JUNE 09
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" Reality is merely an illusion - albeit a very persistent one. "
Albert Einstein
Nomothetic Onion Scratching in Arizona
Turn to the latest edition of the ‘ Journal of Research in Personality ‘ for an unusual article which focuses on what some might say is the under-researched field of ‘ eavesdropping. ‘
The eavesdropping ( and its subsequent analysis ) was made possible by a device called ‘ The EAR ‘ ( Electronically Activated Recorder ) first developed at the University of Arizona in 1997 .
In essence, the EAR is a basic audio sampling device ( a recorder ) attached to individuals via a belt ( or purse ) and which records snippets of sound every few minutes.
“ Due to its fine meshed sampling (~ 5 data points per hour), it can reliably capture even low-frequency behaviors such as arguments, self-talk, or laughter. “
Deceptively simple as the strategy may seem, its use over the last ten years or so has allowed “ nomothetic as well as idiographic analyses “ of the individuals and groups concerned.
The latest research for example has demonstrated that perhaps it’s time to rethink a fundamental assumption about ' person perception ‘
“ . . . and to replace the ‘ peeling an onion ‘ metaphor of how long it takes to know someone with a ‘ scratching the surface of the onion ‘ metaphor because ‘ after all, the distinctive taste of an onion is as marked in its outer layer as it is in the innermost layer ‘ “
You can read the full paper here :
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see the results of previous EAR – based research which has enabled the researchers to go some way towards answering such questions as :
Q. Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men ?
( A. no )
and
Q. Are Mexicans more or less sociable than Americans ?
( A. more )
30 JUNE 09
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Blending Idioms
For psycholinguisticians: a ‘ Lemma ‘ is an abstract conceptual form that has been mentally selected for utterance in the early stages of speech production, but before any sounds are attached to it.
Hard to visualize ( audio-ize ? ) though it is, the concept has recently been taken a step further by researchers at the University of Canterbury ( New Zealand ) and the Max Planck Institut für Psycholinguistik ( Germany ).
With their concept of ‘ SuperLemmas ‘.
The research group concerned themselves with the part which idioms and other multi-word lexical items (MLIs) play in the processes of speech production.
They looked in particular at ‘ Slips of the Tongue ‘ with regard to MLIs. For example when a speaker accidentally mixes up two commonly used idioms.
To clalrify :
“ We then use slips involving irreversible binomials to distinguish between the predictions of superlemma theory which are supported by slips involving irreversible binomials and the Cutting and Bock model’s predictions for slips involving these MLIs which are not. “
The team's investigations trawled up a veritable plethora of so called ‘ Phrasal Blends ‘ - for example :
• Going out for a bite of fresh air
• Keep your ear to the grindstone
• Don’t fly off your rocket
• Many things have happened under the bridge
and
• A chicken with its hair cut off
Readers will note though that all(?) the examples given in the research paper are a blend of just two idioms. So Really Magazine’s suggestion for further research centres around what we propose to call ‘ PolySuperLemmas ‘ involving three, four, or more phrasal blends [ and a few Gin & Tonics ? Ed. ]
Some examples :
• Putting the horse before the bathwater saves nine. [x3]
• Running around like a bag of hammers in a barrel. [x3]
• Look before you rock the goalposts in a month of Sundays. [x4]
Readers' suggestions for further PolySuperLemmas are of course very welcome.
Suggestion from reader John B.
• A blip on the wrong end of a stick pulls the wool over a lead balloon for two pins. [x5]
26 JUNE 09
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Unusual patent of the week . . .
Food music
‘ We are the microbes, my friend
And we'll keep dividing
Till the end
We are the microbes
We are the microbes
No time for chlorine
'Cause we are the microbes
In your food . . . ‘
To be sung to the tune of ‘ We are the Champions ‘ [ Mercury. F. et al. 1977 ]
Back in 1996 Cooperative Extension specialists at the University
of California at Davis decided
to test the idea that re-arranging the lyrics and re-recording famous pop
songs* might be a good way to educate
students, foodservice supervisors and teachers about food hygiene.
The results of the study have now been published, in the latest issue of the Journal of Food Science Education
Generally, it turned out nicely :
“ The use of music parodies to educate about food safety represents a promising approach that generated enthusiasm among food safety instructors surveyed in this study. “
However :
“ When asked if they liked the music, a majority of culinary arts students (59%) said ‘no’."
To find out why, listen to the following tracks :
and Really Magazine’s fav. ' I can’t believe it’s not Dire Straits ' . . .
* may contain copyright issues
25 JUNE 09
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Gender shock
Are certain objects ‘ Gendered ‘ ? ( see musical instruments earlier this week ).
Taking an extreme example for contrast - say an electronic stun gun - would it tend to be considered as more ‘ masculine ’ than ‘ feminine ‘ ?
The answers may be found in a new study, just published in the innovative journal ‘ Feminist Criminology ‘.
Researchers from the department of sociology at the University of Minnesota have been exploring whether non-lethal weapons manufacturers might tend to use marketing appeals adapted to suit a hegemonic masculine police subculture.
“ Although nonlethal weapons are designed to decrease brutality, the brutal aspects of police work have become an important defining characteristic of the hypermasculinity that is so essential to the police habitus. “
Thus the stun gun is, in the main, designed and marketed with the übertoughguy ( goodguy ) firmly in mind.
One of the main manufacturers appears to be ahead of the game though – for they produce not only the hyper masculine ruggedized and battle hardened X26C , but also the sleek and rather ladylike C2 available in pink. ( Note ; the leopard-skin print version mentioned in the university study appears to have been discontinued )
Read the full paper here :
24 JUNE 09
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The Dismal Amusing Trade
If you were thinking of a list of services which could be ‘ commodified ‘ then perhaps the funeral industry might not be the first to spring to mind.
Though that is exactly what seems to be happening, at least according to a research article in the latest issue of the journal ‘ Critical Sociology ‘.
The author points to the standardisation of the relevant products and services, and even uses the unlikely term ‘ McDeath ‘ to emphasise the point.
Showing too that :
“ amusement is beginning to impact the operations of the funeral industry. “
For, incongruous as it may seem :
“ amusement aids the stabilization of capitalizing forces and their requisite expansion by creating the possibility of new products, new markets, and, most importantly, new consumers. “
As an example, the paper links to this service provider.
Demonstrating that :
“ if death … can be re-figured into something that can contribute to an amusement culture, then perhaps capital can transform most anything into an amusement of one kind or another. “
The
paper is ‘ subscribers
only ‘, but a previous version of the dissertation is available
here : [ downoad caution : 278 page
.pdf ]
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Also see :
The upcoming National
Funeral Directors Association ‘ Leadership ‘ Conference.
which runs July 26-29, 2009, Chateau on the Lake Resort, Branson, Missouri
options include a shopping and wine tasting tour, a lake cruise, a golf tour, and an evening at the ballpark.
23 JUNE 09
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Query By Tapping
Really Magazine tried it out with the surely unmistakable rhythm of the Lone Ranger Theme Gioachino Rossini’s William Tell Overture – but the engine found Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String quartet No. 18 in A instead.
We probably tapped wrong.
22 JUNE 09 ( late edition )
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IGAs in NY
Q. What do girls play ?
A. Flutes, violins, and clarinets
Q. And what do boys play ?
A. Drums, trumpets, and trombones.
At least that has been the traditional state-of-affairs in some North American music schools over recent years. The question is, are things changing ?
The answer is, yes they are.
According to new research just published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Instrument / Gender Associations (IGAs) have become less distinct over the last thirty years or so ( at least in New York ).
There are almost certainly wider implications to be drawn from these findings,
but Really
Magazine is
as yet uncertain as to what they are.
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Further reading :
This study by Griswold and Chroback ( 1981 ) which found that the musical instruments’ gender association continuum tends to play out like this [ most ladylike first ] :
Harp, flute, piccolo, glockenspiel, cello, violin, clarinet, piano, french horn, oboe, guitar, cymbal, saxophone, bass drum, trumpet, string bass, tuba.
Reader's comment from Anon.
' I have a nice pair of maracas. '
22 JUNE 09
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Banned so don’t miss
In the last week of September, the American Library Association (ALA) traditionally fires up its ‘ Banned Book Week ‘.
This year it will run from September 26th until October 3rd, 2009. Of course the ALA hasn’t published its list of the most-banned books of 2009 yet, but here is a look at last year’s.
When the most banned book in the US was ‘ And Tango Makes Three ‘ a children’s book about two male penguins caring for an orphaned egg. *
Although some of the details of book bannings - and burnings - have been lost in the mists of time ( for the practice goes back at least 300 years in the US ) the ALA has built up a truly impressive compendium of recently banned books. Which, in hindsight, can be absolutely relied upon to identify the must-read classics for both literary scholars and booklovers alike.
Some examples : ( no particular order )
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1984
George Orwell
Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
The Lord of the Flies
William Golding
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
Beloved
Toni Morrison
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell
Ulysses
James Joyce
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
And the most banned book-series of all time ?
Harry Potter
J.K. Rowling
( prohibited in various states for ‘glorifying wizardry and sorcery ‘. )
؟ ؟ ؟
More examples here :
* Life imitates art here :
19 JUNE 09
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Perceptions in California
The Institute of Environmental Quality, San Francisco, California has just published the results of its study into Shape and Spaciousness.
Two experiments involving 109 participants ( students ? ) set out to determine how people judge horizontal area, and aspect-ratios of building recesses, with regard to the perceived spaciousness of city streets.
Both simulation protocols generated the same conclusions.
“ The most important factor in judged spaciousness was horizontal area. Larger areas were judged as being more spacious. “
The Institute has its own website, where previous its research papers are published, for example this one - which looked at the perceived threat-levels associated with images of different animals - ranging from small, warm, fuzzy mammals ( bunny, sleeping kitty cat, baby harp seal etc ) as compared to monsters ( dragons, ogres, gargoyles etc etc )
“ Findings indicate that monsters are much scarier than mammals “
Comment from reader Alf. B.
‘ Is it me, or are all the institute’s
papers written by the same person ? ‘
18 JUNE 09
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Motley faculties ?
The concept of ‘ The Licensed Fool ‘ – a bufoon-like and yet highly-valued individual employed by the medieval aristocracy, whose role was to speak frankly on controversial issues in a way in which anyone else would have been severely punished for – is sadly missing from modern society.
Or is it ?
A study paper from the Department of Management and Marketing, at the University of Cork, Ireland, is published in the latest issue of the journal ‘ Organization ‘.
Pointing out that The Fool might be alive and well – not in the form of a person, but instead in the guise of high level academic organizations.
Bluntly put :
“ . . . the University acts and has a role akin to the Fool in the medieval royal court. “
The study was previously presented at the 2008 conference of the European Group for Organizational Studies ( EGOS ), amongst a selection of other intriguing papers such as :
• ‘ Glumness, unintentional humor, and bullshitting in the identity-work of management and organization scholars ‘
• ‘ Bullshiting in the making: Humour and violence in a context of organisational change ‘
and
• ‘ Nonsense and bullshit in corporate and political discourse: A semiotic
analysis '
17 JUNE 09
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Ridding postponement.
An update on the 2005 research project from Sheffield University , UK, which was the first (?) to define the practice of ‘ Ridding ’ ( getting rid of things ).
Now the same research team has gone a step further with in an in-depth study of ways that are employed to counter postpone ridding.
For consumers in and around Sheffield can, and do, repair things. Or at least try to.
The research article follows the stories of three consumer objects to show that :
“ ordinary consumer objects are continually becoming in the course of their lives in the home and that practices of object maintenance are central to this becoming. “
The team have discovered that repairs and maintenance – cleaning, wiping, polishing etc – go quite some way towards sustaining this becomingness.
But things do not always go according to plan of course, sometimes repairs fail - highlighting the importance of consumer competences ( and incompetences ).
In short :
“ The success or failure of object maintenance is shown to have profound consequences for the social lives of consumer objects. “
The research is published in the latest edition of the Journal of Consumer
Culture.
16 JUNE 09
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Does one ‘ own ‘ one’s body ?
This tricky question has been testing philosophers for centuries, but has come under stronger scrutiny in the last sixty years or so with observations by Quigley M. , Honoré A.M. , and of course Wittgenstein L. .
Though appearing initially to have, on the surface, a very straightforward and common-sense answer, there are, on deeper investigation, many puzzling factors.
For example, we may ‘own’ a house, but that does not give us the right ( according to the law of most countries ) to do absolutely anything we wish to it.
And then there are the differences between ‘ owning ‘ and ‘ possessing ‘. We could own shares in General Motors but may never have set eyes on them.
Happily, the full range of enigmas may have been finally deciphered and perhaps even set to rest by an article from the School of Law and Social Sciences, at the Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland.
In which the author comes to this reassuring conclusion :
“ It is possible but not certain that we could and should think of our bodies as property and consider ourselves to be the owners of our own ones. However, it does not matter. Nothing of significance hangs on the issue. “
Bearing in mind all the previous hard work which has gone into answering this tricky question, the results may come as disappointing to some - but, as Ludwig Wittgenstein himself once put it :
" A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push. "
The article ' Property, Bodies and Wittgenstien ' can be found here in
the latest (2009) issue of The Open Ethics Journal.
15 JUNE 09
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New(ish) word
Chatup mismatch
There haven’t been all that many research projects examining ‘ Chat-up Lines ‘.
Perhaps that’s why, until now, a serious mismatch between ladies’ and gentlemens’ expectations of what constitutes a good chat-up line has been overlooked.
A new study from the Department of Psychology, at Bucknell University, US, just published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, found that 70 subjects ( students ? ) split into two very distinct groups ( in terms of their chat-up preferences ) and the two groups were male and female.
The mismatches became obvious when the team discovered that the women thought that a subtle approach was best - believing that their giving out of a phone number would be considered as crass - whereas it was in fact just what the men wanted ( or, at least, number 2 on the list ) . . .
12 JUNE 09
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So and Well in Hong Kong
Sometimes the smaller and simpler an entity is, the more enigmatic it becomes.
Thus examining in detail, say, two-letter discourse particles, for possible meanings uses and nuances is often a much more difficult task than many might imagine.
See the latest issue of the journal ‘ Discourse Studies for the most up to date analysis of one of the most frequently occurring - and yet often overlooked discourse particles - ‘ So ‘.
Although the research has more solidly pinned down the use of ‘So ‘ than have previous studies, ( at least in Hong Kong ) there is still more work to be done. Indeed, perhaps it is because ‘ So ‘ is so very widespread, ubiquitous and often overlooked that the study may have thrown up even more questions :
“ . . . the full range of functions realized by so as a discourse particle cannot be determined without taking into account the wide range of communicative events in which the particle is used. “
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see ; ( from the same author )
‘ The use of 'well' as a discourse particle in talk shows ‘
and also see too : ( from Really Magazine last month ) Enigmatic
phatics
10 JUNE 09
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Coming to some strawberries near you
C56H108O30
Readers who are chemists will no doubt recognise the formula for
HPMC is a cellulose ether, derived from alkali-treated cellulose ( typically from wood pulp ) that is reacted with methyl chloride and propylene oxide to produce a viscoelastic polymer that has been likened to a ‘ vegetable gelatin ‘.
The question is whether it might be a good idea to add it to whipped cream ?
Chemists at the
College of Light Industry and Food Sciences, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou , the
College of Food Science, Biotechnology and Environmental Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou and the
South China Botanical Garden, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou ,
Believe that the answer may be yes.
Because in tests, the firmness, cohesiveness, consistency and viscosity
of whipped cream were all measurably improved with a dose of HPMC.
The work will be published in a future edition of Food Hydrocolloids
؟ ؟ ؟
Note : HPMC also has applications in
Tile adhesives
Cement renders
Gypsum products
Pharmaceutical capsules
Paints and coatings
Cosmetics
Detergents & cleaners
08 JUNE 09
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Shocking headline of the day
. . . here ( as rendered by our free and exclusive 2Xlation service )
05 JUNE 09 ( midday edition )
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Countering the tendency to underexaggerate
“ Not everyone is born an entrepreneurial genius or with a silver spoon in their mouth “
explains psychologist Talbot Sleight at a recent booklaunch in central London.
“ So to get somewhere in life they need something else, an unadorned proven strategic technique which really works. “
So says the publisher’s press release for a new book detailing in practical terms how those whom the authors call ‘ Core Disadvantaged Nonbelligerents ’ might be able to make it to the very top, with the aid of a simple technique . . .
‘ Shout your way to the top – a practical guide to
effective belligerency ‘ is launched by AyT Publishing, July
2009, hardback, priced $79.
05 JUNE 09
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Raising questions
Turn to the latest issue of the journal ‘ Language and Speech ‘ for an update into the ongoing scientific study of eyebrow movements.
The French research team used an ‘ Automatic Movement-Acquisition System ‘ ( hooked up to the eyebrows of the experimentees ) and recordings of their vocal interactions, to try to more accurately pin down the raison d'être behind eyebrow kinetics.
“ These findings suggest that rapid eyebrow movements are mainly linked to motivation and the intention to communicate, and may also act as a focus marker in speech. “
The work follows on from earlier studies ( 1996 ) by ( broadly ) the same team which, although groundbreaking with regard to eyebrow signalling and ‘ scowl detection ‘ in general, flagged some doubts regarding the solidity of our understanding about their movements.
For although the results from that preliminary study were encouraging – finding for example that left eyebrow movements were more common than those of the right eyebrow ( at least within a small sample of French students ) – many questions were also raised :
“ Note also that 38% of the eyebrow movements were produced while the subject was not speaking. “ [ our italics ]
؟ ؟ ؟
Suggestion for future research.
• Shrugging dynamics
04 JUNE 09
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It’s the future stupid.
Professor Mark Kingwell, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada, believes we are too smart for our own good.
In a recent opinion piece for The Globe and Mail he alerts us to an uncomfortable scenario :
“ Being smart turns out to be a dumb idea. “
Pointing out that the inherent smartness of the human race has so far produced WMDs, sophisticated forms of torture, and hedge funds.
In other words :
“ Human intelligence has become counter-adaptive. “
He does provide a solution though :
“ Let's actively punish the clever and reward the slow and unambitious. “
Interesting though the professor’s proposal is, his essay misses the disturbing point that an even dumber future-population would be even easier to manipulate - by anyone who is smart enough ( and lucky enough ) to be able to inveigle themselves into a position of full scale political power.
Any machiavellian power group worth their salt ( whether heavily disguised as democratic or otherwise ) knows that they educate the population at their peril.
03 JUNE 09
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Compucompositions
“ Music generation is a complex task even for human beings. “ point out the authors of a paper in the latest edition of the journal Expert Systems with Applications.
The Spanish research team have created their own computer algorithm called Inmamusys – which generates original composer-free ( and therefore royalty-free ) music on demand.
Computer generated music is not new of course, having been under investigation and production at labs such as Ircam in Paris, and many others, for more than five decades – but this ( may be ) the first computer composition suite to make use of Nonconvex Fuzzy Cardinality.
Puzzlingly, although the story has been widely press-released , Really Magazine has not been able to track down a single audio example of the new programme's creations . . .
However :
“ The system has been successfully tested by asking several people to match compositions with suggested emotions. “
[ if anyone can find an online example, please let
us know Ed . ]
02 JUNE 09
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The jury is back
“
We hypothesized that levels of respirable suspended particles, an important
marker of secondhand smoke, would be significantly lower in smoke-free Irish
pubs than in pubs that allowed smoking.”
To verify the hypothesis, tests were carried out in 128 ‘ Irish pubs ‘ in 15 countries across the world. Some smoking, some non-smoking,
The results were clear - the hypothesis was verified with an almost unprecedented level of credibleness :
“ Overall, the level of air pollution inside smoke-free Irish pubs was 93% lower than the level found in pubs where smoking was permitted. “
full report here:
01 JUNE 09
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OCT in Foggia
Investigators at the University of Foggia, Italy, recently turned to the possibilities offered by a DMA ( Dynamic Mechanical Analyser ) to demystify various parameters regarding the OCT ( Optimal Cooking Time ) of spaghetti.
Would different cooking times affect the mechanical properties ( e.g. tenacity, and elongation-at-break ) of the cooked pasta ?
“
Results highlight that the mechanical parameters are related with the OCT
for all investigated spaghetti samples. “
The
research article will appear in a future edition of the Journal of Food
Engineering
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see :
A previous Really Magazine article from 2005 ' Why 3 ? '
28 MAY 09
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TMT in trendy sunglasses
Every political ‘ leader ‘ with more than three neurones knows that they can very significantly boost their own popularity by encouraging their subject population to be afraid of something. It took a while, but over the past 30 years or so, a new field of research - Terror Management Theory (TMT) has emerged.
As the TMT dept. at the University of Missouri-Columbia puts it :
“ The basic gist of the theory is that humans are motivated to quell the potential for terror inherent in the human awareness of vulnerability and mortality by investing in cultural belief systems (or worldviews) that imbue life with meaning, and the individuals who subscribe to them with significance (or self-esteem). “
If it wasn’t scary enough to know that various political think-tanks now tap into and utilise TMT resources quantified and refined in academia – then imagine what life would be like it the ad. agencies got a hold of it.
They already have.
A study published earlier this year describes two experiments, showing how
“ . . . researchers manipulated death anxiety by having participants consider their own deaths in detail. In both studies, participants rated their degree of connection to a variety of products including cars, microwaves, jeans, cell phones, MP3 players, and sunglasses. “
The results ?
“ individuals form strong connections to their brands as a response to existential insecurity. “
Really Magazine has not yet been able to determine if any ad agencies have actually made use of the findings – but weapons of mass deception, once discovered, will oneday surely be deployed.
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Note :
The University of Missouri-Columbia provides online various yardsticks by which ( they believe ) you can measure your own levels of ‘ terror-prone-ness ’
These include humanistic and creaturely essays, a word search puzzle, pro- and anti-American essays, and an excerpt from a scary story by Albert Camus.
( All here - .doc format )
Remembering, as Albert himself once put it
" At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face. "
26 MAY 09
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Trying to learn something difficult ?
If so, you may be interested in a new technique recently discovered at the Department of Social and Cultural Psychology, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, in the Netherlands.
Researchers asked a group of participants ( students ? ) to undergo a batch of semi-gruelling cognitive tests whilst at the same time engaging in various form of ‘ body locomotion ‘ ( involving stepping forwards, backwards or sideways )
The results were significant – and, to some, perhaps surprising, too :
“ . . . stepping backward significantly enhanced cognitive performance compared to stepping forward or sideways. “
The team go on to recommend a disarmingly simple strategy :
“ Thus, whenever you encounter a difficult situation, stepping backward may boost your capability to deal with it effectively. “
Intriguing though the new discovery is, Really magazine is concerned about how the strategy might work in the real world. University lectures might have to be conducted in very large arenas – say for example, the college sports grounds – and the students may also need binoculars.
The research is published in the latest issue of the journal Psychological Science
You can also read a full copy here :
Comment from reader Eamon P.
If anyone is interested, I am thinking of starting
a new module of strategic business management-empowerment classes
based on the findings - " Step
backwards towards your future " .
25 MAY 09
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!
They appear in (almost) every newspaper, on (almost) every TV channel, on (almost) every radio station, and in (almost) every www news-site, (almost) every day.
And yet they have been all-but-ignored in the annals of academic research.
Media hypes.
Now, the Department of Political Science and Public Management at the University of Southern Denmark has undertaken one of the very few studies into hyping - monitoring Danish media outlets over a period of five years.
The research paper, published in the latest issue of the European Journal of Communication points out, somewhat obviously, that :
“ . . . not every event has the potential to trigger a media hype: it must, of course, satisfy the general news values, but should also contain some violation of norms, be suitable for public debate and, finally, it must be possible for the media to cover the event from a variety of perspectives. “
But the team also discovered some more unusual aspects of hype dynamics :
“ They last approximately three weeks and come in several, usually three, waves of decreasing intensity. “
Hopefully, the new insights will help readers, viewers and listeners to ‘ spot-the-hype ‘ amongst the ‘ real ‘ news. A far from easy task given :
• The very high levels of professionalism of the PR agencies employed at the public’s expense by governments, pressure groups, and businesses.
• The exceptionally rewarding fees which they receive to covertly place, manipulate and sometimes even create ‘ news ‘ stories in almost every genre.
• The thought-free amoral complicity of chronically underfunded cut’n’paste mass media outlets.
Here is today’s helping - play spot-the-hype amongst the ‘ real ‘ news.
21 MAY 09
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Enigmatic phatics
‘ In linguistics, a Discourse Marker is a word or phrase that is relatively syntax-independent, does not have a particular grammatical function, and does not change the meaning of an utterance. ‘ [ source wikipedia ]
Take, for example ‘ Oh ’.
Broadly speaking, it’s perhaps fair to say that there has not been a great deal of academic research regarding this discourse marker in particular, nevertheless, a new paper, just published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics, examines ‘ Oh ’ in great detail, apparently going quite some way towards pinning down its varied applications. For example, ‘ Oh ’ is identified as being able ‘ to serve to signal a speaker’s stance towards quoted material.’
Yet, on the other hand, in some senses ‘ Oh ‘ still remains somewhat mysterious, for there are very many possible meanings of ‘ Oh ‘ - dependant, for instance, on the intonation, that is to say on its variant musical ‘ pitch ’. ( Though this aspect is not tackled in the new paper.)
Nevertheless, broadly speaking by and large it has to be said that ‘ Oh ‘ is now considerably more delineated than it was previously. Moreover, that’s to say, in other words, as a result, the new paper illustrates, in conclusion :
“ . . . how Bakhtin's (1984) notions of uni-directional and vari-directional double voicing articulate with information display and evaluation functions of oh identified by Schiffrin (1987), suggesting that oh (when occurring as a preface to constructed dialogue), works both to display and evaluate quoted material for the purposes of identity construction in interaction. “
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Anyway, to continue, there are many online sources for readers who may be interested in the possible meanings of ‘ Oh ‘ . But there are perhaps no better places to look than in this 2007 paper from the Catalan Journal of Linguistics
‘ The translation of oh in a corpus of dubbed sitcoms ‘
Where the author takes the trouble to list a great many of its possible functions, noting, for example, that it can flag :
Pain, disappointment, surprise, pity, admiration, annoyance, phatic*-agreement, or phatic*-disagreement, to name but a few.
* Note for non-linguists :
Phatic is an adjective
(of language) used for general social interaction rather than to convey
specific meaning, e.g. ' Nice morning,
isn’t it
squire ? ' or ‘ Gor-luv-a-duck ‘.
Comment : from reader Giles P
' Meh '.
20 MAY 09
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Gripping mate research
Of the many criteria which women might use to choose a mate, one ( according to the Department of Sociobiology and Anthropology, at the Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Germany ) is a male’s dancing ability.
The university have taken their hunch a step further though, for they have discovered a previously unknown link between females’ ratings of males' dancing abilities, correlated with the males’ ‘ Hand Grip Strength ‘
Perhaps in the future Hand Grip Strength (HGS) tests may oneday assist in the difficult choices involved in choosing a partner ( dancing and/or amorous ) ?
More details here :
؟ ؟ ؟
The university is also conducting an [ online / scientific* ] test - in which anyone is encouraged to participate, into ‘ Body Height Preferences ‘.
It will ask you some probing questions – and enquires into your male / female height preferences – both for stable relationships and ‘ affairs ‘ ( one-night-stands ).
* Isn’t that an oxymoron ? Ed.
19 MAY 09
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Lack of bullseyes.
The much vaunted Wolfram|Alpha search engine – has a stated goal :
“. . . to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone “
and it has been launched.
Although the engine already ‘ knows’ “ 10+ trillion of pieces of data “ it is of course still in its ‘ learning phase ‘ at the moment – and our initial ( completely non-scientific ) tests show that it still has quite a bit to learn.
We started searching for something about as commonplace as you can get.
• Search results for “ y-fronts ”
“ Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input.- Did you mean: toronto “ *
Wondering if perhaps the field of underwear identification is perhaps ‘ off genre‘ ( after all the company is backed and fronted by the distinguished mathematician, scientist, inventor, author, business leader, and Old Etonian - Stephen Wolfram ) we tried a mathematical query instead - and looked for “ one of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory and in all of mathematics. " [ source : Wikipedia ] . . . we asked about Goldbach's Conjecture
• Results : " Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. "
More puzzling still, the engine doesn't even seem to be aware of it's own existence - we tried the organisation's logo strapline ‘ Computational Knowledge Engine ‘
• Results : " Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input. "
We did have a little more luck though when we turned to physics – for the engine has heard of the famous ‘ Pitch Drop Experiment ‘ - but the outcome was still highly enigmatic - for the results page reveals the very first ‘ Reverse Search Engine ‘ that Really Magazine has ever encountered - asking us if we know anything about it . . .
* Note :
If anyone knows what cyber-semantic knowledge-mapped entanglements the two entities might have ( however loose ), please let us know, many thanks Ed.
Editor's note :
Reader Carmelita kindly alerts us a pair of possible reasons why the Computational Knowledge Engine might find a link between Y-Fronts and Toronto.
Firstly, the international three letter airport code for Toronto begins with a 'Y' ( YYZ ) - and secondly, it could be a truncation of a famous waterside location in Toronto known as BaYFront.
Intriguing as the ideas are, the magazine isn't yet
quite 100% convinced about the answers - and is left with the unsettling,
yet at the same time somehow
comforting feeling that The Engine knows more about the subject
than we do. Ed.
18 MAY 09 ( late edition )
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Bullseyes
“ . . . there is little research on the relationship between EW and temperament. “
The abbreviation EW in this case means ‘ Eye White ‘ and the eyes in question belong to domesticated cattle.
Is it really possible to gauge the animal’s temperament just by the amount of eye-white it habitually shows ? Can things really be that simple ?
According to the latest research, just published in the ‘ Journal of Animal Science ‘ the answer is a definite probably.
( Though countryside ramblers should note that this easy visual test - which can be of course be performed ad.hoc. from quite some distance - doesn’t seem to work so well for bulls . . . )
18 MAY 09
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Book of the month
Computer-related vision problems, shown in the starkest of ways here
Comment from reader Carmelita :
' Regarding the vision problems related to computer use, I thought that perhaps the article would appear right side up for those south of the equator. Perhaps you could enlighten us in the northern hemisphere if this is so from your location . . . ''
Editor's note :
From our point of view way down South - the answer is sadly no .'
Press-release of the month.
The Optimum Population Trust ( Patron Sir David Attenborough ) finally pins down underlying root causes of overpopulation . . .
16 MAY 09
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The math(s) of (some) fraud
In the recent past, some spectacularly large examples of ‘creative’ corporate accounting have come to light. But, until now, there has been very little scientific analysis of the cost/benefits of fraudulent accounting within a firm.
Now the situation has been rectified - and quantified - with the publication of
‘ The Economics of Fraudulent Accounting ‘
in the latest issue of ‘ The Review of Financial Studies ‘.
The authors have constructed a highly complex mathematical model which has identified the following broad trends :
“ We show that during periods of suspicious accounting, firms hire and invest excessively, while managers exercise options. “ * our italics
The authors point out that the situation is ( sometimes) reversible however – for if the mismanagement and misappropriation is detected early enough – and made public – things can ( sometimes) improve . . .
“ When the misreporting is detected, firms shed labor and capital and productivity improves. “
Perhaps future research could focus on the benefits accrued by the fraudulent individuals concerned rather than the entire firm itself ?
Especially in cases where the fraud goes completely undetected – dare we guess the majority ?
Then we will have the full picture.
Read the full paper here :
* i.e. pocket money
15 MAY 09
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