July 12, 2010, 6:54 AM CT

For speediest athletes

In the record books, the swiftest sprinters tend to be of West African ancestry and the faster swimmers tend to be white.

A study of the winning times by elite athletes over the past 100 years reveals two distinct trends: not only are these athletes getting faster over time, but there is a clear divide between racers in terms of body type and race.

Last year, a Duke University engineer explained the first trend athletes are getting faster because they are getting bigger. Adrian Bejan, professor of engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, now believes he can explain the second trend.

In a paper published online in the International Journal of Design and Nature and Ecodynamics, Bejan, and co-authors Edward Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University currently teaching at Howard University, and Duke graduate Jordan Charles, argue that the answer lies in athletes' centers of gravity. That center tends to be located higher on the body of blacks than whites. The scientists think that these differences are not racial, but rather biological.

"There is a whole body of evidence showing that there are distinct differences in body types among blacks and whites," said Jones, who specializes in adolescent obesity, nutrition and anthropometry, the study of body composition. "These are real patterns being described here -- whether the fastest sprinters are Jamaican, African or Canadian -- most of them can be traced back generally to Western Africa"......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

July 9, 2010, 7:20 AM CT

Metallic carbon nanotubes

Metallic carbon nanotubes show great promise for applications from microelectronics to power lines because of their ballistic transmission of electrons. But who knew magnets could stop those electrons in their tracks?

Rice physicist Junichiro Kono and his team have been studying the Aharonov-Bohm effect -- the interaction between electrically charged particles and magnetic fields -- and how it relates to carbon nanotubes. While doing so, they came to the unexpected conclusion that magnetic fields can turn highly conductive nanotubes into semiconductors.

Their findings are published online this month in Physical Review Letters.

"When you apply a magnetic field, a band gap opens up and it becomes an insulator," said Kono, a Rice professor in electrical and computer engineering and in physics and astronomy. "You are changing a conductor into a semiconductor, and you can switch between the two. So this experiment explores both an important aspect of the results of the Aharonov-Bohm effect and the novel magnetic properties of carbon nanotubes".

Kono, graduate student Thomas Searles and their colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and in Japan successfully measured the magnetic susceptibility of a variety of nanotubes for the first time; they confirmed that metallics are far more susceptible to magnetic fields than semiconducting nanotubes, depending upon the orientation and strength of the field......... Posted by: Jaison      Read more         Source

July 8, 2010, 6:56 AM CT

Effects of marijuana legalization

Legalizing the production and distribution of marijuana in California could cut the price of the drug by as much as 80 percent and increase consumption, as per a newly released study by the nonprofit RAND Corporation that examines a number of issues raised by proposals to legalize marijuana in the state.

While the state Board of Equalization has estimated taxing legal marijuana could raise more than $1 billion in revenue, the RAND study cautions that any potential revenue could be dramatically higher or lower based on many factors, including the level of taxation, the amount of tax evasion and the response by the federal government.

Past research provides solid evidence that marijuana consumption goes up when prices go down, but the magnitude of the consumption increase cannot be predicted because prices will fall to levels below those ever studied, scientists say. Consumption also might rise because of non-price effects such as advertising or a reduction in stigma, scientists say.

In addition to uncertainty about the taxes levied and evaded, scientists do not know how users will respond to such a large drop in price. Even under a scenario with high taxes ($50 per ounce) and a moderate rate of tax evasion (25 percent), scientists cannot rule out consumption increases of 50 percent to 100 percent, and possibly even larger. If prevalence increased by 100 percent, marijuana use in California would be close to the prevalence levels recorded in the late 1970s......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

July 2, 2010, 7:14 AM CT

Science of soccer

With the attention of sports fans worldwide focused on South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, U.S. scientist John Eric Goff has made the aerodynamics of the soccer ball a focus of his research.

In an article appearing in the magazine Physics Today this month, Goff examines the science of soccer and explains how the world's greatest players are able to make a soccer ball do things that would seem to defy the forces of nature.

Goff's article looks at the ball's changing design and how its surface roughness and asymmetric air forces contribute to its path once it leaves a player's foot. His analysis leads to an understanding of how reduced air density in games played at higher altitudes -- like those in South Africa -- can contribute to some of the jaw-dropping ball trajectories already seen in some of this year's matches.

"The ball is moving a little faster than what some of the players are used to," says Goff, who is a professor of physics at Lynchburg College in Virginia and an expert in sports science.

For Goff, soccer is a sport that offers more than non-stop action -- it is a living laboratory where physics equations are continuously expressed. On the fields of worldwide competition, the balls maneuver as per complicated formulae, he says, but these can be explained in terms the average viewer can easily understand. And the outcomes of miraculous plays can be explained simply in terms of the underlying physics......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

July 1, 2010, 7:11 AM CT

Support for wartime presidents

It's no secret that Americans tend to throw their support behind a sitting U.S. president when the nation is thrust into a war or other potentially violent conflict with a foreign foe - a phenomenon known as the "rally 'round the flag effect".

But new experimental psychology research from Washington University in St. Louis is the first to offer compelling evidence that these wartime surges in presidential support represent a collective reaction to a specific human emotion.

"It's about anger, not anxiety," says Alan Lambert, PhD, professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences and main author of the study published this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "Anger is the engine that drives these sudden spikes in presidential approval ratings".

His findings, to be presented July 7 at the 33rd annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology in San Francisco, Calif., show that anger - not anxiety - is the dominant emotion that both triggers and feeds the rally effect.

While there are a number of competing theories about why rally effects occur, their existence is well documented. Rally effects contributed to dramatic and sustained spikes in popularity for John F. Kennedy after the Cuban Mission Crisis, for George Herbert Walker Bush during Operation Desert Storm and for George W. Bush after the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center. After 9/11, George W. Bush's popularity surged by almost 40 points, reaching as high as 90 percent and remaining much higher than normal for nearly a year, as per the Gallup Poll......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

June 28, 2010, 7:53 AM CT

Metric Only Labeling for Some Products

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued two publications calling for the amendment of labeling laws to allow the voluntary use of only metric units on some consumer products. NIST scientists suggest that adoption of metric labeling will lead to greater agreement between state and federal labeling laws and simplify domestic and international commerce.

The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA) specifies the type of information that must appear on a consumer product label, including the kind of product, name of the manufacturer or responsible party, and net contents. Products that aren't covered by the federal law are regulated by the states, which generally follow the guidance of the Uniform Packaging and Labeling Regulations (UPLR), a publication produced by NIST and the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM). The rules in the UPLR are recommended regulations that only become law if and when adopted by individual states.

In 1992, NIST and the NCWM supported Congress's decision to amend the FPLA to allow manufacturers to label their products with U.S. customary units (inch/pound/pint, etc.) and metric units (centimeter/kilogram/liter, etc.), known as dual unit labeling. Since then, NIST and the NCWM have been working with the states to help them adopt laws that would permit metric only labeling of products under their jurisdiction. Forty-eight states have adopted this approach......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

June 24, 2010, 10:42 PM CT

Left or Right?

In the split second before foot meets ball, a soccer player's body betrays whether a penalty kick will go left or right, as per recent research in cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The findings could explain how some top goalkeepers are able to head off a penalty kick, diving in the correct direction in advance of the kick. It could also point the way to changes in how players kick, and goalies react.

The research, performed by Rensselaer doctoral student Gabriel J. Diaz, employed motion capture technology and computer analysis to identify five early indicators of the direction a ball would ultimately be kicked. Diaz said his research stemmed from an observation of real-world penalty kicks, in which players aim for the left or right side of the goal while hiding their choice from the goalkeeper.

"When a goalkeeper is in a penalty situation, they can't wait until the ball is in the air before choosing whether to jump left or right - a well-placed penalty kick will get past them," Diaz said. "As a consequence, you see goalkeepers jumping before the foot hits the ball. My question is: Are they making a choice better than chance (50/50), and if so, what kind of information might they be using to make their choice?".

Diaz tested 27 potential indicators of kick direction - 12 drawn from sports literature and 15 derived from a computer analysis of the kicks - and identified five as reliable indicators of the direction the ball will go......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:40:33 GMT

The Venture Capital Relationship

© e Mill
If your idea of venture capital funding includes anything like a loan application, your idea of VC funding is based on a misconception. In the words of Nat Goldhaber, Venture Capital funding is more like a relationship than a transaction. And the paperwork? That's more like a dating profile you're building than a loan application.

That cuts both ways. As Nat points out, when you take venture capital money you may as well think of it as marrying your investor. Like marriage, you are entering into a long term partnership. It may not be completely permanent, but it's as close as it gets in the business world.

Would you want your daughter to marry the first guy that came along, just because he'd be willing to have her? It's easy to think of VC companies as rich old men and startups as desperate women. That doesn't make for much of a marriage. Think about that.... Posted by: Doris      Read more     Source

June 9, 2010, 11:16 PM CT

Oil from spill could have powered 38,000 cars for year

As of today (Wednesday, June 9), if all the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico had been used for fuel, it could have powered 38,000 cars, and 3,400 trucks, and 1,800 ships for a full year, as per University of Delaware Prof. James J. Corbett. That's based on the estimated spill rate of 19,000 barrels of oil per day.

Corbett, a professor of marine policy in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, works on energy and environmental solutions for transportation. He has launched a website that reports the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in terms of lost uses of the lost fuel on a daily basis.

Visitors to the website can choose the spill rate they believe is most accurate from a range of reported estimates, and the website will automatically calculate how a number of cars, trucks, and ships could have been powered for a year, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Here are just a few of Corbett's findings:

• By May 5 (15 days after the spill), the oil lost could have fueled 470 container ships serving New York and New Jersey ports for a year.
• By May 25 (35 days after the spill), energy from the spilled oil could have provided a year's gasoline for all registered automobiles (about 26,000 cars) in Newark, Del., where UD's main campus is located.
........


Posted by: Tyler      Read more         Source

June 9, 2010, 6:54 AM CT

Stop or Speed Through a Yellow Light?

Transportation engineering PhD student Zhixia Li was attracted to the University of Cincinnati because of the real-world education and experience the university provides.

In return, he's headed a real-world project that every driver can relate to. It's a project on which he has presented and published nationally, and it looks at what he calls the "yellow light dilemma." Are you, as a driver, more likely to stop or to speed through a yellow light?.

Here's what he found when conducting research, in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Transportation, at intersections in Akron, Cleves and Fairfield, Ohio: Certain factors make it more likely that you'll opt to speed through an intersection rather than stop at the light.

The results of his research with his advisor Prof. Heng Wei, "Analysis of Drivers' Stopping Behaviors Linked to the Yellow Phase Dilemma Zone - An Empirical Study in Fairfield, OH," will be presented at the 2010 American Society of Highway Engineers National Conference on June 9-13, 2010, in Cincinnati, at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza.

So what are the factors that make us run the yellow? These include.

• Lane position: Drivers in the right lane are 1.6 times more likely to speed through a yellow light as in comparison to drivers in the left lane.
........


Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

May 21, 2010, 7:23 AM CT

Meeting the growing world demand for clean water

Faulty septic systems have long been blamed for polluting some of California's most popular beaches. Yet few scientific studies have established a direct link between septic systems and coastal contamination.

Now, in the first study of its kind, Stanford University scientists have tracked a plume of polluted groundwater from a septic system to one of Northern California's top recreational beaches. The scientists say their findings could be an important step toward improving wastewater management in coastal communities throughout the United States.

"The flow of groundwater directly to the ocean is very hard to measure," said Alexandria Boehm, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. "We hope that this work will raise awareness of the importance of groundwater as a source of pollution, and that coastal communities will look at this source when considering conservation efforts."

Since 2008, Boehm and her Stanford colleagues have been studying the flow of groundwater from a large septic system at Stinson Beach, a favorite destination of swimmers and surfers about 20 miles north of San Francisco that's managed by the National Park Service. The study is supported by an Environmental Venture Projects grant from Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

May 15, 2010, 9:03 PM CT

The future of the electric car

The spark was ignited more than 10 years ago by the arrival of the first hybrid vehicle in the market, a vehicle which combines a traditional combustion engine with an electric one. But since then the panorama has changed and we now speak of "total electrification" of cars; some consultants say that within 10 years the percentage of electric cars could even reach 25%. In addition, this could result in very important savings in energy and environmental benefits, based on the data from the sector. And in the case of the electric car, 46% of the energy released by batteries is spent in propulsion, which indicates an efficiency level that is between 10% and 30% higher, with respect to the conventional combustion engine.

The engineering revolution

From an engineering point of view, this is truly revolutionary, as per the Director of the UC3M Leganes School of Engineering, Professor Emilio Olías Ruiz, one of the speakers during these sessions. If the car of today, which runs on fossil fuels, has supposed a change.

This "green world" is just beginning. "There are a number of challenges to be met, which also makes it a world of technology research, development and innovation, to which this country is totally committed, and it is making a strong bid, for example, to have electronic vehicle manufacturing plants", said the Full Professor Vicente Díaz Lopez, Director of the UC3M "Duque de Santomauro" Instituto de Seguridad de los Vehículos Automoviles (Institute of Vehicle Safety) (ISVA), which organized this University conference, held May 6 and 7 in the Leganes Auditorium of this Madrid institution. "This will create a number of jobs, directly and indirectly, in addition to fomenting the synergy between the university and the business world, which I think is a desirable point and a generator for intellection and economic wealth", Díaz pointed out......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

May 6, 2010, 6:41 AM CT

Use of Social Media in the Classroom

A recent study by the Lab for Social Computing at Rochester Institute of Technology indicates that the use of social media in classroom settings has little effect on building connections or social capital among students.

The research, conducted as part of a course on social media tools, examined the use of course management systems and discussion groups to enhance classroom instruction, improve communication and connections between students and translate the benefits of social media interaction to the classroom. The results indicate that the educational use of social media may not counteract poor social connections that are seen in face-to-face communication or elicit the same impacts seen in the use of social media sites such as MySpace and FaceBook.

"A number of social media advocates have argued that the use of these tools in classroom settings could greatly enhance interaction and learning and assist shyer, more reserved students in becoming more involved, as has been seen in other online environments," says Susan Barnes, associate director of the Lab for Social Computing and the leader of the research team. "However, our findings show that the incorporation of social media had no measurable impact on social connections, to the point that students did not consider other members of the class to be part of their social network"......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:00:08 GMT

Tips For Taking Better Family Digital Photos

Taking pictures of your family can happen suddenly due to an unexpected happy event that brings everyone together or as a result of typical everyday activities that you want to document.

But most of the time family picture taking takes place during planned events such as parties, family picnics, holiday celebrations and so forth so you should be well prepared for these times.

You want good pictures, but you also want them to be eye-catching and interesting so you should learn to vary everything.

Here again the beauty of digital photography shows itself as an economical way to learn to take great photos, because you can see them all, but you only pay for what you print.

So, study this website's tips and tutorials on taking great family pictures and take plenty of them.

Take a camera with you whenever possible, and look around, you'll find a picture somewhere.

Photo Source:www.or.ucr.edu Posted by: Karen      Read more     Source

April 1, 2010, 6:30 AM CT

Medicine theory applied to frequent flying

When New York-based Professor Leslie Citrome sets off for his latest conference or speaking engagement, he isn't just armed with a stack of medical journals and his passport. He makes sure he packs a calculator and notebook as well!

The psychiatrist, who has nearly 200 published papers to his name, is on a mission to test his new theory of evidence-based flying (EBF), which he hopes will help him to achieve minimum delays and maximum upgrades.

"I was on a flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane when it occurred to me that the evidence-based medicine theories that I use every day as an author and physician could be applied to other areas of my life" he explains in a paper published online today (1 April) by IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice

"Evidence-based medicine encourages clinicians to incorporate the best available research evidence regarding efficacy and safety, together with individualised patient evaluation and patient preferences, into their medical decision making" says Professor Citrome from the New York University School of Medicine and Nathan S Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research.

"Academics on the medical conference circuit already have their own extensive travel experience, albeit anecdotal. What has been missing in flyer decision-making to date is robust research evidence......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

March 31, 2010, 8:00 PM CT

Young Salamanders' Movement Over Land

Amphibians-frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts-are disappearing worldwide, but the stream salamanders of the Appalachian Mountains appear to be stable. This region is home to the largest diversity of salamanders in the world (more than 70 species reside here), and researchers want to understand what contributes to the stability of these salamander populations.

In research reported in the March 29, 2010 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Evan Grant (a research associate in the University of Maryland Department of Biology and wildlife biologist with the US Geological Survey's Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative); along with Dr. William Fagan, University of Maryland Department of Biology; and collaborators James Nichols, US Geological Survey (USGS) Patuxent Wildlife Research Center; and Winsor Lowe, University of Montana; describe how two species of stream salamanders find new homes by moving both within streams and over land to adjacent streams during multiple life stages, and how this movement may help to stabilize their populations.

"Researchers tend to be more focused on populations that are declining or threatened," explains Grant, "but it is also important to look at the populations that are doing well, and to understand what makes the population or species more stable. You can apply this to interpret what might be happening with populations that are declining"......... Posted by: Jaison      Read more         Source

March 31, 2010, 7:46 PM CT

Grocery shoppers who try harder to track

Almost one in three U.S. households shop on a budget and one in six can only afford basic necessities. So it's no wonder that 78 percent of budget shoppers twice as a number of as those who shop without a budget (37 percent) try to track how much their groceries are likely to cost as they roll through the aisles.

But the harder they try, the worse they do overspending by as much as 19 percent, as per a newly released study, which was conducted by a Cornell professor and his colleagues and is published in this month's Journal of Marketing.

In general, the scientists observed that all consumers tend to underestimate how much their groceries are going to cost.

"But those who try to calculate the exact total price almost always do worse than those who just estimate approximate prices," said Brian Wansink, Cornell's John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing, who co-authored the series of studies with Koert van Ittersum of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Joost M.E. Pennings of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Their work included two field studies and two laboratory studies.

It is low-income shoppers who try most to calculate, rather than estimate, Wansink said.

That means that those on the tightest budgets those most motivated to track their spending appears to be at greatest risk for spending more than their budget allows, said Wansink, forcing them to cut back in other areas, which "could cause shoppers unexpected financial distress." This chain of events can also cause these shoppers to develop negative feelings toward the store they patronize because they spent more than they planned......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

March 31, 2010, 7:42 PM CT

Even highly qualified women paid

Women conducting research in the life sciences continue to receive lower levels of compensation than their male counterparts, even at the upper levels of academic and professional accomplishment, as per a research studyconducted by the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital. In their report in the recent issue of Academic Medicine, the research team also finds differences in the roles female faculty members take as they advance in their careers.

"The gender gap in pay has been well documented, but what was not understood was whether academic accomplishments could overcome the pay gap," says Catherine DesRoches, DrPh, of the Mongan Institute, who led the study. "Our study observed that, across the board, men are being paid substantially more than equally qualified and accomplished women at academic medical centers."

Prior studies that documented disparities in compensation and academic rank between male and female faculty members did not examine differences in professional activities, such as leadership positions held. The current study was designed to investigate whether professional activities differ by gender, whether professional productivity reflected by scientific papers published continued to vary, and if differences in salary would persist after accounting for professional activities......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:27:35 GMT

Got Flyers?

© thebigo
It may be the 21st Century. Everyone you know may have a cell phone (or some other little electronic gadget) in their pocket. Your mother-in-law may print coupons for the grocery store off of the Internet. But the business flyer is still alive and well today.

Business flyers serve a number of valuable purposes. In many ways, business flyers are a logical extension of the most tried and true method of viral marketing: word of mouth. They're there, laying on counters and at cash registers, or hung on bulletin board in places you actually go - like the post office or the bank or your favorite little diner.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking the high tech options like email marketing and web pages. But business flyers compliment those sorts of high tech options. If you don't believe me, take a good look at the real estate industry. They've gone nuts about cyber options and you can tour homes for sale online from your own living room. But they still print now more than they ever have. Flyers and brochures galore....

The simple truth is that business flyer printing is still an essential part of any good marketing model. And it's a great strategy for small start-up businesses because it can have a very local focus and a fairly low cost.
Posted by: Mattew      Read more     Source

February 18, 2010, 9:52 PM CT

Where does all this dust come from?

Where does it come from? Researchers in Arizona are reporting a surprising answer to that question, which has puzzled and perplexed generations of men and women confronted with layers of dust on furniture and floors. Most of indoor dust comes from outdoors. Their report appears in the ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.

In the study, David Layton and Paloma Beamer point out that household dust consists of a potpourri that includes dead skin shed by people, fibers from carpets and upholstered furniture, and tracked-in soil and airborne particles blown in from outdoors. It can include lead, arsenic and other potentially harmful substances that migrate indoors from outside air and soil. That can be a special concern for children, who consume those substances by putting dust-contaminated toys and other objects into their mouths.

The researchers describe development and use on homes in the Midwest of a computer model that can track distribution of contaminated soil and airborne particulates into residences from outdoors. They observed that over 60 percent of house dust originates outdoors. They estimated that nearly 60 percent of the arsenic in floor dust could come from arsenic in the surrounding air, with the remainder derived from tracked-in soil. The scientists point out the model could be used to evaluate methods for reducing contaminants in dust and associated human exposures......... Posted by: Jaison      Read more         Source

February 3, 2010, 8:22 AM CT

Play yourself healthy

A just published research experiment on inactive men with hypertension shows that just 3 months of soccer practise twice a week causes a significant fall in blood pressure, resting pulse rate, and percentage of body fat, and is more effective than the doctor's usual advice on healthy diet and exercise. Other parallel experiments on both women and men further demonstrates that a regular game of soccer affects numerous cardiovascular risk factors such as maximal oxygen uptake, heart function, elasticity of the vascular system, blood pressure, cholesterol and fat mass far more than e.g. strength training and just as much if not more than running.

Each of the experiments was controlled randomized studies where the soccer groups were in comparison to other exercise groups and inactive controls. The soccer experiments are part of a large-scale research project on soccer and health carried out at the University of Copenhagen, four Danish University Hospitals, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Schulthess Clinic in Zurich.

Project Leader and Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen Peter Krustrup recaps the results: "Our research shows that soccer is a versatile and intense form of exercise that provides a positive effect on cardiovascular risk factors in a large group of untrained adult men and women," and continues: "Based on the results, soccer can be recommended as part of the therapy for hypertension and as broad-spectred prevention of cardiovascular diseases."........ Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

February 3, 2010, 8:01 AM CT

Matching diplomas with jobs?

Jake Murdoch spends much of his time examining how deftly graduates can match their degrees to eventual jobs. In the process, this professor at the Universit de Montral Faculty of Education has uncovered startling cultural and job market differences around the world.

Diplomas from elite universities can practically guarantee employment and salary conditions. For instance, graduates from the University of Tokyo or Hiroshima University in Japan, or the cole des Hautes tudes Commerciales or the cole Polytechnique in France are assured employment based on their alma mater.

"The reputation of certain universities can be sufficient to land an interesting and well-paid job. But that's not the case everywhere. In Gera number of, the alma mater plays practically no role in the selection process. This is called the establishment effect," says Murdoch.

Murdoch participated in two large pan-European studies addressing the relationship between higher education and employment: the Careers after higher Education: A European Research Survey, which surveyed 36,000 graduates from 12 European countries and the Research into Employment Professional Flexibility (REFLEX). Murdoch now wants to conduct a similar study in North America.

"I'm already in contact with Statistics Canada, while other organizations are interested in collaborating on such a project," says Murdoch. "If all goes well we'll be sending out questionnaires in 2012"......... Posted by: Mac      Read more         Source

January 25, 2010, 8:17 AM CT

Luck Has Nothing to Do with

Faced with a fly ball soaring deep into center field during the 1954 World Series, New York Giants center fielder Willie Mays turned his back on the ball, ran straight to the center field fence and caught the ball over his shoulder.

"The Catch" is among the best-known images in all of sports.

How did Mays do it? Did he predict where and when the ball was going to land just from seeing it hit? How does any outfielder actually catch a fly ball?

Brown University scientists have concluded that prediction has little to do with catching a fly ball. By using a virtual environment in which volunteers ran after computer-generated fly balls, scientists were able to confirm one of three major theories about how baseball players catch fly balls: It's a matter of optical acceleration cancellation.

Instead of predicting the ball's likely landing point, the outfielder's eyes continuously track the ball as its visual velocity increases or decreases, and the outfielder runs backward or forward to compensate. "The Catch" is famous precisely because fielders rarely turn their back on the ball. Mays may have added luck to the equation. Details are online at the Journal of Vision.

"All the fielders need to do is track this optical variable and it will lead them to a successful catch," said William H. Warren, professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences at Brown and the paper's senior author. "They don't have to do a lot of heavy computation in their heads to predict the landing point"......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:05:22 GMT

Billie Piper Feared For Son

Billie Piper feared for her son"s life at Christmas.

The 27-year-old actress was left terrified when Winston - her 15-month-old child with husband Laurence Fox - struggled for breath and was unable to get answers from medical experts as to what was wrong with him.

She said: "We really panicked, he was having trouble breathing, I had quite a big fright with him.... they wouldn"t tell us what it was."

Billie also admitted that she and Laurence are undecided as to whether have more children and says she finds motherhood a struggle.

She told British TV talk show host Jonathan Ross: "It"s probably too soon to think about having another but you always have it in your mind once you"ve had one. We were considering an only child, but it sounds a bit cruel.

We really panicked, he was having trouble breathing, I had quite a big fright with him.... they wouldn"t tell us what it was.

"It"s tricky at times.... I"m a competitive mother."

Meanwhile, Billie - who shot to fame aged 15 with single "Because We Want To" - insists she has no plans to ever return to her music career.

She said: "I don"t have a great voice, I was basically a charlatan, just faking it really." Posted by: Melissa      Read more     Source

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:02:17 GMT

Tupperware Turf War

The Real Housewives of Orange County is back tonight, and hopefully this episode will make up for last week"s somewhat dull offering. It certainly seems promising, what with Alexis bearing her claws (fun fact: her claws have fake boobs too) at some random lady for allegedly getting too close to husband Jim (who we all know is a huge chick magnet, what with his movie star looks). Cat fights are always wonderful, especially when they"re initiated by church-going, bible-toting citizens of God. Let"s face it: if there"s anyone who was known for catty contretemps, it was Jesus himself. He was all "You bettah slow yo" roll, Judas!" and "Virgin Mary, puhhlease!!!"

Okay, maybe not. But the point is that Alexis gets into it with another fellow tupperware party guest, and things don"t look like they"ll end politely. Thankfully, Jim is ever the gentleman and pulls his wife away, sure to mitigate any conflict. And by that, I mean he just stands there, perhaps relishing this moment. Certainly I hope you don"t think I"m suggesting the guy"s a shmuck. I mean, just because he gnaws on a toothpick like some long-forgotten background player in Grease doesn"t mean he"s lacking in the class department. Clearly the man is a gentleman. Just check out his mature (read: sulky) reactions to the tupperware party.

To see all of these shenanigans (including an overbearing drag queen named Kay Sedilla), check out the video above. And as a bonus, after the jump is an extra clip of Lynne and the "youth-ologist" (not to be confused with "joy-ologist"). Posted by: B-Side      Read more     Source

January 22, 2010, 8:13 AM CT

Go easy on the environment

When it comes to saving the environment, Generation Y is all for it - as long as it comes with an economic benefit, as per new research by Michigan State University in collaboration with Deloitte LLP.

Based on a scientific survey of 18- to 30-year-olds, scientists from MSU's Eli Broad Graduate School of Management observed that young consumers will not pay a premium price for an automobile simply because it is environmentally friendly. Instead, the determining factor - by far - is fuel efficiency.

The findings are being released this week to coincide with the North American International Auto Show, which ends Sunday in Detroit.

Clay Voorhees, MSU assistant professor of marketing and lead faculty researcher on the project, said the findings indicate an eco-savvy generation that has grown up and is coming to grips with the economic reality of paying bills.

"Generation Y is aging, and the stereotypical assumption that they are a spoiled generation of pierced, tattooed outcasts couldn't be further from the truth," Voorhees said. "They're maturing into a pragmatic generation that wants to do the right thing for the environment but also has real economic concerns".

MSU and Deloitte, a New York-based marketing and accounting firm, teamed to study the attitudes toward the auto industry of Gen Y - at 75 million strong, the largest generation since the baby boomers. MSU also launched an in-depth investigation into Gen Y's view of sustainability as it relates to the industry......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source