Archive for July, 2009
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Create your own Sun Jar
July 27th, 2009
advertisng news
July 5th, 2009
This is a really great blog I came accross tonight and thought I have to share it. Advert news is a blog that shows us all the unique and new adverts that are worth mentioning.
Read more at the advertnews blog.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Rules that Govern Groups
July 2nd, 2009
10 Rules That Govern Groups
Much of our lives are spent in groups with other people: we form groups to socialise, earn money, play sport, make music, even to change the world. But although groups are diverse, many of the psychological processes involved are remarkably similar.
Here are 10 insightful studies that give a flavour of what has been discovered about the dynamics of group psychology.
1. Groups can arise from almost nothing
The desire to form and join social groups is extremely powerful and built into our nature. Amongst other things groups give us a most valuable gift, our social identity, which contribute to our sense of who we are.
Just how readily people form and join groups is demonstrated by Tajfel et al. (1971) in the so-called ‘minimal groups paradigm‘. In their study boys who were strangers to each other were given only the slightest hint that they they were being split into two groups. Even without knowing or seeing who else was in their group they favoured members of their own group over the others. Group behaviour, then, can arise from almost nothing.
2. Initiation rites improve group evaluations
Existing groups don’t let others join for free: the cost is sometimes monetary, sometimes intellectual, sometimes physical—but usually there is an initiation rite, even if it’s well disguised.
Aronson and Mills (1959) tested the effect of initiation rites by making one group of women read passages from sexually explicit novels. Afterwards they rated the group they had joined much more positively than those who hadn’t had to undergo the humiliating initiation. So, not only do groups want to test you, but they want you to value your membership.
3. Groups breed conformity
After joining a group and being initiated, we have to get a feel for the group norms, the rules of behaviour in that group. Group norms can be extremely powerful, bending our behaviours in ways we would never expect.
One of the most famous experiments showing how easily we conform to unwritten group rules was conducted by Asch (1951). He had participants sit amongst a group of other people, judging the length of a line. The trick was that all the other members of the group were confederates of the experimenter who had been told to lie about which line was longer. Incredibly 76% of participants denied the evidence from their own senses at least once, just to conform with the group. Afterwards people made up all kinds of excuses for their behaviour. Most popular was a variation on: “that many people can’t be wrong”. Oh yes they can.
Read more rules that Govern Groups here
Popularity: 2% [?]
Story of Nail art
July 2nd, 2009
Faster than light radio waves in a computer?
July 2nd, 2009
This is just amazing.
“…Scientists have been plagued by Einstein’s theories which state nothing can travel faster than light. But over the past decade or so, we have seen a new branch of physics theorized, one which might give Einstein cause for pause. It’s called Superluminal Electromagnetic Field / Wave Propagation, which is basically a form of faster than light relativity. Experiments have been conducted by several scientists which involve light and radio sources traveling at speeds well in excess of the speed of light. Seem possible?
Earlier this year, a physicist called John Singleton created an application of this theory which he believes could greatly advance semiconductors…”
“..Being applied to semiconductors, the idea of transmitting data across the entire width of a CPU in a single clock, or even less than that, would mean faster caches, the ability to communicate across separate pieces of silicon nearly instantly (1 clock cycle), which means semiconductors could be made piece meal, being assembled wirelessly in the final package through EM frequencies which operate only over a few centimeters….”
Read the whole story here:
Faster-than-light radio waves could revolutionize computer industries
Popularity: 2% [?]
Inspiring quotes on life
July 2nd, 2009
Here are some inspiring quotes on life:
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell
“If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” – Thomas A. Edison
Read more quotes here
Popularity: 15% [?]
