Richard Dawkins - Your 185 Millionth Great Grandfather Was A Fish - YouTube Video

Richard Dawkins : The Magic Of Reality

Your 185 Millionth Great Grandfather Was A Fish

Amateur Innovators Construct Hand-Held Thermal Detection Device

Sick of living in a poorly-heated apartment? You can now expose draughty trouble spots by building your own thermal flashlight and painting colourful heat maps on your walls.

The do-it-yourself technology developed by the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, a non-profit group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, lets homeowners and tenants document the temperature around their home to reveal inadequate insulation.

Last month, during a hacking session at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, students with little electronics experience gathered to make their own flashlights from a multicoloured LED, a thermal sensor, a circuit board and wire.

A programmed mini-processor was used to control how the unit responds to heat. One student exploited the hackable nature of the tool to develop a wand design as an alternative to the standard exterior made from a VHS tape case.

By the end of the afternoon the flashlights were ready for testing. The students waved frozen water bottles in front of the device while capturing a time-lapse of the light painting with the online webcam program Glowdoodle.

To find out more about the device and potential applications for environmental monitoring, read our full news story: "Thermal flashlight 'paints' cold rooms with colour".

Problem Solving: Generic Parts Technique (GPT)

Stuck solving a problem? Seek the obscure, says Tony McCaffrey, a psychology PhD from the University of Massachusetts.

“There’s a classic obstacle to innovation called ‘functional fixedness,’ which is the tendency to fixate on the common use of an object or its parts. It hinders people from solving problems.”

McCaffrey has developed a systematic way of overcoming that obstacle: the “generic parts technique” (GPT), which he describes in the latest issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science.

The article also reports on McCaffrey’s test of GPT’s effectiveness. Its results: People trained in GPT solved eight problems 67 percent more often than those who weren’t trained, and the first group solved them more than 8 times out of 10.

Here’s how GPT works: “For each object in your problem, you break it into parts and ask two questions,” explains McCaffrey, who is now a post-doctoral fellow in UMass’s engineering department.

”1. Can it be broken down further? and 2. (this is the one that’s been overlooked) Does my description of the part imply a use?”

So you’re given two steel rings and told to make a figure-8 out of them. Your tools? A candle and a match.

Melted wax is sticky, but the wax isn’t strong enough to hold the rings together. What about the other part of the candle?

The wick. The word implies a use: Wicks are set afire to give light. “That tends to hinder people’s ability to think of alternative uses for this part,” says McCaffrey.

Think of the wick more generically as a piece of string and the string as strands of cotton and you’re liberated.

Now you can remove the wick and tie the two rings together. Or, if you like, shred the string and make a wig for your hamster.

McCaffrey has drawn his insights by analyzing 1,001 historically innovative inventions. In every one, he found, the innovator discovered an obscure feature or an obscure function.

McCaffrey cites a recent invention to solve a modern problem. “In this very poor section of the Philippines, people living in shanties were using electric lights inside while it was sunny outside,” he says.

How to save money on electricity? “Take a 2-litre Coke bottle, stick it through a hole in the roof, fill it with water.

The water reflects the light around the inside the house.” A simple idea, using an overlooked feature of water: “It refracts light 360 degrees.”

GPT is one of a “palette” of techniques McCaffrey is developing into what he calls “innovation assistance software,” which itself can be put to novel uses.

His undergraduate student, a comedy writer, is applying the technique to build obscure situations that can make people laugh.

More information: http://www.psychol … ical_science

Brain Technology can improve their visual performance

Scientists discovered that brain technology can help people learn new things and it doesn’t require much concentration at all.

In theory, if a person were to use the new method, he could look into a computer screen and learn a new language.

ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratory and Boston University researchers used brain technology to help people improve their visual performance in areas such as memory, motor, and rehabilitation.

For example, if a person wants to be a good athlete, then his brain pattern should align to those seen in a professional through real-time feedback. Or if a person needs to be treated after an accident, his brain patterns could be changed to match the baseline. That’s all in theory for now, but the study shows promising results.

To do this, a person could look at computer screen to obtain a specific activation pattern in their brain. Furthermore, this study found that the subjects improved their performance without actually being aware of what they were learning.

Wait? Really? The experiment used decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to improve the subjects’ ability. The subjects also participated in neuro-feedback training so they could match their brain activity to the desired visual performance.

The study was published in the journal Science.

“So we have to test if the method works in other types of learning in the future,” ATR’s professor Mitsuo Kawato said in a statement. “At the same time, we have to be careful so that this method is not used in an unethical way.”

Addicted to Risk - Naomi Klein TED Video

Ben Goldacre: Bad Science kills

CLICK on the picture to play the video

Here's Ben "Bad Science" Goldacre presenting on how non-evidence-based medicine can kill you and thousands of your friends.

Ben's book, titled Bad Science, is great as well, and it comes highly recommended.

He had to take out a chapter to avoid litigation by Mathias Rath, who travelled to South Africa and widely publicised claims that vitamins can cure AIDS. This fell into line with the South African AIDS denialists.

Ben posted that chapter on his website, and it may be one of the most important things ever written in the area of critical thinking. Lack of responsible treatment for AIDS kills hundreds of thousands of people in Africa alone.

When people like Ben win, lives are saved. The more people who know about him, the better. He's a true hero of skepticism.

Terry Pratchett and Alzheimer's

Most science fiction readers and writing fans will know that Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with having Alzheimer's.

A condition which I am reluctant to call a disease until it has been clearly identified as such or better defined.

Terry Pratchett is also determined to write about his experiences with or within the condition, for as long as he can, and as always, he has been very lucid and open about how the condition manifests itself and affects his life.

He is also not alone in raging against the debilitating condition and the difficulty in finding an effective treatment for it or an approach to avoiding the onset of the condition in the first place, if possible.

…it is strange that a disease that attracts so much attention, awe, fear and superstition is so underfunded in treatment and research. We don't know what causes it, and as far as we know the only way to be sure of not developing it is to die young. Regular exercise and eating sensibly are a good idea, but they don't come with any guarantees. There is no cure. Researchers are talking about the possibility of a whole palette of treatments or regimes to help those people with dementia to live active and satisfying lives, with the disease kept in reasonably permanent check in very much the same way as treatments now exist for HIV. Not so much a cure therefore as - we hope - a permanent reprieve. We hope it will come quickly, and be affordable.


When my father was in his terminal year, I discussed death with him. I recall very clearly his relief that the cancer that was taking him was at least allowing him "all his marbles". Dementia in its varied forms is not like cancer. Dad saw the cancer in his pancreas as an invader but Alzheimer's is a slow unwinding of me, losing trust in myself, a butt of my own jokes and on bad days capable of playing hunt the slipper by myself and losing.

Another appropriate quote is taken from Pratchett's Unseen Academicals has Havelock Vetinari speaking terry's own words about natural evil.

I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect never will again, but one day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged on to a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.

A call to rise above the casual cruelty of nature. Terry Pratchett has been afflicted with a disease which has, currently no known cause or cure. It is a condition that is slowly destroying his 'mind' and/or his current view of himself.

Perhaps the greatest fear of all, is that we lose the very intimate recollection of who we are because our perception of 'self' is all we have to identify ourselves as individuals and thus, separate ourselves from a collective entity.

Unemployed? Why not bodly go and join the Space race.

Space jobs are available here .....

Dr Carl Sagan remembered - Visionary, philosopher and charismatic speaker, an inspiration to to his generation

The late, great Dr Carl Sagan, a professor of astronomy and space science at Cornell University and an adviser to Nasa, played a major role in setting up Seti, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

However, he is probably best known to the public for the television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, and his books Pale Blue Dot and The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.

As well as his research, he was a major science advocate and populariser, and a vociferous supporter of scepticism and rationality.

He was a visionary, philosopher and charismatic speaker, an inspiration to to his generation and hopefully, those that come on behind. A truly great human being and one that is sorely missed.

Iran: Brazil Enjoying Closer Nuclear Co-operation

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended closer ties with Brazil Friday, hinting at a bilateral nuclear cooperation ahead of a state visit.

Ahmadinejad stressed the "need for cooperation between the two countries in various fields," according to a statement distributed here by the Iranian embassy.

"While there is an unfair polemic in Western countries against Iran's peaceful nuclear program, the people of Brazil side with the Iranian people."

Pointing to Brazil's own nuclear program, Ahmadinejad said Brazilians "understand that a few arrogant powers... are trying to prevent other nations from having access to advanced science."

Ahmadinejad arrives in Brazil on Monday for a busy day-long visit that includes a meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, signing bilateral trade deals, a visit to Congress, a press conference and a speech at a Brasilia university, according to the embassy.

It will be the first visit by an Iranian president to Brazil, and Ahmadinejad's third round of talks with Lula, who is scheduled to visit Tehran in early 2010.

Israel, whose conservative government considers Ahmadinejad-ruled Iran an existential threat, has already blasted Brazil's "mistake" in hosting the firebrand leader.

Brazil has backed Iran's nuclear development program, as long as it serves peaceful, civilian uses. Lula told AFP in September that he was against sanctions on Iran, preferring instead diplomacy.

His stance contrasts with the United States, its Western allies and Israel, which charge that Tehran is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb under the cover of its suspect nuclear program.

World powers are engaged in long-running efforts to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions but in the latest setback, Tehran has rejected a proposed nuclear fuel deal.

The Iranian leader called for Brasilia's cooperation on Middle East concerns, as Brazil seeks to boost its international profile to match its growing economic heft.

"If the Brazilian people and the Iranian people are united on issues such as the Zionist regime's cruel attack on the defenseless people of Gaza, this will show a mutual desire" for peace, Ahmadinejad said.

He was referring to the 22-day Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that ended in January, killing some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

Ahmadinejad's stop in Brazil, part of a broader Latin American tour to boost its influence in the region, comes just over a week after Lula hosted Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Adaptive Change Management - Part 2 The Science

The Science of Change, is a completely different entity. It provides the structure to support change management activities.

It helps bring order to the often complex process of managing the human elements of a project by defining the tasks, roles, milestones and timelines required to achieve project objectives.

Without Science, our insights into human motivation remain only insights without the corresponding actions needed to create desired behavioural change.

The Science of Change is more than a well-designed deliverable. It is the process that can translate the language of human behaviour into the language of project management. You will understand how necessary this is because it helps Project managers better understand the relationship between technical activities and the actions required to achieve the behavioural change required.

The elements that need to be applied include:

• Project Management 101 - Although the change team can create a high-level plan upfront, they also need to expand the detail once the project has started. They also need to fully link their activities with those of other work streams. This will build their credibility and they are more likely to be seen as collaborative, and avoid the change team being seen as separate from the project, the PMO and technical teams.
• Follow the Leader - The change team need to identify one clear leader, and avoid operating in a loose formation. Busy project managers, who are focused on driving to timelines and budgets, will better understand the chain of command and will easily direct the communications and accountability, in that direction. Increasing the visibility of the change leader improves the perception of accountability and establishes a clear point of communication, which project leaders need and demand.
• Boundaries - Once you have established clear divisions and boundaries capture them in a detailed project plan. That way the team will better understand what skills and capability is needed to complete the work. This strengthens the quality focus and the targetted results because team members are assigned work consistent with their skills.
• Define Tasks - Provide a clear project structure with well defined tasks and task responsibilities. This will help everyone focus on their specific objectives and prevent the change team holding a crisis meeting every day, to address the latest hot issue of the day.
• Proven Tools - Use the well trodden path and well proven tools, wherever possible and include them in the detailed project plan. It introduces more constants and helps the team see where they can bring consistency into the use of tools. This also brings with it an improvement in the quality of reports, assessments, and templates that work stream leaders use. It is teh responsibility of the change team to make project teams aware of the existance of such tools and that they are used appropriately.
• Regular Team Meetings - The Science of Change will also help manage the regular team meetings effectively and make them more focused and directed. The change team needs to create a more consistent meeting schedule and again make sure the appropriate structure is adhered to.

When the 'Art of change' is applied without the 'Science of Change', the change team will be visibly less successful and less able to help the project resources adapt to the new organisational realities.

When you apply the surgical tools of the Science, the PMO team will not only understand the actions required for intervention, but also the deliverables and accountability to help them generate better results.

Integration is essential.
The 'Science' needs the 'Art' because the 'Art' identifies any underlying issues and the drivers of behavioural change. It identifies pathways and conduits for adaptive solutions to flow through and this is required to overcome any and all project challenges.

Likewise, the 'Art' needs the 'Science' because the 'Science' converts the 'Art’s information and ideas into an understanable and realisable structured action with clearly defined outcomes.

The 'Art' identifies what needs to happen and the 'Science' makes it happen. By recognising and understanding the existance and the connections between the two, change leaders will be far better able to bring about the adaptive capability, required to manage change, more effectively.

Technology and Romance

Technology is very like a stormy romance. When everything clicks, you’re on top of the world — but every now and then, something goes horribly wrong, and your heart gets broken.

Like when your hard drive dies, or your new gadget becomes obsolete after two weeks, or you find out that that gorgeous iPhone runs only on a limited T-Mobile service.