JUN 07
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The Gyre and the Gybe*
After nearly six years of preparation, a 36 month oceanic-research project begins tomorrow. One of the goals is to investigate the global distribution of flotsam - and to raise public awareness about the deteriorating state of the world’s coastlines.
“ Every single beach on this planet, even the beaches that have not seen a human footprint for decades, has a line of colourful, plastic garbage that will take centuries to degrade. “
For each piece they find, the team will be investigating and recording :
• What type of garbage is it ?
• What is it mainly comprised of ?
• Where was it manufactured ?
• Where does it originate ?
• How long has it been in the ocean ?
And it’s not just the beaches. They will also be visiting the great North Pacific Gyre ( a.k.a. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch ) a frequently becalmed area in the Pacific ( roughly the size of Texas ) currently distinguished by “ . . . plastic floating on the ocean as far as the eye can see “
The research vessel ‘ Free Run ‘ - is a 40-foot Tradewinds
Performance Cruiser - and will pass though all the planet's major
oceans – here’s
the route
:
The team will also ( given the resources and the opportunities ) be maintaining a periodically updated blog of their expedition on their website, Oceangybe.com ( expect the odd surfing report too )
* According to the site, the word ' Gybe ' means
' a movement that brings about change ' - but our dictionary prefers
' to shift from one side to the other '.
30 JUN 07
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Saturday Night Mood Management
Checkout the (almost) latest release of the journal Media Psychology for a research article on how one’s mood might affect one’s choice of weekend video rentals.
Utilizing Mood Management Theory [1] ( Zillmann, 1988 ) the team screened the mood of individuals entering a video rental store, and correlated the findings with their choice of movie.
Some of their discoveries might, perhaps, be viewed as predictable -
• those who felt ' angry and bored ' chose fewer dramas,
• and those feeling ' energetic' tended towards ‘ action ‘ movies.
But other results could be seen as counterintuitive - for instance :
• people who confessed to feeling ‘ nervous ’ tended to choose more horror films.
• and ‘ sad people ‘ avoided dramatic comedies.
Overall though :
“ . . . aspects of the viewing situation (alone vs. with others), mood, and to some extent planned activities for the night were related to video choice . . . “
؟ ؟ ؟
[1] The indicated hedonistic objective is best served by selective exposure to material that (a) is excitationally opposite to prevailing states associated with noxiously experienced hypo- or hyperarousal, (b) has positive hedonic value above that of prevailing states, and (c) in hedonically negative states, has little or no semantic affinity with the prevailing states. (source:)
28 JUN 07
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ChromaSocks
Choosing a comfortable sock can be tricky. Especially given the insight from a seminal year=2000 scientific study from Japan which investigated various factors of sock-comfort - when correlated to their colour.
Five colours were evaluated : White, Black, Sky Blue, Yellow and Light Yellow.
Here is how the top socks rated :
• The Yellow socks scored highest on Warmth, Softness, Easy-to-Wearness, and Showiness.
• Black came top of Good Feel and Warmth.
• White scored highly for Good Fit and Dryness.
• The Sky blue was felt to be the Coldest.
• And the Pale Yellow - thoroughly nondescript.
Intriguing as the study was, Really Magazine is unsure whether perhaps the dyes used to colour the socks had affected the material in some way, or whether the results reflected human psychological preferences. [ or both ? Ed. ]
. . . and since 7 years has elapsed since publication
of the study , isn’t it
high time for further research ?
27 JUN 07
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The parallel serial.
The A. James Clark School of Engineering at Maryland University has developed “ what may be the next generation of personal computers “ .
Their approach is one that has been the bright-new-hope of medium and large scale computer designers for quite some decades now. Parallel computing.
So what’s different this time ?
Their press release yesterday doesn’t clarify the situation too well –
“ the technology is based on parallel processing on a single chip. “ then, in the next para, we learn that the new machine -
“ uses a circuit board about the size of a license plate on which they have mounted 64 parallel processors. “
[ errrr . . . is that, by any chance, 64 processors emulating one chip that hasn’t been built yet ? Ed. ]
The core problem with the ‘ parallel ‘ approach is all too familiar. The system is going to need some highly sophisticated control software which sorts out which parts of the processor gets which bits of data to work on – and when.
So, has the team finally cracked this almost insurmountable rather difficult problem ?
The professor in charge of the project couldn’t have put it better :
" Suppose you hire one person to clean your home, and it takes five hours, or 300 minutes, for the person to perform each task, one after the other . . . Now imagine that you have 100 cleaning people who can work on your home at the same time ! “
In the ideal world, the house would be cleaned in 3 minutes. Sadly, they’ll all want to use the stairs, power points, sink, and cleaning materials at the same time . . .
Really Magazine strongly suspects that deriving an ideal algorithm to control parallel computing tasks might be beyond human capability.
But maybe this time it’s different.
Either way, readers might be interested in a competition which the university is organising – to find a suitable name for the new tech “ The name should reflect the features and bold aspirations of the new machine and its parallel computing capabilities “
There’s a $500 cash prize. Submit your idea here :
26 JUN 07
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Patent of the week
“ While it is clear that the human leg generally tapers from thigh to calf, and therefore that most lower body trousers or leggings will follow the narrowing width towards the foot, nonetheless there are circumstances where such a width is inconvenient or even dangerous. “
To the rescue, a new invention – patented last week
Why did it take us so long ?
Didn't Fleetwood Mac get there first ? Ed.
25 JUN 07 (late)
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Bird brains
A five year study to produce an ‘ atlas ‘ of the brains of chickens
is almost complete ( don’t miss pic
here ).
Researchers from the University of New South Wales and the Curtin University of Technology, Australia will present their findings next month at the IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience in Melbourne.
“ Although there are distinctive features of the chicken brain, there are also a vast number of features similar to the mammalian brain. “
؟ ؟ ؟
Further reading here :
25 JUN 07
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Moon Blues
The Rutgers School of Business – Camden, NJ, conducts research in the area of employee health and wellness, ‘ the results of which regularly appears top scholarly and professional journals worldwide ‘.
As part of this effort they have just finished a study into the mental-health implications of working in extremely isolated environments – specifically, 384,403 kilometres away from New Jersey - on the Moon.
According to the study, future moon-workers might face severe psychological health risks - such as anxiety and depression. As if that weren’t bad enough, the team have also noted the possibility of ‘ social contagion ’ – in which one worker’s mental unwellness could be spread amongst group members.
“ Relatively scant attention has been paid to this issue ” says the associate professor of management at the school.
also don't miss : John Carpenter's (1974) film Dark Star ( a.k.a. ' Waiting for Godot in Space ' )
Update :
Reader Carmelita has alerted us to opportunities for volunteers who are interested in the idea of spending 7 months in an 'isolation tank' - to investigate poss. probs facing Mars voyagers.
23 JUN 07
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Getting to know the ropes of QOL
“ It’s known that leisure promotes quality of life “ says today’s press-release from the Temple University Department of Therapeutic Recreation in Philadelphia.
But what exactly is leisure ? According to their research paper in the current issue of the journal Social Indicators Research it depends strongly on cultural ( and economic) factors.
“ The concept of leisure is Western . . . Aboriginals[*] have no equivalent term but they do have culturally expressive forms of activities such as dance, music, sewing, craft circles, storytelling, painting, spirituality, and humor, which lead to benefits, including pride, stress release, self-esteem, survival, and harmony for both the individual and the group.”
So, to maintain a ' global international ' perspective, instead of examining ‘ leisure ’ per-se, the paper looks at ‘ leisure-like activities ‘ as contributors to Quality Of Life.
The findings demonstrate the importance of enjoyable ‘ leisure-like ’ activities for people of all socioeconomic levels with different cultures.
The college offers the only(?) four-year degree in Therapeutic Recreation.
Here’s an example activity.
* from where ? Ed.
Reader Colin D comments : :
How about ' work-like activities ' and their effect on QOL ?
22 JUN 07
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Going to work on an ad.
The UK’s Egg Marketing Board wants to re-run a famous series of 1960's UK TV ads – featuring the now famous plusieurs-entendre phrase ‘ Go to work on an egg ‘ .
Their ambitions have been ( at least temporarily ) thwarted by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre ( BACC ) – who feel that the idea of encouraging Britons to one or more eggs a day might not dovetail 100% with current thinking about recommended cholesterol intake.
To be specific, in their opinion, the advertisement contravened BCAP Rule 8.3.1 - ‘ Claims of nutritional or health benefits must be assessed by reference to the concept of a balanced diet.’
The Egg Marketing Board is not standing still though, they've put the ads on-line – and you can also ‘sign’ their on-line petition if you’d like to try to persuade the BACC to change it’s mind.
In the meantime, here’s diplomacy in action from the BACC :
“ If the advertiser were to approach BACC with further data to support
the nutritional acceptability of two eggs a day we'd be more than happy to
seek further advice as it would be great to see the old Tony Hancock advertisements
on air again.“
20 JUN 07
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Anti-terrism software for cheese-makers and others
Nuclear-weapons research laboratory Sandia – owned by the worlds largest ‘ defense contractor ’ ( revenue for 2006 $36Billion ) - has recently issued a free downloadable software pack :
“ It allows the user to think like an attacker to identify the most attractive targets for an attack. “
Where, in this case, the targets might be weak-links in a food supply-chain facility.
“ In warfare, the military must attack the jugular of its opponent . . . Here, we ask the same tough questions, but to identify the food supply jugular and protect it ”
The software not only identifies areas vulnerable to potential attacks by ‘ terrorist groups ’, but also evaluates the ‘ shock ’ factor :
“ An attack on a baby food plant would produce more
emotional shock than one on a frozen pizza plant,”
The point-and-click drag-and-drop menu-driven Q&A software is aimed at can be used by “ Anyone and everyone - all the moms and pops “ to “ understand where their vulnerabilities are “ ( food-supply-chain-wise. )
Why not take the opportunity to watch a testimonial video, or even experiment with the software and, who knows, maybe indentify potential food-supply-jugulars ?
Note: In case readers are wondering whether the free software could be of potential use to undesirables – rest assured “ It won’t tell you where vulnerabilities in a process are. “ says a Sandia spokesperson.
[ Eh ? Does it, or doesn't it ? Ed. ]
20 JUN 07
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Tip of the day
Researchers from the University of Rochester, NY, surveyed over 25,000 adults to find out if they had ever indulged in eating ‘ candy cigarettes ‘ as a child – the team also enquired whether they had at any stage been ‘ real ’ smokers.
Results : Subjects who had never consumed the candy version were 10 % less likely to take up smoking the real thing.
Bearing that in mind, the team suggest :
“ Elimination of candy cigarettes may protect children from products that promote the social acceptability of smoking. “
19 JUN 07
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Creativity pinned down ?
Bearing in mind that, in the US alone, there are several billion dollars of profit up for grabs every year via the products of the movie industry, and that the vast majority of every successful films must be based on a solid script, it might be surprising to find out that that selecting scripts is “ largely a guesswork based on experts’ experience and intuitions “.
As a countermeasure, researchers from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, have come up with a new scheme which might ease the task of sorting the weekly pile of formulaic dross-scripts which the movie studios receive – by the use of a formula.
In a paper published today in the journal Management Science, the authors describe a sophisticated computer analysis of “ the bag of words” in potential scripts, using a Bootstrap Aggregated Classification and Regression Tree.
Which ranks factors such as :
Clear Premise (CLRPREM):
Coincidence Avoidance (COAVOID):
Strong Nemesis (STRNEM):
Conflict Lock-in (LOCKIN): and
Surprise Ending (SURPEND):
And so, might “ assist studios in their green-lighting process by providing a set of structural templates for successful scripts. “
Sadly, Really Magazine has been unable to determine from the research
paper exactly how the software could spot the difference between scripts
for , say, It’s a Wonderful Life and American Pie IV.
Nonetheless , the authors reckon that they have :
“ . . . a new and rigorous approach that can potentially help studios and movie investors screen scripts and make more profitable production decisions. “
Here’s the paper, if any readers can figure out how or why it could outmode the traditional method of experts’ guesswork, could you let us know please ?
18 JUN 07
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Quote of the day . . .
From author Will Self, who will shortly be visiting Brazil for a literary festival.
Interviewer :
“ What would be the first thing to spring into your mind when someone mentions Brazil ? “
Will Self :
“ Transsexuals destroying tropical rainforests “
( From today’s O Globo newspaper )
15 JUN 07
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What’s funny in Spain
New research from the University of Granada, Spain, has investigated the tricky subject of humour ( a sense of ).
After extensive psychological probing of 1500 people, a person’s taste in humour has been found to be “ . . . rather an intellectual or aesthetic question, emotion or state of mind being more related to physiological and behavioural factors of sense of humour than an opinion of what we think is funny.”
Bear in mind though, that “ contrary to what we would expect, a particular person’s momentary state of mind in a humourous situation, such as on hearing a joke, does not imply that the person finds that particular situation funny “
All clear ?
14 JUN 07
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Supersizes in Pennsylvania.
The Laboratory
for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior, at PennState University, is a state-of-the-art facility for studying influences on food intake.
It recently devised and undertook an experiment to determine whether increased portion sizes might mean that people would tend to eat more over a sustained period.
23 experimental subjects ate ‘normal’ portion sizes for 11 days. Then, for another 11 days, the same group ate portion sizes which had been increased by 50%.
So, see more = eat more ?
The results have just been published in the current issue of the journal Obesity – and the answer is a cautious yes.
12 JUN 07
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Nuclear solutions in the sea near you soon.
For those who haven’t come across Risø, it’s a national laboratory at the Technical University of Denmark – its aim : “ to provide Danish society with new opportunities for technological development and takes responsibility for the results to be used. “
Today they’ve issued a press-release outlining a new scheme to locate two 150 MW nuclear reactor units onboard ships – “ The aim of the floating power plants is to ensure that desolated* spots of the country that can be difficult to supply with power, energy and fuel, can get their energy directly from ships in a harbour nearby. “
The plan is being implemented with help from the Russian government.
Risø points out that :
“ The Russians have many years of experience with this type of reactors.”
Yes, they certainly have.
The have nearly 300 nuclear reactors onboard ships - mostly submarines and icebreakers. Despite intensive efforts at cover-ups, it’s known that worldwide, at least seven nuclear powered ships have sunk. And the Russian navy currently oversees a remote shipyard replete with the hulks of old nuke-subs waiting to be de-commissioned. They are quietly rusting away, and several have developed leaks of highly radioactive nuclear materials into the surrounding environment.
In common with all other nuclear reactors, the owners have absolutely no idea how to safely de-commissioned them. Despite substantial financial assistance from ( the taxpayers of ) several concerned western countries, there are currently no viable solutions to dispose of the nuclear waste materials - and in the meantime, not surprinsingly, some of it has gone missing . . .
More info here :
* Don't they mean ' isolated ' ? - on second thoughts, perhaps not. Ed.
11 JUN 07
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The Wisdom of the Network
The Media Lab at MIT provides us with a reliable source of material to draw attention to – and this week was no exception. Published yesterday in the journal Adaptive Behavior is this article : which asks if ' the correct unit of analysis for understanding human intelligence ' should not necessarily be aimed just at individuals, but instead towards social networks.
Focussing on so-called ' network Intelligence '
To find out, the team behind the study constructed what they call a ‘ socioscope ‘ ( using mobile phones, electronic badges with cameras and microphones, and PDAs ) and used it to track the behaviour of 100 ‘ international researchers ‘ over several thousand hours.
Sadly, after careful perusal ( and re-perusal ) of the paper, Really Magazine hasn’t been able to figure out how the results obtained from the ‘ socioscope ‘ lead to the conclusions presented – or indeed exactly what the conclusions are.
But they seem to be suggesting - in effect - that groups of individuals may sometimes be more intelligent than the single individuals they contain.
Really ?
We are sure though of the authors’ claim :
“ By properly channeling and leveraging our human `network intelligence,’ we can improve information aggregation and decision making, as illustrated by our `treasure hunt’ experiment. There is the potential to dramatically improve the practice of science, the management of organizations, and political governance. “
“ Or, to phrase it more provocatively, can we humans use our special-purpose `social brain’ to produce a super-human collective intelligence ? “
History suggests otherwise.
08 JUN 07
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The two and 'The One'
Turn to the current issue of the journal Psychology of Music for an article on the social factors in piano duo collaborations.
Although research already exists into the social aspects of string quartets, this is believed to be the first to examine a musical dyad in the form of the piano duo. ( note not to be confused with a piano duet where both performers use the same instrument ). The study interviewed 27 pianists to discover the socio-emotional and the professional implications, leadership issues, conflict and methods of compromise.
But Really Magazine is more keen to read another upcoming article by the same author : ‘ Multiple Functions of Body Movement in a Stage Performance by Robbie Williams ‘ ( if anyone can find an online version please let us know )
Update : Many thanks to reader Geoff H who managed to find a sample here ( scroll down to page 208 )
07 JUN 07
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ZO>.Z
The new London ZO>.Z logo ( for the London Olympics ) has been officially launched today !
It’s flagged as " dynamic, modern and flexible “ but, for some reason, it’s not going down too well with Guardian readers. At the time of writing there were 70 odd comments on their site: and, as far as we can tell, almost 100% critical.
Why so negative ? Is there something about Guardian readers, or is it because it's “ . . . a publicity stunt to get everybody talking about the logo before they unveil the real one in a day or two. “ ?
Either way, the 2012 committee ( and presumably the design agency responsible ) would like to know what you think - and are keen to see any better ideas from the public.
Here's our effort :
It's available for use at a one-off global buyout fee of $286,000. Before anyone harps on about unnecessary costs, Realy Mag would like to point out that although the logo itself took just under three minutes to build, the 212-page report and accompanying video which justifies it - took our highly qualified team nearly eight months to create.
04 JUN 07 (late)
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Under Control
The UK Atomic Energy Authority's primary task is the safe environmental restoration of its [ reactor ] sites. It is also responsible for the UK's contribution to fusion research within the European and World programme.
Bearing in mind the extreme-tech nature of its undertakings, and that the management decisions which it takes now could affect future generations decades, centuries, or even millennia into the future, there would seem to be no room – at all – for error. Odd then that its chairperson isn’t a physicist ?
As was pointed out in a Daily Mail interview last month :
“ . . . it is her job to master a subject about which she is initially ignorant. To prepare for her role at the Atomic Energy Authority, she even studied her son's physics books. “
Successfully fulfilling the chairpersonship ( part-time ) role is even more impressive bearing in mind that she also has 27 ( or so ) other jobs.
04 JUN 07
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Oddity of the day . . .
Variable polyadicities in Paris.
Staightforward though it seems, a simple three word sentence such as ' It is raining ' could have a myriad of meanings and implications – according to a new research article from the Centre Nalionale de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris.
The article, published in the current issue of Linguistics and Philosophy, examines the phrase in great depth - over 65 pages in fact.
Also scrutinised :
' Everywhere I go it rains '
' It is not raining '
' The rain has stopped '
' In some place or other it’s not raining ' and
' There is a lion in the middle of the piazza '
For more on ' the unavailability of indefinite readings for implicit arguments ' , go here.
Formidable !
02 JUN 07
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More-ologies
Want to learn how to be an artist, a gourmet, a manager, a leader, a technologist, a statistician, an engineer and a nutritionist ? ( all at the same time. ) If so, you may be interested in a course on offer at Southwest Minnesota State University. ( Where You Belong )
You could become one of the select few with a degree in the recently created discipline of Culinology® .
“ Culinology® is the blending of the culinary arts and the science of food. It is defined as ‘ the collaboration between culinary expertise and food science and how this collaboration affects the food we prepare and serve for consumption. ‘ “
Food-focussed individuals can find details here ;
01 JUN 07
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Note: there were no postings during May due to staff holidays . . .
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