JULY 06
Man in the loop
So-called ‘smart bombs’ have been under development for more than six decades. The latest generation guide themselves towards a coded laser-beam spot which is shone onto the target.
Giving ‘ pinpoint accuracy ‘ , or as the manufacturer’s brochure puts it
“ Lethal accuracy, anytime, anywhere “
Take, for example, the US-built GBU-28.
They're in the news over the past few days after revelations that special efforts are currently being made to urgently ship them from the US to Israel.
Scotland’s Sunday Mail has extensive coverage.
According to the Sunday Mail, at least 120 have been shipped over the past few days via Prestwick airport on the outskirts of Glasgow.
Unfortunately, although the weapons are classed as ‘ smart ’ , there is, as the military parlance goes :
“ a man in the loop “.
Several men in fact.
viz.
• The man ( or men ) who commission it to be built.
• The man ( or men ) who design it.
• The man ( or men ) who build it.
• The man ( or men ) who authorise the exports.
• The man ( or men ) who authorise the strike.
• The man ( or men ) who identifies the target.
• The
man who flies the fighter plane to drop the bomb.
• The man who shines the laser onto the target.
Etc etc etc etc etc . . . . etc.
The question is, how ' smart ' are they ?
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Notes:
• USA Today has made a Flash™ presentation ( complete with sound effects ) to show you how the weapons can destroy a building’s basement - and everything in it.
31 JUL 06
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Sinking in Golmud
The Qinghai -Tibet plateau is prone to landslides, mudflows, earthquakes, thunderstorms, and rapidly eroding ‘ karst ’ rock formations.
So, it was evident from project-day-one that the Qinghai-Tibet railway was going to be a heavy duty technical challenge.
It’s only been open for one month, but several problems have already
emerged. The Chinese press is reporting
today that cracks have begun to appear in some of the concrete structures
-
" The frozen ground that forms the foundation of the railway is sinking and cracking in some sections, making the railway unstable in some places "
The line cost $4.2Billion to construct, much of the outlay going towards tech fixes to overcome the fact that more than half of the line had to be laid over ‘ permafrost ’ – which is melting.
There are other, non-technical problems too.
• Ticket
issuing chaos has led some tour operators to temporarily give up on
the line.
• Ticket touts have been on a ‘scalping’ spree, adding as much as $300 to the price of a ‘soft’ seat for tourists.
• And some tourists have reportedly suffered from altitude sickness, despite the on-board oxygen supply. One was hospitalised and subsequently billed for 2,000 yuan. Her insurance company refused compensation though – claiming that :
“ altitude sickness is not an accidental injury.”
If all that wasn’t enough, the still-exiled Dalai Lama is reported today in the China Daily as :
“ refusing to recognize the fact that Tibet is part of China “
pointing out that :
" Tibet was a completely independent state in 1949 when the People's Liberation Army entered ".
28 JUL 06
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Next !
A study which was presented at the 2006 WWW Conference in Edinburgh, pinpointed a sobering fact about www users' browsing habits.
Researchers found that most likely length of time that a webuser will stay on any particular webpage is around 2 seconds.
The paper didn’t, however, go on to offer any ideas as to why.
Really Magazine would like to offer two three possible explanations :
Either :
• The average webuser’s attention-span is frighteningly short.
Or :
• The majority of webusers find themselves directed to a page which isn’t of interest.
Or:
Putting things another way round though – from the user’s point of view - meaningful visits to websites make up just a small proportion of the www experience – the rest is time-wasting . . .
And we can confirm that our own server-logs show that the big majority of visitors don’t stay very long.
0s-30s 86.5 %
30s-2mn 2.4 %
2mn-5mn 1.5 %
5mn-15mn 1.9 %
15mn-30mn 1.5 %
30mn-1h 3.2 %
1h+ 2.4
%
Unknown 0.1 %
So, if you got this far, thanks for your interest !
The full paper is published here
( Caution : involves reading )
27 JUL 06
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Mash up in Redmond
Microsoft was granted a patent yesterday on a ‘ music mixer ’ algorithm.
The algo calculates the ' Frame Based Energy ' for each piece, and then computes optimal alignments, using automatic time-scaling, resampling and time-shifting, so that the two pieces can be blended together.
Of course, DJs routinely perform similar feats in real-time, but the new system claims to be able to compute the correct BPM ( Beats Per Minute , i.e. , in musical terms, the tempo ) even when -
“ the BPM of one or more of the songs is not clearly discernable, or where the BPM varies or shifts over time. “
Thus a “ techno type song ” can be auto-blended with “ a piano tune by Mozart ”.
Wicked . . .
Patent details via this page ( click' Full text ' button )
26 JUL 06 ( late edition )
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What shape is a pebble ?
The Durian Group at the University of Pennsylvania point out that :
“ It is an interesting question as to why pebbles are generally rounded “
In order to more fully understand the features of pebble rounding, the group made clay slabs in various shapes, and then subjected them to controlled erosion in a tumbler-pan.
Photographs taken at various stages of erosion were analysed, and they showed that any sharp corners on the clay slabs tended to become rounded – and the slabs became smaller.
So, for a definition, which could encompass pebble-like objects, one could say :
" a nearly round object with a near-Gaussian distribution of curvatures "
Intriguingly, the research may, in the future -
“ perhaps give a method for reconstructing an earlier shape from the present shape of a pebble “
The study is published in the journal Phys.
Rev. Lett. 13th july 2006 (subscribers only)
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from the same author(s):
• Scaling
behavior in shaving cream
26 JUL 06
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AI gets the jokes
The University of Texas , US, and the Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica , Italy are co-researching the possibilities of implementing a computationally-based humour recognition engine.
In the latest edition of the journal Computational Intelligence , they present a paper in which they “ bring empirical evidence that computational approaches can be successfully applied to the task of humor recognition. “
The researchers used specially constructed software to compare lists of ‘one liners ‘ with ‘non - humorous’ texts.
Using a combination of Naïve Bayesian Text Classifiers and Support Vector Machine Binary Classifiers, the software trawled for Antonymy, Adult-slang, and (of course) Alliteration in over 16,000 one-liners ( gleaned from on-line humour sites ), and was able to arrive at this -
Conclusion * :
“ automatic classification techniques can be successfully applied to the task of humor-recognition.”
Summing up :
“ Given that automatic humor-recognition is a
rather understudied problem, we believe that this is an important result
. . . “
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Read the full paper here:
One liner examples :
• Take my advice ; I don’t use it anyway.
• I get enough exercise just pushing my luck.
• Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
* Note :
" A conclusion is simply the place where you got
tired of thinking.'"
Unrelated link of the day
25 JUL 06
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Link of the day :
via GrrlScientist . . .
"Easier than making shoes"
The public awareness graph has been climbing steadily upwards, and Real Money Trading (RMT) has its own entry in Wikpedia.
It’s been ‘suggested’ ( rather strongly ) that there might possibly be highly organised ‘sweatshops’ in rural China and other low-wage areas working round the clock to garner 'assets' in multiplayer computer games – and the assets can be sold for real money.
The RMT business has already had a lot of www coverage, but a good insight into the current sate of affairs in China was published over the weekend by China Daily.
“ At any given time, as many as half a million Chinese gamers are completing quests and gathering such assets as virtual gold pieces to sell off for real money. “
Depending on whom you ask, the estimates regarding the size of the RMT vary from $100Million to $3Billion – in any event easily enough to attract the attention of big business and the criminal underworld alike.
A new research paper from Indiana University , Bloomington ( to
be published in the Oct issue of the journal Info )
examines the market in fine detail - but recommendations for its regulation
only get a brief mention.
Suggestions include :
• Regulation via the civil courts.
• Regulation by government ( i.e. taxation )
• Self regulation by the games companies.
“ Each of these options has its own cost and benefit structure, which would have to be explored specifically in future research. “
So, for the time being a least, it look likes globalised virtual business as usual.
Download the full report via
this page :
24 JUL 06
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Global Trendspotting.
Any words spring to mind when viewing the following data, put into neatly digestible graphic form by ceasefirecampaign.org ?
Here’s some to choose from :
Perverse. Insane. Sick. Sad.
Obnoxious. Fraudulent. Fatuous.
Blatant. Loathsome. Arrogant. Indefensible. Reactionary.
&
Bellicose. Underhand. Suspect. Halfwit.
22 JUL 06 (late)
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Saturday's link(s) .
The invaribaly intriguing Athanasius Kircher Society website is currently running a series of entries on the subject of unusual museums.
Here’s two from their list :
The Frog Museum ( Estavayer-le-Lac, Switzerland )
The Museum of Food Anomalies ( cyberspace )
Note: the MFA is currently seeking more
examples of Food Anomalies – we
sent them this one of ours.
22 JUL 06
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Here / There / Everywhere - Always / Never
“ The problem is that a layperson can't tell where the quantum physics ends and the quantum nonsense begins." Says Bruce Rosenblum , professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
With his co-author Dr. Fred Kuttner ( also at UC/SC ) he has just released a new book :
‘ Quantum Enigma : Physics Encounters Consciousness ‘
which tries to shed some photons on the baffling mysteries at the heart of modern physics.
Quantum mechanics is one of the most successfully tested theories in science. The maths works. To an unprecedented level of accuracy.
As Richard Feynman put it in his book ‘ QED The Strange Theory of Light and Matter ‘ :
“ If you were to measure the distance from Los Angeles to New York with this accuracy, it would be exact to the thickness of a human hair “
But the ‘enigmas’ which the theory demands - and which have been tested and verified in as many ways as can be imagined - are, to say the least, incompatible with the human thought processes.
The press release gives an example:
“ An atom or a molecule can be shown to be in two places at once . . . And what is true for atoms and molecules is, in principle, also true for baseballs and cats “
But, ( with respect ) even that is an understatement. Fundamental particles aren't just ' in two places at once ' - thye're in all places at all times – but some places and some times are more likely than others.
But what do these impenetrable conundra have to do with consciousness ? That’s where Really Magazine loses the thread. Here’s what the press release says :
“ Every interpretation of quantum physics encounters consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum physics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing. “
In any event, it’s certainly a refreshing and suitably enigmatic approach to the problem(s) – since, as yet, no-one has any clear idea what ‘consciousness’ is either.
Buy the book, but bear in mind another of Feynman’s still highly relevant quotes :
“ I
think I can safely say that no one understands quantum mechanics. "
21 JUL 06
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Déjà vu all over again
Time Magazine cover : Aug 16 1982.
Stop the war (criminals)
Some of the world’s biggest PR agencies will be working overtime this weekend - performing damage-limitation exercises on behalf of their superpower clients.
Because this coming Saturday, there will be emergency anti-war demonstrations in :
Adelaide
Amsterdam
Birmingham
Bristol
Dijon
Eastbourne
Edinburgh
Exeter
Frankfurt
Glasgow
Hamilton
Hanover
Hong Kong
Kirkcaldy
London
Manchester
Melbourne
Munich
Newcastle
New Orleans
New York
Norwich
Oslo
Ottawa
Sheffield
Toronto
Vancouver
York
And more . . .
• If you live in the UK, details here :
• Canada details here :
• US details here :
20 JUL 06 (late)
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Semantic satiation
New Scientist reports the ongoing Leeds University ( Memory Group ) investigations into Déjà vu .
The results are currently under the spotlight at the ICOM4 conference in Sydney Australia. ( runs until 21st July )
But Really magazine prefers instead to concentrate on another session at ICOM4 ( from the same group of researchers ) - regarding :
‘ Jamais vu ’ .
Jamais vu could perhaps be described as the conceptual negative of Déjà vu – viz. a feeling of unfamiliarity with events which ought to be familiar.
To examine the phenomenon, researchers enlisted a group of ninety experimentees.
“ Participants repeatedly wrote single words until they felt peculiar “.
The subjects then made subjective reports of their experiences.
Results ?
“ We observed jamais vu in a substantial number of our participants, and this experience was described as similar to other sensations in everyday life. “
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• programme abstracts here : ( caution : 101 page .pdf )
• Memory Group homepage .
• Steven Wright clarifies all .
20 JUL 06
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Anti-Manpad Opportunities
As the Centers for International Business Education recently put it in this document :
“ Interestingly, there are also new opportunities for U.S.
firms due to the homeland security threat. These are opportunities to produce
the goods and services to protect U.S. firms and people against threats .
. . “
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The University of Southern California has just issued a press-release regarding the dangers posed to civilian aircraft by shoulder-fired missiles.
Using ‘ Operations Research ’ (O.R.) techniques
[ viz. “ the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. “ ]
researchers have unequivocally determined that :
“ preventative steps may be worth taking. “
The preventative steps are reckoned to weigh-in at about $10Billion for installation, plus another $2.5Billion per year for operation and maintenance.
Manpads ( manportable surface-to-air missiles ) have already been used in more than 20 attacks against civilian aircraft across the world ( source : [1] below ). Estimates are that there are approximately half a million in existence wordlwide ( source; FAS.org ) and needless to say they are a very popular commodity on the arms-sales white/grey/black markets.
There are two different protection strategies aganst manpads. The first is to equip each aircraft with detectors which trigger decoy flares and wide angle infrared jammers. The second is to surround airports with a protective ‘ bubble ’ which uses directable microwave beams or lasers to divert the manpads.
Necessarily, both schemes rely on ultra-fast real-time detection electronics, and very few companies have the know-how and infrastructure to design and implement them.
It would be an ironic coincidence – and an extraordinary taxpayer-funded bi-directional business ‘ opportunity ’ - if the firms which may be able to supply the hardware to protect civilian aircraft also turn out to be the same ones who produce shoulder-fired missiles . . .
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Notes and examples :
• Raytheon ‘ Stinger ’ missiles
have already been used to attack at least 8 civilian aircraft (
[1] source : Northrop
Grumman document
- ' Manpad protection for commercial aircraft ' )
• Here’s Raytheon's airport protection scheme.
19 JUL 06
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Umbrella Football Telephone
In a press-release today, the University of Manchester describes the process of constructing a ‘virtual computer world ’ - in order to investigate telepathy.
100 or
so participants will be tested in pairs. They will each don VR helmets and ‘datagloves’ and
will then try to guess the identity of virtual objects which their partner
is interacting with.
The two subjects will be physically situated in different rooms, on different floors of the university building – “ which makes it impossible for participants to leave signals or even unconscious clues as to which object they have chosen."
The system has been designed to make the task highly realistic. “ In addition to selecting objects and hearing the sounds they make, participants are able to hold and move them within the virtual environment. “
Results of the experiment will be published in early 2007.
Really magazine hasn’t been able to determine why the experiment needs to be based around such a complex virtual-reality approach. Why not just have the subjects interact with real objects instead ? We’re probably missing a subtle nuance.
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For more info on current telepathy research, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake will be giving a presentation on 23rd Sept 2006, near the Barbican, central London ( details here ). Two videos will be demonstrating ‘ telepathy in action ‘. One featuring N'kisi - a telepathic African Grey parrot, and the other The Nolan Sisters.
18 JUL 06
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Link of the day.
To University College Berkeley School of Information.
Here’s what they do :
“ The iSchool prepares tomorrow’s information professionals for the challenges of the fast changing information-driven world “
Current research projects involve developing user-friendly interfaces, and -
“ keeps the iSchool on the vanguard of contemporary information needs and solutions. “
Interested ? Want to find out more ? Here’s their link to their ‘ research / publications ’ page . . .
17 JUL 06 (late)
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“ Loot, vandalize, heckle, protest and more.” ( virtually )
“
Events in national and international arenas have emphasized the need for
such a modeling system." says a recent press release from the SouthWest
Research Institute, which is in the process of developing its ‘ Modeling
of Aggregates and Crowd Evaluation ‘ software, called MACE
Station.
Which “ allows law enforcement, military and event management personnel to analyze, model and research the behaviors and actions of hundreds of individuals in a potentially volatile crowd. “
Users can build scenarios from any map or satellite photo data, and then add software-based ‘individuals’, who which can be programmed with attributes reflecting their likely levels of ‘ aggression ‘ and ‘ resistance ‘ .
Run the simulation, and they can then “ interact with the environment by causing destruction, looting and vandalizing “ and “ act on other individuals by heckling, protesting and fighting “.
Disturbingly, “ Support for the introduction and analysis of lethal and non-lethal countermeasures is also addressed in the prototype. “
And from the publicity screenshot, Really magazine has noticed one slightly unnerving icon in the system’s toolbar :
begging the old security services question :
‘ Is it one of theirs or one of ours ? ’ . . . .
• For a screen-shot of a menacing virtual gathering near the vicinity of ‘ SayCheese Burgers ’ go here :
• more details here:
17 JUL 06
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Mind ( ) gap.
Hats off to Jerry Fodor , State of New Jersey Professor of
Philosophy at Rutgers University,
writing in the current edition of MIT’s journal, Daedalus.
Regarding today's scientific understanding of :
‘ The Mind ’
he ' throws some light on how much dark there is ' . . . thus :
“ Steven Pinker recently wrote a book called How the Mind Works. It’s a long book. In fact it’s a very long book. For all that, my view is that he doesn’t actually know how the mind works. Not do I. Nor does anybody else. And I suspect, such is the state of the art, if God were to tell us how it works, none of us would understand Him “
Cognitive scientists, and anyone else interested in what we really know, can read his very revealing essay here :
15 JUL 06
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Cigar-ettes
Three months ago, attorneys general from forty US states filed a petition with the department of Treasury’s Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) , asking that the agency urgently acts to close a loophole which allows “ cigarettes wrapped in brown paper “ to be sold as ‘ Little Cigars ‘.
Federal
laws – aimed at protecting the public from the dangers of
tobacco – are far more strict for cigarettes than for cigars, and the
taxes are much lower – 4¢ per pack of cigars, 39¢ per pack
of cigarettes ( source: ag.ca.gov ) .
At the state level taxes vary substantially – but are typically just 25% of the cigarette tax - and four states have no tax at all.
Because the taxes are much lower, the manufacturers can substantially increase their profit margin – and, as cigars, the product can legally be sold in so-called ‘kiddie packs’ ( of 5 to 8 ) – so the price per pack is far lower – and more attractive to cash-strapped youngsters. ( by law, cigarettes have to be sold in packs of 20 in most states )
Some even come in flavoured versions : chocolate, raspberry, peach, rum, cherry, and mint. etc.
The petition goes as far as to call the current state of affairs a “ consumer fraud against our children “ implying that manufacturers might be knowingly and deliberately targeting young people with the products.
Click here for an example of a ‘ little cigar ’.
In the last ten years, sales of ‘little cigars’ has doubled from
1.4 Billion per year to 3.7 Billion. ( source; naag.org )
So it’s plain that from the manufacturers' point of view, there’s
a lot riding on the definition - what is a cigar, and what is a cigarette
?
The current legal definitions of cigars and cigarettes are fairly straightforward(ish) – if it's wrapped in tobacco it’s a cigar, and if it’s wrapped in paper it’s a cigarette. Unfortunately though, the lawmakers omitted to specify what paper is. . .
Paper is made from plant-derived cellulose fibres – but what if the cellulose fibres happen to come from tobacco leaves ? is it still paper ? The manufacturers, and the tax regulators currently think not.
The newly proposed definition would simply say that a cigar is a cigar if it’s wrapped in a 100% tobacco leaf – otherwise it’s a cigarette.
Are the new proposals likely to be implemented any time soon ? Don’t hold your breath. The ‘argument’ over whether a ‘little cigar’ is a cigarette or not has been going on for over 35 years – as this document from 1971 shows . . .
14 JUL 06
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Firefox plug
According to W3counter ,
the Firefox browser is now being used by 25% of web-users.
Really Magazine doesn’t normally recommend software, but if you’re still using Internet Explorer , don’t even think about it, change to Firefox today, it’s free, and ‘open source’ ( i.e. by consensus, scumware free )
The new version ( 2.0 ) of the browser has just been released for the beta test phase.
It will include the very welcome ability to re-open tabs closed by accident, and can recover its last used status in the event of a crash or power outage.
Firefox tip of the day :
How to stop animated gifs ( i.e. flashing ads )
from animating . . .
• In a blank tab’s address bar, type about:config to display the configuration
settings.
• In the' Filter' field at the top of the page, type image to
search
for
the
image configuration options.
• Double-click the image.animation_mode entry.
• In the 'Enter String Value' dialog box, change ‘normal’ to none
• Click OK.
• Close Firefox, and then open it again.
Unfortunately Flash ™ -based ads will still get through though,
maybe Firefox 2.0 will include a Flash-blocker too ?
13 JUL 06 (late edition)
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Link of the day :
Wardogs ( make sure your audio is on for full effect )
Age Compression.
Are kids getting older . . . younger ?
Will your youngster learn to use a cellphone before he/she can read ?
Will they get a taste for ( alcohol free ) ‘beer’ by five ?
Manufacturers would certainly hope so,
" Even kids can't stand life unless they have
a drink." says
the slogan of Tomomasu Ltd.,
maker of ‘ KidsBeer ’
Story on ABC here :
13 JUL 06
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Olde news
Subscribers have drawn out attention to the fact that many high-profile news-based publications have implemented ‘ on this day ‘ features - which allow readers to browse the important news items from, say, 50 years ago.
Fortunately, we have been given exclusive access to a database of the digitised archive versions of the 17th century ' Really ’ scrolls - from which our magazine took its title and raison dêtre .
Read the ‘ on this day ’ news here :
12 JUL 06 ( late edition )
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Life and Death™
Bigelow Aerospace , poised to launch a 3 metre long model of an inflatable hotel into orbit, would like to know your views on the possibilies offered by the concept of Space Bingo.
Also on offer is your chance to comment on the concept of viewing ( via a website ) ‘living organisms’ on board a future Earth-orbiting spacecraft.
Really Magazine has not been able to determine exactly what form these ‘ living systems ’ might take - but our guess is that they may be fairly low-level organisms - e.g. say, blue cheese rather than cats and dogs.
Send Bigelow Aerospace your comments via their online survey form.
12 JUL 06 ( midday edition )
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Lucre not all that filthy.
The Eastern Institute of Technology, Hawke’s Bay – one of New Zealand’s most respected educational institutes – has been involved in money laundering.
A collaborative research project across eight countries has been trying
to determine the bacterial contamination levels of coins and banknotes.
Researchers collected coins and notes from shops and restaurants, and ‘washed off’ the bacteria using ultrasound. They then counted and identified the bugs.
“ Preliminary results indicate that money is indeed dirty, contaminated with a range of micro organisms that can cause illness in people. “
Microbes included Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Esherichia coli and other coliforms, though the density of bugs was ( to Really Magazine at least ) surprisingly low – just 20 or so per square centimetre.
Many countries ( evidently suspecting that exchanging money might present a hygiene problem ) traditionally separate the staff in food-handling establishments – one group of workers dispense the food, and others solely deal with the cash.
But in many other countries, the UK for example, it’s considered normal for, say, your local butcher to put the money in the till as well as to handle the meat.
Time for change ?
Really Magazine suggests a follow-up study - to look at the levels of bacteria resident on credit cards . . . we predict that the count will be high, at least as high - ormaybe higher, than on the notes.
But at least you know they’re predominantly your bugs.
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EIT’s preliminary
results were presented at the annual conference
of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology, held in Adelaide
on July 9-12.
Reader Simeon , from Melbourne Aus. points out that several countries use banknotes made of plastic.
12 JUL 06
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Arms cash.
Unarmed activist/comedian Mark Thomas has just launched a new book.
‘ As used on the famous Nelson Mandela ’ analyses the über-lucrative
global trade in arms and torture equipment.
Mark specialises in short-circuiting hypocritical governmental and corporate taboos - not many people have chained themselves to the axle of a bus-load of arms dealers – with a TV crew on hand.
Not many either have set up ‘letterbox’ companies - with schoolchildren
and a nun as directors – and
successfully used it to legally import and export electroshock torture batons
and lethal Israeli stone-throwing machines (for crowd control).
As for the book’s title ? No, it’s not one of Mark’s gags, it’s a quote from a manufacturer's website.
Think: leg irons . . .
As Mark’s new website puts it ; “ If you’re
not pissed off, you’re
not paying attention ”
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• Mark will be on an extensive UK tour over the coming months: schedule here :
• Buy the book here :
11 JUL 06
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Word of the day :
Kolmogorov and Van Gogh.
What adjectives spring to mind with regard to Van Gogh’s ' Self-portrait with Pipe and Bandaged Ear ' (1888) ?
Would you say it’s ‘ turbulent ‘ ?
If so, you’d be mistaken. A new study utilising mathematical analysis of the Probability Distribution Function ( PDF) in adjacent brushtrokes has shown that it’s anything but.
But when the joint research project from Mexico/Spain/England applied Kolmogorov scaling theory to a digitised image of ‘ The Starry Night ’ (1889) they found that it could indeed be correctly described as turbulent. Very much so in fact.
“ we show that the probability distribution function (PDF) of luminance fluctuations of points (pixels) separated by a distance R is consistent with the Kolmogorov scaling theory in turbulent fluids. “
The researchers further hypothesise that the increased turbulence in some of Van Gogh’s work corresponds with the periods of prolonged psychotic agitation which the artist had to endure.
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Story in Nature magazine here :
Full paper here :
For contrast, see the realtime Jackson Pollock Generator from Neen artist Miltos Manetas.
From a mathematical point of view, Pollock was of course more 'Fractal' than 'Turbulent'.
08 JUL 06
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Enhancing national cohesion with a musical lunar probe.
If you have any ideas for possible music tracks appropriate for broadcast
by a Moon-orbiting satellite, then China’s Commission of Science,
Technology and Industry for National Defense ( COSTIND ) would like
to hear from you.
They’ll be selecting 30 pieces of music ( from a shortlist of 150 ) to be played in sequence by the $170 Million probe( called Chang E ) as it circles the Moon, doing 3D surface analysis and looking for possibly exploitable mineral resources.
Judges from the National Defence Science and Industry Committee, the Central Television Committee, and the Chinese Musicians Association will make the final musical choices.
The music will be freely available to the entire world - but unfortunately, the press release doesn’t give any technical details about exactly how the music will be broadcast, or what kind of ( sensitive ? ) equipment you might need to pick it up.
The Chang E launch date is set for ( sometime in ) 2007.
Today’s COSTIND press
release here ( translated via Babelfish )
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Here's our nomination : Play !
07 JUL 06
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Link round-up
• How to quickly bypass automated call-answering services at large corporations
• Friedrich Nietzsche’s Diet Book – according to Woody Allen
• The Barbed-Wire Museum
See the links page.
Empathy on the hotplate
Researchers from the McGill Centre for Research on Pain , Montreal, decided to find out whether rodents were capable of ‘ emotional contagion ‘.
Specifically, would mice become distressed, and more sensitive to pain, if they witnessed their cagemates or siblings ( rather than ‘stranger’ mice ) in severe pain too ?
Results ? . . . Yes. They would.
Methods ?
The mice were tested in pairs. The mice which were given the ' pain stimuli ' were placed on a 6mm thick glass floor inside Plexiglas™ observation cylinders - so that the other ‘observer’ mice could see / hear / smell them ( or not, see later )
They were ‘stimulated’ in various ways :
• By injecting 0.9% acetic acid into their peritonea
• By injecting 5% formalin into their paws
• By shining a high-intensity projector lamp onto their paws from 6cm away.
To determine which of their senses the ‘observer’ mice were using in gauging the pain of the other, it was decided that some should be :
• irreversibly deafened ( injected with kanamycin )
• made anosmic ( nose injected with ZnSO4 , which destroys the olfactory epithelium.)
• others were simply separated from the partner mouse by physical shields which prevented touch or visual stimuli.
To gauge the empathy levels, they were observed ( and video’d ) for
levels of : writhing, licking, fighting, defecation, and thigmotaxis (wall
hugging) , over periods of 15 –30 minutes or so.
After analysis of the results, the researchers were able to conclude that :
“ Mice show empathy-like behavior, exhibiting
enhanced pain sensitivity when they see a familiar mouse experience pain
but not when the other mouse is
a stranger. “
؟ ؟ ؟
• Details, in this week’s Science
Magazine are ' subscribers
only ' - but you can read a .pdf of the methods which were used here
:
• Short summary in the New York Times
Editor’s comment :
We now know that mice find it distressing to witness extreme suffering in other mice which are ‘familiar’ to them.
But quite how this highly disturbing piece of research is going to advance progress in the field of human pain management is - to Really Magazine at least - far from immediately obvious.
If McGill University would like to cont4ct us with a succinct explanation of the scientific rationale which could justify such an experiment to our readers, we’d be happy to post it here.
Really Magazine's tip-of-the-day for readers:
Make sure that you never, ever, ever, get abducted by a ' higher intelligence ' . . .
06 JUL 06
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Remote persistence enablement . . .
“ YouOS is a web operating system that lets you run diverse applications within a web browser. “
The idea being that applications which you need – word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail clients – etc etc – don’t need to be running on your computer, they can be on a remote server.
That way, if you have www access, you can log-on, share, continue, collaborate, from anywhere, anytime, without the need for a terminal with all your progs and data stored locally.
And you don’t need to buy expensive suites of application software.
Could this be the shape of web things to come ?
Really magazine tried dipping its toes into YouOS , and is inclined to believe so.
05 JUL 06 ( late )
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PR cracks
British Energy Group ( the ‘owners’ of all the UK’s nuclear power plants ) is ‘ playing down ’ today’s Guardian report revealing that cracks have been found in reactor core linings.
Given the extreme environment - the inside of a nuclear reactor core - it wouldn’t be overly surprising if some of the graphite bricks regulating the reaction did develop cracks - and British Energy, quoted by the BBC says " This is a phenomenon known about, and anticipated for, within the safety case."
What is surprising though, is that the safety assessments, prepared by the UK government’s Nuclear Safety Directorate , were only made public after the Guardian used Freedom of Information Act leverage to demand their release.
If the cracks don’t pose any problem, why weren’t the documents automatically made public ? And if they do ? Same question.
Interestingly though, the British Energy spokesperson goes on to say that the Guardian had seen “ only a fragment of the ongoing dialogue that British Energy has with its regulator "
Really ?
We very much look forward to seeing more . . .
05 JUL 06 ( midday )
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50% optimistic.
In today’s Guardian , US national security adviser Stephen Hadley had this to say about North Korea's ' long range missile '
" The Taepodong obviously was a failure - that tells you something about capabilities "
Really Magazine wonders if he’s seen this
report in Monday’s
Time magazine ?
• Missile Defense Shield (II) cost so far : $91Billion
• Success rate in tests so far : 50%
( or should that be failure rate ? )
05 JUL 06
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Summer kairomones
The most dangerous animals on the planet - mosquitoes - have sophisticated
chemical sensors which guide them towards mammals and birds.
They find their hosts by detecting very small airborne concentrations of CO2 and other compounds - alcohols, alkylated benzenes and halobenzenoids – and they’re also sensitive to IR radiation from body heat.
But some people are very much more ‘attractive’ to mosquitoes than others - and, until recently, the assumption has been that these individuals produce more of the natural odours to which the flies are keenly tuned.
But now, Aberdeen University and a company/charity called Rothamsted Research have turned the idea on its head and asked instead ‘ do certain individuals produce chemicals which protect them from the flies ? ‘
According to new research, they do, and details regarding how the discovery was made are on display at the Summer Science Exhibition now underway at the Royal Society in London until July 6th.
Using gas chromatography and electroantennography ( i.e. measuring electrical signals in live antennae ) the teams were able to identify individual skin-odour chemicals amongst three or four hundred dominant ones.
And it was discovered that " Those of us who don't get bitten by mosquitoes produce unattractive chemicals, which mask their otherwise attractive odours "
Visitors to the exhibition will have a chance to test their own ‘attractiveness’ to live mosquitoes ( without betting bitten ) in a specially designed air-stream apparatus.
؟ ؟ ؟
The full results of the study ( i.e. the exact identity of the repellent
chemicals ) have not yet been publicly revealed – and are subject to
patent applications.
In 2006, more than a million people will die from the effects of mosquito-borne
malaria parasites.
Here’s some similar
research from 2004 ( University of Miami ,
USA and Kenyatta University , Egerton University , Kenya
)
which also used electroantennography techniques - and also identified several
naturally produced repellent chemicals found in skin odour.
04 JUL 06
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More research needed ?
If you think that you may be suffering from paranoia, a new self-help book has just been launched by researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London.
As background for the book, the authors are also providing a website outlining suprising recent findings regarding the prevalence of paranoia within society.
Their Paranoid Thoughts questionnaire sadly only works in Internet Explorer, so, for the benefit of Firefox users, here are some results :
• 17% of respondents said that, once a month “ People deliberately try to irritate me “
• 27% of respondents said that, once a month “ People might be hostile towards me “
• 25% of respondents said that, once a month “ Bad things are being said about me behind my back “
Suggesting that paranoid feelings are far more common than perhaps might be expected.
In fact the researchers claim that " about a third of the population are regularly bothered by suspicious or paranoid thoughts. " . . .
But surely feelings of persecution can only be described as ‘paranoic’ or 'suspicious' if there is no justification for them ?
Really Magazine would like to suggest, therefore, a parallel survey, asking :
• “ In the last month, have you tried to irritate anyone ? “
• “ In the last month, have you been hostile to anyone ? “
• “ In the last month, have you said any bad things about anyone behind their back ? “
Our guess is that the results, if honest, would be on the high side.
Thus, a truer measure of the level of paranoia in society would be the difference between the two sets of results – not just the first set.
03 JUL 06 (late)
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Remote brains
Household robots are expensive. And many wouldn’t win any prizes in artificial intelligence.
The government's Ministry of Information and Communication , South Korea, has a vision which, if successful, could solve both problems at the same time. The Ubiquitous Robotic Companion * (URC).
Their reasoning is as follows. Why try to build sophisticated and expensive computer hardware and software into a robot helper ? Why not just let a relatively dumb/cheap bot communicate, via mobile phone links, to an enormously sophisticated centralised ‘brain’ ?
The project will test about 500 remote-brained bots – which will guard homes, clean rooms, and read stories to children.
The idea is in stark contrast to many robot-design-lab's current penchant for ‘swarm’ tech – in other words highly de-centralised quasi autonomous bots which communicate with each other, rather than with a centralised base.
Time will presumably tell which approach is best, and which has the least chance of inadvertently creating hordes of out-of-control angry rampage bots.
Details on the project , which will run from Sept to Dec this year, here
in the Korea Times.
؟ ؟ ؟
* Note :
“ the government hopes
every Korean household will have a URC robot by 2020.”
03 JUL 06
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Weighty subjects
Following on from last month’s research at Indiana State University , which found that adding extra weight to childrens’ toys might help towards making them fitter - so reducing the risk of obesity - Really Magazine would like to start the month by suggesting a possible strategy for improving the health of adults . . .
01 JUL 06
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