Smart Birds

Are birds smarter than mathematicians? Pigeons (Columba livia) perform optimally on a version of the Monty Hall Dilemma

Walter Herbranson & Julia Schroeder
Journal of Comparative Psychology, February 2010, Pages 1-13

Abstract: The “Monty Hall Dilemma” (MHD) is a well known probability puzzle in which a player tries to guess which of three doors conceals a desirable prize. After an initial choice is made, one of the remaining doors is opened, revealing no prize. The player is then given the option of staying with their initial guess or switching to the other unopened door. Most people opt to stay with their initial guess, despite the fact that switching doubles the probability of winning. A series of experiments investigated whether pigeons (Columba livia), like most humans, would fail to maximize their expected winnings in a version of the MHD. Birds completed multiple trials of a standard MHD, with the three response keys in an operant chamber serving as the three doors and access to mixed grain as the prize. Across experiments, the probability of gaining reinforcement for switching and staying was manipulated, and birds adjusted their probability of switching and staying to approximate the optimal strategy. Replication of the procedure with human participants showed that humans failed to adopt optimal strategies, even with extensive training.

Really cool study. After reading this I ran into my friends' room and posed to them the MHD. All of them stayed with their original door. Birdbrains.

Movies tell us how things really are!

The Korean War really freaked us out as a nation. "Why aren't we invincible!?" "Why are our POW's collaborating with the enemy!?" (And by collaborating I mean committing horrendous treasonous acts against the US of A, such as telling Korean prison officials your name).

The answer to these questions and more can be found in such popular films of the time as The Manchurian Candidate, My Son John, Them! and Things. In the Manchurian Candidate, the protagonist finds out he is a Soviet sleeper agent, brainwashed by his evil domineering mother to obey all orders when he is activated by the Queen of Diamonds. In the 1954 film Them! the world is in danger of being taken over by giant mutant ants until the CIA and US military destroy the Queen, nest and eggs with flame throwers. Are you starting to see the trend here? Mothers are evil.

In an attempt to explain all of our shortcomings as a nation exposed by the Korean war, cultural critics went all Freud on us and blamed all our problems on cultural emasculation caused by over mothering. In short: empowered women make weak babies!

This theme can be seen over and over again in the popular sci-fi films of the day. The overbearing mother turns her son into a commie. The female dominated mutant ant colony or aliens from outer space nearly destroy America until the US government blasts the hell out of them.

And it even went beyond the movies (if you can imagine a world beyond motion picture before the interwebz). Pre-Dr. Spock (of The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care fame, not Star Trek) parenting consisted of not holding or kissing your child, feeding them on a strict, regular schedule and ignoring their cries. This was supposed to prepare them to be strong in the harsh world of the future (aka, for military service).

In retrospect, the idea that mothers are evil and turn us all into weak communists is absolutely ludicrous after the age of about 17. Everyone knows that women aren't strong or influential or even real individuals, despite what we tell them to keep them quiet. No, women certainly are not the source of all our problems. So I would like to take this time to nominate household pets, dogs especially, as the root of American weakness. So much unconditioned positive regard can't be good for anyone.

More fun facts about the Korean War!

From the Wikipedia article on the Korean War:

In South Korea the war is usually referred to as the 6-2-5 War (yuk-i-o jeonjaeng), reflecting the date of its commencement on June 25.

In North Korea the war is officially referred to as the Choguk haebang chǒnjaeng ("fatherland liberation war").

North Korea is a Scary Place

This is a satellite image of the Korean Peninsula taken at night. Notice something weird? How about that big black thing, also know as 조선민주주의인민공화국. Yes, there are no lights in North Korea, an East Asian Country of 24 million, outside of Pyongyang.

North Korea is a scary place. That is the only thing I've learned in my history class so far. They've got a good 250,000+ of their own citizens locked up in forced labor camps that are routinely compared to concentration camps. But don't worry folks, this is an improvement! Before the late 1990s, you could be killed for such offenses as listening to foreign radio or humming South Korean songs. When this turned out to be bad for maintaining some kind of population growth the system was reformed to include torture, rape, medical experimentation, bribery, forced labor and starvation as possible alternatives to capital punishment. Not that they've taken capital punishment off the table entirely. They just like to save that for more serious offenses like say, having books written in English.

North Korea is an entirely state-owned, planned-economy and prides itself on Juche, self efficiency. Oh, except for the whole part where China is basically their life support. Without China's monetary support, the North Korea would collapse, swiftly. But that isn't going to happen, even if China finds North Korea annoying, because if North Korea did collapse they would have to deal with millions (more) of North Korean refugees, which would be even more annoying.

Oh, and guess what else? They've got nuclear technology! They've got a bomb about the same size as the one that we dropped on Hiroshima. When all is said and done though, South Korea still wants to unify with them and it is kind of understandable. They are one people and all. But it's still amazing, after reading about the atrocities of the Korean war (much of which is totally unknown to people outside, or even inside, of the Koreas), the things these two states did to each other (with a bit of help from the Soviets, Americans and Chinese) and just how anxious they both are to forget about all of it.

I'll leave you with these two pictures, the first of the Incheon International Airport in South Korean, and the Second of the Pyongyang International Airport in North Korea.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Incheon_International_Airpot_%28interesting_architecture%29.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dprk_pyongyang_airport_05.jpg

¡fotografías posible?

Heyo... here are some of the photos from my trip to Spain :D


More to come later... I may get a photobucket or something...

Nom Nom Nom

Three facts:

1. My grandmother who has Alzheimer's is coming into town.
2. I like to read health "news" from BBC online. I put news in quotation marks because the BBC is very good about representing all kinds of science reporting: the excellent to the downright awful.
3. I love curry.

All of these things have come together to bring me to this article about potential benefits of eating lots and lots of curry! Alzheimer's is a terrible disease; how fabulous would if something so yummy could help protect you from something so horrible?

Let's play a game!

So I'm stealing this from NPR and numerous other places but I don't care because it's a fun game!

Basically I'll give a headline and then a short description of three stories. You have to pick the true one.

1. Car loses all four wheels on highway
A car traveling on a motorway in Zurich, Switzerland lost all four wheel simultaneously. The car's owners had just changed from winter to summer wheels but had used the wrong nuts for the new set. No one was injured.

2. Woman shoots boyfriend for sleeping with wife
Emma Hendrix from Colbert County, Alabama shot her boyfriend, Josh Morris Sunday because she found out he was sleeping with his wife after his wife got pregnant. Ms. Hendrix claimed that she didn't mind him being married, but that she snapped when she found out he had being lying to her about sleeping with his wife. Mr. Morris was not seriously injured.

3. Woman refuses to leave "swine flu-proof" house
A woman in Sussex, England has repeatedly refused to leave her "swine flu-proof" house according to local authorities. The woman in her mid seventies, has stockpiled her home with disinfectant products for protection. The woman's son and daughter-in-law involved the police when the woman refused to accept visitor or even accept deliveries of her blood pressure medication.

The Answer!

(Side note: that word, "answer", is really disgusting to look at. what the hell is that 'w' doing in there?)

It Sounds Like Science...

Fiction.



This is part one in my new series of crazy things in religion!

I decided this afternoon to look up Scientology because I don't want to study for exams and I don't know a lot about it.

Scientology gets a lot of crap from the rest of the world for being a bit kooky. They're the D&D playing trekkie on the playground and Christianity is the mean stinky bully with bad teeth.

And it isn't hard to see why when the holiest of their religious Scriptures is called a "Space Opera". According to Scientology's founder "modern-day science fiction genre of space opera is merely an unconscious recollection of real events that took place millionsof years ago." Also, our souls temporarily go to the planet Venus when we die. Also, this one guy Xenu commits a big genocide on earth with a bunch of Hydrogen bombs and that is where we all come from! We are immortal souls locked in fleshy cages or something and we reincarnate. Oh, and a lot of this action with Xenu happened roughly 300,000 x the generally accepted age of the Universe years ago. Also, the way that the big bad Xenu got us all here? DC-8s.

So yeah, it is a bit crazy. But so far the worst I can see they've done is be all anti-psychiatry. Which is bad... psychiatry can be very useful in many situations. But is isn't that bad compared to some of the other shit that goes down.

It All Makes Sense Now!!!

I apologize folks for that last post. I really had no idea what I was talking about as evidenced by this article.

"That is the biggest concern, that your herd could somehow contract this illness from an infected person," said Kansas hog farmer Ron Suther, who is banning visitors from his sow barns and requiring maintenance workers, delivery men and other strangers to report on recent travels and any illness before they step foot on his property.

Paned Emits

Let's take a walk down memory lane. Freshman year. Health class.

I was but a small, sickly girl and somehow the subject of massive flu epidemics was raised. A friend of mine and I decided it would be hilarious to predict how we were to die. We predicted I would die of a massive flue pandemic in the year 2010 and that he would die in the year 2012 for reasons I don't remember.

Let's fast forward three and a half years.

OH MY GOD, IT'S HAPPENING.

Maybe.

They're saying that over 150 people have died in Mexico... which sounds doubleplusungood to me. Except that no one outside of Mexico has died... and I don't quite understand why. Either way, they're pulling out the state of emergency stuff right and left and then telling people not to panic... which makes me turn my head in an inquisitive way. Mexico itself has pretty much shut down, it's ridiculous to read some of the reports coming out of there about the streets of Mexico City being empty. Which is only a little impressive until you realize that Mexico City is the second largest metropolitan area IN THE WORLD.

So yes, I'm quite interested to see how this all pans out. If any of you are interested, below is a copy of my Riddley Walker story which has a subject matter closely related to current events (which is totally coincidental... has nothing to do with the fact I wrote it this morning...)..

1.Mr. See De See wer every 1s Pot of Carry. Ben ther a chyld coffin or a woman done vomitit Mr. See De See myt wud go with a pot. That for them a rum for him. He done al right and the worl lookit him with re spekt. He make the sic wel and it ben a good sistem.
2.1 day Mr. See De See done seen 2 siclins in 1 day. He seen lots of siclins in lots of days but this wont no mal sicnes. This been a baddy that kylt folk. Sarz he callit and he tol the worl of it.
3.The worl was afeart wen he tol of Sarz but got careful for lots more kylt folk. Only acturely ther wer no lots more kylt folk. This got the worl mad at Mr. See De See, he done made them afeart for no raisen.
4.The worl said to Mr. See De See, 'You get moren a nuff a rum dont make us afeart for no raisen or well not give you no more.'
5.Mr. See De See wernt afeart of the worl. The worl and Mr. See De See had a good biz and no1 wud mes with him.
6.Then ther been a bloke he come to Mr. See De See with big Trubba. He and his woman and babbys al sic. His naminals been sic as wel. His nay boars been sic as wel. Every form he been a familyer of been sic.
7.Mr. See De See seeit this as big Trubba and he quick telt the worl. The worl worket quik and made pre pear rations for the A V In Flew paned emit. Lot of folks wer starvling and and freazing col from not wanting to go any wher for ther afeartnes of the A V In Flew. Hoal forms got kylt be cause no1 wud et ther naminals or crops.
8.This got the worl very mad. A V In Flew kylt les than col and starvling. The worl tol Mr. See De See, “Wer tired of your paned emits. You shunt mes with us like that. You been hy on power and a arum.” Stil folk went to Mr. See De See with ther sic folk.
9.The worl and Mr. See De See wer al right til al the babbys started turning sic. 1 day it was 3 then ther wer 9 then ther wer 27. Mr. See De See helpt some but givet some to Aunty
10.The folk yelt, “Our babbys! Why are you al cozy with Aunty now? Save our babbys! Tel the worl thers a paned emit!”
11.Mr. See De See sed “You dint want my help las time or the other 1. You yelt at me. Aunty and me got an under standment. She re spekts me and what I do for her.”
12.So the babbys of the worl kept goin to Aunty. Aunty likes babbys for she dint have none of her own. The worl was in morning and kept going smaler with out Mr. See De See to help. Thats why they been so weak wen Mr. Clevver got power.

No ovens for buns
My story is done

One of the more quirky things about the Australian grocery stores.

http://www.eco-banana.com.au/index.html

Heading to Australia tomorrow!

Yay! I'm taking off tomorrow! So like any good traveler, I'm checking up on the planes that I'll be traveling on!

Well... really just one. I've never been on a 747 and that is what I'll be taking from LAX to New Zealand (I think). The layout and other pictures seem nice enough, and my sister Courtney said the flight over there was nice enough, so I am hopeful! Below is an excpert from the wikipedia pages on 747-400s

Notable accidents and incidents

• On 23 July 1999, a man hijacked All Nippon Airways Flight 61, a 747-400D airliner bound for New Chitose Airport near Sapporo, Hokkaidō from Tokyo International Airport (Haneda). The man killed the pilot. Other crew members restrained him, and the airliner landed safely.^[18]
• On 31 October 2000, Singapore Airlines Flight 006, a 747-400 flying on a Singapore to Los Angeles via Taipei route rammed into construction equipment while attempting to take off from a closed runway at Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, caught fire and was destroyed, killing 79 passengers and three crew members. The accident prompted the airline to change the flight number of this route from 006 to 030 and to remove the "Tropical Megatop" livery on the accident aircraft's sister ship.^[19]
• On 31 January 2001, Japan Airlines Flight 907, a 747-400D bound for Naha International Airport from Tokyo International Airport, nearly collided with another Japan Airlines aircraft. The 747 pilot suddenly dived and narrowly avoided the oncoming DC-10. See 2001 Japan Airlines mid-air incident.^[20]
• On 12 March 2003, Singapore Airlines Flight SQ286, a 747-400 departing Auckland, New Zealand for Singapore suffered a serious tailstrike on take-off causing major damage to the tail section of the aircraft. The airplane returned safely with no fatalities reported.^[21]
• On 25 July 2008, Qantas Flight 30, a 747-400 bound for Melbourne Airport from Hong Kong International Airport, made an emergency landing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines with a gaping hole in its lower fuselage forward of the starboard wing; the aircraft lost a fairing. No one was hurt.^[22][23] After ruling out terrorism, authorities focused on the possibility of an exploding oxygen bottle from the emergency oxygen supply system.^[24] This theory was confirmed as the cause in an interim report issued by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.^[25]

Far from finding all of this frightening, I think it it rather encouraging that all of the accidents were from something other than a major intrinsic design flaw. Yay!

I am officially better than Prez Obama

... at picking NCAA men's Basketball Brackets.

Mine: http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/entry?entryID=969855

His: http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/entry?entryID=2813746

Sweet!

Really?

"Really?" was all I could say when I read this story from Yahoo. It is quite possibly the most upsetting thing I've read all year. No joke. And here is why:

They joked about the Russian misspelling of "reset" on the button before sitting down at an oval table with aides. "We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?" Clinton asked. "You got it wrong," said Lavrov, telling her "Peregruzka" meant "overcharge."

How do you screw that up? Does the State Department really have NO ONE fluent in Russian? On the flip side, it appears my services may be in high demand for the future...

ACHOO!

So the one good thing about being under the weather is that I get a chance to sit down, relax with a box of Kleenexes and read the newspaper.

This article in particular I found to be interesting.

And now I would like to juxtapose (a word I have never used before) that article with an excerpt from an article on the American Heart Association's website (source):

In February 2007, two new bills were introduced in Congress designed to give the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products: HR-1108, sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA), and S 625, sponsored by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John Cornyn (R-TX). The American Heart Association and several other health organizations support this new legislation.

Yes, putting more responsibility on the back of the FDA sounds like an excellent idea now, doesn't it? There are many, many, MANY things terribly wrong with this bill, but when we have peanut butter and syringes killing people, things that are 1) under the watchful eye of the FDA and 2) specifically NOT supposed to kill you, do we really need to have the FDA "protect" us from something that EVERYONE knows is bad for you?

I would like to think my father for the tip off about the article.

Before I Forget...

I'm angry at NPR for three things!

1. The other day I was listening to some lady interview a guy from scope that wrote an article that talks about all the benifits of having a Facebook. He was a very nice guy and made a very nice case for the website, citing all the poeple it has enable to reconnect with and refuting the ideas that it makes you antisocial. The interviewer kept on asking him really hostile questions and he responded very civily. I thought it all a bit odd... why are you getting hostile about Facebook? (side note: this story had nothing to do with the changes in the terms of use, the whole FACEBOOK NOW OWNS YOUR SOUL DEAL that has a lot of people upset) At the end of the interview the womans said thanks blahblah (I don't remember his name) you tried hard. I don't think you convinced anyone, but you made a good effort. At this point I was like, WHAT A BITCH!
2. I was listening to the news on the hour the other day and right in the middle of it they switch to another programme! NOT NICE.
3. And then there was something else as well... I don't remember what though. But trust me, it was bad.
   

I Wish English Class Was More Like A Dinosaur Comic!

(Click on the picture to make it bigger)

I love that we are doing poetry now... Dr. B is going to be in for a surprise when he reads my next poem analysis!

Not Another Post About Michael Phelps!

My feelings towards the Phelps have been well documented on this blog. And I assure you, they remain largely unchanged. HOWEVER, I would like to publicly say that I don't blame him for letting his hair down a bit.
Swimmers are in large part (yours truly being one of the very few exceptions) party animals. A friend of mine who met an NCAA champ butterflyer (butterflier?) on a recruiting trip came back and told me "I didn't know one person could drink that much." So the Phelps isn't the only swimmer with less than Mother Teressa-ly conduct, and that's without factoring in the fact that he is a young man (albeit a freakish, dumb, fast one).
Not only that but I don't think people really understand what his life is like during serious training. Sure, they're all seen the human interest pieces about the billion waffles he has to eat a day or whatever, but they really don't understand the true meaning of "Eat, Sleep, Swim". Being restricted like that... it is understandable that he would go a bit crazy once he got his freedom. It happens to a lot of people, not just swimmers.
The Phelps is a simple man (the idea of successful swimmers being simple is a theme I've been meaning to write about, but haven't quite gotten around to). Do I think going out and partying, bong and all, is stupid and a wast of time and energy? Yes. But so is wasting your time watching MTV or being a creationist. Yes, I did just equate being a creationist with taking a hit off a bong, in fact being a creationist is dumber in my opinion. I actually don't think that smoking pot (though the practice has never appealed to me) is that bad, so long as you don't allow it to take over your life.
So Yeah... I had a point in that last paragraph somewhere... but I've forgotten it. Summery:

1. I still don't like the Phelps but the whole bong thing doesn't really affect the way I look at him.
2. This kind of thing could have happened to about +75% of the college population... except they're not world class swimmers, so get over it.
3. Swimming is very demanding.
   
4. Pot shouldn't be illegal.
5. That other point I was going to make but forgot.
6. Creationism is stupid.

And in honor of that last number I present to you, a picture of the Phelps... looking like Jesus.


Freak.

Seperated at Birth?

Japanese art and Olympic swimmer Matt Grevers.

0_0

So... this article caught my eye today and it has me worried.

And it isn't really the story itself that has me worried. It's what the author has to say at the end about college professors in general. If it is true then gods help us, but I'm kind of counting on it not being so- at least where I'm going. I shudder to think what would have happened to this woman had she tried to teach like that at charter...