day
Handed on a plate
You might think that every possible study correlating TV advertising and consumer responses would have already been conducted years ago.
But the Stanford School of Medicine has just published details of research which linked the amount of childrens’ ‘screen time’ ( includes TV, video and computer games etc etc ) and nagging requests ( to their parents ) for advertised toys and food/drinks.
The study monitored 827 ethnically diverse school children ( third-graders ) and conducted a follow-up over a period of 20 months.
The kids clocked up an average of 22 hours of screen time each week – and yes, the amount of screen time correlated well with the number of ‘nag’ requests to their parents for toys/food/drinks.
The conclusion :
“ Our result demonstrates that television and other screen media are true ‘risk factors’ for future requests for food and drinks ”
Medical establishments, health authorities and parents will no doubt be alarmed at the implied junk-food ‘risk factors’ ; but the result will be music to the ears of ad agencies and their clients across the world - for it means, of course, that advertising aimed at young children - on TV, video games and movies, online and even cell phones - works.
The study is published in this month’s Archives
of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see this long awaited report:
' Television advertising of food and drink products to children : Options for new restrictions.'
just released by Ofcom ( the UK’s government’s communications 'watchdog' ).
They want to hear your views on the subject . . . ( deadline 6th June 2006 )
Before you bother though, you might want to bear in mind that Ofcom will :
" only consider proposals which both command broad support across broadcasters, advertisers, retailers and manufacturers . . .“
( Source: The
Guardian )
؟ ؟ ؟
Ancient resurrected joke of the day.
" I didn’t know you ‘ad a dog ?"
" Yeah, that’s old Bonzo – ‘e’s my watchdog "
" But ‘e ain’t got no teeth ! ‘Ow can ‘e scare anyone away ?"
"Yeah, it’s true ‘e can’t bite
anyone – but ‘e can give ‘em a nasty suck."
04 APR 06
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Avian imitation CD
The British Library have recently issued a CD which features 26 recordings of birds imitating things.
Mostly other birds, but there are more mysterious recordings too : e.g.
• A Jay that neighs like a horse;
• Bullfinches that whistle traditional German folk tunes;
• A Blackbird in London that imitates a computer modem.
• and a Fawn-breasted Bowerbird which imitates ( very impressively indeed ) the sound of hammering and sawing at a Papua New Guinea building site.
Buy the CD for £9.95 here . . .
؟ ؟ ؟
also see ( and hear ) this one :
and, errrrr . . . this one :
03 APR 06 (late)
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A reality-check for insectophobes
From the 19th to the 25th of June 2006 it will be National Insect Week in the UK.
The Royal Entomological Society ( patron H.M. The Queen ) is promoting the concept via their website and hopes to draw attention to the much-maligned insect world.
According to the RES, there are around 10,000 million insects living in every square kilometre of habitable land on Earth.
And, as Sir David Attenborough recently pointed out during the promos for his recent book and TV series ‘ Life in the undergrowth ’
“ If we and the rest of the backboned animals
were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty
well. But if they were to disappear, the land's ecosystems would collapse.
The soil would lose its fertility. Many of the plants would no longer be
pollinated. Lots of animals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals would
have nothing to eat. And our fields and pastures would be covered with
dung and carrion. These small creatures are within a few inches of our
feet, wherever we go on land - but often, they're disregarded. We would
do very well to remember them. “
A study giving further support to those ideas appears in the April edition of the journal BioScience.
Researchers from the dept of Entomology at Cornell University looked at just a very small corner of insect activity and quantified the benefits in terms of hard cash - totalling billions of dollars.
They point out, as Sir David did, that " human life could not persist without these services "
For example, using the formula :
Vrf = [Vc x
(Cp x Lnb)] – [Vc x
(Cp x Lb)]
where
Vrf = value of reduced
forage fouling,
Vc = value of cattle (per
kilogram),
Cp = head of cattle producing
dung that can be processed by dung beetles,
Lnb = losses (per animal)
with no dung beetle activity, and
Lb = losses (per animal)
at current levels of dung beetle activity.
they proved that the activity of just one species, dung
beetles , saves the US $380Million per year, by helping to bury around
2,100,000,000 cubic metres of ‘solid waste’ . . .
read the new research paper (.pdf) here :
03 APR 06
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A novel multi-modal haptic interaction system using a chicken.
“ Society’s uncontrolled development can
result in feelings of isolation, loneliness and a lack of sense of value “
In order to begin on the path towards countering this sad state of affairs, the Mixed Reality Lab, at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore has developed the Poultry.Internet which enables a remote connection between a psychologically beneficial pet – in this case a chicken – and its human ‘owner’.
“ Our system is a human-computer-pet interaction system that transfers the human contact through the Internet to the pet and at the same time transfers the pet motion in real time with a physical doll movement on our low cost X-Y positioning table or as a real time 3D live view of the pet in a virtual garden augmented on the owner’s desk. “
It should be emphasised that the system is not just for entertaining the pet-owner – it is also designed to benefit the chicken - for :
“ it has been scientifically proven that poultry have high levels of both cognition and feelings. “
The
chicken is therefore equipped with a specially made ‘ Pet mobile
wearable computer jacket ‘ incorporating electronically operated
vibrators which simulate a stroking sensation.
On the human side, the chicken’s movements are relayed back to the owner
by the use of specially constructed shoes which “ activate
the electrodes attached to the user’s feet with an invigorating signal
related to the pet’s foot movement. “
It should be stressed that this is not just a concept system – the
equipment has been built and tested, and the lab has even conducted a survey
amongst users who have tried it out.
They were asked, for example :
“ Do you like to touch your pet when you are in the office and it is alone in the backyard of your house? ”
And the responses were very positive :
“ Yes. I really want to do it “ 25.81%
“ Yes. I want but it is not a necessity “ 38.71%
“ Yes. It is fine but not so important to me “ 35.48%
“ No. I do not like it “ 0%
Given the admirable human/animal social enhancement standpoint outlined at
the beginning of the research paper, Really Magazine was a touch
disappointed to find that the researchers’ thoughts also turned – as
so many do in the field of robotics – towards the military .
Think: wired dogs.
“ While the dog is out in the battlefield and
if it is remotely tickled, say, on the left side of its body, the dog changes
its walking direction to the left as it is trained to respond this way. “ etc
etc
؟ ؟ ؟
The researchers' 53 page paper :
' A mobile pet wearable computer and mixed reality system for human–poultry interaction through the internet '
was recently published in the scientific journal ‘ Personal and Ubiquitous Computing ‘ ( subscribers only )
but Really Magazine has also located it here. ( caution: 5.8Mb .pdf )
The university has also provided a short video clip of the equipment in action . . .
01 APR 06
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