Coin Toss Not Completely Random

Researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have conducted a study to determine whether or not the toss of a coin results in a completely random outcome, 50% heads or tails. The study involved 13 students who where observed tossing a coin 300 times each and recording of the results of each toss. Prior to starting each participant was given some instruction on coin toss technique and time to practice. The results showed that on average heads came up 57% of the time with one participant achieving a whopping 68%.

I know a few curlers who'd love to get there hands on those instructions! In fact I've heard that former Canadian Champion Colleen Jones was known to have practiced the toss of a coin hundreds of times trying to gain an edge, if ever so slightly. Perhaps she was onto something?

Btw, there was no mention of the denomination of the coins or whether or not the same coin, or same series (year) of coin was used.

Source: CBC News

Growing Opposition Over Government Inaction On Broadband

After a number of reports on the state of broadband around the world have each given Canada low grades for it's high-speed internet service, government opposition parties are beginning to take shots at Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his ruling Conservative Party. “The Harper Conservatives have no vision for a digital future. The United States is enshrining net neutrality principles as a fundamental principle for economic restructuring. The Europeans are setting benchmarks for open access to high speed. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are giving the cable giants a free pass to gouge consumers.” read a statement from Charlie Angus, NDP MP for Timmins-James Bay, on his party's website Monday.

I'm sure the Conservatives will counter with the usual, we're a large country with a dispersed population... will this become an election issue?

Source: CBC.ca

Want To Improve Your Game - Wear Red!

A study conducted by German sports psychologists at the University of Munster, and reported in New Scientist magazine has concluded that athletes who wear red score 10 per cent more in any competition than if they were in another colour. "If one competitor is strong and the other weak, it won't change the outcome of the fight," said Norbert Hagemann, who led the study. "But the closer the levels, the easier it is for the colour to tip the scale." In the study "the researchers showed video clips of taekwondo bouts to 42 experienced referees. One combatant wore blue, the other red. They then showed them the same clips but digitally manipulated the clothing to swap the colours. The fighters wearing red were given an average of 13 per cent more points than when they were blue."

Interestingly another study conducted in 2004 by Durham University scientists showed that 55% of Olympic combat sports were won by the competitor in red. I wonder if the same is true in video games?

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Napping Improves Creativity

Need to amp up your creativity? Take a nap!

Study Shows That As You Read Your Brain Simulates Actions In Stories

Using brain-imaging, researchers at Washington University have found that as you read your brain simulates the actions in the story.

"There has been good evidence for a while that mental simulation — imagination — can improve performance in sport and other skilled behaviours.

This study suggests that readers do mental simulation when they comprehend a story," said Jeffrey Zacks, director of the university's dynamic cognition laboratory.

This would suggest that we can practice skills by reading about them... interesting!

Source: CBC

Gaming Gone Mainstream, Not Just For Teens Anymore

A study by market research company The NPD Group suggests that video games are not just for teenagers anymore. "We were surprised to find that the standard of the classic young male as a video game enthusiast has forever changed," said Matthew Tattle, spokesman for NPD's Canada Games group. "With the increasing adoption of a digitally based lifestyle by the majority of consumers, it was only a matter of time before we would see gaming become part of the mainstream." The study was based on a survey of 16,774 respondents in Canada between June 13 and 30. When considering all of the platforms, offline PC gamers, who played at least 10 hours a week and are the oldest of the segments with an average age of 40. CBC story here.

I guess I'd qualify as a casual gamer, I enjoy playing as much as the next guy but only play occasionally and haven't put in 10hrs a week in years. My game time is equally spent between PC and console.

McAfee Spam Expirement = 23,233 e-mails In One Month

In an experiment, McAfee invited 50 people from around the world to surf without spam filters. The results varied depending on where the surfer resided however I think you'll agree that even the least affected geographically still received a staggering amount of spam! Spam received by surfer by country (in one month):

US - 23,233

Brazil - 15,856

Italy - 15,610

Mexico - 12,229

UK - 11,965

Australia - 9,214

The Netherlands - 6,378

Spain - 5,419

France - 2,597

Germany - 2,331

"Many of our participants noticed that their computers were slowing down. This means that while they were surfing, unbeknownst to them, websites were installing malware," said Guy Roberts, director of McAfee's labs in Europe.

The future does not seem to hold any promise for eradicating spam either, "...it is such an immense problem and it's never going to go away. It's no longer a question of solving it but one of managing it," says Dave De Walt, chief executive of McAfee.

BBC story here.

RFID In The Operating Room

Radio frequency identification devices (RFID) are becoming a popular means of keeping track of things, including helping to identify patients in a hospital, and revealing the location of equipment. Dutch scientists are now claiming that RFIDs can have a negative effect on life-saving equipment, even in some cases turning off critical medical devices. Research conducted at Vrije University in Amsterdam, tested the effect of holding both "passive" and powered RFIDs close to 41 medical devices. According to this BBC report "A total of 123 tests, three on each machine, were carried out, and 34 produced an "incident" in which the RFID appeared to have an effect - 24 of which were deemed either "significant" or "hazardous". In some tests, RFIDs either switched off or changed the settings on mechanical ventilators, completely stopped the working of syringe pumps, caused external pacemakers to malfunction, and halted dialysis machines." Proponents of the technology say that the type of RFID used in medical situations are much less likely to have occurances than those used in retail situations and that any medical rated tag would have to meet a standard, meaning it is very unlikely that interference with medical devices would occur.

MPAA Says Sorry, My Bad!

In a 2005 study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) college and university students were blamed for 44 percent of all illegal downloading of movies. The MPAA has now admitted to "human error" in calculating those figures saying that students only account for about 15 percent of revenue loss to association members but claims the number is still significant. Mark Luker, vice president of campus IT group Educause, says "The 44 percent figure was used to show that if college campuses could somehow solve this problem on this campus, then it would make a tremendous difference in the business of the motion picture industry," and that "any solution on campus will have only a small impact on the industry itself." Perhaps the authors of the study should have spent more time studying and less time downloading when they were in school!

AP article here.

Does your social networking sight define your social standing?

A research study performed by PhD student Danah Boyd from the School of Information Sciences at UC Berkeley, suggests that users of two popular social network sites, Facebook and MySpace, tend to come from two different social classes.

In her draft report she states "Social networks are strongly connected to geography, race, and religion; these are also huge factors in lifestyle divisions and thus 'class',". She says that Facebook users tend to be white and put a lot of stock in continuing education. In contrast MySpace users tend to come from homes where the parents did not attend college. The MySpace users also tend to come from immigrant families, she writes, "MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracised at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers,"

I really hat labelling 'classes' of society, to me it makes a lot of sense that one group of like minded people will flock to one site while others with contrary views/beliefs will migrate to the other, it's human nature.

Check out the entire story at the BBC.

IM studying!

A recent conversation with my 15 year old went something like this...


Me: "I thought you had to study? You have exams soon!"


Him: "I am studying!"


Me: "Then why is the instant messenger bleeping all of the time? Doesn't sound like studying!"


Him: "We have an Internet study group, we are asking each other question."





I slyly peek at the screen to reassure myself that he is actually studying...



Me: "Cool!"