APR 09
 |
||
 |
" Reality is merely an illusion - albeit a very persistent one. "
Albert Einstein
Unraveling Green Tape
The US Chamber of Commerce has launched its ‘ Project
no Project ‘ website – which describes in detail what
it sees as the perils of Nimby-ism.
Here we learn that :
“ These ‘ Not In My Back Yard ’ folks, or NIMBYs as they are called, block energy projects by organizing local opposition, changing zoning laws, opposing permits, filing lawsuits, and bleeding projects dry of their financing . . . “
According to the site, unhelpful Nimbys are currently opposing, for example, the construction of no less than 16 new nuclear power stations in the US.
" the U.S. Chamber seeks to provide the cold, hard truth about NIMBY and radical environmental activism, and make our leaders finally pay attention to this growing problem. "
In search of some cold, hard, facts Really Magazine wondered if the US Chamber of Commerce might perhaps have any financial ties to the nuclear industry ( construction, operation, hazardous waste disposal storage etc etc ) ? But unfortunately has not been able to find out.
Shame.
؟ ؟ ؟
For an alternative viewpoint, also see :
not to be confused with :
30 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
The macro-level asynchrony of the web
Researchers from Lake Forest College, Chicago, recently analysed the media and cyberspace presence of 662 ‘ Public Intellectuals ‘
( The term ‘ Public Intellectuals ‘ was taken to be defined by the key 2001 book ‘ Public Intellectuals ‘ by Richard Posner * )
This research differed from earlier examinations of ‘ Public Intellectuals ‘ though - as a good proportion of the ‘ Public Intellectuals ‘ under scrutiny were dead.
Enigmatically, this did not show up as a disadvantage in cyberspace :
“ As hypothesized, there are no significant differences between living and dead public intellectuals in hits for webpages and for Google Groups threadedness. “
In the traditional mass media though ( magazines, newspapers and broadcast media ) things were different :
“ mass media hits show a significantly higher frequency for the living. “
The paper is published in the latest issue of New Media & Society
؟ ؟ ؟
* Not everyone was 100% convinced by thesis laid out in the book . . . as
the Times
Literary Supplement remarked of the author “ .
. . his own grasp of reality is sadly defective."
The Los Angeles Times went even further " Don't buy this book. "
29 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Mnemopoetics
One of a poet’s chief concerns is getting readers to remember. A new article in the journal ‘ Poetics Today ‘ examines this perennial preoccupation in detail.
Proposing that :
“ Poetic composition may be seen as a kind of mnemonic ‘ reverse engineering ‘ that utilizes the very operating procedures of verbal memory “
Over the years, various poets have discovered various means to enhance the memory of their various works – take Ferdinand de Saussure for example, who first elucidated the technique of embedding anagrams in poems as aide-mémoires.
The research article also links mnemopoetic analysis to Osip Mandel'shtam - author of the poem ‘ An Ode to Stalin ‘( 1937 ).
Osip was particularly interested in introspective analysis of the ‘ tip-of-the-tongue ‘ phenomenon ( all too familiar to poets and non-poets alike ) as was starkly typified in his poem ‘ I have forgotten the word that I wanted to say ‘.
Interesting as these mnemopoetic comparisons are, in the end, Really Magazine is reminded that it was Ferdinand de Saussure himself who is reputed to have said :
“ Speaking of linguistic law in general is like trying to pin down a ghost "
28 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Brainwaves in Washington
In these troubled economic times, it is surely more important than ever to focus on absolute value-for-money with regard to stakeholder’s taxpayer’s contributions.
In this light, the US Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) is in the process of creating and implementing what they are calling ‘ Brain Music ‘ . . .
which is generated by a patented ( Russian ) technique that uses a human subject’s own ‘ brainwaves ‘ to generate the ‘ music’.
It is currently being tested as part of the Readiness Optimization Program (ROP).
For, as the S&T PR team point out :
“
Human brains are powerful instruments. “
You can hear an example here ( .mp3 format )
Read the press-release here :
Also see ( from the UK )
27 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
The essay
“ . . . attempts to formulate an understanding of identity based not in 'difference,' 'tolerance,' or 'resistance' but as an assemblage of discourses and representations that are both reactions to and attempted critiques of dominant (binary) positions on sexuality that point us toward new, socially responsive locations and locutions within which one can conceive and interact with cultural politics. “
It does so with reference to South Park.
Sadly, the paper, to be found in the latest issue of the journal Television & New Media is for subscribers only – but readers can get a feel of the subject from a previous dissertation ( on South Park ) by the same author ( asst. Professor of Mass Communication at Maryville university )
“ South Park has both abstracted dominant tropes and layered them into a new construction. In so doing, it both refuses existing rhetorical explanations for society and, by repeating stereotypes in multiple and exponentially hyperbolic iterations, is able to allude to 'the law' not only as repetition, but as a new and different locution that questions the original construction. “
See : Coming of Age in South Park [ use the arrow keys at the bottom of the page to scroll though the text ]
؟ ؟ ؟
Readers interested in the possible philosophical implications of mass cultural phenomena might also like to see :
or
or
22 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Mules’ IQs
Over the millennia it is possible that many have asked themselves ( or others) ‘ Which are the smartest - ponies, donkeys, or a mixture of the two ? ‘
The question may now have been answered.
Six ponies ( E. caballus ) , six donkeys ( E. asinus ) and six mules ( Equus asinus × Equus caballus ) were given a two-choice visual discrimination learning task - in order to test their two-choice visual discrimination learning task adeptness.
Some may be surprised to learn that, despite their reputation, the often-underestimated mules were the cleverest.
“ The mules’ performance was significantly better than that of either of the parent species . . .“
Hybrid physical vigour is of course well understood by gardeners
and breeders of decorative goldfish - but this may be one of the very first
scientific demonstrations of improvements in hybrids’ cognitive vigour.
Some may find the philosophical implications disturbing ?
See the penultimate issue of Animal Cognition
22 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
We are moving
. . . offices over the next few weeks, and so our usual extensive daily coverage may be somewhat pruned. Rest assured that our normal service will be resumed at the earliest possible convenience.
Editor's note. Move completed. Now contemplating new move.
Raunch Culture
“ . . . very little research has been conducted into this recent social phenomenon . . . “
Thankfully, this lamentable situation has been rectified by the School of Psychology at Murdoch University, Australia, with their publication of :
‘ A Discursive Investigation of the Reinvention of Pole Dancing as a Recreational Activity ‘
in the latest issue of the journal Feminism & Psychology.
20 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
SoftBots in Massachusetts
The ‘ Personal Robotics Group ‘ at MIT ( motto : Living Better With Robots ) asks the perplexing question :
“ How might we endow robots with sophisticated social skills and social understanding of others ? ”.
As part of the drive to answer this ( and other ) challenges, they are developing ‘ Leonardo ‘.
Pointing out that “ Coupled minds in coupled bodies is a powerful force on human social intelligence and its development. “
The implementation of Leonardo’s mind-reading skills is leading away from hard-wired motor-driven clunky robotics - into philosophical - almost poetic - territory :
“ The dynamic socially-embedded coupling of two intelligent systems – to each other through a similar body with similar body parts capable of doing similar things in the world – seems the likely origin of the very idea of mind. “
See their latest paper :
‘An Embodied Cognition Approach to Mindreading Skills for Socially Intelligent Robots ‘ in the latest edition of The International Journal of Robotics Research.
Foir a Further example of the lab’s groundbreaking soft-bot work see :
15 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Good beans v. bad beans.
Do people suffering from depression have difficulty learning about the ‘ Good things in Life ‘ ?
According to new research from Ohio State University the answer is may be
yes.
To arrive at this conclusion, researchers exposed 34 experimental subjects ( students ) to a specially designed computer game. The group had been carefully selected so that exactly half could be described as ‘ depressed’ whilst the other half were assessed as ‘ normal.
The game – called ' BeanFest ‘ - involves ‘ Good ’ beans ( oval non-speckly ones ) and ‘ Bad ‘ beans ( speckly round ones ).
“ While the game may seem trivial to a naive audience . . . “ explains the university’s press release, “ . . . it offers a unique and powerful way to measure how people learn new attitudes. “
For, whilst 60% of the non-depressed students correctly identified the ‘ good ’ beans, only 49% of the depressed students managed to.
Editor’s note : Sadly, the study did
not measure whether playing ‘ BeanFest ‘ either
improved or deteriorated the students’ mental state - perhaps an avenue
for future research ?
Comment from Pedro C
' I heard about the next steps of this research:
2) who cook tastier beans?
3) who degustate it better?
4) bathroom stuff...
Hehe someone has to advice them that we are not rats ! '
14 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Leg-lift-angles in Covent Garden
Very few, if any, previous scientific studies have investigated the angles to which ballet dancers lift their legs.
Thankfully, this lacuna in the academic literature has recently been filled by a new study just published in the Public Library of Science - one. [link below]
A team from :
the Dipartimento di Neuroscienze and Centro di Biomedicina Spaziale, Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy, the Dipartimento di Fisiologia Neuromotoria, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Roma, Italy, the Dipartimento di Scienze del Movimento Umano e dello Sport, Istituto Universitario di Scienze Motorie, Rome, Italy, and the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
measured average the leg-lifting achievements of professional ballet dancers at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden UK, using digitally recorded body-markers, strategically positioned ( by independent judges ) on their major joints and body-parts.*
The results showed that the modern-day average professional leg-lift-angle
is around 115 degrees - though some dancers can nowadays achieve a staggering
137 degrees
.
But the study goes further – for not only has the angle now been quantified, but it has also been compared to previous leg-lift-angles - as registered on film.
It can now be said with some degree of confidence that the angle has been increasing substantially over the years – it was only 96 degrees in 1962.
The question arises of course : why ?
And the researchers go some way towards answering it :
“ . . . we conclude that the variation in leg elevation is an example of progressive, systematic change within an artistic tradition.”
See : ‘ A
Dance to the Music of Time: Aesthetically-Relevant Changes in Body Posture
in Performing Art ‘ in PLoS one.
* note : With the dancers' full permission : the study procedures were approved by UCL's Department of Psychology ethics committee.
11 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Dream Values.
At last, there may be a solution to the so-called ‘ Excessive Trading Puzzle ‘ (ETP) which torments stockmarket analysts.
The ETP shows that considerably more stock-options trading occurs than would be logically suggested by a rigorous analysis of the real-world opportunities.
Can the ETP be explained by simple ‘ overconfidence ‘ on the part of investors ?
It seems not, because previous research has shown that in a common stock-options scenario, trading is often more than double the total variation of portfolio turnover that can be explained simply by overconfidence alone.
Clearly there must be another factor at work - but until now, its exact nature has remained a mystery. But a new article in the latest edition of the journal ‘ Management Science ’ offers an explanation.
After a survey-based examination of 1,000 clients at one of the top three discount brokers in Germany, researchers from Drexel University US, and Tilburg University in the Netherlands were able to come up with a disarmingly simple and straightforward reason for the existence of the ETP :
“ . . . people trade because they like to do so “
Surely a pertinent clarification in these troubled financial times.
Read the full paper
'Trading
as Entertainment ‘ here.
09 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Grasping a post-Focillon controller nettle
Why are ( good ) computer games so compulsive ? A possible explantation is to be found in the very latest edition of the journal ‘ Games and Culture ‘
- the answer lies in the hand – or rather what’s in the hand.
According to the author, “ The central argument is that controllers and our use of them are repressed in gameplay and that this repression facilitates a diversion of the player's energy that helps explain the compulsive nature of good games. “
Remembering that as professor Henri Focillon pointed out in his 1943 thesis ‘ Éloge de la main ‘ ( In Praise of the Hand )
“
Elles ont leurs aptitudes inscrites dans leur galbe et dans leur dessin : mains
déliées expertes à l’analyse, doigts longs et mobiles
du raisonneur, mains prophétiques baignées de fluides, mains
spirituelles, dont l’inaction même a de grâce et du trait,
mains tendres. “
Or, to put it another (2009) way :
“ Our sense of participation in events in game fiction is bought at the price of a loss of interest in our hands. “
07 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Retail Geography in Prague
A new study on pedestrian behaviour in shopping malls is presented in the
latest edition of the journal ‘ Environment and Behavior ‘.
It replicates a previous study ( from the University of Alabama ) which found that shoppers in malls tend to walk the shortest possible distance to get where they want to go.
This new study, performed in two malls in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, observed around 100,000 samples of consumers’ footsteps.
Would the results be any different in these two recently postcommunist countries ?
Not as such ; for -
“ It can be concluded that pedestrians tend to avoid unnecessary steps by economizing their trajectories “
See ‘ Toward
the Economy of Pedestrian Movement in Czech and Slovak Shopping Malls ‘
06 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Self-Banning in Granada
“ Researchers of the University of Granada (Spain) and the University of Jaen have studied the psychological and physiological causes risponsible [sic] of [sic] ‘ food craving ’, an irresistible desire for eating certain foods. “
Specifically, ‘ food craving ‘ accentuated by ‘ Self-Banning ’.
As the university press release explains :
“ The results show that, when people prohibite [sic] themselves to consume certain foods because, for example, they think they are fattening, food craving arises as a reflection of the conflict between what ‘ you can eat ’ and what ‘ you do not want to eat ‘.”
Alongside this clarification, the team also identified a previously overlooked key component of craving - in the form of ‘ Mind blow-outs ’ - i.e. when
“ negative emotions can lead to consume [sic] an excessive amount of food in a short space of time, with a sensation of loss of control: “
The authors are presenting a book based on the research –
“ The book ‘ What is food craving ?’ sets out in an easy and rigorous way the origin of the term ‘ fod craving ‘[sic], as well as its main characteristics.“
University press release here.
03 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Once upon a flipchart
The Wikipedia entry for ‘ Organizational Storytelling ‘ currently reads :
‘ In recent years, numerous consultants have turned to stories as
vehicles for enhancing organizational communication, performance and learning,
as well as
the management of change. ‘
The consultants’ stories, often directed at managers, ( in an attempt to enhance their performance ) are usually ( loosely ) based on facts, but have faced criticism from some quarters.
Now a fresh light has been shone into the Organizational Storytelling arena, from a new angle, illuminating findings which are presented in the Journal of Management Inquiry. Where the author, Professor of Management at Norwich Business School at the University of East Anglia UK, asks if perhaps there are really any differences between Organizational Stories and ‘ Fairy Tales ‘.
According to his enquiries, the answer - which will no doubt be greeted with relief by both managers and the nouveau-stakeholding public alike - is yes,
“ Comparing and contrasting fairy tales with organizational stories reveals that the two have very few elements in common. “
Reader Carmelita comments :
' Many years ago, a friend of mine described how he dressed up as a train conductor and acted out "The Little Engine that Could" for a marketing meeting. You know, "I THINK I can, I THINK I can...".
They don't still do that kind of thing, do they? Say it isn't so.
02 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
Our exclusive 2009 award for
‘ Absolutely
the Most Impressive Thing to be Found in the Middle of Nowhere ‘. (AMITFMoN)
Zoom in ( nice and slow ) . . . and if you know what ( or why ) it is, do let us know . . .
Comment from reader 'Showme'
' It's obviously China's Olympic training facility for their nuclear-enhanced athletes. '
01 APR 09
comments | permalink | back
to the top
previous month
advertising
|
The Best of . . .View a random article from our editor's list of absolute favourites
click the refresh button for a new selection |
|
|
 |
The
Big Tie Shop
"the world's best Big Ties"
De Cecco
"the world's best commercially produced pasta"
New Scientist
"the world's best weekly science magazine"
OFFER CLOSED
Crooke's Radiometer (virtual)
Duvel
"the world's best beer"
"the world's best Sciencebase"
The "DoDo"
( Cassina )
"the world's best chair"
Firefox
"the world's best web-browser"
Bösendorfer
"the world's best pianos"
! Ltd.
"the world's best
! company"
