Cheer Up, Ben: Your Economy Isn't As Bad as This One - WSJ.com
You've undoubtedly been assaulted with news of Second Life before, since the media seems to be enchanted with it -
You may or may not have known there were individuals operating banks in the game - and that the money is convertable to real money. Due to Second Life's operators getting panicky about following real-world rules, they cracked down on gambling, which caused the collapse of some investment groups/banks in Second Life. This caused a banking run. People lost money, as always. And to prevent people from losing money from bad investments again, Second Life's operators decided all banks in game must be chartered banks. Predictably, this also caused a banking run, upset a lot of people, and caused even more people to lose their money.
Also, chartered banks, at least ones that operate in this country, will probably not do business in the game because of laws intended to stop money laundering, which require banks to know who their customers are. This is a problem in an internet environment.
I think this would be a really interesting thing to do a case study on - and a good reminder that good intentions usually produce shitty outcomes.
Psychology
BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: Just how representative are the people who volunteer for psychology experiments?
It turns out they don't represent the population very well at all. Big surprise.
Older Folks Don't Get The Joke, Researchers Find
They really do have a hard time understanding why something is funny. It's age-related, so you're going to be unfunny too, someday. Just keep in mind that...
Appreciation Of Humor Doesn't Change With Age
"Appreciation and emotional reactiveness to humor doesn't change with age. (...) However, the ability to comprehend more complex forms of humor diminishes in later years."
Personality Predictors Of Intelligence Change From Younger To Older Adulthood
"An ability to be open to new situations may predict intelligence earlier in life, says a new study, but disagreeableness may predict intelligence later in life."
Kids Of Depressed Moms More Prone To Behavioral Problems And Injury
"for every 1 point increase on the depression score, the risk of injury rose by 4% and the risk of behavioural problems increased by 6%."
Parenting
Pretending Not Just Child's Play: Parents Can Have Important Role, Too
Kids play more, and get more out of play, when parents play along.
Mothers Trade Child Quantity For Quality
There's been a decline in fertility in almost all the world's countries over the recent past. And, just like the title says, quantity has been traded for quality: mothers spend more time and energy trying to give their kids a leg up.
Toddlers' Imitation Predicts Well-Developed Conscience
"Babies who enthusiastically imitate their parents develop a sense of right and wrong earlier than those who don't."
Divorce Foretells Child's Future Care For Elderly Parent
And it foretells things that are not good.
Excess Worrying Can Harm Parents' Relationships With Grown Children
Chalk another one up to obvious research. Well, it's nice to have proof, anyway.
Fathers Have Great Impact On Their Children's Lives, Even When Not At Home
Divorce May Widen Distance Between Teens, Fathers
"The typical distancing from parents by adolescents is exacerbated by divorce for fathers, but not for mothers."
Language
Kids Who Blow Bubbles Find Language Is Child's Play
"Youngsters who can lick their lips, blow bubbles and pretend that a building block is a car are most likely to find learning language easy."
Uh, maybe it's just that I haven't been around a lot of kids, but aren't these all pretty easy for most kids?
Fathers Influence Child Language Development More Than Mothers
Mental Math Dependant On Language, Researchers Find
"The language most bilingual people use to mentally solve math problems isn't necessarily their native language or even the language that is most prevalent in their environment."
Babies Use Their Own Names To Help Learn Language
It's easier to figure out where words stop and start that way.
Children's Earliest Words Stem From What Interests Them
"Younger babies learn words for new objects based on how interested they are in the object, whereas older babies attach more importance to whether the speaker is interested in the object."
A Time To Rhyme: Children Process Words By Sound While Adults Process By Meaning
We adults get confused by words similar in meaning; in a list like "pillow", "dream", "bed", "night", we are likely to misremember words like "sleep" being in the list. Young children misremember similar-sounding words, instead of conceptually related ones.
Oohs And Aahs: Vowel Sounds Affect Our Perceptions Of Products
"I" sounds go with quick things, "O" sounds go with slow things. "UU" (Like in putrid) are just bad sounds that you shouldn't use.
Science
How Noise Protects Entire Marine Ecosystems
Just read it.
Army
The U.S. Army lowers recruitment standards … again. - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine
How unsurprising. And in case you think it doesn't matter, that even morons can pull triggers...well, it turns out the smarter you are, the better you do in prettymuch everything, and the better your unit performs. Actually, even one smart guy in a unit of ... let's say Marines...can drastically increase performance, but a whole unit of smart guys does even better yet.
Think of the implications for our current conflicts. Or for any conflict, really. The less force you have to use, the better, and the smarter you are, the more effective you are, thus obviating the need for more force. So one could see this as a moral issue, I think.
Then again, the cynic in me says, "So you're going to make things better by possibly killing all our smart people and keeping the stupid ones at home?"
I think it's the cynics who usually get elected.
Why is the Army losing so many talented midlevel officers? - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine
Basically, because it can't accommodate them. The bureaucracy dinosaur wins again!
You've undoubtedly been assaulted with news of Second Life before, since the media seems to be enchanted with it -
You may or may not have known there were individuals operating banks in the game - and that the money is convertable to real money. Due to Second Life's operators getting panicky about following real-world rules, they cracked down on gambling, which caused the collapse of some investment groups/banks in Second Life. This caused a banking run. People lost money, as always. And to prevent people from losing money from bad investments again, Second Life's operators decided all banks in game must be chartered banks. Predictably, this also caused a banking run, upset a lot of people, and caused even more people to lose their money.
Also, chartered banks, at least ones that operate in this country, will probably not do business in the game because of laws intended to stop money laundering, which require banks to know who their customers are. This is a problem in an internet environment.
I think this would be a really interesting thing to do a case study on - and a good reminder that good intentions usually produce shitty outcomes.
Psychology
BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: Just how representative are the people who volunteer for psychology experiments?
It turns out they don't represent the population very well at all. Big surprise.
Older Folks Don't Get The Joke, Researchers Find
They really do have a hard time understanding why something is funny. It's age-related, so you're going to be unfunny too, someday. Just keep in mind that...
Appreciation Of Humor Doesn't Change With Age
"Appreciation and emotional reactiveness to humor doesn't change with age. (...) However, the ability to comprehend more complex forms of humor diminishes in later years."
Personality Predictors Of Intelligence Change From Younger To Older Adulthood
"An ability to be open to new situations may predict intelligence earlier in life, says a new study, but disagreeableness may predict intelligence later in life."
Kids Of Depressed Moms More Prone To Behavioral Problems And Injury
"for every 1 point increase on the depression score, the risk of injury rose by 4% and the risk of behavioural problems increased by 6%."
Parenting
Pretending Not Just Child's Play: Parents Can Have Important Role, Too
Kids play more, and get more out of play, when parents play along.
Mothers Trade Child Quantity For Quality
There's been a decline in fertility in almost all the world's countries over the recent past. And, just like the title says, quantity has been traded for quality: mothers spend more time and energy trying to give their kids a leg up.
Toddlers' Imitation Predicts Well-Developed Conscience
"Babies who enthusiastically imitate their parents develop a sense of right and wrong earlier than those who don't."
Divorce Foretells Child's Future Care For Elderly Parent
And it foretells things that are not good.
Excess Worrying Can Harm Parents' Relationships With Grown Children
Chalk another one up to obvious research. Well, it's nice to have proof, anyway.
Fathers Have Great Impact On Their Children's Lives, Even When Not At Home
Divorce May Widen Distance Between Teens, Fathers
"The typical distancing from parents by adolescents is exacerbated by divorce for fathers, but not for mothers."
Language
Kids Who Blow Bubbles Find Language Is Child's Play
"Youngsters who can lick their lips, blow bubbles and pretend that a building block is a car are most likely to find learning language easy."
Uh, maybe it's just that I haven't been around a lot of kids, but aren't these all pretty easy for most kids?
Fathers Influence Child Language Development More Than Mothers
Mental Math Dependant On Language, Researchers Find
"The language most bilingual people use to mentally solve math problems isn't necessarily their native language or even the language that is most prevalent in their environment."
Babies Use Their Own Names To Help Learn Language
It's easier to figure out where words stop and start that way.
Children's Earliest Words Stem From What Interests Them
"Younger babies learn words for new objects based on how interested they are in the object, whereas older babies attach more importance to whether the speaker is interested in the object."
A Time To Rhyme: Children Process Words By Sound While Adults Process By Meaning
We adults get confused by words similar in meaning; in a list like "pillow", "dream", "bed", "night", we are likely to misremember words like "sleep" being in the list. Young children misremember similar-sounding words, instead of conceptually related ones.
Oohs And Aahs: Vowel Sounds Affect Our Perceptions Of Products
"I" sounds go with quick things, "O" sounds go with slow things. "UU" (Like in putrid) are just bad sounds that you shouldn't use.
Science
How Noise Protects Entire Marine Ecosystems
Just read it.
Army
The U.S. Army lowers recruitment standards … again. - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine
How unsurprising. And in case you think it doesn't matter, that even morons can pull triggers...well, it turns out the smarter you are, the better you do in prettymuch everything, and the better your unit performs. Actually, even one smart guy in a unit of ... let's say Marines...can drastically increase performance, but a whole unit of smart guys does even better yet.
Think of the implications for our current conflicts. Or for any conflict, really. The less force you have to use, the better, and the smarter you are, the more effective you are, thus obviating the need for more force. So one could see this as a moral issue, I think.
Then again, the cynic in me says, "So you're going to make things better by possibly killing all our smart people and keeping the stupid ones at home?"
I think it's the cynics who usually get elected.
Why is the Army losing so many talented midlevel officers? - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine
Basically, because it can't accommodate them. The bureaucracy dinosaur wins again!
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