Thinking at Will

Some primates are better planners than humans

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:06:00 +0000

This one planned to throw stones at people and collected and stacked them in advance.
http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=primate-not-so-innocent-09-03-11

"The shopper's revenge"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:19:00 +0000

Nice technology… I have often wished I could read reviews of books on Amazon when I’m standing in a bookstore trying to figure out whether to buy it or not. And for other electronics items as well…

Your could use Amazon’s service on an iPod or just go to their website on your handheld

http://www.slate.com/id/2206255/

Need an x-ray? Just peel the tape

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:17:00 +0000

“It may sound bizarre—or like some kind of high school science fair project, but it's not: Researchers have discovered that peeling adhesive tape ejects enough radiation to take an x-ray image. If they stick, the findings could set the stage for a less expensive x-ray machine that does not require electricity.”

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=x-ray-machine-adhesive-tape

How BRICs buy clothese

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:03:00 +0000

Do Indians shop differently than much of developing world?

Courtesy: HBS Daily Stat, McKinsey Quarterly

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Retail_Consumer_Goods/Sectors_Regions/How_half_the_world_shops_Apparel_in_Brazil_China_and_India_2075?gp=1

Cautiously Optimistic

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:57:00 +0000

Is it just me or have all writers decided that the best ending for literary fiction is to make it cautiously optimistic. Whether it is The Kite Runner, Purple Hibiscus or Sea of Poppies, it seems cautiously optimistic is the way to go. Whatever happened to the outright tragedies a la Shakespeare or simply satisfying happy endings?

Or is it that to cross the bridge from simply fiction to ‘literary fiction’ your story must leave you some open ends?

Would you like fries, and gender roles, with that?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:20:00 +0000

An interesting piece talking about gender roles in fine dining experience…

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining/08gend.html?pagewanted=1&em

Politics of trinkets

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:11:00 +0000

Once upon a time, there was a company that sold books and stuff online called Amanzo. It sold billions of dollars worth of stuff. Then inevitably one day, elections were held in the land of its headquarters. It was a hotly contested election. The company decided that it should join the thousands of polling companies trying to figure out the outcome of the elections. One executive at the company realizes that they have millions of customers. Couldn't they poll them? Another adds a brilliant twist: why don't we sell Republican elephants and Democrat donkeys? Based on their sales we will know which party is going to win. The executives congratulated themselves on this brilliant plan!

The trinket selling began in earnest. The sales leaned this way and that.

But some customers realized that this is quite stupid. What this measures is how likely are repulican and democrat supporters to buy silly trinkets to display their affiliation at places of work and home. And before an executive could say 'golden parachute', a more interesting thing had happened. The customers of the company were engaged in a debate about the implications of such a "poll".

Binge drinking to save social security

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:35:00 +0000

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/can-binge-drinking-save-social-security/

“the elimination of heavy drinking (three or more drinks a day) from each successive group of American 25-year-olds would cost the Social Security trust fund $3 billion over the cohort’s lifetime.”

"See beyond the woman"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:59:00 +0000

Some sensible thoughts on women in the workplace by Sandra Dawson, Nonexecutive Director of Barclays Bank and Master of Sidney Sussex College, Univ of Cambridge.

When you are the only woman in any situation, I think it is often quite difficult for men to get beyond the idea that “this is the woman speaking.” In most boards, gender is the most obvious difference, since there is often little diversity in culture or education. So it can be a challenge to “see beyond the woman.” Maybe when you get two or three, it encourages a different perspective, which prompts the thought, “Oh—women do not necessarily think alike.” And that is the breakthrough in any prejudicial situation: to see the person and not the category or stereotype.

…There is still some institutionalized prejudice, which is extremely difficult for women—or men—to tackle, as it can be deeply ingrained. However, it is no longer dominant in many organizations. Most people at the top of companies really want to enable more of their very able young women to succeed and get to the top. So it is not that they do not want to encourage women; it is not even that they do not want to encourage them at a subconscious level. It is that they do not recognize the micro-inequalities of which you speak, so all of us, men and women, need to be alert to these subtle forces and work to eradicate them.

Read full interview in McKinsey Quarterly (free subscription may be required):

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/Seeing_beyond_the_woman_An_interview_with_a_pioneering_academic_and_board_member_2194_abstract

Importing US law, or not

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:09:00 +0000

It seems that Supreme Courts of countries around the world are relying less and less on US law. The number of cases where they cite American judicial decisions has fallen to ½, and in some cases to 1/3^rd in a period of a decade or so. It seems more countries are citing Canadian and European decisions these days. And, in the case of Australia, even judicial decisions from India.

This could also be one way of measuring American popularity and respect overseas. If you don’t respect a country you would not be particularly inclined to cite its decisions in making your own, would you?

Read full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/us/18legal.html?em

Robot car drives around SF

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:01:00 +0000

A Prius fitted with self-guiding equipment drove itself around in SF without incident. The technology is quite ready for prime time (the team had to drive the same route ahead of time and do a high-accuracy scan of the route) but it is still quite intriguing.

Read more at CNET

Alaskan police chase solar-powered UFO

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:32:00 +0000

Do they really have nothing better to do, than chase UFOs? In case it really was a UFO, what did they plan do next?

The UFO turned out to be a solar powered car.

Courtesy: CNET

Beethoven's Work Hours

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:46:00 +0000

Given my employer’s policy on monitoring hours worked, the Aug 31 Dilbert comic seems particularly apt.

http://dilbert.com

Monkeys of the human kind

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:14:00 +0000

I was at Hampi last weekend and I noticed an odd phenomenon for a tourist spot in India – bands (12-15 strong) of young men perhaps in early 20s roaming around being rowdy and obnoxious, especially towards women. Now if you’ve been in India, you’ll know that this is a common sight on Indian road-sides. But this was my first sighting of this at a tourist spot.

So you can imagine my first reaction to sighting packs of these, umm…, men.

On our third day at Hampi, we decided to go to the ruins but do our own thing. Out of our group of 5, two decided to climb a hill, two decided to go birding and I decided to go spend some time at an amazing spot next to the river.

It is a rocky spot with giant boulders strewn every which way, giving the spot a feeling of being an animation rather than real-life. The river which is dammed further up, flows down some of these rocks, with the flow controlled by flood gates at the dam. The previous day we had watched salmon trying to jump upstream over a one meter water fall. And, to make it even better, there is a one meter high rock sitting all alone on a flattish rocky surface. All in all a perfect spot for spending an hour daydreaming at 8 in the morning.

My plan was to go sit on the rock for some time and after a while go stand in the river with water up to my ankles.

When I got to my rock, as I’d come to think of it by now J, I noticed a pack of 15+ of these men about 20 feet downstream, generally enjoying themselves in the water. I figured if they want to run around in their underwear at a public place that is their problem not mine. I decided to perch myself on the rock and admire the rocks on the upstream side. After staring at me for varying amounts of time, these men decided to go back to playing in the water, which was just fine with me. This is roughly what I had hoped/expected.

Such packs of men, in the words of Douglas Adams in the “Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy”, are “mostly harmless”. Though you have to keep repeating that to yourself if you find yourself alone with over a dozen of them.

Hardly 5 minutes after the first group had left, a smaller set of 5-6 descended near the rock. They also found the sight of a woman sitting peacefully a few meters away too hard to ignore, but again they lost interest after a few minutes and decided to catch some fish with their bare hands from the river and transfer them to a tiny shallow pool formed at the side of the river.

I descended to the flat rocks and stood for some time with my feet in the water. It was quite fun as the officials at the dam upstream were varying the flow of water. The water level at my feet would change from 2-3 inches to about 8-10 inches within a matter of minutes, and then go down again.

All was well. The fish-transporting operation had stopped. The men had decided to show off their bravery by crossing the river which has a bed of flattish slippery boulders.

I returned to my rock for a final round of day-dreaming before heading back. That is when the final group of another half-dozen men arrived. One of them just could not stand the fact that a woman was sitting on a boulder minding her own business. First he walked around the boulder once about 18 inches away from the edge. Then he came back and stood leaning against the boulder three feet away. Then he decided that was too far and inched to within a foot and a half and stood looking away towards the river. I continued to ignore him.

Then he turned around slowly and started addressing me. First something in Kannada. Then I caught “Hello”. “Sister”. Then something else I don’t remember. Full sentences in Kannada were coming my way. I didn’t utter a word or change my expression but was rapidly thinking whether I could reach my hiking boots quickly enough and hit him on the head which was at my knee level in one smooth move. More wishful thinking than anything else J, but it never hurts to have a backup plan in case things get worse. I also looked around to see if there was any civilized person in sight who may give me a hand if needed. Just when I had mentally perfected my move, the guy decided he’d had enough and moved to watch the hoopla around the few fish in the puddle.

By now it was time to go back and I was sick of these…men. And the two more rowdies I encountered on the steps back would surely have gotten one in the ribs if they had come any closer.

The whole episode had one positive side-effect: it increased my resolve to go work out at the gym more frequently than the 2-3 days a week I’ve been doing. Aah, but like all good-intentioned resolves, it disintegrated once I got back into the daily rhythm of work in Bangalore.

But the time I spent enjoying the view at the banks of the Tungabhadra river with water running over my feet will remain with me for a long time.

---

Pay students for test performance

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:38:00 +0000

I had written in March about an experiment taking place in NY schools about paying students for performance. They have had mixed results. One specific feature of the program was paying for taking and passing Advanced Placement tests, on which you can get scores ranging from 0 to 5. The kids get $1000 if they get a 5 and less for lower scores. It seems that number of kids with a score of 5 increased, while the number at 4 and 3 actually decreased slightly. So, the results are mixed at best.

They’ve decided to continue the program for one more year. Last year the program was announced after the school year had already started. So this year will be the real test.

Digging for energy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:36:00 +0000

Some time ago Google.org (Google’s foundation) had announced that it would invest in making renewable energy cheaper than coal. It seems that the company has started in investing in geothermal technology.

See more at: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=google-invests-in-geothermal&sc=rss

That makes Google.org the largest funder of enhanced geothermal research in the country, outspending the U.S. government. The Australian government has pledged $43.5 million for such projects and already has several in the works, as do Europe and Japan.

…Mastering said drilling is why Google.org also invested $4 million into Potter Drilling, a Redwood City, Calif., enterprise built from EGS drilling work done at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico during the last oil crisis in the 1970s. As it stands, the oil and gas industry routinely drills wells of more than 18,000 feet—nearly 3.5 miles, or 5.5 kilometers—which would "essentially unlock the entire country" to produce geothermal power, said Dan Reicher, director for climate change and energy initiatives at Google.org and former assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, at the same conference.

…And, even if the rigs become available, it remains unclear just exactly what is lurking where under the surface. Maps for geothermal potential have not been updated since 1974 despite more than a million new oil and gas wells in the interim offering more data. So Google.org is also giving $489,521 to Southern Methodist University's Geothermal Laboratory to update the resource maps.

LHC pictures and comments

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:47:00 +0000

See the pictures below but don't forget to go through the comments. They offer an interesting insight into human nature.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/the_large_hadron_collider.html

LHC rap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:40:00 +0000

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=new-bytes-of-the-week-lhc-gets-its-own-rap-song&sc=rss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

Plant migrations

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:09:00 +0000

You’ve heard of bird migrations, here’s something different: plant migration. It seems that plants are beginning to migrate in search of cooler climes.

“The researchers found that grasses, herbs and other short-lived species that had been through many generations shifted the most in search of perfect temperatures, whereas long-lived trees stayed largely in place. According to the authors, this is changing the composition of the forest—mixing formerly low-altitude grasses with high-altitude trees—which could potentially affect the entire ecosystem, particularly the animals that rely on specific plants to survive.”

Courtesy: SciAm

No cheating in front of the mirror

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:13:00 +0000

Research shows that people are less likely to cheat or demonstrate other undesirable behavior when working in front of a mirror. Perhaps we should mandate that all interior walls in our politicians’ offices are covered with mirrors. I’m sure they will become immune to it after they get used to it in a couple of weeks, but for a few weeks at least, we’ll have a cleaner government.

“Other researchers have determined that mirrors can subtly affect human behavior, often in surprisingly positive ways. Subjects tested in a room with a mirror have been found to work harder, to be more helpful and to be less inclined to cheat, compared with control groups performing the same exercises in nonmirrored settings. Reporting in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, C. Neil Macrae, Galen V. Bodenhausen and Alan B. Milne found that people in a room with a mirror were comparatively less likely to judge others based on social stereotypes about, for example, sex, race or religion.”

To stop eating chips, change your couch

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:58:00 +0000

"Dr. Wood studied exercise habits among students who transferred from one college to another. When locations remained stable - the new school had an outdoor track just like the old school, for example - students continued running regularly. But if the tracks were too different, the exercise tapered off, on average. In another experiment, conducted by researchers studying smokers, those wanting to quit were more than twice as successful if they started kicking the habit while on vacation, when surrounded by unfamiliar people and places.

""Habits are formed when the memory associates specific actions with specific places or moods," said Dr. Wood, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke. "If you regularly eat chips while sitting on the couch, after a while, seeing the couch will automatically prompt you to reach for the Doritos. These associations are sometimes so strong that you have to replace the couch with a wooden chair for a diet to succeed."

"The researchers at P.& G. realized that these types of findings had enormous implications for selling Febreze. Because bad smells occurred too infrequently for a Febreze habit to form, marketers started looking for more regular cues on which they could capitalize."

Read on at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/business/13habit.html?pagewanted=4&ei=5087&em&en=8521c49a071adef5&ex=1216094400

Octopus "handedness"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:58:00 +0000

It seems that some researchers are trying to figure out if octopuses (octopi?) are left handed or right handed, or rather, more accurately, if they prefer some of their appendages over others for various tasks.

As much as I love science and enjoy learning about esoteric research, I have ask: Is this really the best use of science resources (scientists, their free-labor students, and money)?

The article claims that the results will help make octopuses life in captivity a bit easier, that is, instead of feeding them food from left side, we can now feed them from the right side.

Ummm, maybe it’s just me, but if I’m stuck in a cage for life, I’m not sure how much I would care about the food being served from the window to my left or the one on my right…

http://www.sciam.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=04A6AC54-DFF7-6744-EA8131F1594C0B55&sc=rss

Relocating to Mars, anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:35:00 +0000

NASA scientists have analyzed soil on the Martian surface using equipment on Phoenix Lander, and found it to have enough minerals to support earth plants. It may even be possible for it to support microbes below the surface. On the surface of Mars, they obviously don’t expect any microbes because it is fully exposure to UV radiation in the absence of sufficient atmosphere.

Go to http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=martian-soil-fit-for-earthly-life&sc=rss for more details.

I am not a lady

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:33:00 +0000

An open letter

Dear colleague,

I want to make it clear for the second time that I am a woman. I am a female member of the human species. I am NOT a “lady”.

Today was the umpteenth time I saw you use the word “ladies” to refer to your female colleagues. I felt like hitting you on the head but since that might disqualify me from actually being a lady in the 1920s sense of the word, I stopped myself.

Instead, I decided to be helpful. For your reference, here is a guide on the correct usage of the word lady. You may use the word when referring to:

Members of English aristocracy
Women over 70
Women who are doing something crazy, as in “Lady, are you nuts?”
As a reprimand, usually preceded by the word “young”: “Young lady, how many times have I told you not to hit your male colleagues?”

I assume you thought it would be more “respectful” in some old-fashioned way to refer to women as “ladies”. But by using this word in a clearly artificial manner, you actually made it quite clear that you don’t quite know how to deal with women colleagues as equals. Why else would you say things like:

Each team should have 11 players with a minimum of 2 ladies and max of 9 gents
Opening batting pair should have at least 1 lady
First over must be bowled by a lady and faced by a lady
And so on

Or perhaps I have misunderstood the whole thing. Maybe this is a costume party cum cricket match. I wonder whether any Bangalore theatre groups carry Victorian-era gowns.

Here’s a thought: If you think calling a woman a woman is too matter-of-fact, maybe you can call us the “XX chromosomed” humans. At least it will be accurate. Then your invitation for cricket would read something like this:

Each team should have players with a total of 13 X and 9 Y chromosomes
Opening batting pair must be exclusively X chromosomed
No Y chromosomes allowed in first over bowling and batting
Etc.

Yours sincerely,
A woman

Privacy matters

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:59:00 +0000

Today I need a “proof of employment” letter from my employer. Upon putting in the request, the first question I got asked was “what for?”. To put this in perspective, “proof of employment” letters in India are demanded for everything – whether it is filing for a visa, applying for a credit card, a phone-line, renting an apartment, anything. In essence, they act as proof of who you say you are, and they are demanded by everyone. The only person who hasn’t asked me for one yet is an auto-driver.

Now, my employer has a policy of asking why it is needed. Why is it my employer’s business? If I am doing something illegal, clearly I can fabricate a letter of employment without going to my employer. If I am doing something legal, why invade my privacy?

I don’t know if this is true of other companies but my company asks all kinds of intrusive questions and publishes this information to random people. For example, every time a direct report of mine wants to order an official taxi, s/he has to submit a form online (all our internal systems are automated). In that form, the person has to put in what kind of taxi, from where to where, etc. But the form also automatically (using employment records) adds several more pieces of information – e.g. the age. This information come to me every time. Why on earth do I need to be informed and continuously reminded of the age of my team members? Worse, this information + the person’s full title + employment band is sent to the Taxi company! So, if a taxi company wants to target someone for mischief, they can easily figure out which person probably has a higher net worth based on band and title. Wonderful! The taxi company knows your seniority, where you live, your home line, your mobile, etc.

What about safety, security, or even a bit of simple privacy?