DEC 06
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2006 ends
( as unearthed by Tokyotimes )
Outstanding Disarmament
A New Year is as good a time as any to put one’s house in order, make amends, or just generally clear up outstanding paperwork.
Knowing how easy it is to overlook small details in large systems, Really Magazine would like to offer its help by issuing a reminder to the states of :
Bahamas
Congo
Dominican Republic
Guinea-Bissau
Israel
Myanmar
That they still have a bit of ratifying to do.
Although they all signed the Chemical
Weapons Convention [
the international disarmament treaty which bans the development, production,
stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons ] back in 93/94,
none has got around to ratifying it yet.
Meaning that whilst they support the objectives and principles of the convention – they’re not bound in any practical way to comply with it. In other words, no destruction of weapons or production facilities, and no Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons ( OPCW ) inspections.
These countries, however, did ratify : and do comply with the OPCW.
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Ecuador
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea
Guyana
Haiti
Holy See
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Ireland
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Latvia
Lesotho
Liberia
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia (Federated States of)
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Republic of Korea
Republic of Moldova
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Tajikistan
Thailand
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Timor Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
United Republic of Tanzania
United States of America
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Viet Nam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
. . . and since 1997, 71,300 metric tonnes of WMD chemical agents have been
verifiably destroyed - and all chemical weapons production facilities
in these countries
have ( according to the OPCW ) been inactivated.
Really Mag isn’t sure what reasons Bahamas, Congo,
Dominican Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Israel and Myanmar might
have for missing the ratification so far - but not-managing twelve years
in a row does seem to be somewhat hard to explain-away by forgetfulness.
Maybe they’ll get around to it in 2007 ?
If not, perhaps we should start wondering why . . .
( source: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) )
30 DEC 06
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Beefing about clones.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued details yesterday re.
their preliminary findings about the possibility of licensing cloned animals
as food.
“ The draft risk assessment finds that meat and milk from clones of adult cattle, pigs and goats are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals.”
Their final decision on the matter won’t be made until 2007 though,
and over the next 90 days, they would like to hear opinions from members
of the public via this form :
Really magazine would, however, like to pose the obvious question :
What’s the point ? [double entendre intended. Ed.]
Animal cloning is vastly more expensive, problematic and labour-intensive than simply letting the creatures use their preferred method of reproduction – which has worked pretty well up until now.
So, for the present at least, it seems very unlikely that any producers would opt to clone animals solely to produce food. Though perhaps the FDA’s vision for the future foresees as-yet-unknown cheap and reliable methods of mass cloning ?
Or, maybe, giving ‘green light’ for using cloned animals (
and their products ) as food would have more to do with allowing producers
to
throw cloned animals – i.e. cloned for other purposes – into
the metaphorical burger-machine along with all the conventional animals
?
؟ ؟ ؟
More info :
• the FDA’s Cloning Myths* page
( *note : the answers “ may need to be revised “ )
29 DEC 06
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20 odd things Really Mag learned in 2006
( in no particular order )
• Van Gogh’s work really was '
turbulent ' ( says the maths )
• Military bases on the moon ? Yep, more than likely
• Hotter countries ( tend to be ) more corrupt
• Omega-3 oils don’t help much ( possibly )
• Av. male drinking session in Cardiff ? 8 pints in 7 hours
• Roman gladiatorial combat cannot be considered a sport
• 12.3% of opera fans have tried magic mushrooms
• Concerned about pizza slice size ? Use an adjustable wedge
• Soldiers in Iraq should avoid using the thumbs-up sign
• Pesticides and E-numbers are ' safe to eat ' – but the rest ?
• Want to hunt polar bears ? Hey, no problem
• The new Core Warrior Values for ‘Coalition’ forces
• Mice don’t like seeing or hearing their colleagues tortured
• Madonna backs Kabbalah Nuke-waste cleanup idea
• Restaurants may be high-risk eating environments for binge eaters
• Airplanes with wider aisles can load passengers more quickly
• In chatrooms, females use ' ! ' more than males
• Turducken is an exceptionally risky food
• N.Z. school exam board will accept answers written in ‘ TXT ’
• Sword-swallowing can cause sore throats
• City of the future has been patented
• Pebbles tend to be rounded ( on the whole )
28 DEC 06
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Navy School
Hope the execs (below) don’t encounter any of these :
The US Govt. currently ‘employs’ around 75 dolphins and 25 sealions ( source: The Smithsonian )
27 DEC 06
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It’s a bilateral-brainer . . .
Now that another year of corporate-stress is nearly at an end, it might not be a bad time for proactive managerial staff to consider possible new directions for 2007 ?
Think :
Stress Reduction
Team-building Skills
Emotional Intelligence Enhancement
Defining and Pursuing Personal and Corporate Goals
Conflict Resolution
The POD organisation is offering corporate workshops based around Delphinidae
The Dolphin Encounter workshops - from 5 to 50 individuals and lasting 3 to 7 days - are held at various locations in Canada and the United States, as well as a variety of international destinations.
They demonstrate techniques to :
“ Deal effectively with a range of difficult people and situations “ and how to
“ Utilise both sides of the brain for creative problem-solving skills “
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Also see:
• WikiPedia article on the progress of researches into dolphin and whale intelligence.
• The Communication with Dolphins project from Carnegie Mellon Univ.
• Dolphin encounters as a possible treatment for depression, a previous Really Magazine article : here
Also listen :
• A six minute .mp3 of dolphins interacting with underwater guitarist Jim Nollman from interspecies.com
22 DEC 06
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Tech-explanation of the day.
If modern passenger aircraft can land in total darkness and through low cloud, how come fog can completely close the most hi-tech of airports ?
Explained here in today's Guardian
Controlled Gag Reflex
If you can :
“ swallow a non-retractable solid steel blade at least 2 centimetres wide and 38 centimeters long “
then you can accurately classify yourself as a bona-fide sword swallower.
That’s according to the SSAI ( Sword Swallowers Association International )
" SSAI is a private organization dedicated to networking existing sword swallowers around the world, promoting dialogue between sword swallowers, encouraging safe swordswallowing practices and techniques, and preserving and promoting the art of swordswallowing worldwide."
They recently conducted a survey of 110 members across 16 countries, asking for details of any ‘side effects’ caused during the practice of swordswallowing.
• Nineteen complained of occasional sore throats,
• Six had suffered various ‘perforations’
• And three had to have neck surgery.
There were other, more serious injuries too - mostly occurring under unusual and unpredictable circumstances (e.g. a falling-off-the-stage incident )
The study ' Sword swallowing and its side effects ' will be published in the next issue ( 23rd Dec 06 ) of the British Medical Journal (BMJ)
In the meantime, here’s a previous article on the subject from one of the co- authors, published last year.
؟ ؟ ؟
Notes:
• The history of swordswallowing can be traced back at least 400 years, to the Fakirs of India.( History here. )
• If you are considering experimenting with swordswallowing, read this first . . .
Co-author of the study, Dan
Meyer, comments regarding a question we
posed :
Q. Presumably, the 'sharpness' of a blade is an issue to be born in mind ?
A. When people ask, I always answer, " You
can only swallow a sharp sword once. . . "
21 DEC 06
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MIT-Brew and lack of Chess Mistresses.
This month’s issue of the journal Psychological Science has a selection of research articles which may be of interest to Really Magazine readers.
• Firstly, a joint study from Columbia Business School, Columbia University University, and Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In which 388 participants at the Muddy Charles and the Thirsty Ear pubs evaluated ordinary beer and MIT-Brew ( beer with added balsamic vinegar ) under three different conditions.
One group tasted ‘blind’ i.e. with no information, the second was told about the vinegar before drinking, and the third group afterwards.
The results were complex, but perhaps can be summarised thus:
It was found that information about the offensive ingredient influenced consumption more if it was received prior to drinking, rather than after.
To sum up :
“ We are not confident that we could train pub goers into routinely pouring balsamic vinegar into their beers. However we are confident that our experimental approach will prove intellectually profitable to researchers interested in the relations among conceptual knowledge, experience and the construction of preference. “
Sample the full research article -
Try It, You'll Like It: The Influence of Expectation, Consumption, and Revelation on Preferences for Beer here :
• The second study comes from the Department of Psychology, Harvard University, and Department of Health Policy and Management, Boston University.
Only 1% of chess grand-champions are female. The researchers wondered
why, and tried to find out, by examining data from 250,000 tournament players
over a 13 year period.
There were various hypotheses on the table to start out.
e.g. Was discrimination involved ? Or is there perhaps a difference between male/female talents for chess-playing ? Or are the male/female dropout rates different ?
Again, the route to the conclusion , and the conclusions themselves , are complex - though the summation is succinct enough.
“ We conclude that the greater number of men at the highest levels in chess can be explained by the greater number of boys who enter chess at the lowest levels. “
Inviting the question ( and strongly suggesting possible future research ) – why ?
Or, put another way :
“ Understanding the causes of these factors — in our case, why more boys than girls enter competitive chess — is a challenge in itself. “
Read the full paper ; Sex Differences in Intellectual Performance: Analysis
of a Large Cohort of Competitive Chess Players here
:
20 DEC 06 (late)
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Wrath - management - shopping
The School of Business at the University of Queensland , Australia, has some stern warnings for retailers during the upcoming Christmas shopping period.
Think : Customer Rage.
The world’s first international study of customer rage has gleaned details from a series of in-depth interviews with retail staff in four countries - the United States, Thailand, China and Australia.
The research suggests that :
“ . . . anger is the most common negative emotion experienced by customers when a service transaction doesn't go smoothly. “
Worse still, the anger sometimes escalates into threats, revenge, sabotage, slander and even violence.
“ One customer flew into a rage shouting and banging the counter of a bank when he was advised he'd have to pay a fee for a bank cheque. “ [ as one does, Ed. ]
Xmas retailers should also be on the lookout for “ rage, fury, hostility, wrath, vengefulness, and outrage “ ( though Really Magazine suggests that distinct boundaries between some of them could well be blurred )
Interestingly, the team also found significant differences in disgruntled customers’ reactions in the four different countries.
Shoppers in China and Thailand, tended to try to resolve problems without confrontation, in sharp contrast to Aus :
As lead researcher, UQ's Professor of Marketing, Janet McColl-Kennedy puts it :
“ They just don't exhibit their anger in public like we do in Australia. “
؟ ؟ ؟
Source:
Although there are a positive plethora of press-releases [ 1 2 3 4 ]
, Really Magazine has singularly failed to find a direct link to
the research itself : can we make a wild guess that maybe it's not finished
yet ? If anyone can tell
us, let
us
know.
20 DEC 06
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" I talk of dreams, which are the children of an idle brain . . . "
( Mercutio , act 1 , scene 4, Romeo and Juliet )
Although functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is now the power-tool of choice for cutting-edge brain researchers, the old faithful ElectroEncephaloGram (EEG), developed early last century, can still reveal secrets of brain function.
Two studies, published yesterday, show what can be achieved. . .
• The first, a joint study from the Liverpool University and the University of Wales used EEG machines to monitor the brain activity of 20 participants as they read lines from Shakespeare’s plays.
The lines had been carefully selected to contain words which exhibited so-called ‘ functional shift ’ - for example, words which have changed their traditional function as a noun into a verb.
e.g. “ grace me no grace, uncle me no uncle “ ( Duke of York, act 2, scene 3, King Richard II )
It has been established that when participants read a phrase containing a word which ' does not make semantic sense ' a so-called N400 event is observed. Contrasting with a P600 event triggered by a ' grammatically incorrect sentence. '
It was found that the ‘functional shift’ words produced no N400 event, but did trigger P600s.
“ This interdisciplinary work is good for brain science because it offers permanent scripts of the human mind working moment-to-moment. It is good for literature as it illustrates primary human thinking. Through the two disciplines, we may discover new insights into the very motions of the mind.”
• The second experiment, from the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, investigated rats’ dreams.
By simultaneously recording brain activity in the hippocampus and the visual cortex of awake and sleeping rats, researchers were able to determine that neural spiking patterns which ‘replayed’ in the cortex and hippocampus were organised into ‘frames’ – and that these multicell firing sequences evoked by awake experience ( i.e. running around a maze ) were replayed during these frames in both regions.
" These results imply simultaneous reactivation
of coherent memory traces in the cortex and hippocampus during sleep that
may contribute to or reflect
the result of the memory consolidation process. "
In other words, implying that the rats were perhaps 'visually' dreaming about their maze-activities earlier in the day.
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Oddity:
re. the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory mission statement :
apparently focussing on “ unraveling the mechanisms that drive the quintessentially human capacity to remember and to learn . . .“
‘ quintessentially human ‘ ? Really ?
That might trigger a few N400s . . .
19 DEC 06
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Human life enhancement opportunity.
“ . . . we strive to create products and services that enhance human life, and which lead to a thriving, healthy society. “
says the Toshiba Corporation's ‘commitment’ webpage.
The company and its subsidiaries makes a huge range of products - from laptops, televisions, and washing machines, to Cartesian robots.
Though it possibly may come as a surprise to Really Magazine readers that they also design and build nuclear power station plants.
As their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) page explains :
“ Since energy demand keeps on rising, it’s only natural that nuclear power generation, a source of clean energy free of the drawback of CO2 emissions, seems certain to play a greater role in the future. “
And they’ve recently been in the news, since one of the companies which they own, Westinghouse, has just won an $8bn contract to build four new nuclear plants in China.
Westinghouse is one of the biggest, if not the biggest designer/builder of nuke-power plants on the planet. Here's a list of what they've achieved so far.
To complement their vision for a nuclear-powered future, the company has recently launched a Science Video Competition :
“ Students in middle and high schools are asked to provide a three to seven minute video on the positive aspects of the various forms of energy. Including nuclear energy “
“ the goal of this project is to develop students’ fact finding skills in addition to educating them on the various forms of energy that we use today “
“ The video must contain at least three key advantages/uses of nuclear energy . . . “
The deadline for the competition, which has cash prizes, is May 1st 2007.
Best of luck to the contestants !
( our tip ; maybe best not to mention Mihama )
؟ ؟ ؟
Here’s some contrasting www links which students looking to hone their fact-finding skills could start out with . . .
First this one, from the US Nuclear Energy Institute
or here :
18 DEC 06
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Not quite critical mass yet ?
It’s not every day that you see a group of 52 Nobel Laureates getting together to fight their corner. They’re concerned about :
• Censorship
• Manipulation
• Distortion
• Suppression
Along with the Nobel Laureates, are 63 National Medal of Science recipients,
almost 200 members of the National Academies of Science, and more than
10,000 other scientists.
Last Monday they - i.e. the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) -
published a press
release publicly condemning the current US administration’s handling
of scientific affairs, and they also posted on-line an A
to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science.
The page details political interference in a list of 66 instances – from Oil Extraction to problems with the Marbled Murrelet
One very high-profile govt. sanctioned project seems to be oddly absent from the list though. One which brings together Censorship, Manipulation, Distortion, and Suppression all in one hit.
Namely the investigations of ‘detainees’ – an ongoing ‘experiment’ into scientific methods useful for torturing debriefing ‘enemy combatants’. The techniques could not have been developed - and can’t be further fine-tuned - without the help of doctors and psychologists. ( see : The Darkest Corner of the Mind by George Monbiot, also published earlier this week. )
Missing too, condemnation of the huge numbers of scientists working on a daily basis to perfect weapons of mass destruction, medium destruction, minor destruction and 'nonlethal' crowd-control.
History shows that there isn’t a country on the planet where it’s impossible to find scientists on govt. payrolls who will happily jettison the most basic of moral objections to pay the mortgage.
Hats off to the UCS, but perhaps it’s time for an international coalition of concerned scientists to condemn scientific abuses worldwide ? Not just abuses by the controlling governments - but by scientists themselves ?
There are already 10,600 high-profile objectors just in the US - worldwide could maybe add a couple of zeros ?
؟ ؟ ؟
' If you’re not angry, you haven’t been paying attention. '
op.ed. Martin G, 16 DEC 06
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Counterfactualities and Microphysicalist Possibilia
Readers interested in atomic physics and mereological nihilism should turn to a paper ( from the UK’s second-biggest university-based philosophy dept – at the University of Leeds ) published in the current issue of the journal Philosophical Perspectives, entitled :
Illusions of Gunk.
First though, a definition of Gunk :
“ A mereological simple is an object that
has no proper parts. We call an entity which is not a mereological simple mereologically
complex; and say that it is a mereological sum of its proper parts. Some entities,
perhaps, are not only mereologically complex themselves, but are such that
all their parts are mereologically complex.
Such entities we call gunk. “
Philosophical discussions on the nature of the ‘matter’ which makes-up everything around us have become considerably more difficult in recent years - due to discoveries by particle physicists.
Without any experimental data whatever, the ancient Greeks correctly suspected that all matter was made up of ‘atoms’ - but erroneously defined these atoms as indivisible. Now, with the aid of accelerators to breakdown the atomic structures, we know about a veritable menagerie of fundamental particles, right down to “ quarks, leptons and the void “
But is it possible that these particles, quarks for example, are also divisible ? And what of the sub-quarks ? Could they be divisible too ? is there the possibility then of an infinite series of divisions ?
“ Worlds of infinite descent pose a challenge to the mereological nihilism. This is because they seem to be worlds containing gunk. “
If so, perhaps philosophers need to consider the implications not just of mereological nihilism – but of microphysical mereological nihilism too ?
The author suggests microphysical mereological nihilism implies that instead of saying “ 'there is a cat next to a dog' it might be more correct to say 'there are atoms arranged dog-wise, next to some atoms arranged cat-wise '.
And extrapolating further still, perhaps a microphysical
mereological nihilist not only denies the existence of cats and dogs – but also the very
possibility that cats and dogs could exist ?
“ It looks like the microphysical mereological nihilist should regard the macroscopic objects that exist at some worlds as just more explanatorily idle ontological junk, undeserving of titles such as ‘cat’. “
The inherent intricacies of the subject mean that it’s impossible for Really Magazine to give a succinct summary here : and the author draws a set of complex conclusions.
Though the last sentence reads :
“ . . . there is no good gunk-based argument against microphysical mereological nihilism. “
further reading from the same author :
" The possibility of onion worlds "
" The Price of Inscrutability "
15 DEC 06
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Bugs across the Cosmos.
It’s
something of a mystery that many bacteria are able to withstand huge levels
of ionizing radiation without apparent damage. For example Deinococcus
radiodurans - which can grow happily when subjected to radiation does
of 60Gy per hour - something around 10 times the short-term lethal dose
for mammals.
Experiments from the 1980’s showed that other, more common bugs, like E.coli can also be encouraged – via multiple cycles of exposure to high radiation dosages followed by cycles of recovery of the bacterial population – to resist similar levels to radiodurans.
Now a team of researchers from St. Petersburg, Russia, and Colorado in the US, have developed a theory which might explain how this has come about.
They suggest that many of Earth’s bacteria might have originated on Mars.
Their research paper ‘ Was Earth Ever Infected by Martian Biota?
Clues from Radioresistant Bacteria ‘ is published in the current issue
of the science journal Astrobiology.
“
We argue that ‘natural’ cycles of this kind could have taken
place only on the martian surface, and we hypothesize that Mars microorganisms
could have developed radioresistance in just several million years’ time
and, subsequently, have undergone transfer to Earth by way of martian meteorites. “
The paper quotes previous studies which calculated that around 50 million Martian meteorites must have arrived on Earth over the last 4,000 million years or so – and it’s known that bacteria can survive for decades in deep-space conditions – so it seems very plausible that bugs could have arrived here that way. Assuming of course that there were any on Mars in the first place.
The paper doesn’t mention though recent discoveries in South Africa, where vigorous colonies of bacteria have been found living in rocks 3 to 4 km deep. These bugs live so deep in the Earth’s crust that they can’t be dependent in any way on photosynthesis – it’s suggested that they feed on breakdown chemicals produced entirely by natural radiation. In short, they ‘live’ on radiation. DNA analysis of these microbes shows that they are related to some of the most ancient on the planet.*
Of course it’s always possible that they too came from Mars.
Here’s a link to the full paper :
( caution : resolutely ‘sticky’ .pdf – bit worth the wait )
[ * more details on this story at a later date ]
14 DEC 06
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AI in India
Enthusiasts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be converging in the central Indian state of Andhra Pradesh between the 6th and 12th of Jan 2007, for the 20th (biennial) International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence ( IJCAI ) - to be held in Hyderabad ( a.k.a. Cyberabad )
Artificial Intelligence has come in for some negative press in recent years – for, despite predictions stretching back to the late 1950’s, it has so-far spectacularly failed to deliver hard evidence of the ‘I’ in AI.
Here’s prof. Jaron Lanier writing in the 2002 book ‘The next 50 years’
“ Accompanying the parade of quixotic overstatement of theoretical computer power has been a humiliating and unending sequence of disappointments in the performance of real information systems “
Brushing aside such observations, the theme of this year’s conference is :
‘ AI and its benefits to society ‘
And the list of accepted papers has now been posted,
some examples :
• ‘ Inside-Outside Probability Computation for Belief Propagation ‘
• ‘ Qualitative Temporal Reasoning about Vague Events ‘
• ‘ Observation Reduction for Strong Plans ‘
From this year’s programme of papers, it seems possible that AI proponents might have become sensitised to criticism, and have developed a pre-emptive protection mechanism . . .
a search for the word ‘Intelligence’ in the conference’s programme of 400 or so papers trawls up just one single entry . . .
• ‘ Is the Turing Test Good Enough ? The Fallacy of Resource-Unbounded Intelligence ‘
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To get a feel for how it might feel to interact with a future AI system,
try
viewing this
.pdf , a special magazine issue on AI, from
the Computer Society of India, one of the conference’s
co-sponsors.
13 DEC 06 (late edition)
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Quiz of the day :
Context : The use of poison-gas WMDs against the Kurds of Southern Iraq.
Who said ;
" I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilized tribes. The moral effects should be good, and it would spread a lively terror."
13 DEC 06
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Dangers of nuclear war have not been exaggerated.
Two new papers - published in the current issue of the science journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (links below) – paint an even more than usually disturbing picture of the consequences of any future nuclear conflict.
Both studies used state-of-the-art computer-based climate models to analyse the impact of detonating 100 ‘ small ’ ( i.e. Hiroshima - sized ) N-weapons in a notional urban centre.
They found that the catastrophic extent of climatic disruption likely to be caused ( smoke and ozone-layer depletion ) has been severely underestimated in previous studies – perhaps by a factor of 100 times.
The researchers also estimated the likely fatalities from such a conflict - ranging from 2.6 Million to 16.7 million.
“ Megacities attacked with nuclear devices, through war or terrorism, would likely be abandoned indefinitely, inducing mass migration and long-term economic decline “
The studies bore in mind the fact that eight countries are already known to have built and detonated nuclear weapons, there are a couple more which don’t admit* that they have them ( despite evidence to the contrary ) , and there are a least 30 others which now have enough fissile material to make them if they so desire.
Notes :
• Just the US and Russia have, between them, stockpiled at least 20,000 nuclear weapons.
• The global N-arsenal currently stands at around 27,000 devices.
• The current hoard of nuclear material worldwide is enough to make about 273,000 more.
( source; New Scientist )
• Oddly, the two studies have differing opinions as to the current lethality of the planet’s nuclear arsenal. One puts it at 1,500 megatons, the other at 5,000 megatons . . .
Bearing in mind that, as long as 1960, weapons designers were working on designs for single 100 megaton bombs, both estimates seem decidedly on the low side.
See:
• Climatic consequences of regional nuclear conflicts [ summary : full paper ]
• Atmospheric effects and societal consequences of regional scale nuclear conflicts and acts of individual nuclear terrorism [ summary : full paper ]
* Update note.
By complete coincidence, there's one less as of today . . .
12 DEC 06 (late edition)
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Because it’s (probably) worth it.
A tour-de-force study of adolescent behaviour - from Cornell University and Temple University - is published in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest .
The 50 page report, entitled ‘ Risk and Rationality in Adolescent Decision Making: Implications for Theory, Practice, and Public Policy ‘ turns some of the ‘givens’ regarding risk-taking in adolescents on their head.
For example, the study concludes that adolescents do weigh-up the perceived risks associated with dangerous actions – often more so than adults :
When asked “ Is it a good idea to set your hair on fire ? “ or “ Is it a good idea to swim with sharks ? “ an experimental group of adolescents took a full 170 milliseconds longer to answer than a control group of adults did.
In short, despite conventional wisdom, adolescents do not perceive themselves to be invulnerable ( though they might exhibit what’s called an ‘ Optimistic Bias ‘ )
“ It's just that they often decide the benefits -- the immediate gratification or peer acceptance -- outweigh the risks, “
In other words, they think it’s (probably) worth it.
To address the implications, the report ends with a substantial list of Empirically
Supported Recommendations, some of which, it has to be said, do sound a little
familiar :
e.g.
• implementing higher legal-drinking ages,
• less adolescents per car with an adolescent driver
• avoiding exposure to potentially addictive substances
• better monitoring and supervision of young adolescents
• removing opportunities for risk-taking ( e.g. by occupying their time with positive activities )
bearing in mind though that :
“ repeating the same message over and over is likely to be ineffective “
؟ ؟ ؟
• Cornell’s press release ' Why Teens do Stupid Things ' here
12 DEC 06
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Olfactivism in Massachusetts
There’s still time to visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art exhibition in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
An example of the intriguing exhibits on offer is an installation by Norwegian fragrance-artist Sissel Tolaas.
She has created a room in the gallery which is “ infused with microencapsulated scents, created with sophisticated scent-reproduction technologies. As viewers rub the walls to release the smell, they will leave behind a visible record of their visit. “
Sadly, MIT’s webapge doesn’t go into details of what the scents might be, and exactly which sophisticated scent-reproduction technologies are employed ( though Really Magazine's guess is that 3M’s Scratch’n’Sniff™ might well be involved. )
And our only clue as to possible olfactory directions is this ( now deleted ) webpage ( made available via Google’s cache ) from the UK-based Scent-systems.com
“ Sissel carefully analysed familiar Swedish smells such as IKEA, Volvo and H&M using special ‘headspace’ technology. She then blended these smells together to produce Hisdews (Swedish spelled backwards). “
( The site also reveals that the artist is in the process of developing an entirely new ' language ' which attempts to describe smells and smelling - called NASALO )
Sensorium runs at MIT's List Visual Arts Center until 31st December. ( ‘ exploring art that examines the cultural, social, and sometimes, scientific or economic, contexts that surround us ‘ )
؟ ؟ ؟
Further reading from the Social Issues Research Centre, a group of Oxford-based governmental and industrial consultants and publishers of ‘ The Smell Report ‘ ( undated ) which goes into detail re. the physiology and psychology of smelling – and describes several famous smell-related experiments – involving pheromone-sprayed chairs in dentist’s waiting rooms, profit-enhancing perfumes in gambling casinos, and lavender/pumpkin-pie fragrance mix as an aphrodisiac.
11 DEC 06
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Deutsche tobacco factoids of the day.
• Deaths from tobacco-related illnesses in Germany : 140,000 / year
• Revenue raised from tobacco taxes : €15Billion / year
• Proposed country-wide ban on smoking in schools and restaurants : cancelled yesterday
Source : Reuters
• Average start-to-smoke age : 13.6 years
• Number of citizens per cigarette-vending machine : 113
Source: BMJ
09 DEC 06
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It was only a matter of time.
Scientists ( and artists ) have long marveled at the intricate structures of marine diatoms. There are estimated to be at least 100,000 species, each with differing ‘skeletons’ ( a.k.a frustules )
For examples of their truly astonishing beauty and complexity, go to the on-line version of Ernst Haeckel: Die Radiolarien. ( 1862 )
Coupling
the possibilities offered by genetic engineering with the über-contemporary
discipline of MEMS (microelectromechanical systems), scientists
have recently turned their attentions to the prospect of controlling the
growth diatoms
to provide useful 3-D microstructures.
One such project is outlined today in a press release from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
“ We want to learn how diatom cell walls are produced because human technology can’t make something that intricate by self-assembly processes and under ambient conditions.”
The structures are formed from silicon dioxide [SiO2]
( a.k.a glass) , or calcium carbonate [CaCO3] ( a.k.a.
chalk ) - and so are quite fragile. But now, techniques are available to ‘copy’ them
into other materials such as high strength ceramics. ( see this
recent patent )
The creatures can reproduce at a rate of two or three times a day, so in ten days it would be possible to grow 10 Billion of them from just two individuals.
If control mechanisms could be developed, the MEMS manufacturing possibilites would be seemingly endless. Sadly though, the press release doesn’t go into any details regarding exactly what sort of products could be manufactured this way.
Although there could be a clue in the last paragraph :
“ The research has been supported by a grant from the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. “
Any readers care to guess what the first products might be ?
؟ ؟ ؟
For further background see this page from the Institute’s Genetically Engineered Materials (GEMS) and Micro/Nano Devices project – funded via the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative ( MURI ) program – a Dept. of Defense scheme which is making available $150 million of tax dollars funding to selected universities over the next five years.
08 DEC 06
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Early bulbs in St. James’s
If you happen to be in London next Wednesday and have £arge at your disposal, you could drop into Christie’s for their Landmarks of Science auction.
There are 151 lots – items related to a list of scientists which read likes a Who’s who ™ of world class science for the last few hundred years.
Featuring handwritten manuscripts from Newton, Darwin, Jenner, Pavlov, Lister, Fleming, Kepler, Dalton, and of course Einstein.
Though if you’re interested in a manuscript of his scientific
essay,
' Über die Untersuchung des Aetherzustandes im magnetischen Felde
' you’ll need to bear in mind that it’s expected to fetch
something in the region of £0.5Million.
Also under the hammer is a box
of lightbulbs, including Thomas Alva Edison 'Tar-Putty' lamps,
which were used as exhibits in an 1890 patent assessment court case.
In the same box is Edison’s ‘ Specimen number 20 ’ , which, with a cathode and anode, is, according to Christie’s “ no doubt the first controlled electron-travel device.”
( Although William Crookes, Philipp Lenard, Eugene Goldstein, and others, might quibble with that if they were still around. )
Either way, the entire box could be yours for £0.3Million or so.
Update :
Einstein's notes went for £0.344Million :
the lighbulbs were 'unsold'.
07 DEC 06 (late edition)
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Art of science : science of art
“ [art] has nothing to do with understanding how the world works. To pretend that it does is to trivialise science and do nothing for art.”
That’s according to according to Lewis Wolpert, Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine at University College London, from an essay entitled ‘ Which side are you on ? ‘ ( the Observer, March, 2002. )
Resisting prof. Wolpert’s encouragement to take sides, and bearing in mind that xmas is approaching, Really Magazine would like to point readers in the direction of a UK based company which makes art/science:science/art products.
Luminorum
Ltd. is
providing a unique service which engraves accurate 3-D protein models inside
blocks of glass – or, to be specific, optical crystal.
Their Subsurface Laser Engraving (SSLE) machine will custom-etch the secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure of a protein directly into the block at a resolution of around 300,000 3-D pixels ( a.k.a voxels )
You can choose from old favourites such as DNA, haemoglobin and bacteriorhodopsin – or you can specify your own choice from any .pdb file held at the Protein Data Bank at Brookhaven National Laboratory, which was established in 1971 and now has publicly available records of over 40,000 protein structures.
Luminorum's prices range from £12 for a keyring to £195 for a 18 x 9 x 8 cm block. You can order on-line, details here.
؟ ؟ ؟
The image shown above is a rendering of an E.coli polymerase beta subunit. A short video clip showing the etching in 3-D is available here.
07 DEC 06
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Don’t mention the war(s)
Just a few decades ago, the phrase ‘ Made in Japan ’ stamped on a product was generally taken to be synonymous with ‘ low quality ‘ – nowadays it’s a mark which consumers can confidently rely-on to mean the exact opposite.
Over the years, a great deal of research work has been carried out on how the so called ‘ Country-of-origin-effect ‘ (CoOE) affects purchasing. ( a Google for the phrase trawls up 15,000 results ).
But now a new study – from New York University and Singapore Management University – has taken things a step further by analyzing the way emotions affect consumers’ perception of the CoOE .
In this case, the emotions were those induced by ‘ geo-political conflicts ‘ – in other words wars.
Their experiments showed that people who were ‘angry’ with a country’s behaviour tended towards punishing that country by not buying its products – whereas those who were ‘saddened’ gave the country the benefit of the doubt and their purchasing wasn’t affected.
To pigeonhole the new findings, the team have come up with a new term :
“ Nation Equity “
which, if Really Magazine has understood correctly, is a complex fusion of confidence in the country’s products coupled with one’s feelings towards that country’s recent behaviour on the World Stage.
Our tip : buy Finnish
؟ ؟ ؟
Note :
The team also correlated ‘ frustrated ’ people – but to
view the results you’ll have to purchase the article from the current
issue of the Journal of Consumer Research ( abstract
here )
06 DEC 06
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The Hotel Lobby and its pertinence to disinterestedness.
“ First, is there a definite distinction between
interested and disinterested delight ? Second, if there is such a distinction,
do there exist any factors
that would facilitate disinterestedness to occur ? “
So asks the author of a new paper from the University of Sussex, published in the current issue of the journal Space and Culture ( which focuses on interdisciplinary research at the interface of cultural geography, sociology, cultural studies, architectural theory, ethnography, communications, urban studies, environmental studies and discourse analysis ).
And
what better place to centre the enquiries than a notional ‘ hotel
lobby ’.
The author makes recourse to previous written work by the journalist, sociologist, and cultural critic Siegfried Kracauer, but also to the musical compositions of Erik Satie and, of course - Brian Eno, who was inspired to compose his now famous ‘ Music for Airports ’ (1978) album after hearing a nearby radio playing very low-level indistinguishable music while he was immobilised in bed with a broken leg.
He was probably influenced too by Erik Satie, who, along with Darius Milhaud, invented the concept of ‘ Musique d’Ameublement ‘ ( a.k.a Furniture Music ) back in 1917.
The programme notes for the first performance read :
“ We urge you to take no notice of it and to behave during the intervals as if it did not exist. “
[ hear an mp3 of Erik’s work Phonic Tiles here ( courtesy UbuWeb ) ]
Returning to the essay and the lobby though ;
“ The author argues that context does have an influence on the distinction between disinterestedness and interestedness and that the hotel lobby is an excellent illustration of a spatial context that facilities (sic.) disinterested delight for the reason that it is largely impersonal, indifferent, and so universal. “
Unfortunately, the Space and Culture essay ' Furniture Music, Hotel Lobbies, and Banality' is subscribers only ( US$15.00. )
but here’s some free supporting material from the author’s blog.
05 DEC 06
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Bees@Site.Y
“ Scientists have long marveled at the honey bee's phenomenal sense of smell, which rivals that of dogs . . . But previous attempts to harness and understand this ability were scientifically unproven. “
In recent months, researchers from the US Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have been painstakingly using Pavlovian training techniques to entice bees to :
“ stick out their proboscis - the tube they use to feed on nectar - when they smell explosives “
With the benefit of knowledge gleaned from the $1.5 million year-and-a-half-long taxpayer-funded project, the scientists are now :
" . . . very excited at the success of our research as it could have far-reaching implications for both defense and homeland security "
Here’s how the Sydney
Morning Herald covered the story.
Reader Carmelita comments :
What do you want to bet that these same bees will be soon be fitted with tiny backpacks containing explosives, much like the bomb-dropping (non-bee) drones used in theatres of war today. It could give a whole new meaning to "killer bees".
Update : 9 Dec.
" Bees are not reliable enough for military tactical use at this point," said the Dept. of Defense in a statement earlier this week.: " "We're done in this research area. We don't plan any further investment." ( source here )
04 DEC 06 (late)
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Grips
sized-up
“ Inappropriately sized tennis racket grip is often cited in the popular media as a risk factor for overuse injuries about the forearm and elbow. “
Investigators from University of Southern California wondered if that was true, and decided to do some tests.
Fine-wire electromyography was used to measure muscle activity in extensor carpi radialis longus and brevis, extensor digitorum communis, flexor carpi radialis, and pronator teres in 16 NCAA Division I players using a one-handed backhand against balls served by a ball machine set at a constant speed and angle.
The popular media, as it turns out, is mistaken.
“ There were no significant differences in muscle activity between small, recommended, or big grips in any muscle tested. “
So what size raquet grip should a tennis player use ? According to USC, the answer is :
“ . . . whatever grip size feels most comfortable for them “
Details in this month’s issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine.
04 DEC 06
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Vital ultrasonic levitation research.
Scientists from the Department of Applied Physics at the Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, China, are continuing their enquiries into the possibility of levitating small objects ( a centimetre or so ) by the use of ultrasound.
Having already had some success with blobs of mercury, they have recently directed their energies instead towards levitating small living animals.
The animals in question were, amongst others, an ant, a ladybug, and a (very)
small fish.
Again, levitation was achieved.
It’s not known whether the animals enjoyed the experience, though the researchers say that they were unharmed.
“ The vitality of ant and ladybug is not evidently influenced during the acoustic levitation “
We’re guessing that the use of the word ‘vitality’ in this context means ‘remaining vital’ i.e. ‘staying alive’.
Unfortunately, that is, in the case of the fish - whose ‘vitality’ was :
“ reduced because of the inadequacy of water supply. “
Details are to be found in the current issue of Applied Physics Letters
؟ ؟ ؟
Videos and photos of small ( inanimate) objects being levitated by ultrasound at Otsuka laboratory, Nihon University, Tokyo.
02 DEC 06
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Psiphon out
The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies has today released the full version of its Psiphon software.
The programme, which is free to download is designed specifically to allow websurfers to use a proxy machine ( of a trusted colleague based in another country ) to get around government firewalls.
So for example, a websurfer based in China could install the programme, nominate a trusted colleague in, say, Canada, and then use their machine as a proxy to remotely surf the www – free of any restrictions imposed by the Great Firewall of China - and with all transfers encrypted.
There are of course hundreds ( thousands ? ) of free-use proxy web servers available all over the world, but presumably a large number are already blocked by the Great Firewall. The new Psiphon approach would make it much less likely that a server would be blocked, because it will be specific to just a few users, and so the Firewall won’t be aware of it ( yet ).
Users installing the software in a country which has a history of heavy-handed web-censorship should be wary though. Firstly it may break local laws, and secondly, Really Magazine predicts that it won’t be long before the authorities in repressive-web countries will install their own patches to detect its use.
If ( when ) they do, using the software will in effect raise an electronic flag which says the equivalent of ‘ I’m up to something ’.
Notes:
• The programme was funded by the Open Society Institute
( a.k.a. the (George) Soros foundations network. )
• According to Reporters Without Borders, there are currently 59 ‘cyber-dissidents ‘ and bloggers across the world who have been imprisoned for their activities – 50 of them are in China. Here's the list.
01 DEC 06 (late)
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Fuelling the Metroplex
Back in November, the city council of Plano , Texas reminded its residents that the Turkey Oil Cooking Oil Collection was operational again this year.
Last year they collected “ 1,200 gallons of cooking oil for reuse as a clean, alternative fuel source “ – the peak time being around Thanksgiving , i.e. 500 gallons or so.
The oil is ‘donated’ to Texas’s first renewable energy-powered plant producing biodiesel fuel - Biodiesel Industries, Inc.
According to the city’s press release :
“ Biodiesel fuel offers an opportunity for Texas to replace the oil fields of the Middle East with the vegetable oil fields right here at home ”
More details here from Reuters
01 DEC 06
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