Clipmarks | balthazarus's Pops

How Concepts Affect Consumption

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:00:05 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: fascinating, go read

Clip Source: www.predictablyirrational.com

Our prehistoric ancestors spent much of their waking hours foraging for and consuming food, an instinct that obviously paid off. Today this instinct is no less powerful, but for billions of us it’s satisfied in the minutes it takes to swing by the store and pop a meal in the microwave. With our physical needs sated and time on our hands, increasingly we’re finding psychological outlets for this drive, by seeking out and consuming concepts.

Conceptual consumption strongly influences physical consumption. Keeping up with the Joneses is an obvious example. The SUV in the driveway is only partly about the need for transport; the concept consumed is status. Dozens of studies tease out the many ways in which concepts influence people’s consumption, independent of the physical thing being consumed. Here are just three of the classes of conceptual consumption that we and others have identified.

by Dan Ariely and Michael I. Norton

The full paper on which this article is based is available here.

Tags: concepts, consumption

THE SYNCHRONIZATION OF BRAINS

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:01:12 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: JAMSHED BHARUCHA
Professor of Psychology, Provost, Senior Vice President, Tufts University

"An understanding of how brains synchronize " or fail to do so " will be a game-changing scientific development."

Highly recommended, go read it all

Clip Source: www.edge.org

Few behavioral forces are as strong as the delineation of in-groups and out-groups: 'us' and 'them'. Group affiliation requires alignment, coupling or synchronization of the brain states of members. Synchronization yields cooperative behavior, promotes group cohesion, and creates a sense of group agency greater than the sum of the individuals in the group. In the extreme, synchronization yields herding behavior. The absence of synchronization yields conflict.

People come under the grip of ideologies, emotions and moods are infectious, and memes spread rapidly through populations. Ethnic, religious, and political groups act as monolithic forces. Mobs, cults and militias are characterized by the melding of large numbers of individuals into larger units, such that the brains of individuals operate in lockstep – a single organism controlled by a single — distributed — nervous system.

Tags: brains, synchronization

Can Computers Decipher a 5,000-Year-Old Language?

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:06:58 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

A computer scientist is helping to uncover the secrets of the inscribed symbols of the Indus

The Indus civilization, which flourished throughout much of the third millennium B.C., was the most extensive society of its time. At its height, it encompassed an area of more than half a million square miles centered on what is today the India-Pakistan border. Remnants of the Indus have been found as far north as the Himalayas and as far south as Mumbai. It was the earliest known urban culture of the subcontinent and it boasted two large cities, one at Harappa and one at Mohenjo-daro. Yet despite its size and longevity, and despite nearly a century of archaeological investigations, much about the Indus remains shrouded in mystery.

A few years later, Rao entered the fray. Until then, people studying the script were archaeologists, historians, linguists or cryptologists. But Rao decided to coax out the secrets of the Indus script using the tool he knew best—computer science.

Tags: language, symbols

The Possibility of Impossible cultures

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:35:28 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Heuser suggests that only humans have evolved four computational capacities, constituting a phylogenetic mind gap between humans and other animals.

An important perspective, go read all of it

Clip Source: mindblog.dericbownds.net

Marc Hauser offers an essay in the 9 July issue of Nature, in which he suggests points of contact between work in the generative tradition of linguistics (Chomsky, etc.) and evolutionary developmental biology research on animal forms. Just as a developing animal form faces a massive range of possible variation:

...children are born with the capacity to acquire a wide range of possible languages, as opposed to specific languages such as English, Korean or French. This implies that a child is equipped with an abstract acquisition device, allowing the 'growth' of many different languages. Furthermore, as the child's acquisition device generates a space of possible languages, something internal or external to the device creates a space of impossible languages — forms that are never entertained by the child because they are poorly designed for acquisition and externalization in linguistic communication.

Generative computation

Mental symbols

Promiscuous interfaces

Abstract thought

Tags: culture, language

12 Steampunk Gadgets and Designs

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:14:34 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.toxel.com

Steampunk PS3

Steampunk Segway (Legway)

Steampunk Computer Mouse

Steampunk iPod Mini

Steampunk Laptop

Steampunk Headphones

Steampunk Watch

Steampunk USB Flash Drive

Steampunk Computer Keyboard

Steampunk Guitar

Steampunk LCD Monitor

Steampunk Goggles

Tags: steampunk, design

Art with clothes

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:13:34 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Clip Source: www.crookedbrains.net

Art With Clothes.

In past we have seen quite a few posts on art using clothes and other materials. But what we have here is really exceptional; using daily wear clothes like jeans, jackets, shirts, faces are made. And each of these faces looks really impressive and incredibly cool. Though no information is available about the artist/artists who created these, but they did a really fantastic job! (Thanks Ted)

Tags: cool

Open source gets its first legal journal: "International Free and Open Source Software Law Review"

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:43:42 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: Quoted from the first article:

Free and Open Source software, though now a robust business proposition, evokes for many, memories of the days when it was seen as crusade. Its proponents as well as its opponents still occasionally address the subject as though they were engaging in a philosophical debate. There are also differences of emphasis, and a whiff of sectarianism amongst the proponents of the various standard licences.
It is for others to address these theological disputes. It is, rather, the purpose of this Review to take one step back and look behind the rhetoric in a rigorous and objective fashion, to probe, to analyse, to question received wisdom, and to bring proper academic discipline to the study of Free and Open Source software in its legal and wider context.
Free and Open Source Software has become a serious player. It deserves serious analysis.

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

This week, in a sign of just how far open source has come in the past decade, the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review (IFOSSLR) was launched, aiming to "bring the highest standards to bear in analysis and comment on all aspects of Free and Open Source software."

The first issue is now available online.

Clip Source: www.ifosslr.org

International Free and Open Source Software Law Review

Clip Source: www.ifosslr.org

Foreword and statement of purpose: an introduction to IFOSS L. Rev.

HTML PDF

The Fiduciary Licence Agreement: Appointing legal guardians for Free Software Projects

HTML PDF

Collaborative Approach: Peer-to-Patent and the Open Source Movement

HTML PDF

Bad Facts Make Good Law: The Jacobsen Case and Open Source

HTML PDF

Introducing The Risk Grid

HTML PDF

Tags: academic, journal, law, legal, open source, papers, resource, review

Tents as Powerful Symbols

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:01:48 GMT

clipped by: JackieDel

Clip Source: australiansforpalestine.com

How would you feel if you were suddenly told that your house was about to be demolished by the government and you had five minutes to get out – no time to gather belongings, no time to get dressed, no time to appeal? How would you explain it to your distraught children if you yourself cannot understand such a wanton, cruel and senseless act? What justification can any government or council give when destroying family homes and belongings? Is the answer “building without a permit” good enough? How would you feel if you could not get a permit to build because of your race and religion? Would you accept that your house has to go because it stands in the way of a Wall that will separate you from your farming lands community and livelihood? Would you accept that another people of another religion have priority over your rights and want your land to build their houses even though they were not born in your land?

Palestinians often live in tents next to their demolished homes.

Tags: israel, palestine

Unusual Evolution

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:56:55 GMT

clipped by: Anangeli
clipper's remarks: I wonder if we could do the same!!!

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Ants inhabit 'world without sex'

An Amazonian ant has dispensed with sex and developed into an all-female species, researchers have found.

The ants reproduce via cloning - the queen ants copy themselves to produce genetically identical daughters.

This species - the first ever to be shown to reproduce entirely without sex - cultivates a garden of fungus, which also reproduces asexually.

The finding of the ants' "world without sex" is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Unusual evolution

And when they dissected the female insects, they found them to be physically incapable of mating, as an essential part of their reproductive system known as the "mussel organ" had degenerated.

Asexual reproduction of males from unfertilised eggs is a normal part of some insect reproduction, but asexual reproduction of females is "exceedingly rare in ants", wrote the researchers.

But this particular species is able to grow "a greater number of crops than other ant species",

Selective Memories/Creating an evocative user experience involves tapping into our most powerful method of recall and recognition.

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:10:24 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "So if memory rules perception, where does that leave the 21st-century product designer? The obvious answer"go out and create objects capable of evoking vivid memories"comes loaded with an inherent problem: memories exist in the mind of the user. The object, however well conceived, is merely a tool"

A fascinating read

Clip Source: www.metropolismag.com

In my book Emotional Design, I argue that the interplay between cognition and emotion occurs on three levels: the visceral, the behavioral, and the reflective. The lowest level, the visceral, is unconsciously triggered by the environment and driven by involuntary, biologically determined reactions (a fear of heights, say, or a yen for sweets). Visceral design is about appearances. Expert skills operate at the behavioral level. These are so well learned, so automatic (language, for example), that they’re performed with little or no conscious effort. The reflective level is where our consciousness resides, where we ponder the past and contemplate the future. Despite the sensual pull of the visceral, and our utter dependence on the behavioral, the reflective level ultimately dominates our perception. Why? Life is a series of temporary, fleeting experiences. The rest is, literally, memory.

Tags: design, experience, recall, recognition

Military experiments on civilians?

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:01:10 GMT

clipped by: kareval

Clip Source: www.brasschecktv.com

Military experiments
on civilians?

Who could do this?

Brasscheck TV

Cloud Patterns

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:50:13 GMT

clipped by: kareval
clipper's remarks: Have you ever been made fun of or scorned for
pointing out the strange "cloud" patterns in the
sky?

Well, now, after all these years, you have good
company.

Some weather reporters on mainstream TV are not only
acknowledging them, but also admitting they're
military made.

Clip Source: co120w.col120.mail.live.com

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/667.html

A bank robbery caught on Tweet (@ TravelingAnna you are one cool customer)

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:03:45 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: yet another twitter first (i believe)...

Clip Source: twitter.com

TravelingAnna

my bank was just held up- with me in it. HSBC 34 and 8. also my whole trackball is GONE!!! im locked in the bank still.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

they wont let us leave the bank.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

cant figure out how to call work without a trackball... police just arrived. maybe theyll let me go now.about 2 hours ago from mobile web

Tags: bank robbery, twitter

Wired Science News for Your Neurons Self-Irrigating Desert Plant Discovered

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:40:11 GMT

clipped by: LisPark

Clip Source: www.wired.com

A desert plant has apparently figured out how to water itself.

Ecologists had been puzzling over the desert rhubarb for years: Instead of the tiny, spiky leaves found on most desert plants, this rare rhubarb boasts lush green leaves up to a meter wide. Now scientists from the University of Haifa-Oranim in Israel have discovered that ridges in the plant’s giant leaves actually collect water and channel it down to the plant’s root system, harvesting up to 16 times more water than any other plant in the region.

“It is the first example of a self-irrigating plant,” said plant biologist Gidi Ne’eman, a co-author on the paper published in March in Naturwissenschaften, a German journal of ecology. “This is the only case we know, but in other places in the world there might be additional plants that use the same adaptions.”

Tags: science, plants

Does Free & Open Video Equal Change/Democracy?

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:29:55 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: Found this via wildcat.

In my opinion, it does not equal democracy or establish an utopia. But surely it can help & support it if done the right way.

http://openvideoconference.org/videos/

Clip Source: rhizome.org

Does free video uploading and downloading equal democracy?

The mission statement for the conference reads, “Open Video is a movement to promote free expression and innovation in online video." The conference and its affiliates aimed to respond to outdated copyright law in an attempt to open the limits on the circulation and distribution of copyrighted material.

The situation is nicely summed up by media scholar Geert Lovink, in his recent manifesto written with Ned Rossiter.

he utopianism of “open and free” video culture, it seems, is correct in that it allows people to do things they could not do before. But this does not automatically equal change or democracy in itself. Any proclamation of social utopia deserves a second look

As László Barabási points out, the majority of internet traffic still flows through major hubs—hubs like Amazon and Yahoo, which means that online content generally continues to rely on traditional media channels for distribution.

Tags: change, democracy, free, innovation, open, video, copyright