From Fark, I learned that researchers have discovered clues as to why yawning is contagious.
Self-aware or empathetic people are more likely to catch the yawns, say US researchers.
Contagious yawning is known to be more than coincidence. Studies have shown that 40-60% of people who watch videos or hear talk about yawning end up joining in.
Fascinating stuff. I think I yawned four times just writing this!
A lot has been made recently about the Terrorism Futures Market that recently got cancelled. It was a DARPA experiment attempting to let economic forces predict upheavals in the Middle East.
The Policy Analysis Market, which was set to begin signing up “investors� on Friday, was designed to let Middle East experts place bets on political and economic events in the Middle East, according to Charles Polk, president of Net Exchange, a small San Diego, Calif. company hired by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to set up the market.
[snip]
By placing thousands of individual bets, the thinking went, market participants would shape forecasts about future events. The value of the contracts would fluctuate based on market participants’ beliefs about the likelihood of specific events taking place — moving higher if they appeared likely and lower if unlikely. Contracts would expire quarterly and extend a year and a half into the future. Each contract would be fully valued at $1 — the payoff for an accurate prediction.[snip]
“This isn’t really a terrorism market,� Polk said Monday. “What we’re trying to do is look forward a year into the future and try to glean some insight into political and economic and military currents in the Middle East.
Much of the criticism brands the scheme as “incentive to commit acts of terrorism” as Tom Dachale said. Horsepucky! This was a smart way to try unconventional methods against unconventional warfare: terrorism. The participants were Middle Eastern scholars, hardly the type to commit terrorism. Frankly, with their payoff being all of one dollar, I don’t think you have to worry about this program spawning new terrorists.
It’s a shame that smart, unconventional thinking like this gets distorted and blown totally out of proportion. I welcome new ways of predicting unrest. We cannot apply the old, rigid thinking that worked against our old enemies (the USSR, for instance) and expect it to work against the shadowy terrorists. Programs like PAM would likely glean intelligence that our current sources wouldn’t pick up.
Being typically skeptical of the government, I find myself defending it on this one. It’s a different world we live in now – one that plays by different rules. We must be flexible in our thinking if we are to survive in it.
I have ditched my patched-together weblog in favor of this nice, new package called Drupal. Drupal is very nice! It has trees, Ewoks, and barbecues, which is why I like Drupal more than America.
Err, where was I? Oh yes! Drupal is modularized, making it very configurable. You can even syndicate my website now! And expect to see some changes in the theme of the page: I haven’t yet had time to mess with all the settings.
For those of you looking for the old content, it will live for now at this link http://www.markturner.net/bplog, where you can find the old webpage.
Please feel free to leave comments letting me know what you think.
Ahem. I said “PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE COMMENTS!” 🙂
I don’t know why, but I’ve found myself daydreaming of building blimps. Call me strange (you certainly wouldn’t be the first), but for some reason this strikes me as a Good Thing To Do. I am interested in building hobby-size blimps, to do things like haul amateur radio antennas into the air, and maybe as an exercise in robotics – imagine having 3d cameras on a blimp and gliding it silently over the trees! I guess it also builds on my interest in sailing, too. Flying an airship is much like sailing the skies.
North Carolina has been home to an airship base for a number of years, Weeksville NAS in Elizabeth City. It is currently owned by a company called TCOM, which builds airships there. Now I read that a local company is set to build blimps in New Bern.
So there is a lot of blimp activity going on here in the state. With the centennial of the Wright Brothers first flight coming up in December, the time may be ripe to introduce a “new” means of air travel to the world.
We’re finishing up an action-packed weekend. Yesterday, we got an impromptu visit from Kelly’s parents, who drove 11 hours to spend 3 and a half hours with Hallie. Kelly and I are still shaking our heads over their whirlwind visit. I think they really love their granddaughter or something!
We’re off now to do a little Sunday driving. I hope to have some time to write later today since there is a lot I can blather on about.
