JUNE 08
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“ It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into“
Jonathan Swift
Lubricating the Hedonic Treadmill
[ Op Ed. ]
The July issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science will
carry an article on the recent history of happiness.
According to the World Values Survey based at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, the averaged happiness of citizens across the World has been steadily rising for the last 25 years.
Really ?
Even for the billions who are as yet not even connected to a sewage system ? There’s no money to build the infrastructure, but their ‘ leaders ‘ somehow manage to scrape together cash for Western-built semi-obsolete weapons systems instead ?
Or for the billions who, on a daily basis don’t get enough to eat – knowing that right now, basic food prices are being artificially manipulated upwards by financial institutions and speculators ?
Or for the billions who know that their democratic right gives just them the choice to vote for the ‘ least worst ‘ of a bunch of worthless candidates ?
etc etc etc ad. nauseam.
Ahead of publication, the World Values Survey has made available a comprehensive set of graphs detailing the changes.
Which leave Really Magazine even more bewildered.
For they correlate trends such as ‘ Post Materialism ‘ ( Where in the world, exactly, has Post Materialism taken hold ? )
Others have missing idents : what is the meaning of a graph with items labeled ‘ Historically Co ‘ ? or just ‘ Historically ‘ ?
Or a scatter chart with notions like ’ discuss politics ‘ , ‘ want many children ‘ , ‘ good & evil are clear ‘ ?
Perhaps the article will clarify everything when it’s published.
Until then, Really Magazine hopes the University of Michigan is right . . .
30 JUN 08
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How high and why
The Perceptual-Motor Dynamics Lab of the Department of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati has completed an intriguing study into the implications of encumberment.
Half the experimental subjects were fitted with ankle-weights – which encumbered them. They were then asked to estimate how high they could jump. Not surprisingly ( perhaps ) the experimentees felt that they were less able to jump when fitted with the weights.
That stage of the experiment was not, however, the subtle part.
For the subjects were also asked to estimate how high an associate – who was not wearing any ankle weights - could jump ( this person was, in reality, an actor ).
The subjects who were wearing the weights consistently underestimated the jumping height that the actor could attain . . .
The research :
will be published in a future edition of The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
27 JUN 08
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Petard hoisting – an auto-discussion
A recently resurfaced ‘ confidential ‘ e-mail , which formed
part of the evidence in a 2004 US court case, reveals inside info on a Microsoft ‘ customer
experience episode ‘ - a Windows XP user trying to install Moviemaker via
their website.
Things do not start well . . .
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
He bravely persists though . . .
So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs
place to make sure it is there.
It’s not there
What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.
But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.
What an absolute mess.
But, in the end, he gives up
So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.
The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind.
Quite.
The user ?
A Mr. Bill Gates.
Full e-mail here, hosted, in the public interest, courtesy of The Seattle Times Company ( scroll to page 3 )
26 JUN 08 ( late edition )
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Kojak on Pompey
If you’re going to be in or around Portsmouth (UK) at the beginning of next month, and you’re interested in 70’s culture, why not drop in at the University of Portsmouth for their three day conference ‘ British culture and society in the 1970s ‘ ?
The conference, which is open to all ( ticket buyers ) will feature discussion sessions on :
• Roger Moore: a New Bond for a New Decade
“ what does Moore’s Bond tell us about the changed context of the new decade ? “
• Underground, overground.: Remembering the Wombles
“ the Womble effect encapsulated many of the cultural artefacts of
the decade.
“
Especially of interest is a full screening of the hard-to-find Quota Quickie short film
• Telly Savalas Looks at Portsmouth
Really Magazine hasn’t been able to track down an online version - the nearest we got was Telly Savalas Looks at Birmimingham . . .
“ I admired the trees and shrubs in the spacious traffic-free pedestrian precincts “
“ You feel as if you’ve been . . . projected into the 21st century “
“ Yes, it’s my kinda town “
[ Caution : Overwhelmingly ‘ artistic ‘ download ( see yesterday’s entry ) , but well worth the v e r y l o n g wait ]
The conference runs 1 - 3 July 2008. Details here
[ Editor’s note : Though he repeatedly emphasises that he was there, it’s not clear that Telly actually ‘ looked at ‘ either Birmingham or Portsmouth - but he certainly did the voice-over ]
26 JUN 08
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Link of the day
here ( don't hold your breath )
N0rm4l serv1ce w1ll be resum3d 4s s00n as p0ss1ble
The Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss, ( CRUMB ) at the University of Sunderland , UK. has just published a paper drawing attention to the fact that when electronic data streams breakdown “ they make apparent our desire of wanting to keep continuity, to experience things uninterruptedly . “
It’s unlikely that many users of the www would disagree with that.
Perhaps more debatable though is the claim that “ Electronic streams appear to be most illuminating when they fail or break down “ . . .
Although the article is really an analysis of the potential of ‘ interruptions ‘ or ‘ flickery-ness ‘ to induce feelings of ‘ art-i-ness ‘ in animated graphical works, Really Magazine would like to draw attention to possible wider aspects.
Data stream breakdowns are now so commonplace that they have become an expected part of the New Millenium Data Exchange Experience - but perhaps that’s not entirely negative ?
We coin the term ‘ data interrupta ‘ – events which instead of conjuring up feelings of frustration - or even rage – might be viewed more rationally, positively and calmly as Random Seeds of Art.
؟ ؟ ؟
CRUMB's paper is published in the latest issue of the journal Animation.
25 JUN 08
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Romanian red
Taking as inspiration the fact that during the 2004 Olympics more competitors wearing red uniforms won than did those wearing blue, a team from the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania decided to investigate whether this red-win-bias might also apply to online games.
They focussed their attention on Unreal Tournament 2004 ‘ Team Deathmatch ‘ in which the team which ‘ kills ‘ the most ‘ enemy ‘ players is judged to be ' the winner '.
The ‘ virtual gladiators ‘ which wore red uniforms tended to win more. To be specific, they won 54.9% of the time.
From this, the investigators conclude :
“ It is likely that ‘ seeing red ‘ may trigger a powerful psychological distractor signal in human aggressive competition that can affect the outcome of sports and virtual contests alike “
The results are published in the latest issue of the journal CyberPsychology & Behavior
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see an earlier Really Magazine piece on how videogames can “ foster greater empathy, tolerance and understanding for others “
24 JUN 08
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Quote of the day :
From Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
“ I think it would be a good idea ! “
( In reply to a reporter who asked " What do you think of Western Civilization ? " )
More than half a century has gone by since then.
[ keywords : warmongering, ethicless, primitive, myopic, halfwits ]
23 JUN 08 ( midday edition )
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Everything you know is wrong ( part 237 – rev. 23/2 )
The widely adopted ‘ Energy Efficiency Labels ‘ can be misleading.
But surely buying a white-goods item with an A rating must be better than
buying one with a G ?
That depends.
According to the UK’s Environmental Change Institute, the labeling system overlooks a simple fact - it’s easier for manufacturers to get an A rating for a big machine than a it is for a small one.
So, following the labels, customers can end up buying an A rated machine which is bigger ( and uses more energy ) than they really need.
Oooops.
It’s rumored that various regulatory bodies are already engaged in
talks to overhaul the system.
23 JUN 08
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Ethics via Ludology ( boot up yer console )
Critical, ethical reasoning skills, are “ . . . a core component in developing a citizenry capable of fully participating in a cosmopolitan, democratic society. “
In other words, if the average person isn’t capable of joined-up-thinking-and-feeling regarding ethics, then society - that is to say The World - is screwed.
Luckily, according to a new article just published in the journal Games and Culture , there may yet be hope. For citizens might be able to learn about ethical commitments by playing computer games - such as :
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
World of Warcraft
Final Fantasy
Jade Empires
Knights of the Old Republic
Neverwinter Nights or
Vampire: Bloodlines
Which, according to professor Undead Holy Priest from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have
“ . . . the potential not only to foster greater empathy, tolerance and understanding for others but to help us critically reflect on who we want to be for others, and how we have both power and responsibility in all of the roles we inhabit in our lives. “
Countering the view that role-paying videogames are just [deleted ] for [ deleted ] as some naysayers have alleged.
Savour a draft of the full article here.
20 JUN 08
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Publish and be rewarded
How does ‘ research productivity ‘ as measured by the number of research papers published, affect marketing professors’ salaries ?
A new study – by three marketing professors from Rice University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Towson University, investigated the salaries of 298 marketing professors to determine how they might be affected by research output.
The findings showed that marketing professors at the ‘ higher ranked ‘ research universities ( and being a full marketing professor ) are each associated with higher salary.
The salaries were also nudged appreciably upwards by publication in the so-called ‘ Tier 1 ‘ quality journals.
The top journal for scoring pay rises was found to be ‘ Marketing Science ‘
( the marketing professors’ research paper is published in the latest edition of the journal . . . Marketing Science )
Also see
Really Magazine’s interview re. the Tinkerbell Solution.
19 JUN 08
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Spot prices
The Agricultural Economics Research Institute ( LEI ) at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, has recently published a research document asking the disarmingly simple, yet crucially important question :
“ Why are current world food prices so high ? “
The answers are complex, but their 27 page report makes a brave attempt to disentangle facts from fiction and PR hype.
The mainstream media spin has, in large part, focussed on the diversion of food products to produce biofuels. Insane though that may be, the LEI report points out that only about 5% of global food production is used to produce biofuels - not enough to cause the current extra-high prices.
Perhaps decreased supply ?
Although wheat and barley crops were down in 2007, they were more than compensated by a bumper maize crop. Thus the global cereals crop in 2007 was higher than usual.
Maybe the demand has increased ?
The demand across Europe and America has remained constant. There was an increase in demand in Asia – but not enough to cause the price spikes.
Supply / demand seems fairly stable(ish) - so there must be a less obvious ( or at least less-talked-about ) explanation for the increases – causing a doubling of food prices in some regions – typically in areas where the population can least afford it.
“ The crises on the financial markets are diverting funds away from traditional financial institutions leading to a large pool of funds available for investments in other markets. “
Surely Really Magazine misunderstands it ? The financial industry has had its fingers burnt by bad investments in the housing markets - so they turn instead to a more sure-fire way of squeezing dividend out of the world population – by manipulating global food spot-prices upwards.
It can’t be that cruel-and-simple can it ?
Read the full report here
18 JUN 08
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One short of a baker’s dozen
Subitizing - is the rapid and accurate enumeration of small sets ( up to 3–4 items ).
Humans ( and some other animals ) are surprisingly good at it.
But how’s it done ? Since it was first described, more than 100 years
ago, psychologists have been puzzling over a possible mental mechanism.
Is it that we have an inbuilt number-estimating capability which simply works better for small numbers – or is there a special subitizing algorithm ?
New research, published in the June edition of ‘ Psychological Science ‘ confirmed that experimental subjects did indeed have more difficulty in correctly estimating the numbers of objects in larger groups ( of 10 to 40 items ) than they did for small groups ( of 1 to 4 items ).
Sadly though, despite the international research team's best endeavors,
the study didn’t
manage to uncover how subitizing actually works.
“ One hundred years after the discovery of subitizing,
its mechanisms remain as mysterious as ever . . . “
Read the full paper here
17 JUN 08
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Post organizational anti-spectacle
The ‘ Blur Building ‘ is - or rather was - “ an anti-spectacle “ designed by New York based architectural practice Diller and Scofidio for the Expo 2002 at Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland.
Here's how the architects described it :
“ Contrary to immersive environments that strive for high-definition visual fidelity with ever-greater technical virtuosity, Blur is decidedly low-definition: there is nothing to see but our dependence on vision itself. “
There was ‘ nothing to see ‘ because the building was surrounded inside and out by a semi-permanent fog of water droplets, pumped up from the lake though thousands of high-pressure atomiser nozzles.
Now, the project has resurfaced – in an article from the latest issue of the journal Organization. ( ‘ the space for neodisciplinary work’ )
This new appraisal, from the Manchester Business School, looks at the Blur Building phenomenon from the perspective Organization Analysis.
“ In Blur the human body is displaced from its customary mode of being-in-the-world and is given chance to discover ` media ' in organization as transport and possible metamorphosis in thinking and being organization “
Thus :
“ Blur invites a kind of de-subjectivization that intensifies sensation and affect splitting the subject across different modalities of consciousness and perception that provides essential experience for thinking organization critically. “
Or, to clarify :
“ In the absence of this incorporeal `en-trance' the paper argues we will remain victim of the tautologies and infinite regress that afflict current thinking in aesthetics and organization and which restrict its practice to an inherently conservative form of organization analysis. “
You can read the article here for US$15.00
12 JUN 08
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All that glisters is not [ deleted ]
High crude oil prices are making other, less-exploited, possibilities for fuel sources look more attractive.
Take for example, swine manure. The University of Illinois has been investigating the possibilities for some years now, and even has an experimental swine manure distillation plant in operation.
The College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the U of I has concluded that each pig can produce about 100 litres of pig-crude-oil during its lifetime.
Which they, claim, could add about $10 per pig* to producers' profits. As there are roughly 100 million hogs per year going ' through the system ', that implies potential for a multi billion dollar industry.
Their latest research, to be published in a future edition of the journal Fuel , has turned up possible problems though. Apart from the obvious drawbacks of large-scale swine manure handling, it’s also been determined that pig-crude-oil contains a swathe of potentially toxic heavy metal residues. Including cobalt, chromium, lanthanum, scandium, tungsten and hafnium.
Looking on the bright side though, the studies also showed that it contains minute amounts of gold.
And gold prices are going through the roof too.
Editor’s note :
[ If they are producing 100 litres, that’s
about two-thirds of a barrel – at
current prices worth say $100 , not $10. Surely ? Ed. ]
Reader Marco McC comments :
The half-a-barrel of crude oil that your information source claims that each pig gives, itself is the product of refining and processing, which is an expensive step that oil from the earth avoids requiring, coming right up out of the ground as crude oil. That expensive extra processing step must be figured in.
Reader Derek M responds :
I think it should be used exclusively for aviation fuel. And I think I know which airline will use it first [ deleted ] !
Wouldn't want to get behind one of those.
12 JUN 08
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Myopia up the market
New research from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Columbia University, New York, has mathematically refined the concept of artificial product shortage manipulation as a way of increasing business profits.
They asked :
“ If it is profitable to create shortages, what is the optimal amount of rationing risk to create ? “
Currently, most commercial pricing software ( used by firms to estimate the ‘ correct ‘ price for their products ) makes the assumption that consumers are short-sighted. That is to say “ they are myopic and buy if the current price is less than their reservation price. “
In other words, they can be manipulated for profit.
The team’s calculations ( running into 13 pages of complex math ) showed that, yes,
• a firm can make more profit if they create an artificial shortage
• but only if they don’t have many other firms competing with them ( who may undercut them )
The research has just
been published in the current issue of the Journal
Management Science. ( subscribers only )
Or you can read the full report here :
[
Editor’s note :
Sadly, the investigations didn’t cover scenarios whereby consumers don’t have the choice not to buy – example food ( or, some would say, gasoline ) - and where prices are set not by the consumers’ value perception, or by " shortages " - but by multinational cartels. As is routinely the case
]
10 JUN 08
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Back to school
Think of the advantages of being able to control a school of ( stealthy ) robotic fish.
They could be used, for example, to track “ . . . groups of whales or spreading plumes of pollution, or explore caves, underneath ice-covered waters . . . “
This recent press-release from the University of Washington explains all.
Odd perhaps that one of the main funding partners should be the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
How charming that the airforce should be concerned enough about tracking whales and monitoring pollution to allocate substantial tax-dollars to such a project.
For further info on projects which are of mutual interest to both the Airforce and the University of Washington, go here
09 JUN 08
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Monumental problems and solutions
The Institute of Geosciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands has proposed a new scheme to deal with the enormous quantities of solid trash that society produces.
Waste disposal experts have long established that the traditionally preferred method of ‘ burying it in a hole ‘ has two very serious drawbacks. Firstly, most of the locations in the ‘ developed ‘ world that are considered to be suitable as a dump are already full.
Secondly : “ Such waste deposits require ' eternal ' control and monitoring “ * The chances are high that, given time, über toxic manmade chemicals and concentrations of heavy-metal salts will leach out downwards into the water table.
The new solution deals with the problem in a radically different direction.
Upwards.
The idea is to mix solid trash with cement-like compounds to form slabs. These slabs would then be stacked – in the form of a pyramid ( surrounded by a ditch for toxic runoff removal ).
“ The constructed environmental pyramid will be a landmark, and can serve as a tourist attraction. “
And possibly as a permanent and ever-growing monument to the consumerist society ?
The article is published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Global Environmental Issues.
* Note:
As far as Really Magazine is aware, no country in the world has implemented ' eternal monitoring ' as a legal obligation for the owners and operators of dumping sites. If there was such legislation, no commercial company or landowner would ever volunteer their services.
06 JUN 08
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Scrutinizing contrafibularatories
Is it funnier to watch a TV comedy show, or listen to the dialog, or just
read the script ?
Insight has been provided by a new study from Middlesex University - published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Humor Research.
Counter-intuitively perhaps ( and this may come as a disappointment to TV comedy show producers ) the experiments showed that there was no difference in the number of laughs/smiles induced either by the TV show or its audio soundtrack alone.
The experimentees who just read the script weren’t so amused though.
Thus , the study
“ . . . highlights a disparity between the cognitive and behavioral response to humor that is dependent on the medium of delivery “
؟ ؟ ؟
Note :
The show in question was ‘ Dish and Dishonesty ‘ from the Blackadder series.
Further reading.
Perhaps the definitive Blackadder research :
from the dept. of languages at the UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ , 2005.
( caution ; 91 page .pdf )
[ Editor's comment : It's not clear whether the TV / Radio equivalency would stand up in a show with less word-based humour – say, Tom & Jerry ]
05 JUN 08
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The Stuff * that surrounds us
Goto Wikpedia for a quick definition of Mereological Essentialism.
The central idea is that some objects cease to exist if they lose ( or gain ) some part of themselves.
For example, a kilogram weight, or the number 3.
But what of mereological in-essentialism ? Entities which can have parts taken away or added and still remain ( more or less ) the same ?
Take for example , ' Stuff '.
New research, from the School of History, Philosophy, Religion & Classics at the University of Sydney, Australia, argues that previous philosophical thinking about ' Stuff ', has been " jumbled."
This new analysis of ' Stuff ' - which is to be found in the penultimate issue of the journal Ratio - attempts to unravel the enigmas associated with ' Stuff ' by defining a new subset of ' Stuff ' – which the author calls' Stuff* ' [ pron. stuff-star, or stuff-asterisk ]
Pointing out that :
“ Once we recognise stuff and stuff* as distinct kinds of entity, we can see that some of our intuitions about stuff are preserved in terms of portions of stuff, and others are preserved in terms of portions of stuff*. “
In essence then, intuitive notions about what ' Stuff ' is might
not be precise enough. For instance. is ' Stuff ' still ' Stuff ' if
one small portion is separated and moved away from the original ' Stuff '
?
And the problem is complicated still further by the fourth dimension – Time.
“ Stuff can be spread out and scattered: nothing about the nature of stuff says that its portions need to be arranged a certain way. “ and that, of course, includes being arranged time-wise too.
Readers can imagine then, that a fully precise definition of ' Stuff ' is
not easily found, and indeed, the author takes the reader though 10 pages
of complex logical calculations and analysis, and visits four real and imaginary
Worlds ( W1 - W4 )
to un-jumble the Principle
of Stuff Composition (PSC), and offer some more rigorous answers.
“ . . . if stuffs are fusions of particulars – in particular, if persisting stuffs are fusions of instantaneous portions of stuff – then some portions of stuff are incontinent: stuffs do not have their parts essentially. “
[ Editors note : The author concentrates entirely on the macro scale – and doesn’t venture at all into the realm of quantum physics - where traditional notions of ‘ parts and wholes ‘ presumably break down. Perhaps a topic for future stuff research ? ]
Read the full ‘ Essential
Stuff ‘ article here.
04 JUN 08
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What’s the USE
A recent survey carried out on behalf of the British Journalism Review (BJR) will not be very comforting for UK journalists.
“ The trust figures for broadsheet journalists have declined 22 per cent over five years; those for local journalists are down 20 per cent and those for the mid-market titles down 18 per cent. “
The poll didn’t just concentrate on journalism though, interviewees were also asked about their trust-ratings for family doctors, police officers, judges, civil servants, estate agents etc etc.
Almost every category* showed a marked decline over the last 5 years.
But why ?
For an analysis of the results, turn to the latest edition of the BJR, where :
“ A prominent academic explain [sic.] why — and why journalists should be worried. “
Have standards really been falling across the board, or could it partly be due to what the author calls the Universal Scepticism Effect (USE) ?
Is the UK rapidly turning into a nation of cynics - or just getting more wised-up ?
Really Magazine isn’t sure – but our own survey has shown that the number of times the word ‘ internet ' appears in the BJR's analysis = 0
[ * The trust-ratings in just two categories went up : ‘ People who run large companies ‘ and ‘ Journalists on red-top papers ‘. You couldn’t make it up could you . . . Ed. ]
03 JUN 08
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An exclusive interview with professor Joshua Gunn
Really Magazine presents the latest in its series of exclusive interviews
with opinion formers from the world of industry and academia.
Today’s exchange is with professor Joshua Gunn from the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin - on the theme of non-verbal communication and popular music.
The professor, who is also a DJ, offers a psychoanalytical answer as to why so many people are in love with their iPods - explains that the best dissertations and theses are written on something that the author is passionate about - and tells why he still has a monochromatic wardrobe.
Read JG : Mysteries of the Earbuds here.
02 JUN 08
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