JULY 09
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" Sometimes I sits and thinks.
And sometimes I just sits. "
Unknown
Chin size and the GHTM
Few formal academic studies have examined possible correlations between threatening social and economic conditions and popular song lyrics.
A new one has been will be published on September 1st in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology.
Researchers from the Coastal Carolina University and Miami University looked at the lyrics of number 1 songs ( as listed by Billboard ) 1955 to 2003 and
“ Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software “
found that
“ . . . songs with more words per sentence, a focus on the future, and greater mention of social processes and intergroup themes were popular during threatening social and economic conditions. “
Sadly, the article will be is 'subscribers only ' – but Really Magazine has tracked down a remarkably similar research article ( by the same authors ) from the journal Psychology of Music earlier this year.
It also examined the lyrical content of number 1 songs ( as listed by Billboard ) from 1955 to 2003, and matched the songs against the prevailing GHTM (General Hard Times Measure ).
Finding that
“ . . . when social and economic times were relatively threatening, songs that were longer in duration, more meaningful in content, more comforting, more romantic, and slower were most popular. “
It should be pointed out though that there are anomalous occurrences on the
timeline graphs which the paper reproduces. So for example ‘ Hey
Jude ‘ which
lasted a full 422 seconds, was published in 1968 – just when the
GHTM was at one of its lowest ebbs [ approximating - 0.3 , i.e.
times were pretty good ].
And now to the obvious question :
Today's number one is ?
' Here
We Go Again '
( Demi Lovato )
Duration : 225 seconds
Lyrics : here [ word count 416 ]
We urge readers to draw their own conclusions.
؟ ؟ ؟
Note:
The study also found that
“ . . . performers with more mature facial features, including smaller eyes, thinner faces, and larger chins, were popular during relatively threatening social and economic conditions. “
Thus Elvis, Roberta Flack, Kenny Rogers and Elton John (
rated as ‘ mature ‘ )
were predominant when times were hard – whilst babyfaced Bobby
Darrin, Captain & Tennille, and Beyonce were in vogue when
times were good.
31 JULY 09
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Chaff : ‘Hmm. I don't know anything about that concept.’*
Turn to the latest edition of the journal Intelligent Systems, IEEE for an update on the progress of MIT’s ConceptNet project.
The work, which began in year 2000 is an attempt to endow computational ' Artificial Intelligence ' (A.I.) systems with ‘ Common Sense ‘.
MIT began compiling its CommonSense database by allowing anyone to post snippets of info to the project website.
Resulting in nuggets such as :
"many adult in australia" (Part Of) "difficulty"
"
openmind commonsense" (Do) "do not have very much hair"
"
cone" (Is A) "adible handle"
"
soil" (OftenNear) "goldfish"
"
only female" (Do) "use crap"
"
activity cat" (Capable Of) "do be vomit up they dinner"
"
house cat" (Do) "look or smealing flower rose"
Wisely perhaps, the old database has been abandoned, and a new one ( which requires an invited login ) is in the process of collecting more Common Sense data.
Things have improved ( slightly ) with the new version.
But here are some examples which Really Magazine gleaned from the new datafile. As you can see, some statements are enigmatic :
" A pair of pants is actually only one pair of pants."
" Doctors help by removing wooden sticks from your mouth. "
others are questionable :
" Humans is generally gay."
" Girls can crowd up on your nuts"
and some downright wrong.
" Every living thing needs sleep."
" Fluoride cannot exist in pure form in the environment."
So, after nearly ten years work, the core problem remains : no matter how big the dataset is, it’s going to be of little use if it’s shot though with rubbish.
Undeterred though, MIT is in the process of creating AnalogySpace, which ‘ reveals large-scale patterns in the data, predicts new knowledge, ‘ and most importantly ‘ smoothes over noise ‘ ( a.k.a. dross )
If you’d like to see progress so far, here’s a graph
Noting that the smoothing algorithm might still be in need of some adjustment :
• the desire to reproduce is slightly above zero, but its feasibility is below zero.
• the desire to die is below zero, and its feasibility is quite high – but not as high as ‘ catching a cold ‘.
etc etc etc
؟ ؟ ؟
Really Magazine will endeavour to get back to readers with another installment of A.I. progress in ten years time.
؟ ؟ ؟
* we asked the Open
Mind CommonSense Engine what ‘ chaff ‘ is . . .
30 JULY 09
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Paradoxes at the Activity Clinic
For most people, defining what ‘ Work ‘ is might not be all that problematic a challenge – but if your occupation is ‘ Philosopher ‘ then things can become considerably more tricky.
As a recent research article just published in the journal Thesis Eleven puts it :
“ The definition of work remains a serious theoretical problem today “
The author offers some key insights by focussing on recent work of Christophe Dejours and most especially Yves Clot of the ‘ Clinique de l'activité ‘ at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris.
Professor Clot’s definition of work can be thought of as :
‘ Directed Activity : directed towards others, by the subject, through the object. ‘
But then Really Magazine’s overview of the subject is partially clouded, if not entirely murked with his observation that :
“ It is precisely because life has differentiated its insertions, precisely because of the decrease in mono-activity and the increase in biographical contingency that work is all the more invested by subjects. They ask of work a lot more than before. In particular, they demand of it to become a milieu where these lives can be invented. Work is therefore less at the centre and paradoxically more at the centre ”
Thus despite our attempts at careful reading and re-reading of the paper, we are sadly still unable to bring readers a watertight definition of what work actually is.
So, for the time being we are sticking with what Dr. Samuel Langhorne
Clemens ( D.Litt. [Oxford] ) said
about it back
in 1905. Although he skirted around giving an actual definition, he somehow
managed to hit the œuvre on the head with his
observation :
" Who was it who said, ‘ Blessed is the man who has found his work ‘ ? Whoever it was he had the right idea in his mind. Mark you, he says his work - not somebody else's work. “
29 JULY 09
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Pe(s)ts in Sydney
The Common Bushtail Possum ( Trichosurus vulpecula ) is perhaps one of the most well known of the possum family. It has rapidly adapted to become a SubUrban Animal and can often be found cohabiting suburban gardens and even residential buildings throughout Australia.
Although many view the possums as benign, there are sometimes tensions between the human residents and the possums - which are protected under Australian law*, and cannot be trapped or damaged without a special permit.
Recent investigations conducted in suburban Sydney became one of the first projects to formally examine human / possum spacesharing - and identifying in the process what the reserachers are calling the ‘ Possum Paradox ‘.
For interviews revealed that many residents, whilst objecting to damage, unpleasant smells, unusual noises and the feeling of ‘ not being at home in one’s home ‘ – are also quite fond of them :
“ . . . in spite of these complaints, most said the possums also contributed to their sense of belonging – not only in their own home, but in the urban environment and even the nation. “
The research paper also touches on the socio/philosophical implications of Human Possum Interactions ( HPIs ). Pointing out possible ways in which uninvited suburban possums may affect or even disrupt ‘ Border Processes ‘ and ‘ Homeyness ‘.
“ The paper particularly attends to the role of nonhuman agency in processes of border-making and rupture at home, focusing on the activity of brushtail possums as well as the role that less evidently active structures like walls and ceilings play in mediating human-possum interactions. “
The paper was published earlier this year in the journal ‘ Cultural
Geographies ‘
؟ ؟ ؟
* Note : In stark contrast, the 50 million or so possums living in New Zealand are officially viewed as pests – from 1951 to 61 there was a Govt. sponsored bounty scheme which prompted the end of some 12 million possums - but ultimately failed to control them.
28 JULY 09
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Really Magazine presents its ‘ Hall of Intriguing Patents ‘.
Most, if not all of these intriguing patents – all issued in the last five years or so - have been previously highlighted* in Really Magazine.
This unique collection is an attempt to collate the most interesting ones, and will be updated and extended on a regular basis - whilst endeavouring to maintain, if not exceed the standards already determined by the existing entries.
[ * s/b ' Highlit ' ? Ed. ]
27 JULY 09
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Assoc. of the day
The Goo Association ( founded 1954 )
Membership open to all individuals called Goo, Koo, Kou or Gu, ( and anybody whose parents or grandparents have those surnames ).
Annual membership fee $3
HQ and assoc. events are mostly based in Honolulu.
• Comment from reader Marco McC
" A few months ago I found and downloaded (free) the soundtrack album to the video game World of Goo.
Oh, look; here it is, and it's still available:
It was made by the person who made the music for the game; it's electronic and a bit repetitive, but it's decent, listenable music, symphonic and stirring in places."
• Comment from reader Peter K.
" I am working with large scale implementation of
cellular automata computation matrices based on mega-arrays of co-operative
interlinked nanobots. You may
not be aware of this new field of research called Gootronics. "
24 JULY 09 (late )
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Canine responses to momentary distal pointing gestures in humans ( updated )
A joint Hungarian / Australian research project has become amongst the first in recent years to extensively investigate dogs’ abilities to recognise and follow human pointing gestures.
There were two separate research experiments. Both involving a human experimenter pointing ( for less than a second ) at a food-bowl a little over half a metre away.
Study 1 showed that out of 21 different dog breeds, ‘ Golden Gundogs ’ came out substantially on top – with ‘ Kelpie Sheepdogs ‘ trailing sadly behind.
And study 2 identified a previously unknown (?) and potentially useful pre-indicator of dogs’ human-pointing recognizing abilities :
“ . . . breeds with short noses and centrally placed eyes[1] were better at interpreting the gesture than those with long noses and widely spaced eyes[2] . . “
[1] Pugs, Rottweilers, Tibet Spaniels etc etc
[2] Bedlington Terriers, Dachshounds, Hungarian Greyhounds etc etc
Read the study in full here in the latest issue of the open-access journal Behavioral
and Brain Functions
24 JULY 09
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Towards more research
The Association for Psychological Science is running a special – and free to read – issue of their journal ‘ Perspectives on Psychological Science ‘.
The issue attempts to identify the ‘ Next Big Questions in Psychology ‘ and, to aid in this quest, many of the articles sensibly take stock of progress-so-far . . .
Here are three examples outlining the progress of the last few decades.
• On memory ( true or false ) :
“ Our job as memory researchers and as human beings is to determine the portion of memory that reflects reality and the portion that reflects inference and bias. This is no simple feat, but one worthy of our continued investigation. “ [ our italics ]
( i.e. : To date, we still can’t tell which is which )
• On ‘ living well ’ :
“ Can we live well in a lasting way? This is a critically important question that requires new approaches for answers. Although all psychologists, past and present, have contributed partial answers in one way or another, a full answer is not yet at hand. “ [ our italics ]
( i.e. : As yet, no one can really say how to go about it )
• On personality and individual differences:
“ Although we are along distance from answering the question of how to explain personality and individual differences, modern evolutionary psychology provides some powerful conceptual tools for doing so. “ [ our italics ]
( i.e. : their explanation still remains a mystery )
In other words the answers to many of The Big Questions are as elusive as ever. Depending on which way you look at it this can either be seen as a stimulating encouragement to engage in further research - or as a thoroughly disappointing lack of progress - maybe it depends on your personality-type.
23 JULY 09
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Pick of the patents ( issued this week )
“ The fundamental problem with swimming as an exercise involves the fact that most Americans which routinely swim as an exercise do so in a swimming pool. Therefore, the swimmer will swim from one end of the pool to the opposing end, then turn one hundred and eighty (180) degrees and swim back to the then opposing end. This cycle will then be performed repetitively for the duration of the exercise routine. This constant contact with, or at least approach to, the hard perimeters of the opposing ends of the pool have obvious inherent dangers. “
These ( and perhaps other ) dangers can be avoided by utilising the -
‘ Swimming Exercising Device ‘
Note :
There are various modes of swimming :
“ Some of these utilize movement and exertion
of the arms more than that of the legs. Some of these utilize movement
and exertion of the legs
more than that of the arms. Some of these utilize movement and exertion of
both the arms and legs. “
Any, or all, of which are applicable to the invention.
22 JULY 09 ( midday edition )
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Extreme birding
For most people, considering the idea of ' Birding '
probably won’t conjure up visions of a dangerous sport.
That could be a mistake. As an example, turn to the latest issue of the Journal of Sport and Social Issues. Specifically the article ‘ Environmental Sporting ‘ by Spencer Schaffner, Assistant Professor of English and Writing Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The article examines in detail birding at various highly contaminated sites – e.g. the US Superfund sites ( toxic waste-zones identified by the US federal Environmental Protection Agency as requiring urgent cleanup. ) and sewage ponds.
“ At each site and in each competitive instantiation of birding, birders seek birds in close proximity with potent environmental toxins. “
“ By discussing how birding relies on and ultimately masks the perils of toxic sites, the article suggests contradictions that arise from the relationship between sport and environmentalism. “
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see :
The professor’s Twitter page.
and
These ( unusually formatted ) webpages listing the University of South Carolina’s various research projects into birdlife around Chernobyl.
22 JULY 09
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Clique ici
“ Analysis of a sample of 12,354 French respondents shows a middlerange level of exhibition and isolates five different ways to expose oneself: Modest, Traditional Exhibition, Bodily Immodesty, Show-off and Provocative. “
The authors are referring to behaviour on Social Networking Sites ( SNSs ) – and they attempting to answer the question :
“ Does showing off help to make friends ? “
Their research paper, which was presented at the 3rd Int'l AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media in May 2009, used an especially designed online game – called ‘ Sociogeek ’ to evaluate the different strategies of self-exhibition which SNS users might use in order to gain friends.
In the end, the authors did not shy away from what some might call an ' un-PC ' conclusion : deciding that the answers to show-offy-ness might depend on the social ' class ' from which the users originate :
“ Upper classes control the extension of their friend lists, when lower classes are more open to new relationships. By this way, we could hypothesize that it's easier for them to try to extent their lower social capital online. “
Bearing in mind however that :
“ . . . further work is needed to validate this hypothesis. “
Read the full paper here :
There’s also a ( sticky) video presentation
21 JULY 09
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A trip up the archives revisited
Monkeys • Music • Mozart
Returning to 2007 , specifically the Sept issue of the journal ‘ Cognition ‘ and
a joint research project from MIT and Harvard, which asked
the question ‘ Do
Tamarins and Marmosets like
music ? ‘
A series of experiments determined that the answer was decidedly no.
The monkeys disliked not only ‘ Techno ‘ and ‘ Russian Folk music ‘ but also shunned Mozart – substantially preferring silence to all three genres.
The reasons are, as yet, unclear.
Suggestions for further research. By Eiron Foyer.
' Oddly perhaps, the experiment took no account of
the monkeys’ size.
They are typically less than one hundredth of the weight
of a human, and not surprisingly, their vocal range is in a very much higher
register.
The call
of the marmoset, for example, is many octaves above any possible human call.
Thus it would not be surprising if they were attuned to listening to sounds
( pleasurable or not ) in far higher registers than we are. The experimenters
did not take this into account.
I provide a sample of Mozart’s ‘ Die
Zauberflöte, Act 1:
Finale ‘ slowed and pitch shifted down by a few octaves - as they might
have perceived it.
Is it surprising that they preferred silence ? '
20 JULY 09
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Left-handism - the jury's still out.
A recent article in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Biological Sciences asks ( as many have over the ages )
‘ Why are some people left-handed ? ‘
- and attempts an answer from an evolutionary perspective.
The authors point out that no ethnic human group in the world has left-handers even approaching 50% of the population - which
“. . . indicates that some costs associated with left-handedness must exist. “
But there may also be benefits too, and the authors cite some colourful examples - e.g. when it comes to fighting, the left-hander may have a considerable advantage : the surprise factor ( since their opponents will probably guess they’re right handed ).
And the 2007 study by Denny & O’Sullivan which found that the hourly earnings of left-handed men was greater (approx. 4%) than their right handed counterparts.
[ Denny, K. & O’Sullivan, V. 2007 ‘ The economic consequences of being left-handed: some sinister results. ‘ J. Hum. Resour. 42, 353–374. ]
Disappointingly then, this exhaustive study seems to throw up more questions than it answers.
And, going back to the premise above – that the small percentage of left-handers -
“ . . . indicates that some costs associated with left-handedness must exist. “
Really ?
Does the same logic apply to, say, redheads ? ( 1 – 2% of the population ) . Is ‘ being redheaded ‘ so deleterious that only 2% can ' afford ' its consequences – or does it make virtually no difference at all ?
The fact that a trait occurs in only a small percentage of the population may mean that it’s a deleterious trait – or, on the other hand, it may mean nothing - just a harmless and charming random genetic variation.
Either way, you can read
the full article here
17 JULY 09
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Variations on a theme by :
16 JULY 09 ( midday edition )
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Spacings in Prague
Despite many years of research into the mathematical aspects of car-parking, the exact nature of the interaction between the drivers and their attempts to share limited space under turbulent conditions is still unclear.
How do drivers line up their cars, and how much space do they leave between the cars ? Why do the spaces tend towards uniformity ?
Remarkable progress has recently been made however, and the results have just been published by Professor Petr Šeba from the University of Hradec Králové, Hradec Králové , the Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the Doppler Institute for Mathematical Physics and Applied Mathematics, and the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University, Prague - Czech Republic.
By making use of complex probability density theory the professor has made considerable inroads towards the understanding of the so-called ‘ Parking Problem ‘.
But during his researches he has made an even more remarkable discovery.
For the statistical spacing relationships are not just restricted to carparks.
For, according to the professor, they apply to birds too – specifically
starlings perched on power-lines.
“ Using measured data we demonstrate that there is an amazing correspondence among the statistical properties of spacings between parked cars and the distances between birds perching on a power line. We show that this observation is easily explained by the fact that birds and human use the same mechanism of distance estimation. “
There is still further work to be done though :
“ The exact character of the interaction is unknown and hardly describable in the physical terms. It is however clear that it is primarily triggered by the brain and then mediated through the muscles (by pressing the accelerator/brake pedal (cars) or by flopping the wings (birds)). “
But there is more. It seems that the probability density effects not only describe the spatial preferences of drivers and birds – but also sheep.
For a previous paper published just a few weeks earlier by the same author not only quantified the probability density of carparks and starling roosts – but also the behaviour of sheep herds.
Disappointingly perhaps, and for reasons that are not yet clear to Really Magazine, the ' sheep ' insights were dropped in the most recent paper.
Comment from reader Marco McC.
' I'm sure that by not mentioning it you were suggesting it, but it occurs to me that the answer lies in each car driver's concern to be able to get his door open, and to minimize having the neighbor cut the door paint with /his/ door when he opens that, and each bird is probably thinking about opening his wings (not to mention landing there in the first place using his wings), and each sheep might like to turn its head and see behind, or not get its legs kicked in a running turn, or maybe even squirm completely around the other way...
( What are the things parked in the lot in the picture? Giant rat/cat-cars with whiskers? )
[ Notional parked-up giant pigeon and sheep. Ed. ]
( Speaking of whiskers-- when I was little, in the Los Angeles area in the early 1960s, all cars of my extended family had /feelers/, little springy metal antennae that stuck out downward from the fenders, so you could get very close to the curb and hear the scraping and go no closer. I don't remember seeing them on cars lately. They were a good idea. Probably now there's an electronic laser device for $150 that requires batteries and does the same thing.) '
16 JULY 09
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Which came first ? the melon or the ostrich egg ?
Earlier this year, Really Magazine drew attention to a Chinese study which is believed to be the first to use the Instron measuring device to test the strength of melons.
But was it unique in using such tests on large ovoid edible objects ? (LOEOs ). Perhaps not. A new study in the latest edition of the Turkish Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences reveals a strikingly similar technique – this time applied to ostrich eggs.
Researchers used an Instron device ( type 4301 ) to test the strength of ostrich egg shells.
“ Instron-determination of the eggshell strength reached some 70 kg (~686 N), while that of chicken eggshells was 3-4 kg. “
Thus the toughness of the shells can either be viewed as very strong :
“ . . . an ostrich egg can potentially withstand the weight of an adult human being. “
or, given the eggs' size ( mean length and width are 156 and 129 mm, respectively ) as rather weak – prompting the paper’s authors to ask the question :
“ Concluding, we would like to postulate the problem of ‘ Why the ostrich egg is so fragile ?’ “
؟ ؟ ؟
In response Really Magazine would like to propose what we
call the ‘ Goldilocks ‘ approach
to the shells’ strength. In that they are neither too strong ( the
ostrich chick would be unable to break out ) or, too weak ( the shells would
get damaged before hatching ). Perhaps they are ( thanks to several tens
of millions of years of natural selection ) just right.
See :
The Ostrich (Struthio camelus) Egg – a Safety Seat in the Time Vehicle
15 JULY 09
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Thunderpipe misses some targets.
As anyone who as ever tried to register an internet domain name will know, getting it right-first-time is a far from easy task. Although the names themselves are not unduly expensive, making a mistake can be. But there is one possible strategy to avoid such problems - the so-called ‘ Blunderbuss ‘ approach.
As an example, turn to the creation of the firm Altria ( previously named Philip Morris ) back in 2003. Fortunately, the name altria.com had not been taken. Neither had altria.net, altria.org etc etc. But canny companies who have had their fingers burned in previous web-related exploits know that there are individuals ‘ out there ‘ who might seek to discredit a firm by registering a similar name and posting less-than-100%-positive details on, say, a blog page. This may be behind the reason why at around the same time, Altria also registered :
altriakills.net
altriakills.com
altrialies.com
altrialies.net
altrialitter.com
altriastinks.net
altriastinks.com
altriasucks.com
altriasucks.net
altriaequalsdeath.com
Thus neatly sidestepping any negative PR issues.
But there are problems. For any mal-intentioned individual only has to add, say, a hyphen to a name to create an entirely new and registerable one.
Again Altria had the bases covered. With :
altria-kills.net
altria-kills.com
altria-stinks.com
altria-stinks.net
altria-sucks.net
altria-sucks.com
But where does one stop ? Registering every possible combination of h-y-p-h-e-n-a-t-e-d and non-hyphenated names with negative connotations is clearly an impossible ( i.e. prohibitively expensive ) task.
And there are more too - for example : reversed names, sound-alike names, txt-speak names, anagrams etc etc. Multiplied by all the other available country-code domains ( .ca, .nc, .er, etc etc etc )
Perhaps it’s just not worth charging-up the www.anti-derogatory-blunderbuss at all - and rely on your products, reputation, and hard-won customer respect instead ?
؟ ؟ ؟
Note : In the interests of balance it should be pointed out that with regard to domain registrations the company did not set out with an entirely negative approach. They also reserved :
altriacares.com and altriadoorsofhope.com
14 JULY 09
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Talking and eating :
( a methodical organization )
The under-researched topic of inter-prandial linguistic exchange may have finally received the attention which it deserves with a new study from the ICAR Research Lab (CNRS), Department of Linguistics, University of Lyon2, France.
The work analysed ‘ food talk ‘ and more particularly ‘ food assessments ‘ occurring during dinner conversations.
There have of course been several interactional studies of dinner conversations before, but this is the first one to look specifically at conversations about food ( at mealtimes ) in a qualitative and systematic way.
Video recordings were made of several dinner sessions – but due to space limitations the subsequent analysis was limited to a smaller number (1).
The meal in question centered around a ‘ Cheese Raclette ‘ ( cheese, boiled potatoes, cornichons, and/or small pickled cocktail onions, small sausages and charcuterie )
The video of the dinner conversation exposed several distinct linguistic entities such as :
“ HUMm “
[ “ . . . ‘ HUMm ‘, a sort of ‘response cry’ (Goffman, 1978) which appears to be related to an individual sensation of pleasure, “ ]
and “ petit boudin blanc “ ( trans. ‘ a little white sausage ‘ )
[ “ a syntactical construction comprising a first adjective ( ‘ petit ‘), the name of the sausage ( ‘boudin ‘) and the specification of its type (‘white’ as opposed to ‘black’). “ ]
More generally though the study identified no less than three recurrent contexts where conversation about the food cropped up.
“ . . . at the beginning of meals, at closings of sequences and topical developments, and at ‘delicate’ moments characterized by emerging disagreements and conflicts. “
Perhaps then demonstrating for the first time :
“ . . . that not only are assessments systematically positioned within specific sequences in dinner conversations, but also that they can be mobilized in service of other social practices, such as fueling topical talk, reorienting participants’ focus of attention or stopping emerging sequential trajectories. “
The research will be published in a future edition of the journal Food Quality and Preference
In the preceding interval you can read it in full here :
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A trip up the archives
Apologies for the four year delay, but Really Magazine has finally managed to track down a direct link to the paper we mentioned back in Sept. 2005 - from the Department of Physics, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts :
10 JULY 09 ( very late edition )
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In Pursuit of Irrelevance ( or : A serendipitous Encounter with Goats )
Have search engines become too good ? So good they have become – well – boring ?
According to a new joint research project from Southampton University in the UK and Microsoft Corp in Redmond US, the answer is ‘ maybe ‘.
“ . . . concern has been expressed that ever-improving search engines, as well as the use of personalization to display exactly what the user is looking for, will interfere with serendipitous encounters “
The results may be too exact, with little or no room for lucky and interesting offchance encounters - in other words not enough serendipitousness ( a.k.a. randomness ).
As part of their research the team studied the weblogs of no less than 92 web-searches performed by Microsoft employees.
The results were then analysed with regard to their ‘ Relevance and Interestingness ‘ and with particular attention paid to the user’s ‘ Click Entropy ‘ . [ definition below ]
The findings were clear.
“. . . many of the queries people perform return interesting ( potentially serendipitous ) results that are not directly relevant.”
And, according to the authors, ' not directly relevant ' results maybe something which can ( and perhaps should ) be encouraged.
Really Magazine performed a test search using Microsoft’s LiveSearch Bing Beta search engine to see if the new recommendations have been implemented yet. It seems so.
We looked for ‘ serendipitous encounters ‘ and sure enough, on the very first page found something we had not been expecting :
“ Goats love cats. Look at their lil' noses!!! and Cats love goats! This photo has notes. Move your mouse over the photo to see them. Comments. Boered says: “
Read the research paper in full here.
‘ From X-Rays to Silly Putty via Uranus ‘
Click Entropy : Low click entropy means that a small number of results were clicked for the query . High click entropy means many different results were clicked for the query.
10 JULY 09
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Rationality violations under the microscope
More than ten years have gone by since Stanford University published their findings into ‘ the pursuit and misuse of useless information. ‘ revealing the extent to which noninstrumental ( viz. useless ) information is actively sought out ( and subsequently utilised ).
Now the idea has been taken a step further with new research from New York University and DePaul University examining again not just the seemingly innate desire to seek out useless knowledge, but the compulsion to obtain potentially harmful information as well.
A series of five laboratory studies involving several hundred participants ( students ) exposed the traits in stark detail.
In addition, the authors cite several real-world examples of these paradoxical behaviours, and propose that they may perhaps be explained by assuming that our innate ‘ curiosity ‘ is more powerful than our desire for ‘ perceived utility ‘.
The study will be published in a future issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
- in the meantime, you can read it in full ( or at least something very
like it ) here
:
؟ ؟ ؟
Really Magazine proposes a further hypothesis - one which is not mentioned in the current paper.
Perhaps the desire to avoid boredom is an even more powerful drive than curiosity ? Thus the practice of seeking out any info - harmful or not – is more pleasant than being utterly bored. It might explain websites like these.
09 JULY 09
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T in Montreal
Dr. Saad – of the Marketing Department at Concordia University, Montreal, wondered if driving around in an ostentatious sports car might increase ( male ) drivers’ testosterone (T) levels.
To find out, an experiment was organised in which male participants ( students ? ) were given the opportunity to drive across downtown Montreal either in a swanky Porsche or in an old sedan.
Shortly after the drives, a ‘ salivary assay ‘ was taken – and yes, it showed that the T-levels had increased for the alpha-Porsche, and, surprisingly perhaps, had decreased for those driving the beta-wagon.
And the implications ?
As the author points out in his blog :
“ Many men who experience the proverbial midlife crisis end up purchasing an ostentatious sports car. Given that men's T levels decrease as they age, perhaps such purchases are nothing more than a form of hormone replacement therapy ! “
The paper will be published in a future edition of the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see :
The Ferrari Testarossa
And more unusual T research from 2006
Reader's comment, from Pedro C.
' I used to think that girls liked men with $uper car$ because of the it's value. Now everything makes sense: those who have more testosterone are more capable of protecting them.'
08 JULY 09
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Reinventing the sundial.
The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York have gained
a new potential source of potential income this week with the publication
of
their patent US 7,555,840 B2.
The inventor, Professor Chen, is Senior Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor at the university’s Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, and is a specialist in the Physics of Solar Energy. By using two lenses with different refractive indexes, the dial is able to show not just the time, but the day of the year.
07 JULY 09 ( midday edition )
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Rocky Mountain Aesthetics
If you happen to be in or around Santa Fe, New Mexico, this Friday or at the weekend, why not drop in at the American Society for Aesthetics ( Rocky Mountain Division ) annual conference ?
This year’s programme features some intriguing scholarly papers.
For example :
“ Self-Making as a Tragic Endeavor "
or
" Our Lives Are Inauthentic : ”
or
" What's Wrong with Alienation ? "
To reinforce the theme, on both Friday and Saturday, you can also enjoy :
“ Lunch on your own ”
and
“ Dinner on your own “
07 JULY 09
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Adjusting proxemic bubbles for profit
Is your local supermarket cramped or spacious ?
A new research paper, due to be published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, investigates the idea that cramped supermarkets might affect consumers’ purchasing choices.
A series of experiments with real and mock-shoppers ( students ? ) , and a series of candy-bar choices, found that cramped aisles pushed the shoppers into making more varied choices.
“ . . . spatially confined consumers react against an incursion to their personal space by making more varied, unique, and diversified choices. “
Retail managers might be interested in the possibilities of cramping up consumers
to increase sales.
“ Our studies suggest a number of counter-intuitive practical implications, including the potential benefit of smaller retail spaces when new and unique products are promoted. “
The authors explain their counter-intuitive findings by reference to ‘ Reactance Theory ‘ . Suggesting that customers might be reacting to having their ' Proxemic Bubbles ' restricted - ( viz. being unpleasantly confined ).
“ we argue that consumers will demonstrate a heightened tendency to seek variety as a means to assert their freedom. “
But Really Magazine wonders if it might just be that they could reach out and grab a few candy bars more easily in the narrow aisles ?
( See link [2] below )
[1] Read the full
paper here :
[2] Previous research on candy proximity here
03 JULY 09
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Electronic Whispering
Over the past few years business meetings have gradually been infiltrated by ICTs ( information and communication technologies ). Think : mobiles, BlackBerries ™ , laptops , palmtops, etc etc etc.
Has
the use of ICTs got out of hand ? Several high-profile companies believe
so – and
have implemented so-called ‘ laptop-less ’ policies
at all meetings - effectively banning the use of ICTs in an effort to recapture
participants’ undivided
attention.
For some suspect that a good amount of ICT use might be centered around Electronic Whispering Behaviors - such as updating Facebook ™ profiles and e-mailing jokes about the chair rather than in productive co-operative thought . . .
A new research project from the University of Texas at Austin contacted meeting-participants at more than 19 organisations * in order to analyse their use of ICTs, and found a surprising ( to some ) result.
Their use depends not so much on today’s business-world demand for multitasking, for as the authors point out, participants in business meetings have been ‘ multitasking ‘ for decades, using pen and paper : and
“ It is highly unlikely that people have been asked to leave their pens and paper at the door before a meeting begins, “
but rather :
“ The findings suggest that social influences in the form of observed behaviors and perceptions of others’ beliefs about electronic multitasking strongly predict how individuals will electronically multitask in meetings “
Or, put another way, everyone uses them because everyone else does.
The paper will be published in the August 2009 edition of the journal ‘ Management Communication Quarterly ‘
In the meantime, You can read the full paper ( or something very like it ) here
* via e-mail
02 JULY 09
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