INFORMAVORE's SUNDAY No 476

My dear readers,  

Please read the issue No. 476 of this weekly publication.

As usual I am not competing with other publications and therefore

I have avoided to write about the most popular subjects as Nobel prizes and Steve Job’s death. IS is not a “me too” publication.

Peter

SEARCH

INTERNET

 

With Big Data Comes Big Responsibilities Huge data sets are a powerful new tool for researchers, but a new paper says it's easy to be overconfident about what can be learned from them:. http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38775/?nlid=nlcomp&nld=2011-10-05

SEARCH & FIND: What, where, how.  

The invisible Web: http://websearch.about.com/od/invisibleweb/The_Deep_Web_Find_Out_More_About_The_Deep_Web_Deep_Web_Search.htm

 Amazon's Cloud Gives Its New Browser an Unfair EdgeThe Silk browser—developed for Amazon's Kindle Fire—could make for the fastest mobile browsing experience yet: http://www.technologyreview.com/web/38728/?nlid=nlcomm&nld=2011-10-03

 

The Top Internet Memes of the Last 15 Years

Viral Humor, Bizarre Curiosities, and Infectious Storytelling: http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/weirdwebculture/tp/The-Best-Internet-Memes.htm?nl=1

BLOGS and SOCIAL SITES

What does eight years of blogging get you? http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/what-does-eight-years-of-blogging-get-you/

This small wonderful world (blogging):

http://culturaloffering.com/2011/10/04/the-small-world.aspx

Facebook now as big as the entire Internet was in 2004:

http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/10/05/facebook-now-as-big-as-the-entire-internet-was-in-2004/?utm_source=sel&utm_medium=scap&utm_campaign=email

The Simple Way to Avoid Social Media Failures:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/the_simple_way_to_avoid_social.html

 

Infographic: 60 Seconds of Social Media Sharing:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394317,00.asp#fbid=K-AwImyODp2

GOOGLE

 

Peer into the inner workings of Google with search stats

http://websearch.about.com/b/2011/09/28/how-to-find-google-search-statistics.htm?nl=1

 

Google+ rides momentum up social net ranks

After opening membership to all, visits to Google+ skyrocket: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9220473/Google_rides_momentum_up_social_net_ranks?source=CTWNLE_nlt_pm_2011-10-03

Google Wallet Surprisingly Easy to Use: http://searchengineland.com/google-wallet-surprisingly-easy-to-use-95362

Top 10 negative Google News ranking factors:

http://searchengineland.com/top-10-negative-google-news-ranking-factors-95012

 

Marissa Mayer: I thought Google had a 2% chance of success: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/03/marissa-mayer-google/?utm_source=sel&utm_medium=scap&utm_campaign=email

 

Google's Troubled Search for Valuable Patents An analysis suggests that patents it recently bought from IBM won't help much against competitors such as Apple and Microsoft:

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38791/?nlid=nldly&nld=2011-10-07

 

Who Will Win the Web Browser Battle: Google Chrome Vs FireFox:

http://skytechgeek.com/2011/08/who-will-win-the-web-browser-battle-google-chrome-vs-firefox/

Dan Ariely: Google and New Labor Models: http://bigthink.com/ideas/40391

WORDS, BOOKS, LIBRARIES

 

Linguistics Say what? To find new subjects of study, some linguists simply open their front doors

http://www.economist.com/node/21528592

15% of Americans own e-reader, 15% more want one

E-readers are becoming increasingly popular with current data putting ownership at 15% of Americans, according to a recent poll by Harris Interactive:

http://www.bizreport.com/2011/10/15-of-americans-own-e-reader-15-more-want-one.html

SCIENCE

 

Music of the brain, each synapse has its own natural rhythm:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/music-of-the-brain-each-synapse-has-its-own-natural-rhythm

 

When Water and Air Meet: New Light Shed On Mysterious Structure of World's Most Common Liquid Interface:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111003132208.htm

 

Pumice Proposed as Home to the First Life Forms:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111004132545.htm

 

Vicious Queen Ants Use Mob Tactics to Reach the Top:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929235154.htm

Another faster-than-light neutrino challenge:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/another-faster-than-light-neutrinos-challenge

 

Neutrinos and the Speed of Light — A Primer on the CERN Study:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/09/neutrinos-and-the-speed-of-light-a-primer-on-the-cern-study/

The Scicurious Brain: The Good, Bad, and Weird in Physiology and Neuroscience:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/scicurious-brain/

Five iconic science images, and why they're wrong:

http://scienceblogs.com/sciencepunk/2011/09/five_iconic_science_images_and.php

Is chivalry the norm for insects?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111006125406.htm

TECHNOLOGY

 

Will Clean Energy Ever Be a Reality in the U.S.? Here's What's Standing in Our Way

Wind and solar sources make up almost half of all new electricity generation in Europe, but we're far behind in the U.S. -- so what gives?:

http://www.alternet.org/environment/152533/will_clean_energy_ever_be_a_reality_in_the_us_heres_whats_standing_in_our_way

Hydrogen Released to Fuel Cell More Quickly When Stored in Metal Nanoparticles:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929122852.htm

 

Novel Energy-Storage Membrane: Performance Surpasses Existing Rechargeable Batteries and Supercapacitors:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929074021.htm

Dipping May Improve Ultracapacitors and BatteriesA sheath of carbon nanotubes or conductive polymer improves the charge-storage capacity of electrodes:

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/38790/?nlid=nlmat&nld=2011-10-06

 

Ionic Liquid Catalyst Helps Turn Emissions Into Fuel:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111006162537.htm

 

Components Based On Nature’s Example:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111005110241.htm

 

Technology to Make Old-Age Safer:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111006084030.htm

 

Early Stages of Carbon Nanotube Growth Discovered:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111003080512.htm

 

New Fabric Could Make Doing Laundry Unnecessary:

http://gimundo.com/news/article/new-fabric-could-make-doing-laundry-unnecessary/

EDUCATION, CULTURE, ART

 

Suffering of the Poor May Have Helped Societies With Class Structures Spread Across Globe:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110928152058.htm

Information and Human Society- Book review: http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/information-and-human-society

Culturomics 2.0: Forecasting large-scale human behavior using global news media tone in time and space: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3663/3040

 

Research Sheds Light On Origins of Greatness:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111005143726.htm

 

Fighting Prejudice Through Imitation: Asking White People to Mirror the Movements of a Black Person Lowers Their Levels of Implicit Prejudice:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111003132237.htm

A new blog- Lead. Learn. Live: http://davidkanigan.wordpress.com/

Bernadette Mayer’s  List of journal Ideas:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1M3cP5/www.writing.upenn.edu/library/Mayer-Bernadette_Experiments.html

8 ironic effects of thought surpression: http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/10/8-ironic-effects-of-thought-suppression.php

Preying on sadness  Psychics do have special powers – turning grief into money:                    http://newhumanist.org.uk/2599/preying-on-sadness

 

Now the World is a Sadder, Sillier Place: http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2011/10/now-the-world.html

Writing guides: http://writing.colostate.edu/index.cfm

BUSINESS

Steve Jobs on Work and Love #RIPSteveJobs: http://www.gautamblogs.com/2011/10/steve-jobs-on-work-and-love.html

The new knowledge worker:

http://www.jarche.com/2011/10/the-new-knowledge-worker/

 

Leadership Development Carnival: October 2011 Edition http://www.elephantsatwork.com/leadership-development-carnival-october-2011-edition/

A very special case of marketing HBS Cases: Lady Gaga:

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6812.html

Gerry McGovern- The future is about service:

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2011/nt-2011-10-03-It's-service.htm

 

Managing Yourself: A Smarter Way to Network:

http://hbr.org/2011/07/managing-yourself-a-smarter-way-to-network/ar/1

 

Making a case for more candor at startups: http://blogs.reuters.com/small-business/2011/09/27/making-a-case-for-more-candor-at-startups/

Creative branding- the process of making your mark: http://hyder.me/marketing/creative-branding/

Eight tips to deal with explosive persons:

http://blog.ajnovickgroup.com/2007/09/eight-tips-to-deal-with-explosive.html

Managers need problem solving:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Managers-need-problem-solving-2200608.php

 

Leadership: How to Prepare for a Black Swan

Disrupter analysis can help assess the risks of future catastrophic events:

http://www.strategy-business.com/article/11303?gko=e5fac&cid=20111004enews

 

.Leadership: Transforming Perceptions: 10 Steps to Managing the Way You Are Perceived at Work:  http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2011/10/transforming-perceptions-10-steps-to.html

When tributes matter the most:

http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2011/10/06/when-tributes-matter-most.aspx

Boost your productivity: http://nicholasbate.typepad.com/nicholas_bate/pdfs/boost.pdf

Three questions for effective feedback: http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2011/08/three-questions-for-effective-feedback.html

A nice management miniature (course): http://www.execupundit.com/2011/10/management-ramblings.html#links

16 Competencies Guaranteed to Deliver Results

http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/16-competencies-guaranteed-to-deliver-results/

HEALTH & MEDICINE

Technologies for Healthier Living

New health-tracking apps, devices, and platforms from the Health 2.0 conference: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/38691/?nlid=nlbio&nld=2011-10-04

Level and Nature of Autistic Intelligence: What About Asperger Syndrome?:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110928180405.htm

 

One Quarter of Seniors Over 70 Have Had Silent Strokes:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111004113739.htm

 

Depression Uncouples Brain's 'Hate Circuit', MRI Study Finds:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111004113751.htm

Biologists Find 'Surprising' Number of Unknown Viruses in Sewage: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111005172651.htm

FOOD & COOKING

 

Biofuels may push 120 million into hunger:

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/675410/biofuels_may_push_120_million_into_hunger/#paragraph4

 

Weeds Are Vital to the Existence of Farmland Species, Study Finds:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929122755.htm

 

Killing Crop-Eating Pests: Compounds Work by Disrupting Bugs' Winter Sleep:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110928110014.htm

Closer to solve the cod mystery:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111004132710.htm

Google launches beer:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20114138-71/google-launches-beer/

Understanding Wine: It's About Wisdom, Not Knowledge:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jefflefevere/2011/10/02/understanding-wine-its-about-wisdom-not-knowledge/

 

Try a New Recipe! - All the Newest & Best Thai Recipes:

http://thaifood.about.com/od/thairecipes/tp/newestrecipes.htm?nl=1

 

Top 10 Middle Eastern Recipes for Beginners:

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/middleeasternfood101/tp/beginnerrecipes.htm?nl=1

MISCELLANEA

 

Kim Noble: The woman with 100 personalities:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/sep/30/kim-noble-woman-with-100-personalities

SELECTED NEWS

SPAM & SPYWARE   

VIRUSES & e-CROOKS

 

The future of malware. Watch out for whaling, smartphone worms and social media scams, not to mention attacks targeting your car and house: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9220459/The_future_of_malware?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2011-10-04

 

What's In Your Inbox?:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailscams/a/Whats-In-Your-Inbox.htm?nl=1

 

What is zero day exploit?:

http://antivirus.about.com/b/2011/10/05/what-is-a-zero-day-exploit.htm?nl=1

An Infection That Produces a Glazed Look- a book about the Conficker worm:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/books/mark-bowdens-worm-about-conficker-review.html

 

Being Smart about Cloud Security

An authority on Web security believes your data might be safer in the cloud: http://www.technologyreview.com/business/38714/?nlid=nlbus&nld=2011-10-07.

WiFi

Let's Talk, iPhone

Could Apple be about to give iPhone users an AI personal assistant? And if so, will people like it?: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38739/?nlid=nlcomp&nld=2011-10-05

Amazon and Microsoft Take the Battle to Google:

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/73398.html

Top 100 best Android apps:

http://savedelete.com/top-100-best-android-apps.html

SEVEN SKINNY E-CATS EATING SEVEN FAT CATS

 (comments regarding the Oct.6 Fat Cat experiment)

Quoting from Ni-H LENR Genesis 40:21  (a chapter of the Transition Metal LENR Great Book)

 “I was standing on the bank of the river when there came up seven Fat E-Cats generating energy. After them,  seven other E-cats came up, skinny and ugly and ate the Fat Cats.”

It has happened again- not the ugly facts were slaying beautiful hypotheses but bad experiments have ruined good ideas. First,

when the tweets of the journalists have announced that the  Fat Cat

is in the wonderful state of self-sustainment but the power is surprisingly low, 3.5 kW for a device of nominal power of 27kW I

thought it is a case of Pyrrhic victory i.e. Rossi has sacrificed 87% of the capacity in order to eliminate two weaknesses of the former

experiments:

- measuring now the enthalpy of the fluids coming out of the E-cat’s core;

- going in self-sustaining regime and eliminating doubts re the input.energy plus solving the COP problem  (these two points make a good experimental strategy)

However as more and more data came out, the outcame became more and more like a kind of Pyrrhic defeat.

My fears expressed in : http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com/2011/10/one-fat-cat-better-than-52-fat-cats.html

became a sad reality:

- we were promised a 12+ hours experiment, but it was stopped after 7.5 hours with no explanation; was it a case of vis major or just an ad-hoc capricious decision?

- the secondary circuit cooling water has worked with a small temperature difference and with low measurement precision;

- the primary steam hot water circuit was open and this can mean that the E-cats still cannot work with internal recirculation-as it was promoted by Defkalion;

- I insist in telling that for an open primary circuit direct steam sparging in a steam-water mixing valve is much better than a heat exchanger;

- different analyses of the global COP value gave different results from negative to 6, but all very low; please consider that electric

energy is more expensive than thermal energy (in Romania’s towns the price of 1Gcal thermal energy varies between 70-and 245 RONs while 1Gcal electric energy is  465 RONs) ;

- a new mystery has appeared – the frequency generator?

 I will not tell more about the  experimental data, our Vortex colleague Horace Heffner has made a bright analysis:

http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/Rossi6Oct2011Review.pdf

Thank you, Horace, great work, it’s a pity that the raw data were not better or more relevant!\

In many respects, it was a kind of poor and hurried man’s experiment. The context- no contract with the great US company, still no official collaboration with the two friendly universities added to the negative perspective.

After all these incomplete experiments, I can sympathise with Rossi’s complains but cannot agree with them see e.g.:

………

Andrea Rossi

October 7th, 2011 at 5:58 PM

Dear One-of-the-99%:
The more I work, the more the E-Cats will work, the more will pop up blogs against our work: the more they are afraid of us, the more they will try to talk badly of us. The more they talk badly of us, the more they give evidence that our E-Cats work: nobody is aggressive against something he is not afraid of..
Now let’s go to the start up of the 1 MW plant.
Warm Regards,
A.R.

……

Wouldn’t it be easier to do at least one really good, well planned  and carefully executed experiment? Especially if the story that one E-cat has heated a space in Rossi’s building for two years is true.

But this repeatable event: we are shown a beautiful E-cat, and then comes an ugly one and swallows it –is very disappointing. To see how instead that high art of experiment optimization, the low practice of experiment pessimization (or ruin) is applied. does not promises a great future for this bold variant of LENR.

Some of my conclusions to the Oct 6 Fat Cat experiment:

a)     The Fat Cat really generates some excess heat (I made this statement before and have lost some good friends; I thought that “differences in opinion attract smart people and repels only those who are not so” but I was excessively naïve. For some people to not believe in the same Gods or theories as them, defines the enemy)

b)     To generate excess heat and to be a (potential) energy source  are very different things see e.g. http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com/2011/05/buying-e-cat-in-sack.html

Actually explosives for example give a lot of excess heat but it is really difficult to use them as energy source.

c)     The ECat or the Fat Cat do not generate excess heat in a fully controllable way. My good friend Francesco Piantelli has warned many times that till you don’t know all the parameters of the Ni-H system, you cannot control it. And this needs systematic work, research based on the scientific method. There are no shortcuts

to an industrial solution for anybody. OK, I know Rossi claims his system has nothing to do with Piantelli’s,  is NOT based on nanostructures and deep degassing but on a wonderful one-man’s secret catalyst, strangely unpatentable.

On long range, I think the E-cat is still corrigible; re its author, I don’t know.

Rossi’s latest performance in simultaneously doing and not doing things is very subversive for my confidence in the 1MW demo—21 days left to this ‘historical’ event

ONE FAT-CAT BETTER THAN 52 FAT-CATS?

Eventually, tomorrow Oct.6,  Andrea Rossi will make a kind of perfect demo, measuring the energy balance of n individual E-cat for a decent duration, assisted by a very select public. Perhaps some 50 persons, cumulative IQ much over 8,000.

The setup he will use is his new, rather massive Ni-H type of generator, known by the nick-name Fat Cat, combined with a heat exchanger. The water used for cooling the generator and transformed there in steam, will be cooled and recirculated going through the heat exchanger and back to the Fat- Cat – this being the primary, closed, internal circuit.

The heat released will be measured in the secondary open flow

of the cooling water used in the heat exchanger. In principle,

4 temperatures-or 2 ∆T’s- inlet and outlet to the Fat-Cat, inlet and  outlet cooling water, one flow (cooling water through the heat exchanger) have to be measured, recorded continuously and the heat produced  has to be computed and shown on a screen. It would be wise to measure the pressure in the primary circuit nad to put a pressure relief valve there. The inlet, electric energy will be measured and recorded as in the precedent tests.

It is not known if there will be some kind of automation, e.g.

the temperature of the water entering the Fat Cat will control the

flow of water in the secondary circuit? How will this be combined

with the usual control via the electric heaters of the core(s) of the E-cat? Actually not much is known.

Rossi said recently something about many (say 100) people) helping him. We will see now what are they worth- how was the

heat exchanger designed? How many identical setups were already tested and how long? In case this setup does not go well,

how many replacements are prepared? Actually, it could be wise to show the participants a device already working in relatively constant regime and to avoid the messy startup- as for airplanes, the risks are always greater there. And  to show later how an other second setup is put in function.

How well are the measuring instruments chosen? The PC program?

Again n principle, the technical solution is good and honest, what I strongly dislike is the internal circuit- combined with a potentially instable generator- I predict problems with the control of the unit.

By the way, when Rossi was still answering my messages I have suggested him direct condensation of the steam coming out from the  E-cat by mixing it with a constant flow of water. In other words- see please: http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com/2011/05/call-for-perfect-e-cat-experiment.html a steam-water mixing valve instead the heat exchanger; and open flow of the warm water thus obtained. No feedback via the closed circuit. In such cases, decisive experiments- all the complications have to be avoided.  I have made many where the risks were greater than a fiasco.  Murphy’s Laws are valid everywhere.

My impression was that Defkalion had (or still has, who knows?) very skilled engineers who could solve the instability problem combined with a closed circuit of the inner cooling liquid, hopefully Rossi’s present team is also good.

In Rossi’s system the heat losses are smaller then 5% if/when in steady functioning so we will know soon how much overunity

this Fat Cat is, during the short but stormy  history of Rossi’s invention, the clams for the output/input factor have decreased from a  spectacular 200;1 to a very modest 6;1  (guaranteed) plus promises of relatively short episodes of self-sustaining functioning. But please do not forget that input is always electric energy at least 3 times more expensive than raw thermal energy.

At the end of the experiment we probably will have a realistic value for the O/U factor.

I hope the participants will be free to measure radiations with their

own instruments. Perhaps Rossi will explain how his system, based

on a mystery catalyst and NOT on advanced nanotechnology as Piantelli’s (and being tolerant to the presence of air?) generates very small amounts of radiation. But this has to be proved.

I am reading on forums (with empathy) the many optimistic messages of the Rossi fans- they hope to get a demonstration that shows they were right. They hope Oct 6. will remain in the history of New Energy as kind of a “Sweet Thursday” (remember Steinbecks’ enchanting novel?)

I think the chances are greater for kind of  Bitter Thursday- or bad tasting/testing one. The greatest chances are for not tasting at all, i.e. generating more questions than giving answers.

A management wisdom says that if you not must to take decisions,

than do not take any decisions. The same is true for predictions, actually I am not paid or appreciated for making this rather negative prediction. I don’t care much for my prestige in this case.

Anyway, the experiment of tomorrow is much better and therefore much more important and relevant  than the 1MW demo with 52 untamed Fat Cats.

Obviously Friday I will be back for a thorough analysis of the test  or for making “mea culpa”- but do not bet on the second possibility.

Peter  

INFORMAVORE's SUNDAY No 475

Dear Readers,

I am back to routine, a “sine qua non” condition for promoting systematically non-routine ideas.

Please read this new issue of IS and study and enjoy the exceptional essay of my blog partner, Georgina- very wise and painfully realistic:  http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com/2011/10/roots-iv-pretender.html

Peter

SEARCH

INTERNET

SEARCH & FIND: What, where, how.  

The 50 best websites of 2011: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2087815,00.html

Wendy Boswell: The top 20 Web memes:

http://websearch.about.com/od/webmemes/tp/The-Top-20-Web-Memes.htm?nl=1

The top 20 strange websites on the Web:

http://websearch.about.com/od/bestwebsites/tp/20-least-useful-sites.htm?nl=1

Top 10 online tools for converting documents:  

http://savedelete.com/top-10-online-tools-for-converting-documents.html   

Top Ten Time Wasters on the Web:

 http://websearch.about.com/od/bestwebsites/ig/Top-Ten-Time-Wasters/?nl=1                             

Top Twenty Web Celebs:

http://websearch.about.com/od/bestwebsites/ig/Top-Ten-Time-Wasters/?nl=1

How does this site work?:

http://underthesite.com/

Versionista- track entire web sites: http://www.versionista.com/

BLOGS and SOCIAL SITES

 

Social Media Report: Q3 2011

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/

 

Facebook Fans: Are They Worth the Excitement?:

http://www.techipedia.com/2011/facebook-fans-worth/

The pleasure of the tweet: http://bigthink.com/ideas/40385

GOOGLE

Google celebrates 13-th birthday (Sept 27)

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/google-celebrates-13th-birthday-today-.html

Google 21^st century  robber baron:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottcleland/2011/09/19/google-21st-century-robber-baron/

Larry Page : Biggest Threat to Google? “Google”:

http://searchengineland.com/larry-page-biggest-threat-to-google-google-94588

Inside Google +:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/09/ff_google_horowitz/all/1

Google + may have 43 million users

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2112145/Google-May-Have-43-Million-Users

 

Google is most-sought employer – again College students pick Google for third straight year; IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Apple also make list of most attractive employers: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9220427/Google_is_most_sought_employer_again?source=CTWNLE_nlt_pm_2011-09-30

WORDS, BOOKS, LIBRARIES

The Nomal Verbal Dictionary of gestures, signs and body language cues:: http://center-for-nonverbal-studies.org/6101.html

Humans Make Language, Language Makes Us Human: http://bigthink.com/ideas/40320

How children learn language: http://bigthink.com/ideas/40321

The future of the book:

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-future-of-the-book/

E-books, privacy and the library:

http://infodocket.com/2011/09/27/8350/

One in 6 Americans Own an eReader:

http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/one-in-6-americans-own-ereader_b15839

 

Amazon Kindle Fire tablet review roundup:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/19018/amazon_kindle_fire_tablet_review_roundup?source=CTWNLE_nlt_blogs_2011-09-29

Learn about the Kindle Fire’s Web Browser (It’s New) Named Silk:

http://infodocket.com/2011/09/28/learn-about-the-kindle-fires-web-browser-its-new-named-silk/

 

The Kindle Fire's Browser: Mostly Smooth as Silk:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/73395.html

Introducing Amazon Silk: http://amazonsilk.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/introducing-amazon-silk/

SCIENCE

 

WorldWideScience: the Global Science Gateway 
http://worldwidescience.org

 

Digitizing the Coin of the Realm Electronic publication has transformed the culture of scientific communication:

http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2011/5/digitizing-the-coin-of-the-realm

Richard Resnick- welcome to the genome revolution:

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_resnick_welcome_to_the_genomic_revolution.html

Why does the Earth have a liquid core?:

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2011/09/why_does_the_earth_have_a_liqu.php?utm_source=networkbanner&utm_medium=link

 

Glow-In-The-Dark Millipede Says 'Stay Away':

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926131805.htm

Winners of the  2011 IgNobel Prizes: http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2011

TECHNOLOGY

 

The energy of the future:

http://bigthink.com/ideas/40403

 

Wind Power: Long-Term Wind Speed Changes Estimated:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926095331.htm

 

Cheap and Efficient Solar Cell Made Possible by Linked Nanoparticles:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926131401.htm

 

Darker Than Black' Metamaterial Promises Better Solar Cells Scientists devise a trick to make a material absorb 99 percent of the light that strikes it:

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27202/?nlid=nlmat&nld=2011-09-29

 

New Battery Could Be Just What the Grid Ordered A Pittsburgh company says its battery has the long life and cheap cost needed to be practical for energy storage.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/38689/?nlid=nldly&nld=2011-09-28

 

New material claimed to store more energy and cost less money than batteries:                                          http://www.gizmag.com/energy-storage-membrane-created/19996/

 

New Advanced Biofuel Identified as an Alternative to Diesel Fuel:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110927134254.htm

 

Building Better Catalysts http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929144628.htm

Scientists and Engineers Create the 'Perfect Plastic'

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929144637.htm

 

Occupational exposure to hazardous materials:

http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov/

New Method Cleans Up Textile Industry’s Most Dangerous Chemicals:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926102803.htm

The Code War
The collapse of the Twin Towers taught us many things about skyscraper safety. Will we actually use the knowledge?:

http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article09021101.aspx

Amazon’s :Fire” Android tablet Undermines Google:

http://searchengineland.com/amazon-android-tablet-undermines-google-94664

New Technique Maps Twin Faces of Smallest Janus Nanoparticles:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110927124920.htm

EDUCATION, CULTURE, ART

Why are Finland’s Schools so successful?:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html

The Digital Revolution and Higher Education: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/College-presidents.aspx

Teenage brains:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text/1

Learning in your sleep:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/learning-in-your-sleep

Dan Coyle: the Talent Code:

http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/2011/09/dan-coyle-the-talent-code/

We are the monsters we have been waiting for:

http://rigint.blogspot.com/2011/09/we-are-monsters-weve-been-waiting-for.html

The end of strategy- an essay by Dave Pollard:

http://howtosavetheworld.ca/2011/09/26/the-end-of-strategy/

Wanna live forever? Become a noun: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/09/28/140467781/wanna-live-forever-become-a-noun

Jonathan Fields on uncertainty:

http://www.stevenpressfield.com/2011/09/jonathan-fields-on-uncertainty/

http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/09/how-to-fight-the-four-pillars-of-procrastination.php

 

Who's the Best Leader: The Saint or the Scrooge?:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110928105720.htm

How to fight the four pillars of procrastination: http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/09/how-to-fight-the-four-pillars-of-procrastination.php

The art of integrative thinking:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/The-art-of-integrative-thinking/Article1-750640.aspx

 

Don’t accept conventional wisdom:

http://bigthink.com/ideas/26281

 

Musical Weather Shows Climate Influence:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926224553.htm

All about romance: http://www.likesbooks.com/

A bright selection of quotations:

http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/quotations

BUSINESS

 

When the Problem Is the Problem

Finding the right problem is half the solution:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/when-the-problem-is-the-problem

10 Clues to Opportunity Market anomalies and incongruities may point the way to your next breakthrough strategy: .

http://www.strategy-business.com/article/11304?gko=ce28d&cid=20110927enews

5 reasons leaders fera embarrassment  and three ways to deal with it:

http://people-equation.com/5-reasons-leaders-fear-embarrassment/

Be a better global collaborator:
http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/07/be-a-better-global-collaborato.html

Entrepreneurs role models:

http://mappingcompanysuccess.com/2011/09/entrepreneurs-role-models/

Organizing for diversity and complexity: http://www.jarche.com/2011/09/organizing-for-diversity-and-complexity/

 

Financial Crisis: Calculating the Probability of Extreme Events:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926081915.htm

The greatest brandversation:

http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Greatest-Brandversations/1971913

HEALTH & MEDICINE

 

Oncology and genetics Grabbing cancer by the short and curlies

A new technique for analysing tumours promises better understanding and more effective treatment:

http://www.economist.com/node/21530080

 

High Blood Pressure Is Linked to Increased Risk of Developing or Dying from Cancer:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926182618.htm

 

Poisonous Effect of Intestinal Bacteria Explained: Researchers Identify Site of Action of Cytotoxin Produced by 'Hypervirulent' Intestinal Flora: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110926094749.htm

 

Big Tobacco Knew Radioactive Particles in Cigarettes Posed Cancer Risk but Kept Quiet, Study Suggests:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110928142450.htm

 

Common Genetic Contributions to Mental Illness Discovered:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110919104754.htm

 

Distinct Features of Autistic Brain Revealed in Novel Analysis of MRI Scans:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110902133042.htm

The Near Miracle of Male Infertility Treatment:

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-near-miracle-of-male-infertility-treatment

Rethinking Animal and Plant Disease for the 21st Century and Beyond:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110927092124.htm

End-Of-Life Discussions Do Not Affect Survival Rates, Study Shows

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110928105711.htm

FOOD & COOKING

Greener pastures:

http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2011/06/greener-pastures/

 

A solar powered alternative to insecticides:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1783853/a-solar-powered-alternative-to-insecticides

Anti- inflammatory diet:

http://altmedicine.about.com/od/antiinflammatorydiet/a/Anti-Inflammatory-Diet.htm?nl=1

 

Public Ignorant About Key Messages Concerning Diet and Cancer, Research Finds: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110927072618.htm

 

Miracle Berry’s Sour-Sweet Mystery Cracked:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/09/sweet-sour-berry/

MISCELLANEA

 

The Zombie map of the world What happens when you ask Google Maps for the location of zombies around the world?:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/sep/23/zombie-map-world#_

SELECTED NEWS

SPAM & SPYWARE    

VIRUSES & e-CROOKS

 

Microsoft Neutralizes Kelihos Botnet, Names Defendant in Case: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/09/27/microsoft-neutralizes-kelihos-botnet-names-defendant-in-case.aspx

Bob Rankin- how to run a deep anti-virus scan:

http://askbobrankin.com/how_to_run_a_deep_antivirus_scan.html?awt_l=4jAx_&awt_m=JiKtZJFeG8P6SL

Bob Rankin- Virus Alert, Fake Virus and Celebrity Scams:

:http://askbobrankin.com/virus_alert_fake_antivirus_and_celebrity_scams.html?awt_l=4jAx_&awt_m=JAu6WTWnm8P6SL

Lessons from least infected countries:

http://antivirus.about.com/b/2011/09/28/lessons-from-least-infected-countries.htm?nl=1

Top Ten Ways to Get Infected:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/tp/badsecurityhabits.htm?nl=1

5 more dirty tricks: Social engineers' latest pick-up lines

Today's social engineers are getting very specific in their plans to manipulate their marks: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/092611-5-more-dirty-tricks-social-251263.html?hpg1=bn

 

Metascan Online, by OPSWAT, allows you to quickly multi-scan your files for malware using 17 antivirus engines!:

http://www.metascan-online.com/:

WiFi

Smartphones Revolutionize Psychological Experiments:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929074030.htm

ROOTS IV – THE PRETENDER

Motto: many of us believe that wrongs aren't wrong if done by nice people like ourselves (author unknown – source: http://www.quotegarden.org/ )

Today I will take some distance from the general Human Rights frame of this roots series and come back to something wider and older than that – the Human Nature. I believe it is one of the most important roots of the current crisis.

Who created the mess we are in? Of course, the first reaction is: THEY (kind-of-conspiracy-theory). Politicians, business and financial community, ‘those wise guys (& girls – to be ‘politically’ correct!...)’.

But then I ask: and who are they? I believe ‘they’ are actually our close or distant family, our neighbors, our class mates, our boyfriends (or girlfriend), our competitors in a football game in school, our rivals, our enemies. They come from within our communities; they used to be a part of us. At a certain point in their lives, they have chosen to make some compromises, or they grabbed some opportunities, or they just worked hard to get where they are now. I bet with you that their close families still love them and take pride in the career they have built. For each of them there is someone out there who has wiped their noses and tears, held their hands and hugged them through difficult times, someone who knows their weaknesses and their deepest fears.

The world we live in today has various layers – individual, social, economic, politic, religious, military, and so on. For each of those, mankind has created some applicable rules - either official or purely informal and traditional (law and regulation, allowed and forbidden, custom and tradition etc.). We have created mechanisms, laws, rules, controls and punishments, defined the roles and actors. And in this process a lot of honest and decent people were involved, but also some opportunists and mal-intended ones.

Let’s go one step forward: it is well known that there are some basic principles for success in an organization. One of those is to know the informal structures, at least as well as the formal ones. Why? Because there is almost impossible to perfectly overlap in any organization those two structures. There will always be long-term employees that have certain recognition even if not promoted, while there will always be people promoted or directly employed as managers that do not immediately (or sometimes never) gain the recognition that should come with the position. For any new-comer in an organization the rule number one is to understand this balance of power and to choose a way to integrate, that would align with his/her morale, professional capacity but also future plans. I do not want to get into details now, what I want to take out of this part is: there will always be at least two distinct plans of each reality - the formal one and the informal one; and this applies to almost everything - structures, rules, controls and so on.

I would say there are actually even more than two realities, depending on the number of involved parties. There is a usual saying about couples after breaking up and that goes something like this “there are 3 sides of the story – her, his and the truth”. In social, economic and political life, when there are more parties involved, the truth can multiply sometimes even exponentially.

If we take again the example of the Human Rights (or we could take as well … accounting principles), we have some simple rules who have the aspiration to become common for many communities. And then there are numerous ways of applying them into day-to-day life, in each country, in each community. There are also various ways to judge whether they are breached.

So, keeping in mind that there are at least the two plans of reality described above, we still can conclude that we have designed our own world on both of those plans. We have also set some controls and designed some punishments for not abiding by the onset rules. And then we have chosen to believe that they are working. How? Well… I could say that each of us have chosen to believe that everything is working as we understand it should work. It is rather tricky, right?

While I was learning about fraud, one aspect got my attention. It was the correlation of triggering factors that must cumulate before someone actually decides to act in a fraudulent manner. There should be a perception of personal gain, which should outweigh the perception about existing controls and potential punishment. Many alternatives would fit this – either huge gain, or perception of low controls or negligible punishment.

In any case, I gave you this simplified definition, because I believe it could be easily extended. Fraud is rather a big word, and so is lie or deceit. But I am about to shock you, as I believe the same correlation could be extended as trigger to almost every personal action in our life, as well as in our society (on every level of reality). We could apply this to statistics, to forecasts, to consulting, to lawyers, to politicians, and of course to ourselves in our day-to-day social or personal life.

We usually weight everything (consciously or not) through the ‘loss vs. gain’ balance and we act based on that. And when I say “act” I really mean act, as an actor. We are little (or great) pretenders in our own lives. If I see my friend in the morning and he/she looks horrible, I would still smile while saying a nice ‘good morning’, instead of putting on a shocked face and spit out something like ‘OMG, you look so awful today!’. The personal gain is that I get a smile back, he/she may even get a good feeling about him(her)self. I would most probably not get caught with the lie and even if I get caught, the punishment will not be that hard…

The same applies when someone realizes he/she has made a mistake. As per applicable rules (formal or informal), they should immediately admit the mistake, assume the consequences (punishment) and correct (if possible) the outcome. Some actually do it. However, given the self-protective nature of each human being, usually some other instincts are triggered first, such as conservation and survival. Most of the people would probably look for various alternatives, based on those three dimensions above. In the day to day life, people frequently act in a way that would give them a personal gain, if they believe they can get away with it or the punishment is not that bad.

I can imagine now a lot of readers outraged by what I write here. Probably most people would like to believe that they live in a world of white knights and innocent ladies, but the truth is they are not. They (actually WE) live in a world of pretenders. Some are nice ones, some are pure frauds. And we have created basic mechanisms in our world that are also based on pretence. We have made laws that everybody pretends to follow. There is such a huge gap between the writer and the reader in any document that we can rely on only one fact: whatever can be interpreted will be, whatever can be misused will be – because we are dealing with human nature.

Last month I have been reading trough a number of Independent Business Reviews and advisory papers, from various international companies. I always focus my attention first on their disclaimers. This section can have from half a page to a number of pages, and is usually the most interesting part of the whole document. They put in there whatever cannot be included in the conclusions because of political reasons. The rest of the material is a perfect stage-up for the ‘right’ conclusions, but in the disclaimer they give some hints why they are most probably not. If you know how to read that part, you know also what questions you should ask and whether you should throw the whole paper back to them, or just accept it as it is. The funny thing is that most people believe this is a ‘standard’ part that consultants and lawyers use to cover their backs if something goes wrong. It is partially true (especially the last part), except… that it is not standard at all. It is carefully written for each case, for each document, so that an educated reader could take out of it the most important part of what they paid for.

Some of the greatest jokes in the communist era were connected to the idea of reporting and statistics. Everybody pretended that everything was all right, while the production was counted three times and reported as reality... After the fall of the Iron Curtain, there was a newly discovered freedom of speech and people started to be more honest and share more information. Still, the degree of pretence is huge at all levels - personal, in private and public companies and organizations, in politics, in law (especially in law enforcement) and everywhere. And sometimes I feel like the ex-communist countries are hurting themselves by a misconceived sense of freedom of media. They insist so much on the negative news, because for 50 years they were not allowed to do it, that they miss the good part almost entirely. It seems that, at a certain point, the Eastern bloc became more talkative and transparent than the West and this was not good for further integration and acceptance.

As I have written too much again, I will come back to the subject and get closer to today’s conclusion. We are pretending both as individuals and as social groups (culminating with nations). We are pretending both on formal and informal levels. We are trying to protect our personal gain no matter what and it has become a vicious spiral – the more we hide, the more we need to hide.

Some people have a sharp sense of rightfulness and moral standard, but that does not mean they do not also have a personal gain. It just means that personal gains are very different –sometimes they translate in non-material things. Instead of money and power, good people search recognition and justice. It does not mean that they pretend less often in search of their personal gain. It just means, like the motto says, that people in general will tend to use double standards for judging others. It is basically impossible to knowingly inflict bad things upon themselves, as the survival instinct is encoded within them; it is basic human nature. We can even accuse others of using double standards, but at a certain point we will also do the same. It is just a matter of context and time.

Could I think of any solution for this? Nothing drastic, I can tell you. If all people in this world would start telling the truth to each other starting tomorrow, I wonder what would happen. I guess we would face an even bigger chaos than now. First of all because we are not used anymore to hear the truth, we need those little white lies to enrich our lives. Second because we have lost somehow the ability to distinguish the truth and it may happen that nobody would believe the truth anyway. And third, I wonder … what truth should we say? Ours, theirs?...

Therefore, accepting that we are weak and human is a first step. Each of us should start improving him(her)self every day, observe themselves from the outside. Only then should look at their fellow (wo)men, and try to understand their moral profile and motivation. Gain trust gradually and reciprocally.

Then, just like in case of fraud prevention, we should work on the controls and punishment framework, or at least on the perception of that… On the long term I would also introduce in every elementary school a class about old popular proverbs, interpreted for kids, to learn from the wisdom of their ancestors – how to understand the human nature and how to live in this world. This would actually build up on the ‘prevention’ side, as our children should be more ready to recognize fraudsters, just like our grandparents were. It is a pity that we either lost those skills, or that we keep our perception to ourselves, for the sake of political correctness.

Until the next root posting, I sincerely wish you a nice time!
Georgina