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The Psychology of Luck - Richard Wiseman
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1844
Richard Wiseman is a British psychologist who does some very interesting research, occasionally intruding upon some of our more commonly held beliefs & superstitions.
One of his more interesting studies involved "Luck"- in which a group of people were asked to self assess themselves as being "Lucky" or "Not Lucky". They were then assigned a task of reading a newspaper and counting the number of photographs they saw within it. Unbeknownst to them there was an ad within the paper that stated they could stop searching and show it to the researcher to collect a $250.00 reward.
Lucky people noticed the ad and cashed in. Unlucky people tended to be so focused on the search for pictures of people that they missed the ad, and therefore the opportunity to make $250.00.
The results from the study were simply explained. People who reported themselves as lucky were more likely to see "The Big Picture" instead of merely focusing on the task at hand. Luck, it seemed, was a matter of personality and entirely within reach of everybody, provided they had the right outlook.
Curious? Read more about Richard Wiseman here:
Website: http://www.richardwiseman.com (Note: The navigation is a bit odd. Use the head...) or visit his YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Quirkology
Article for the Skeptical Inquirer here: http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf (Note: Adobe .pdf format.) and a short summary of his findings here: http://www.richardwiseman.com/research/moreluck.html
2 I Missed
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1598
Both of these topics I've covered before, but in different links. The link below is a color Cellular Automata program, based (loosely) on Conway's game of life.
http://www.collidoscope.com/modernca/
And this follows some speculation I've done as to the future of technology, and imagining additional senses. While I couldn't find the associated video on TED it's sure to be interesting....
Punch and Judy - Jan Svankmajer
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2109
A short film by Jan Svankmajer - 1966. I know, I've recommended him before. But it's too good not to include here.
The Cave of the Condom Stalactites
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Dreams
- Hits: 2576
I'm riding somewhere through South-East Asia in a Tuk-Tuk, speeding through the mountains. We go through villages, then speed up again, circling the mountains - there are many tunnels, or caves, rather, with roads built through them. We're getting smaller as we go, our size reducing, but everything else is getting smaller along with us, so it's hard to notice. Passing through a village we enter another cave, speeding up and driving on the left side, on the ceiling of the right side there hang all these condom stalactites, they look to be used, the driver won't stop to let me take a look, they seem large but that's only because we've been shrinking. It's like some sort of sacred alter hewn into the mountain. I think I remember an explanation from National Geographic for this, the condoms collect water.... Leaving the last of the light behind us we're plunged into complete darkness before rounding a corner, the exit is ahead and light streams through it, there's a motorcycle coming straight at us, it loses control and goes off the edge of a precipice. We pull over to look, the bike and driver are lost somewhere far below, the sunlight doesn't reach into the depths of the cave. It's an abyss. We've seen a lot of accidents on this road, he doesn't want to stop and help, there isn't time, we get back in the tuk-tuk and speed off. I don't know where we're going.
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