Martin Gardiner .

TIMING IS EVER
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OCT 08



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“ If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it ? “

Albert Einstein

Albert instein

 

 

 

 


Analyzing Social Discourse in the Cubicles

The Centre for Language in Social Life (CLSL) is a University Research Centre in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University  in the UK. ( motto : Learning for the Real World )

Their aim is to develop a social view of languages in a wide range of social settings, and to make a linguistic contribution to interdisciplinary research within the social sciences.

They publish around four working papers every year.

Paper 126, for example, examined the discursive structures and social functions of ' male toilet graffiti '.

To build a datbase, the research team attempted a survey of public-toilet graffiti in the Lancaster / Lancashire and Kirklees / West Yorkshire  areas - but this proved impractical - largely because of the efficiency of the local councils in regular graffiti removal.

They did, however, find a convenient source of more persistent latrinalia much closer to home - within the very university itself. Specifically, the toilets on floors B and C of the Lancaster University library building.

The researchers developed a bespoke system of tile co-ordinate numbering / lettering to enable off-site analysis of the graffiti.

Then, using a combination of techniques from :

• conversation analysis
• discourse studies
• and pragmatics

the team were able to identify patterns in the form of mediated linguistic interaction.


Sadly, for copyright reasons, we are expressly forbidden* to quote from the paper - but you can read

' Dialogues in solitude: the discursive structures and social functions of male toilet graffiti '

in full here : ( Caution : contains foul language )

 

[ But surely graffiti are in the public domain aren't they ?  Ed. ]

 

31 OCT 08


 

Products of the day :

The Beerbelly™

The BabyMop™

30 OCT 08 ( late edition )


Scholarisation - and the antidote

It was the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau  who noted :

" . . . using time badly wastes time far more than doing nothing with it . . . ”

Although it was penned back in 1762, the phrase still has some modern day resonances, and is quoted in a new paper from the Emeritus Professor of Education, Department of Learning, Curriculum & Communication  at the UK's Institute of Education.

Some readers may find that the quote almost seems to be leaning towards praising ' timewasting ' . . .

And the professor certainly is. See his paper :

In Praise of Wasting Time in Education : some lessons from the Romantics.

( published in the latest issue of the journal Forum )

As the author sums up -

Schools " . . . need to become happier places in which pupils are regularly encouraged positively to ‘waste time’ on and ‘lose themselves’ in their interests and projects, and not to work mostly at what their teachers determine, which is a version of what the government wants. "

Or, as another of the paper's quotes puts it :

" No, let us play for it is yet day
And we cannot go to sleep
Besides in the sky the little birds fly
And the hills are all covered in sheep. "

                                     William Blake 1789

 

30 OCT 08


It's a Wonderful Life under the microscope.

Enthusiasts of Frank Capra's 1946 film ' It's a Wonderful Life ' are already on high alert regarding the current ' Building & Loan ' resonances.

Now they're in line for even more zeitgeist-pimples, because researchers from the psychology department at the University of Virginia   have recently determined that :

Imagining what the consequences would be if a real-life positive event had never happened, is more encouraging than simply thinking about the positive event itself.

If you haven't seen the film and don't quite follow, track down a copy - you won't be disappointed.

Those who have already seen it can always visualize what things might be like if they never had.

29 OCT 08


 

To Scowl or not to Scowl    >: (

Got something to complain about ?

If so, it might be worth bearing in mind the results of a new research project regarding the benefits ( or otherwise ) of scowling.

The researchers' experiments found that a scowl can enhance the outcomes of a complaining session ( but only when the complaint is reasonably justified ).


The paper ' When scowling may be a good thing: The influence of anger expressions on credibility ' will be published in a forthcoming edition of The European Journal of Social Psychology

28 OCT 08 ( late edition )


Benoît Mandelbrot meets Musa cavendish

Fascinating and beautiful as fractals are, there aren't, as yet, all  that many practical applications of fractal theory.

But the number ( of possible practical applications ) has recently increased by at least one, with new research from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

They applied fractal Fourier analysis to photos obtained by a digital imaging system, and showed that it is possible to grade the ' fractal-ness ' of the spots on a ripening banana.

It was previously unknown that the so-called ' senescent spotting ' on an over-ripe banana follow a somewhat fractal distribution.

The discovery might oneday lead to the possibility of a non-invasive computerised banana-ripeness measuring system.

 

research here

 

[ Not everyone agrees that a heavily spotted banana is necessarily 'over-ripe'.   Ed. ]

28 OCT 08


Lubricating the Novelty Engine

A new twist has recently emerged regarding the question:

' Can human beings spontaneously generate random numbers ? ' ( by calling out strings of numbers in the range 0 to 9 )

The question was first asked in 1949, and, at that time, the answer was widely assumed to be ' very unlikely '.

But things changed in 2005, with the publication of a groundbreaking scientific paper entitled :

' Humans can consciously generate random number sequences: ' ( Persaud et al., 2005 )

But which was shortly followed by another called :

' Humans cannot consciously generate random numbers sequences: ' ( Figurska et al., 2008 )

The confusion has recently been reduced, however, with the publication of the latest study into the subject.

This time with the addition of an added ingredient designed to clarify the underlying psychological process(es).

In the form of beer.

The experiment showed that plying the experimental subjects with two pints of beer did not affect the randomness of the numbers which they called out.

" The results suggest that there is a mechanism in the brain which is not easily distracted or affected by low levels of intoxication which generates ‘novelty’ . . . "

There are still unanswered questions though, and further research may be required. For the question is raised as to whether more substantial beer-levels might affect the subjects' performance - as the author points out :

" More profoundly intoxicating subjects would also be valuable providing the ethical issues in doing so were addressed. "

 

• You may read the full research paper here : (.pdf)

 

• More bulletins from the same author here . Really Magazine  particularly recommends the article ' Stunt Brains '.

 

Comment from reader Paul H

' You would think that if our ability to generate random numbers is based on liking novelty that they would get more random the more beer we drink. '

 

 

 

27 OCT 08


So Soho

Invention of the day . . .

The ' Not Bicycle Cover '

 

24 OCT 08


Repugnance overruled ( 3 to 2 )

We reported this back in May 2006.

And this is what Lord Hoffmann, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Lord Carswell, and Lord Mance  have determined as of today.

Of note :

• The American lease on The Footprint of Freedom  is due to expire in 2016.

22 OCT 08 ( late edition )


Colourful accounting


The University of Edinburgh Business School  has prepared an article ( to be published in a future edition of the journal Critical Perspectives on Accounting ) aimed at countering the negative nuances of the boring bookkeeper.

The essay cites examples of work-related colourfulness at all of the ' Big Four ' accounting firms.

For accounting does not always have to mean -

" auditing the widget factories in Industrialville "

As one accountant explains :

" We often go to a restaurant together or out paintballing and, of course, there are the more formal events like evening balls and Christmas dinner "

And another :

" We have four or five meetings a year to decide how to spend our group’s social (slush) fund. "

Or, as the The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales puts it :

" The sky is blue, grass is green, and Chartered Accountancy is one of the most progressive, expansive, rewarding careers in modern business "


For more, read the full article :

Beyond the boring grey: The construction of the colourful accountant

 

Notes:

• Really Magazine has performed a full audit of the article and finds that the word ' boring ' appears somewhere in the region of 15 times.

• Completely the wrong image - as envisaged by big-four firm Deloitte


22 OCT 08


 

Wading with an anchor

The Covenant University (CU), based in Ota, Nigeria, is ' Raising a new generation of leaders '


As the Chancellor of the University points out :

" Focus is the fountain of excellence. Focus enhances creativity and boosts ingenuity. Whatever you stay on with commitment, you are bound to stand out there ultimately ".

To this end, they have created a unique program(m)me - which is compulsory for all students -

the Total Man Concept  (TMC)

Oddly perhaps, as the university is open to all suitably qualified ladies and gentlemen.

" The essence of the programmme is to prepare and equip students of CU with the relevant life skills and mind-set which will provide anchorage for them as they wade through the tidal waters of life and everyday living with its attendant challenges. "

Full details here :

 

21 OCT 08


Sunny side down in Massachusetts


The writer Fay Wheldon  is famous for coining the phrase " Go to work on an egg "

- oddly perhaps, as she didn't.

Be that as it may, now the advice must be taken with a pinch of salt, because researchers from the Department of Psychology at Tufts University  in Massachusetts have, for the first time, performed an experiment to investigate :

' The Effects of Egg-based Breakfasts on Cognitive Performance in Young Adults '


The somewhat unsettling results of which are published in the latest issue of the journal ' Appetite '

The report will cost you US $31.50 to read - but Really Magazine  can semi-exclusively reveal that the egg breakfast had effects that are perhaps less than ideal in a typical start-the-day type scenario.

For it seems they are apt to cause confusion.

" There was a trend (p = 0.06) for confusion ratings to be higher in individuals eating an egg-based meal . . ."

It should be noted though that the egg in the egg-based meal was accompanied by toast and orange juice. The university is in the process of carrying out further research to determine whether the egg itself is the cause of the confusion.

 

20 OCT 08





Perhaps it's worth noting . . .

. . . that it's impossible to comb the hair on a hairy ball completely evenly.

Whichever way you choose to comb, you will always be left with two tufts ( or whorls ). As was proved by mathematician / philosopher Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer, back in 1910.

See : The Hairy Ball Theorem

Conversely however, it is entirely possible to uniformly comb all the hairs of a hairy doughnut.

17 OCT 08 ( late edition )


 

Derided du Rhône


Turn to the latest issue of the journal Organization for an article exploring an all-too-commonplace and yet neglected ( by the academic literature ) corporate phenomenon -

Derision.

The author, Associate Professor in Information Systems Management at the Emlyon Business School ( Educating Entrepreneurs for The World ) first identifies a new category in the corporate structure ;

homo managerialis

and then explains how its occupants habitually deride subordinates -

" homo managerialis, imprisoned by derision, develops a split personality and can no longer recognize the difference, the Otherness of the other. "

Psychoanalysts will note the capital 'O' of Otherness - for the paper liberally references the work of the French Lacanian Denis Vasse, who found that derision :


" is a violent way to address to someone which starts with openness and ends up by closeness. [sic] "


- though we should perhaps bear in mind that Vasse also said :

“ It is possible to find a language which is functionally extremely effective in the domain of the imaginary but which doesn’t actually say anything.”


It should be noted too that the paper only concentrates on uni-directional derision - i.e. whereby employees are derided by homo managerialis. In the light of recent superclass-level steering-the-ship-onto-the-rocks coporate events, is it possible that inverse intra-organizational derision could perhaps become more prevalent ?


Read the full paper here

Supporting info here

17 OCT 08


Wither Whether the Weather

Substantially countering the directions in which commonsense might urge us . . .

In 2000, Prof. Watson from the department of psychology at Iowa University  published a goundbreaking study which showed that people's ( or, more accurately, student's ) daily mood is not really affected by how sunny ( or rainy ) it is.

Now new research, from Humboldt-University Berlin, Utrecht University, and the University of Edinburgh has taken a step further.

This time more than 1000 respondents - with an age range of 13 to 68 - participated in the study,

And this time, no less than six weather-related variables were taken into account - temperature, wind power, sunlight, precipitation, air pressure, and photoperiod.

And yet :

" . . . we did not find any weather effects on positive mood, whereas most people assume that sunlight induces positive emotions (Watson, 2000). Against this background, some of the null results of the current study are all the more remarkable. "


The study can be found in the latest edition of the journal Emotion ( price $11.95 )

Or, you can also find it in full here .

 

Note :

Prof. Watson  did  identify another commonplace environmental factor which does affect people's mood :

" . . . our most interesting finding is that many people report feeling somewhat sad and disengaged on Sundays, for reasons that are not yet entirely clear. "

15 OCT 08


Blobs in California


Is something worthy of academic attention merely because it is ' interesting ' ?

This is a matter of concern for an article in the latest issue of the journal ' Critical Inquiry '.

Professor Ngai at the UCLA dept. of Engish, points out that being ' interested ' in something is really

“ not knowing exactly what it is that we are feeling and [experiencing] a feeling about this very feeling ”

Sadly, the essay, entitled Merely Interesting - is subscribers only, but readers may get a flavour of the professor's work by reading a previous ' Critical Inquiry ' article about cuteness - and cutification in general.

Specifically regarding frog-shaped bath sponges and bloblike objects etc.

" The smaller and less formally articulated or more bloblike the object, the cuter it becomes--in part because smallness and blobbishness suggest greater malleability and thus a greater capacity for being handled. The bath sponge makes this especially clear because its purpose is explicitly to be pressed against the body and squished. "

14 OCT 08


Soul Journeys via GM.


Personalized Genetic Modification techniques - in the sense that a person's own genes may be beneficially manipulated - may oneday have very far-reaching applications in the world of heathcare.

There may even be GM possibilities too for ameliorating unhelpful or damaging mental traits.

But - until now - very little attention has been paid to the possibilities of GM'ing a person's DNA to alter their beliefs.

Turn then to an upcoming article from the editor of the journal Medical Hypotheses, which introduces an entirely new concept to the academic literature:

Genospirituality

That is to say -

" . . . the potential use of genetic engineering to increase human spiritual and religious experience "

The author suggests that an appropriately GM enhanced individual might be better positioned to undertake " soul journeys " and improve their contact with the " spirit realm ".

" it is also possible that highly moral, altruistic, peaceable and principled behaviours might become more prevalent; "

Some may find such an idea farfetched, but, as the editor points out in ( one of ) his blogs ;


" The journal’s official stance is that more harm is done by a failure to publish one idea that might have been true, than by publishing a dozen ideas that turn out to be false."

13 OCT 08


Lekking on the top floor


" Lekking behaviour involves inter alia, strutting, puffing out, catching attention via the use of ornamental physical characteristics, exhibiting gaudily-coloured body parts, singing or splashing, and other courting and wooing strategies. "

Not at all out of place for, say, Musk Ducks in the wetlands of Southern Australia, but perhaps less appropriate in the senior manager's office of a large corporation.

But, according to the results of a 15 year research project from the University of New South Wales, lekking is prevalent there too :

" Within the organizational lek male managers display mainly by power dressing, positioning, and exercising power and influence via verbal and behavioural means "

This " prehistoric behaviour"  thankfully has its limits in the office though :

" Social and religious mores prohibit overt sexual coupling in organizations but lekking for other rewards is nevertheless pursued by male managers. "

The author suggests that there could well be room for an entirely new field of scientific research :

' Evolutionary Organizational Behaviour '

 


The study is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Health Organisation and Management

 

Further info :

Mung ( same behaviour, but with females - sorry no www ref. as yet )

this

and this.

 

10 OCT 08





Why do gamblers gamble ?

A new insight into this puzzling question has just been published in the journal : Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.

Research conducted by the University of Albany's Addictive Behaviors Lab, involved more than 400 experimental subjects ( students ? ) in a series experiments to pinpoint the possible driving forces behind the ' excitement ' of gambling.

The lab's findings :

" . . . support the notion that the excitement of gambling is tied to the expectancy of winning money. "

 

08 OCT 08





Très drôle, n'est ce pas?

" For many years, the financial industry has been perceived as conservative, old-fashioned, and somewhat tedious. "

So begins a timely article in the latest issue of ' International Journal of Bank Marketing '

The research study, from the University of Quebec in Montreal, examined bankers' sense of humour values in more than 400 buyer-seller encounters : finding that -

" A financial advisor's good sense of humour has a positive impact on the clients' perceptions of service quality, trust, satisfaction, purchase intentions, and word-of-mouth propensity. "


And, presumably, the importance of a keen sense of humour has become greatly accentuated since the article was written ?

 

07 OCT 08


 

Auto Amnesia in Organisations ( the benefits )

The concept of Oganisational Unlearning goes back more than a decade, when Professor Starbuck at the University of Oregon co-wrote the seminal paper ' To avoid organizational crises, unlearn '

Now the concept has been brought right up to date with an article in the latest issue of the journal Human Relations

" This article defines and clarifies the meaning of organizational unlearning, distinguishes it from organizational learning, "

Really Magazine prefers though the subtle nuances offered by an earlier investigation from the University of California and the Université Paul Cézanne - which was the first to introduce the concept of ' Knowledge Inactivation ' as a professional organisational management tool.


03 OCT 08


 

 

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