Want Less Traffic on the Streets? Be a Team Player.

According to Craig Davis, a physicist at the University of Michigan, if everyone would simply slow down and actually obey traffic signs, traffic would essentially be nonexistent on our roads.

On the streets of the US, people drive aggressively, they drive defensively, and they drive according to their own agenda. Davis calls it “the science of complexity.” When you have a large group (which, essentially is what traffic is: a collective of people) the group dynamic is affected when each person in the group is trying to maximize their own benefit.

Look at it this way, a winning basketball team has won all those games, because of a lot of factors. One main driving factor is just that—they’re a team. They work together cohesively to maximize the benefit of the team, not just themselves. If basketball players thought their sport was based solely on their individual effort and they were only looking out for themselves, we’d have a bunch of hedonistic athletes and no winning basketball teams. As the old adage goes, “There’s no ‘I’ in team.”

Good drivers are a part of the team. You too, can be a part of the team. How? For starters, put down the damn phone when you’re driving. A lot of drivers don’t realize when they step behind the wheel of a car they’re wielding a 3,000 pound machine. This machine can become a potential weapon, once its wheels start to move. Bear in mind that a driver typically takes about 3/4 of a second to apply pressure on their break peddle. When you pick up your phone, that reaction time to apply the brakes goes up considerably. Why?

When it comes to driving, humans suck at multitasking. Therefore, we are human and shouldn’t attempt to focus on driving while looking at our phone—one or the other. Our brain can’t focus on both. I can’t tell you how many times I have been sitting in traffic and observe people on their phones. Texting, talking, hell, they could be watching entertaining YouTube videos for all I know. Traffic is boring. A phone is a nice distraction. I get it. Though, by being on your phone, you’re actually making traffic worse.

Typically, traffic occurs for very stupid reasons. Let’s say car A merged onto the highway at a low accelerating speed, because they were texting a friend and weren’t really paying attention to the road.  As a result, another impatient driver (car B) cuts them off, causing car A to brake to avoid hitting car B. I see this time and time again. The action of braking causes a domino effect, car A braking to avoid hitting car B causes the person behind them (car C) to brake. The person behind car C will brake to avoid hitting car C and so on.

If instead, every driver out there stayed off the phone, merged onto highway traffic the right way, traffic would cut down considerably. Paying attention to traffic signs, keeping a fast accelerating speed on the freeway and avoiding the use of your brakes is a great way to be a team player.

Shift of Earth's Magnetic Pole

Well, a whole weird lot of stuff has been happening lately. The birth of a two head calf, the millions of dead fish washing ashore, thousands of dead bird falling from the sky. If there is a connection, I don't know what it is. The experts, who are folks paid to tell the public that everything is alright, and that the sky isn't falling, are telling us that this is all normal, has happened before, and are not things about which we should be worrying.

Oh, yes, the North Pole is moving too. Now, I heard years ago that this was normal. But in the past, the North Pole didn't move as fast as it is now.

From the NBC Nightly News -- "The magnetic north is moving. aviators know it has always moved but not like this. It's just skipping along, on the move about 40 miles a year now along the polar cap toward Russia. It's a natural, unstoppable occurrence, but because of it, some airport runways calibrated by compass are now three or four degrees off." See the video.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Please Help Me Understand the Birthday Paradox!


I was at a small New Year’s Eve party a few years back and realized that of the forty guests at the party, four of us had the same birthday. All four of us were women, none of us was born in the same decade, and none of us truthfully matched the specifications of our astrological sign (Gemini, if you must know).

 

I looked up the “Birthday Paradox” to find out the down-low on the statistic and found out that if twenty-three people are together (or are grouped randomly together whether they are in the same room or not), there is a 50% chance that at least two of the people will share the same birthday.

 

 

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard the same number and have heard of the “Birthday Paradox” before. For a change, I decided to challenge my mathematical abilities (which truthfully haven’t been used since high school) to understand the math behind the probability. (Anyone adept at math should immediately proceed to this page which is full of graphs and strange equations explaining the phenomenon in intricate detail.) 

 

The simplest explanation for why this so-called birthday paradox works is HERE—the writer advises “flipping the problem to find out the odds for everyone having a different birthday”. In addition to the explanations and “possibility equations” given on the site, there is actually a birthday calendar which can help you calculate the possibility of a shared birthday or what I like to call a “birthday surprise”—not to be confused with a “birthday treat”, which is of course, chocolate cake. 

 

The strange thing for me about the “Birthday Paradox” is that I don’t remember ever once sharing my birthday with a classmate all the way through elementary school. (Obviously, since there were some of the same students each year in my classes, this is to be expected, but I was in a combined class with ninety students in 6th grade and no one had my birthday. According to the Birthday Calculator on the site, the odds look to be about a 100% that I would share my birthday with a classmate.)

 

I can understand the equations on the page if I concentrate, but I am still unsure how they work out in real life. This is where the SMART people (like you!) come in to help me. How is this even possible? Is the Birthday Calendar flawed somehow? Do the birthday statistics hold up for you? Of your Facebook friends, how many of them have the same birthday?

Leave any

Photo Credit: Flckr Beautiful Freaks

The Land on Earth is Shifting

Aside from marine sediments, there are neritic sediments. These sediments are usually Terrigenous material. Referring to what was said previously in the story: What’s at the Bottom of the Ocean?

Netric sediments are a result of land matter. They are usually found splayed out along the continental shelf, close to shore. They occupy about one quarter of the ocean floor. The other three quarters of the ocean floor is occupied by pelagic sediment. Pelagic sediment is usually found on the ocean floor, further out to sea, away from the shore line.

Untouched sediment on the sea floor can give oceanographers clues about our earth’s history. For instance, many fossils have been discovered by examining ocean floor sediments. Sediments have been able to tell scientists that our continents were once a solid land mass. This was a theory proposed by a German meteorologist and geologist by the name of, Alfred Wegener. In 1915, Mr. Wegener published a book called, The Origin of Continents and Oceans.

This book pioneered the belief that the land masses on earth, which we refer to as continents were once (about 200 million years ago) a single solid land mass. Mr. Wegener called this solid land mass “Pangaea”. Pangaea became our seven continents when, with the presence of time, over millions of years, they drifted to the locations where they are now found.

Today, we refer to this peculiar process as Plate Tectonics. The idea that a continental drift occurs really didn’t gain any widespread belief until the 60’s. Though, it’s believed that as early as 4 BC, Aristotle wondered if fossils from marine animals existed on rocks high above the ocean.

Historically speaking, there was much speculation because this idea that weathering and natural processes causing land to wither away did not fit in with the neat definition that land was created by God. From bbc.me.uk, “In 1570, an observation that rain, wind and waves 'wear away' the continents to such an extent that no land would remain unless new rock took its place was angrily rejected as questioning the 'supreme design of the Creator' - and so denounced as heresy.”

However, continental shift could not be denied when many of the world’s first explorers all observed that the South American coastline and the African coastline fit together, almost like two puzzle pieces.

So what purpose do ocean sediments have other than contributing to the withering away of continents? Well, here’s a fun fact. One of the components of potting soil, traditionally used for gardening, contains sand. Sand is a form of marine sediment.

The Modeling Process of Social Learning Theory

Today, the Social Learning Theory proposed by Albert Bandura is usually grouped with behavioral theories in most psychology textbooks. Bandura thought his Social Learning Theory wasn’t behavioral, but rather a ‘social cognitive theory’.

Aside from the first two premises with, one, people learn through observation and two, mental state affects learning, there is a third premise that states the way someone learns something may not necessarily affect their behavior. Most behaviorists believed that learning directly caused a lasting change in behavior. Bandura believed otherwise.

Observational learning states that one can learn without necessarily changing their behavior. Not all of the behaviors one observes over the course of their lifetime will be effectively learned. There are many factors between the model and the learner that can affect the outcome.

There are four steps that affect the outcome. In this case, the outcome is the modeling process and observational learning occurring. The four steps are attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. The steps are quite simple. The first, attention, is somewhat obvious. To learn anything, you need to be paying attention. If there’s any distraction, this factor could negatively impact observational learning. The second, retention, is the ability to store information learned. Many factors can affect this second step. One being able to pull up information, later, after initial understanding is absolutely essential to observational learning.

The third step, reproduction, is where one mimics the behavior learned from the model. After learning the behavior and retaining it for later use, one can now practice the behavior. This will serve to improve their efficiency, skill-level and help them retain the information learned even more. The fourth step is motivation and rightly so. For one to successfully learn a behavior, they must have a desire to learn it in the first place. Without motivation, it has been proven that one will quickly lose a behavior they have learned. This is because they are lacking the motivation to practice the learned behavior. Fitness gurus are forever overusing this saying, “Use it or lose it.” However, that quote also applies to the social learning theory as well.

Additionally, Bandura says that reinforcements and punishments also play a key role in motivation. Experiencing these motivators, yourself, can be highly effective. Then again, it can also be motivating to observe others receiving some type of reinforcement or punishment. For example, if I witnessed a classmate receiving extra credit from the instructor for being punctual, I might consider showing up a few minutes before class the next day.

The Premises of Social Learning Theory

In 1977, Albert Bandura proposed the Social Learning Theory. The basic premise was that people learn new behaviors through observational learning. That is, they will model the behaviors of others, especially if they observe those behaviors to be positive or encouraging.

However, Bandura devised the famous “bobo doll” studies. In this study, children would directly imitate the behaviors adults showed towards a bobo doll. In the study, Bandura noted that they would imitate the same behavior after they witnessed adults acting aggressively towards the dolls.  

The first premise of Social Learning Theory is that people have the potential to learn through observation. I’m sure you’ve found yourself in a situation in your life where this applies. Let’s hypothetically imagine that you want to learn how to knit. You’ve attempted to teach yourself by picking up a book on it (I recommend book: Stitch and Bitch). Unfortunately, you can’t seem to grasp the techniques by observing simply the diagrams in the book. What to do?

Well, I struggled with the same problem when I was learning how to knit. I enrolled in a weekly knitting class at a yarn store in Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill is a neighborhood in Seattle, WA. Watching my knitting instructor demonstrate the difficult techniques was infinitely easier than attempting them on my own. This is a good example of how one can learn a new technique through mimicking the actions of others.

According to Bandura, I was demonstrating that I learn based upon a live model. Bandura proposed three different models of observational learning. Aside from a live model, there are verbal instructional models and symbolic models. A live model represents a real person acting or demonstrating a behavior. A verbal model is where a behavior is demonstrated by descriptions and explanations. A symbolic model is where real or fictitious characters display the behavior to be learned on the silver screen. This model could be learned from a television show, a book or online media, such as internet memes.

The second premise of Social Learning Theory is that your mental state affects how you learn. According to Bandura, one is more likely to retain the knowledge of what they learn if there is a positive intrinsic emotion associated with that learned behavior. At the knitting class, I picked up the techniques I was struggling with really quickly. Knitting almost seemed fun at this point. To this day, I still hold those techniques in my cache’ of learned behaviors. I can probably credit that to my positive emotions that were flowing the day I learned those knitting techniques.

Eating Worm Eggs To Stay Thin?!

Okay, some people have eating disorders. They want to look like the stars in the model magazines. So out of desperation, they do crazy things. They put on their idiot cap.

Last night The Young Turks did a feature on Chinese girl students, in order to keep themselves thin, are eating roundworm eggs, so that the worm will hatch inside their stomachs and eat, so that the students can lose weight without dieting or exercising, to help them look trim for job interviews!

Say what? Eating worm eggs to stay thin? Putting parasites inside ones intestine because one is too lazy and too dumb to step away from the table? Is stupid!

Instead of becoming the host to worms, the lazy bones should try working out, taking long walks.

Hell! This is something from the horror story zone. Worms are selfish, mindless things, and they are going to eat whether the host eats or not.

Hell! Worms have been known to eat through intestines and to eat their hosts alive. Worms don't care what they eat.

Finally, putting parasites into ones stomach is a creepy idea. These wormy parasites are just as helpful as a disease. As the parasites get bigger, they will demand more and more food. In the world of man, and in the world of man and worms, it is expensive to keep a parasite.

See the video.

Earworms: Are They Dangerous?

I was concerned when my German friend told me she had an earworm and asked her if she needed to go to the doctor to get the (possibly parasitic) worm out of her ear.

She laughed and replied that no, she did not need to go to the doctor; she just had some stupid pop song stuck her in head that she couldn’t get rid of.

The word earworm—which is quite possibly my new favorite word-- originates from the German word “ohrwurm.”  Earworms are the songs that loop and repeat in your head over and over whether you like the song all that much or not. According to this research, nine out of ten people have experienced ear worms at some point in their lifetimes for sixty minutes or longer and one out of ten people has found the ear worm so distracting that they were unable to complete other tasks. 

This site claims that the original German ohrwurms were in fact real worms that “could crawl in your ear.” (I’m going to try and forget that I ever read and wrote that so I can sleep at night.)

Getting rid of catchy musical earworms is not easy; the same researchers who studied the frequency of the earworms found that deliberately trying to get an ear worm out of your head can be “counterproductive” and can actually make the earworm stay in your head longer. A poor strategy for dealing with earworms might be replacing one earworm for another; as this writer points out, you might “develop a playlist of earworms” this way. 

 The Wikipedia site on earworms offers up a few interesting examples of “Earworms in Fiction”; my personal favorite from the short list of examples is “Demolished Man”, a sci-fi novel from the 1950’s. In the novel, the main charater “uses a jingle specifically crafted to be a catchy, irritating nuisance as a tool” to prevent people from reading his mind by blocking out his thoughts. (It occurs to me that Harry Potter himself could have benefited from a similar tool to stop Voldemort from reading Harry’s mind and entering his head without permission.)

(As an aside, several sites focusing on earworms want Trekkies to understand that musical ear worms are different from “the mind-warping parasites from Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan,”.  It’s just a guess, but I have a feeling the Star Trek earworms are worse.

Image Courtesy of Flckr User: jemsweb

Andre Afram Asmar - "Scientism" (Video)

This Mush affiliated producer's affinity for JA musics is pretty well documented. Here he goes in on a plain ole dub track named after everyone's second generation dub engineer, the Scientist.

Check Out the Geminid Meteor Shower

It’s actually going on right now—though it will continue until Thursday. The best time to see the shooting stars is between 1 and 3 AM your local time, so bundle up (especially if you’re in my snowy area, or an even colder one!) and go take a peek! The Geminids are the only meteor shower that is not caused by a passing comet, and they are considered slow-moving. You can find out all about them here.

Though the shower is peaked, you still have tonight to watch them—and up to 100 meteors may be seen per hour. The yellowish meteors will travel at about 22 miles per second, so even young children may be able to watch them shoot across the sky. Here are some tips for getting the best out of your Geminid meteor shower, the most intense shower of the year:

  • Dress warmly! No amount of wonder from the amazing event will help cure frostbite. If you take little ones out to see the shower (it could be a perfect time to take them out at night, since many are having snow days), be sure to bundle them extra snugly—scarves, mittens, hats, extra shirts and pants, the whole works.
  • Ponder food for thought about meteor showers, especially with kiddos. One pivotal question is always where does the asteroid come from? Though it’s not necessary to get philosophical while enjoying the spectacular show, it’s always interesting to explore such ideas—and to let children and teens explore their own creativity and scientific theories.
  • Watch the shower while it is darkest. Right before dawn is largely considered the best time for viewing. This may work out best for families, since it means just waking kiddos up a bit early rather than keeping them up all night waiting to see the display.
  • Anytime after midnight is, of course, fine for viewing, so if you just want to stay up a little late and view the meteor showers a little after the clock strikes twelve, that should work, too.
  • Avoid the city landscape if you can and go out to the suburbs, or better yet, the countryside. If you can’t see stars to begin with, you may not be able to view the showers.
  • Find a viewing spot with a horizon you can watch the Geminids over. This will help you see the shower better.

Pages