JULY 10
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"The universe is an illusion, albeit a persistant one "
Albert Einstein
Eh? of the day
A discussion paper from Nobel prize-winner Professor James Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at The University of Chicago.
' The Effect of Prayer on God’s Attitude Toward Mankind ' was published in the journal Economic Inquiry, 48(1), 234– 235, (2010).
30 JUL 10
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Setting Standards
As part of its remit to protect the public health, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regularly publishes data which establish maximum levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods for human use - specifically those that "... pose no inherent hazard to health".
Some examples from the current list :
• Curry powder – is acceptable if there are less than 4 rodent hairs ( characterised as rodent filth ) per 25 grams.
• Chopped dates - can have up to 4 dead insects ( unspecified ) per 100 grams.
• Canned mushrooms – should not have more than 5 maggots per 100 grams ( unless they are smaller than 2mm in length )
• Spices ( other than bay leaves ) - should not ( on average ) have more than 1 mg of mammalian excreta per pound after processing.
• Red Fish and Ocean Perch - are not acceptable if 3 % of the fillets examined contain 1 or more copepods accompanied by pus pockets.
The full list can be found here:
23 JUL 10
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Holidays – but are they worth it ?
New research from Radboud University in the Netherlands asked - ‘ Does health and well-being of working individuals improve during a vacation ? ‘ And, if so, how long do the effects last ?
The resulting paper, published in the latest issue of the journal Work & Stress found that, yes, vacations do help – but the beneficial effects have largely worn-off after a couple of weeks.
The team urge further research to “. . . prolong vacation relief.”
22 JUL 10 (late edition)
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Word of the day
Gruntier
Adj. Meaning ‘ Having more grunt ‘ . Where grunt means power. Typically used for vehicles, machinery etc. Common in Australia and New Zealand, less-so in the UK and US. Currently awaiting dictionary listing.
22 JUL 10
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Operational note . . .
Dear Reader(s),
Our original domain name -
www.ohpurleese.com
- is due to expire in a few days and won't be renewed. In the unlikely event that you're still using that dull and dented old url, please update your bookmarks / browser to our shiny smooth new one -
www.reallymagazine.com
Cheers ! Ed.
19 JUL 10 (late edition)
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Getting pierced in Milledgeville
Researchers from the Information Technology & Marketing department, at Georgia College & State University have recently published results of their research into Body Modifications (BM) and young adults.
Tattoos, implants, piercings etc etc.
They interviewed 454 young adults ( students ) to find out what BMs they’d had, and what plans they might have for BM in the future.
Finding that no less than 77.8% had already been 'modified' - and 76.9% were keen on more.
The conclusions, which were published in the January issue of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, are squarely, some might say unashamedly, focussed on the opportunities for the body-modification industry.
“ For body modifications, the findings suggest that extension of services after acquiring the consumer’s business is self-fulfilling. Simply, once a consumer engages in body modification, he or she will continue to consumer additional services. Therefore, the importance of acquiring new customers should be considered in strategic planning.”
Or, to sum up :
“ Getting the consumer ‘hooked’ offers a base for long-term profitability.”
Read in full here:
19 JUL 10
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More on drones
15 JUL 10
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If (bravery) then { medal=true } ;
Another as-yet-unresolved problem with unmanned drone-weapons – who gets the medals ?
Odd as it may seem, this subject has been discussed in Air Force departments at the highest of levels for four or five years now.
Here’s a clip from a Washington Post article (feb 28 2010) about a recent middle-east mission.
“ The F-16
pilot, who faced no real threat from the lightly armed insurgents
on the ground, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross,
the same honor bestowed on Charles Lindbergh for the first
solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Predator pilots, who flew their
planes from an Air Force base outside Las Vegas, received a
thank-you note from a three-star
general based in the Middle East.”
The drones do have a ‘pilot’ of sorts - but so far, internal squadron requests to award them bravery medals have been declined by the top brass. And a new generation of UAV ' intelligent ' weapons may, in time, operate entirely autonomously, complicating the picture still further.
Either way, Col. Eric "Kill [Expletive] Heads" Mathewson underlines what valour means to him :
" Valor is doing what is right. Valor is about your motivations and the ends that you seek. It is doing what is right for the right reasons. That to me is valor."
But what if there is no pilot ? Perhaps in the future the bravery medals will have to go to AI software programmers ?
Many thanks to reader Carmelita who kindly alerted us to this
extensive article on TomDispatch.com
14 JUL 10
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Unveilng the Cachaienaid
By Anne R. Sole, our Farnborough correspondent
Who says Britain is finished ?
What rubbish ! Ok, it’s true that the Spice Girls are no longer our biggest export, but the UK isn't about to roll over and turn the lights off just yet ! Not by a mile ! All we need to do is to concentrate on where our real talents lie – making weapons systems !
Thank goodness then that our very own British Armed Dynamics group have unveiled the new Cachaienaid ( named after the ancient Welsh God of Roasting ). And they explain all its stunning features in their new press release. Take a look at that picture ! Who’s going to mess with that remote-controlled bomber-drone !
Make no mistake, this is built to impress – down to the smallest detail – just check the ‘moody’ halogen back-lighting for that ominous air scoop. They could have left it black - but they went to the trouble to add those all-important final touches. Awesome !
It’s completely automatic too. No pilot. Yes, that’s right, no pilot ! Now our boys needn’t risk their own necks bombing foreign lands – they just boot it up and relax while the machine does all the down-and-dirty work. And the new plane can even make up its own mind on who to vaporise ! OK, I know that may sound risky to some, but think of the benefits. When things go wrong ( and hey, remember, this is war right ? ) there's no more need for tricky explanations, or possibly even, heaven forbid, war-crimes investigations. Ever seen a computer in the dock at a war-crimes trial ? Exactly.
Hats off then to the designers - and of course the more than generous UK taxpayers who have once again selflessly reached deep into their pockets to preserve UK jobs and to make the world a safer and more democratic place by creating another Class-A Giga-Weapon !
Go for it Cachaienaid !
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see, on a related note: BAE Systems press
release yesterday.
13 JUL 10
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About Time
Since its introduction around twenty years ago ‘ PowerPoint ™ ‘ has come in for a good deal of criticism. Not only for the tedium induced by badly conceived presentations – but also for its enormous timewasting potential at the production stages.
Why waste time producing something like this :
When this works just as well ? ( if not better )
Those organisations which haven’t yet implemented an outright ban on PowerPoint ™ presentations might find this short video from National Digital Learning Resources ( Ireland ) of assistance in the meantime.
( click
to watch )
09 JUL 10
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Ecological Aesthetics in Maryland
Dr. Joan Maloof, associate professor at Salisbury
University dept. of Biological Sciences and Environmental
Studies, Maryland,
US, has recently undertaken a unique research project, and
her resulting paper Measuring
the beauty of forests is published
in the latest issue of the International Journal of Environmental
Studies.
334 experimental subjects (students) were taken (during the daytime) to two types of forest (near here) – one featuring ‘young’ trees, and the other with ‘mature’ trees.
The ‘young’ forest was a Loblolly pine plantation with 11 year-old trees which were spaced one metre apart, and the ‘mature‘ forest was also a pine plantation, but with 57-year old trees, 5m apart.
Which would they rate as more beautiful ?
Results : as the professor notes in her blog :
“ . . . mature forests are more beautiful than young forests. ( I think we already knew that, but here is the data to prove it.) “
The paper can be read in full here :
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see :
Previous forest-related research ‘ Expanding Within-Forest Mysteriousness.’
07 JUL 10
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This week's patents
Here are a selection of the latest US patents, issued today.
But what, in a very real sense, are they ?
Sorry, your time's up . . .
Click in the centre of the drawing to find out . . .
06 JUL 10 ( late edition )
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Mr. Robot | or Ms. Robot | or both | or neither ?
Turn to the latest issue of the journal Body and Society for a paper by Dr. Jennifer Robertson, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan on the subject :
The Gendering of Japanese Humanoid Robots.
“ The process of gendering robots makes especially clear that gender belongs both to the order of the material body and to the social and discursive or semiotic systems within which bodies are embedded. “
The new article covers the history and philosophy of robotic ‘ Gender Dynamics ‘ ( in Japan ) from Astroboy - who was male(ish) - onwards.
The professor points out that -
“ Gender attribution is a process of reality construction. ”
And when it comes down to accurately determining whether a robot is ‘ male ‘ or ‘ female ’ then, because no very few robots are equipped robo-genitalia, it’s usually necessary to examine their ' Cultural Genitals ' instead.
Readers can begin their investigations into the subject by reading the full 36-page paper, which can be found here.
You can also hear the professor giving an extensive talk on the subject here.
[ Perhaps it's time to introduce two or three different terms ? Roboto, Robota as well as the plain-vanilla Robot ? Ed. ]
06 JUL 10
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Paper of the week
answers are provided in the latest issue of the journal Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, Volume 17, Issue 4 July 2010 , pages 406 - 421
05 JUL 10
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Leadership Motivation
" Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them ".
[ Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene V ]
Those in the third category are of course subject to a spectrum of different forceful determinants, and one which has remained until now largely overlooked has just been pinpointed by a joint Australian / New Zealand research team.
‘ Boredom Evasion ‘. [ B.E. ]
The team point out that –
“ Boredom has been largely omitted from the leadership literature . . .”
In a set of interviews with senior managers engaged in a 'Leadership Development Programme' ( observers of, and presumably subject to, various degrees of boredom ), not only were the B.E. motivations clearly revealed, but the positive influences of boredom were underlined as well -
“ The experience and consideration of boredom may provide the impetus for creativity, risk-taking, curiosity and challenge-seeking, and may foster sustained and embedded individual and organizational learning. “
The new research paper ‘ Evasion
of boredom: An unexpected spur to leadership? ‘ is
published in the latest edition of the journal Human Relations.
02 JUL 10
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Goal Purportion
Happiness researcher Christopher K. Hsee ( pron. Shee ), the Theodore O. Yntema Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is publishing a new paper on the reason(s) why ‘ persons engage in activity ‘.
With colleagues Adelle Yang and Liangyan Wang the professor points out that, alongside the more obvious reasons :
“...such as to earn money, to become famous, or to advance science. “
There could be “a potentially
deeper reason ”
Summarised as ‘ Idleness Aversion ’.
“ Our research suggests that many purported goals that people pursue may be merely justifications to keep themselves busy.”
And even though (according to the researchers ) many people choose to be idle when there’s no justification to do anything – their experiments showed that :
“... even a specious justification can motivate people to be busy”
“... and that people who are busy are happier than people who are idle. Curiously, this last effect is true even if people are forced to be busy.”
Their new paper ‘ Idleness Aversion and the Need for Justifiable Busyness ‘ is scheduled for publication in a future edition of the journal Psychological Science.
؟ ؟ ؟
Also see : from (two of) the same authors :
To Revive the Economy, Shrink the Dollar Bill ! -- Medium Size and Perceived Value
“ ... when sizes of tokens relatively correspond with their values, people show the least willingness to pay than when tokens of different values are made the same size”
[ Though this finding might not go down well with treasury departments, which traditionally make higher-value notes bigger to thwart forgers who have access to sophisticated printing equipment and some bleach. Ed. ]
01 JUL 10
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