Clipmarks | Catshade's clips

Can Wii save our pubs?

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:03:09 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.co.uk

With the smoking ban, credit crunch and increasing running costs all hitting licensed premises in the pocket, a number of Manchester venues have turned to games consoles to entice customers through the door.

Wii and Xbox nights are the latest weapon in the struggle to get people back into the boozer.

Adam Tracey, manager of Simple Bar in Manchester's Northern Quarter, has introduced a Nintendo Wii for customers to use on a Sunday evening.

He said: “We have been running it for a couple of months. We had a projector in the bar and we thought about how best we could use it.

“It's a great success and people really seem to enjoy it. It's free and playing on a full-size projector screen makes it great fun.”

Tracey said the Wii nights have helped put more bums on barstools. “We can get anything from 20 to 40 people depending on the night and when in the month it falls,” he said. “It's another reason for people to come out and have a few drinks.”

Tags: nintendo, wii, pub, bar, manchester, england, gaming, games

Dear World: What kind of a person blogs?

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:35:30 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: bps-research-digest.blogspot.com

Rosanna Guadagno and colleagues asked over three hundred students about their blogging habits and asked them to complete the now industry-standard Big Five Personality Inventory.

Around 20 per cent of the students blogged, mostly about their personal experiences. Among female students only, those who scored highly on neuroticism (i.e. anxious, insecure characters) were more likely to blog. This is consistent with work on internet usage that also found an association with neurotic personality types, but only among women. The researchers surmised that nervous women may blog to "assuage loneliness or in an attempt to reach out and form social connections with others."

Among both men and women, those who were more open to experience were also more likely to blog - perhaps unsurprisingly given that blogging is a relatively new phenomenon and given that this personality dimension is associated with creativity.

Tags: blog, personality, women, blogger, neuroticism, anxious, insecure, creativity

Boomers Miserable, Seniors Happiest

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:42:14 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

And middle-age misery is not limited to the United States. In a separate study released in January, researchers in the United States and the UK looked at data on 2 million people from 80 nations and found most people are miserable in middle age. The probability of depression peaks around age 44, they found.

"Some people suffer more than others but in our data the average effect is large," said University of Warwick Economist Professor Andrew Oswald, who participated in the global study. "It happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor, and to those with and without children. Nobody knows why we see this consistency."

In the United States, Oswald and his colleagues found, unhappiness peaks at around age 40 for women and 50 years of age for men.

The 33 years of data revealed upticks in happiness when the nation flourished economically. For example, she found that 1995 was a very good year on the happiness scale.

Tags: baby boomers, senior, aging, happiness, stress, depression

Malaysian PM vetoes call to open university to non-Malays

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:40:18 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.tehrantimes.com

The chief minister of Selangor state, where the Universiti Teknologi Mara is located, triggered an uproar when he suggested on Sunday that the institution could offer 10 percent of its places to other races.

Selangor's chief minister, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, reportedly said the move to include other races and foreigners into the university would allow students there to gain more exposure and be friendlier to people of other races.

Abdul Khalid's remarks triggered a protest by 5,000 students from the university who took to the streets Tuesday and marched to the chief minister's office, waving placards saying, ""Do not seize our rights,"" and ""Save UITM.""

UITM vice-chancellor Ibrahim Abu Shah said the public university was reserved for bumiputras as a majority of students in leading fields of study in higher-learning institutions in Malaysia were non-Malays.

Ibrahim said he found it ""weird"" that the chief minister, being a Malay leader himself, should have made the suggestion.

Tags: malaysia, racism, university, education, prejudice, discrimination

Morbid thoughts can make you reach for the cookies

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:19:43 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Researchers Naomi Mandel from Arizona State University and Dirk Smeesters from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands conducted several experiments in Europe and the United States where participants wrote essays on their feelings about their own deaths.

They then checked off items on a grocery list or ate cookies. Consumers who wrote about their own deaths wanted to buy more and ate more than those who wrote about a painful medical procedure .

"When people are reminded of their inevitable mortality, they may start to feel uncomfortable about what they have done with their lives and whether they have made a significant mark on the universe. This is a state called "heightened self-awareness,"" they said.

They found people with low self-esteem, in particular, tend to over-consume after death-related thoughts.

The study also revealed that placing a mirror in front of the participants reduced the desire to over-consume.

Tags: morbid, death, thought, eat, cookie, consumer, behavior, self-esteem

Trust drug may cure social phobia

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:52:15 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A nasal spray which increases our trust for strangers is showing promise as a treatment for social phobia, say scientists from Zurich University.

They found that people who inhaled the "love hormone" oxytocin continued to trust strangers with their money - even after they were betrayed.

Nicknamed the "cuddle chemical", oxytocin is a naturally produced hormone, which has been shown to play a role in social relations, maternal bonding, and also in sex.

"We found that oxytocin has a very specific effect in social situations. It seems to diminish our fears.

"Based on our results, we can now conclude that a lack of oxytocin is at least one of the causes for the fear experienced by social phobics.

The hormone could also be a candidate for treating patients with autism, he says.

"Autistic people also have a fear of social situations and have problems interacting, so it is very likely that oxytocin could help," he said.

Drug trials are under way and early signs are promising say the scientists.

Tags: trust, social, phobia, stranger, oxytocin, brain, amygdala, autism

Getting schooled on Wii

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:36:20 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.poststar.com

In a room next to the gym, another small group of students gathered in front of TV screens to take part in their physical activities.

One engaged in a boxing match with a virtual opponent. Another swung a "bat" at a "baseball" hurled by a computerized pitcher and a pair of "bicycles" stood in a nearby corner, awaiting riders to pedal across a make-believe road to nowhere.

"They didn't teach us this in college -- video 101," said school instructor Kevin Dayton.

With video games receiving a lot of blame for kids' sedentary lifestyles, and their resulting obesity, Dayton sees the irony of including them in gym class.

"There is a need to get kids away from video games, but -- everything in moderation. You wouldn't want them doing this 14 hours a day," he said.

Dayton said that, since so many students have the game systems in their homes, he is hoping to "bridge the gap" between school and home and instill in students good fitness habits that go beyond gym class.

Tags: nintendo, wii, school, education, sport, exercise, physical

Brain is fastest at 39... but it's all downhill from there

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:10:31 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

According to the latest research, our brain is fastest at 39 and afterwards declines 'at an accelerating rate.'

The slowdown occurs because of the loss of a fatty sheath which coats the nerve cells, called neurons, during middle age, experts say.

The coating acts as insulation, similar to the plastic covering on an electrical cable, and allows for fast bursts of signals around the body and brain.

When the sheath deteriorates, signals passing along the neurons in the brain slow down. This means reaction times in the body are slower too.

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, say that after 40 the body 'loses the battle' to repair the protective sheaths.

The finding was made after researchers tested how quickly men aged from 23 to 80 could tap their index fingers in ten seconds.

The results from the 72 participants showed that both 'had lifespan trajectories that were virtually indistinguishable' - and, significantly, peaked at 39.

Tags: brain, neuroscience, aging, memory

Babies Know Happy From Sad Songs

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:27:57 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Researchers displayed an emotionally-neutral face for the baby while sad music played. When the baby looked away from the face, the music stopped and a new sad song would start. When the happier "Ode to Joy" played, the babies stared at the face three to four seconds longer, suggesting they were interested in the shift.

By 9 months old, babies can do the opposite, picking out the sorrowful sound of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony from a pack of happy pieces.

BYU music professor Susan Kenney, who was not involved with the study, noted some of the technical differences between the happy and sad songs the babies heard.

"The happy songs were all in major keys with fairly short phrases or motives that repeated," Kenney said. "The tempo and melodic rhythms were faster than any of the sad selections, and the melodies had a general upward direction. Four of the sad songs were in minor keys and all had a slower beat and long melodic rhythms. For an infant to notice those differences is fascinating."

Tags: baby, infant, music, toddler, song, emotion, happy, sad

Study: Abstinence pledges may trigger risky sexual behavior

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:19:49 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

The latest study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that teens who pledge abstinence until marriage are more likely to have oral and anal sex than other teens who have not had intercourse.

"They substitute other non-coital sex, which, however, puts you at risk," said Hannah Brueckner, assistant professor of sociology at Yale University and one of the study's authors.

Among virgins, boys who have pledged abstinence were four times more likely to have had anal sex, according to the study. Overall, pledgers were six times more likely to have oral sex than teens who have remained abstinent but not as part of a pledge.

The pledging group was also less likely to use condoms during their first sexual experience or get tested for STDs, the study found.

Leslee Unruh, president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, S.D., called the study "bogus," and disputed that those involved had pledged true "abstinence."

Tags: abstinence, sex, education, teens, teenagers

Chinese Government Forcing Online Gamers to Use Real Names

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:47:13 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.gamepolitics.com

According to brief report in People's Daily Online, China's notoriously Internet-repressive government will begin requiring online gamers to register using their real names.

Zhang also indicated that the operations of four online game companies have been suspended after Chinese government inspectors discovered that their software did not contain the required anti-addiction system.

IncGamers has more info:

...the real name registration system does not mean that gamers cannot use screen-names, but rather that their online gaming accounts must be linked to their real world identification number, which is issued by the government.

[A Chinese gamer] went on to explain that linking a gamer's online account to their ID number means the government can keep track of how long underage gamers are playing. Minors are limited to playing for three hours per day...

Tags: china, oppression, anonymity, privacy, game, gaming, online

Deep-Voiced Men Have More Kids

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:56:59 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Previous studies conducted by David Feinberg of McMaster University in Canada have shown that women are more attracted to men with deeper voices, judging them to be older, healthier and more masculine than their higher-pitched rivals.

Men, on the other hand, go for women with higher pitched voices because they find them more attractive, subordinate, feminine, healthier and younger-sounding.

"While we find in this new study that voice pitch is not related to offspring mortality rates," Feinberg said, "we find that men with low voice pitch have higher reproductive success and more children born to them."

the researchers studied the Hadza tribe of Tanzania, one of the last true hunter-gatherer cultures. Because the Hadza have no modern birth control, the researchers were able to compare birth rates without any outside influencing factors.

They found that Hadza men with deeper voices had more children than those with higher voices.

Tags: men, women, gender, voice, pitch, sexual, children, reproduction

Blood and gore don't make video games more enjoyable: study

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:44:05 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.google.com

Spilling the blood and guts of an opponent and other macabre acts of violence do not make video games more enjoyable for players, according to a new study.

The researchers wanted to find out if the same game became more fun for players when they made it more violent.

"And the answer to that question was no ... as you made the game more violent, it didn't add extra variance in how enjoyable the game was."

In fact, he said the games are popular because they offer players meaningful opportunities to interact and work together, or to feel effective and exercise choice.

"What they're really chasing is having their psychological needs met. Cranking up the violence knob doesn't automatically make a game automatically more fun."

Przybylski noted there was one sub-group of participants identified as being more aggressive - about five per cent - who showed a preference for violent games, even though they didn't rate them as more enjoyable.

Tags: blood, gore, violence, game, gaming, agression

The Adult Videogamer Market in the U.S.: Tapping into the New Diversity of Video-Game Players

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:55:04 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.reportlinker.com

This groundbreaking Packaged Facts report provides a detailed analysis of the consumer attitudes and behavior of the 114 million American adults who play video games. Videogamers represent more than half of the adult population and have an aggregate income of $4 trillion.

Through the innovative use of data from the Simmons Market Research Bureau National Consumer Survey, this Packaged Facts report challenges numerous stereotypes of videogamers. For example, videogamers are far from being slackers who do nothing but sit for hours on end in front of a gaming console or computer screen. In fact, videogamers are exceptionally active consumers. They work out more, go out more and shop more than adult Americans who don’t play video games. Although video games are a primary form of entertainment for many gamers, traditional forms of media and entertainment such as watching television, going to the movies and dining out remain a central part of the leisure-time habits of most video-game players

Tags: adult, gaming, game, statistics, demographics, marketing

Scientists prove it really is a thin line between love and hate

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:20:58 GMT

clipped by: Catshade

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Professor Zeki and John Romaya of the Wellcome Laboratory of Neurobiology analysed the activity of the neural circuits in the brain that lit up when the volunteers were viewing photos of the hated person.

They found that the hate circuit includes parts of the brain called the putamen and the insula, found in the sub-cortex of the organ. The putamen is already known to be involved in the perception of contempt and disgust and may also be part of the motor system involved in movement and action.

"Significantly, the putamen and the insula are also both activated by romantic love. This is not surprising. The putamen could also be involved in the preparation of aggressive acts in a romantic context, as in situations when a rival presents a danger,"

One major difference between love and hate appears to be in the fact that large parts of the cerebral cortex – associated with judgement and reasoning – become de-activated during love, whereas only a small area is deactivated in hate.

Tags: love, hate, brain