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Sunday, September 30, 2012
Modern Family Home Makeover Instant Win Game | Win a Home ...
Your chance to win a Modern Family Home Makeover. One lucky winner will have their house remodeled, valued at $20,000!
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Sweepstakes Promotion Period :
The Modern Family Home Makeover Instant Win Game (the ?Promotion? or ?Instant Win Game?) begins on September 18, 2012 at 12:00:00 AM Pacific Time (PT) and ends December 31, 2012 at 11:59:59 PM PT (the "Promotion Period").
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1 mobile tablet, 1 Flat screen television,1 DVD player and professional installation of the television and DVD player.
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A wall cling featured on the show
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A set of 8 glasses and a pitcher
One year of high-speed internet service (installed, if necessary).
A game station, foosball table and dart board
A set of outdoor furniture, BBQ Grill and beach towels
?Modern Family? Season 2 on DVD.
TOTAL ARV of Grand Prize: $20,000.00
Modern Family Home Makeover Instant Win Game Entry Form
Modern Family Home Makeover Instant Win Game Official Rules
Source: http://sweepstakeshunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/modern-family-home-makeover-instant-win.html
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Notes on ?The Poetics of History? | Savage Minds
Metahistory (1973) is a remarkably prescient text. One of my projects this summer was getting to know Hayden White and I thought I might share some of the notes I took on the introductory chapter to his best known book. What brought me to the work initially was my interest in history and memory studies. Although the author?s intent is to address historians, Metahistory can be read as a comprehensive framework for thinking about how anthropologists construct representations through ethnography or how a community comes to relate to its past through the composition of historical narratives.
With the author?s focus in on poetics it?s hard not to perceive connections to Writing Culture (1986). It?s kind of amazing really, to read this early seventies work that references all the same theorists anthropology starts talking about fifteen years down the road. White?s work contrasts with Writing Culture by virtue of being anchored to old school structuralism (my pet theory). White seems to have anticipated a lot of the later theory, only Metahistory is a much clearer read.
White is offering us a theory of theory that teaches us how to read for rhetoric in social science. Metahistory is about the problem of historical knowledge and White sees himself as working towards a theory of the structure of historical thought. This is a uniquely modern/ post-modern problem. In antiquity the question of what it means to think historically was debated by philosophers under the assumption that ?unambiguous answers could be provided for them.? But, of course, theory since the ?60s has concluded that ?definitive answers may not be possible.?
One particularly popular and persuasive theory of history, which might be dubbed the literary critique of power, can be summarized as follows:
The historical consciousness on which Western man has prided himself since the beginning of the nineteenth century may be little more that a theoretical basis for the ideological position from which Western civilization views its relationship not only to cultures and civilizations preceding it but also those contemporary with it in time.?
In contrast to this White offers his own perspective of poetics, with its focus on issues of representation and realism:
I will consider the historical work as what it most manifestly is ? that is to say, a verbal structure in the form of a narrative prose discourse that purports to be a model, or icon, of past structures and processes in the interest of explaining what they were by representing them.
In an extended footnote he name checks Auerbach?s Mimesis (1946) as his role model, for raising ?the whole question of the ?fictive? representation of ?reality.??
So White?s objective is not to discover the most correct approach to historical study. We?re not chasing authenticity here, but looking at diachronic patterns that can be found within the set of historical literatures. Who is right and who is wrong is besides the point because we?re looking at their rhetoric in order to draw conclusions about the role of literary technique in structuring the way we think about the past (what White calls the ?explanatory effect? of history).
In my view, the whole discussion of the nature of ?realism? in literature flounders in the failure to assess critically what a genuinely ?historical? conception of ?reality? consists of. The usual tactic is to set the ?historical? over against the ?mythical?, as if the former were genuinely empirical and the latter were nothing but conceptual, and then to locate the realm of the fictive between the two poles. Literature is then viewed as being more or less realistic, depending upon the ratio of empirical to conceptual elements contained within it.
?The Theory of the Historical Work?
How is it that historians manage to explain anything at all? Like us anthropologists they work their magic by telling stories. White says that by composing stories about sets of events they are ?motifically encoded? and are now transformed into a ?completed diachronic process.? But as scholars of history we can interrogate them as if they were a synchronic structure.
White reminds us that when he brings critical theory to a reading of history that it cannot be equivalent to literary critique of fiction in that ?historical works are made up of events that exist outside the consciousness of the writer.? It?s about things that are, in some sense, real and the historian?s challenge is to represent reality through narrative. Whereas the novelist creates from the imagination, ?the historian confronts a veritable chaos of events already constituted, out of which he must choose the elements of the story he would like to tell.? Just a hop skip and a jump, and we?re talking about ethnography.
In the sections that follow I will outline White?s three explanatory strategies: explanation by emplotment, explanation by formal argument, and explanation by ideological implication. Then in two concluding sections White attempts to synthesize these strategies into different ?styles? that are associated with competing political agendas.
?Explanation by Emplotment?
White tells us that, ?Emplotment is the way by which a sequence of events fashioned into a story is gradually revealed to be a story of a particular kind.? Among the ?particular kinds of stories? White identifies are Romance, Tragedy, Comedy, and Satire. Although White does go into detail about the specific qualities of each of these genres, it is not the case that writers consciously select them based on their individual virtues. He writes, ?Historians in general, however critical they are of their sources, tend to be na?ve storytellers.?
I found his description of the different plot types to be very interesting for my research, especially the history-as-tragedy and history-as-comedy. Both of these forms really resonate with representational themes in American Indian studies.
More evidence of the prescience of Metahistory: the undercurrent of doubt and Nieztche that comes with the study of poetics. His description of Satire, reminded me of cultural anthropology too, in the way we take pleasure in mocking the civilized. ?Like philosophy itself, Satire ?paints its gray on gray? in the awareness of its own inadequacy as an image of reality. It therefore prepares consciousness for its repudiation of all sophisticated conceptualizations of the world.?
Here?s a precis of the four types. Brilliant stuff, this:
Tragedy and Satire are modes of emplotment which are consonant with the interest of those historians who perceive behind or within the welter of events contained in the chronicle an ongoing structure of relationships or an eternal return of the Same in the Different. Romance and Comedy stress the emergence of new forces or conditions out of processes that appear at first glance either to be changeless in their essence or to be changing only in their phenomenal forms. But each of these archetypal plot structures has its implication for the cognitive operations by which the historian seeks to ?explain? what was ?really happening? during the process of which it provides an image of its true form.
?Explanation by Formal Argument?
I?ve mentioned in past blogs how, as an undergrad, one text that had a profound effect on me was Clifford?s Predicament of Culture. The same semester, the same professor gave me Kenneth Burke?s A Grammar of Motives which became another touchstone text for me through grad school. So it was a treat to see Burke (lit crit I had actually read!!) pop up among all the hyper-literate references White was name checking.
An explanation that uses formal argument is one that explains, ?what happens in the story by invoking principles of combination which serve as putative laws of historical explanation,? or utilizing some other, ?putatively universal law of causal relationships.? This type marks protoscientific history and our classic example here would be Marxist super-structure/base type explanations.
Just as there were four genres of emplotment, White goes on to develop four paradigms of argument. Borrowed, he tells us, from Stephen C Pepper, World Hypothesis. (Maybe this means something to you? I have not read it.) The four arguments types are: Formist, Organicist, Mechanistic, and Contextualist.
The Formist argument is like a cabinet of curiosity in that it features the aesthetic arrangement of unique, precious things. ?The uniqueness of the different agents, agencies, and acts which make up the ?events? to be explained is central to one?s inquiries, not the ?ground? or ?scene? against which these entities rise.?
Formism is essentially ?dispersive? in the analytical operations it carries out on the data, rather than ?integrative,?? tends to be wide in ?scope? ? such historians usually make up for the vacuity of their generalizations by the vividness of their reconstructions of particular agents, agencies, and acts represented in their narratives.
The Organicist argument sounds anthropological in a Boasian kind of way. It seeks, ?To see individual entities as components of processes which aggregate into wholes.? Here White ranks the nationalists and Hegel. The Organicist eschews the search for universal laws and focuses instead on the folk, the nation, and the culture.
An Organicist argument is one in which the ?consolidation or crystallization, out of a set of apparently dispersed events, of some integrated entity whose importance is greater than that of any of the individual entities analyzed or described in the course of the narrative.?
The Mechanistic argument is inclined to be ?reductive rather than synthetic,? and it is here we find scientific history.
To put the matter in Kenneth Burke?s terms, Mechanism is inclined to view the ?acts? of the ?agents? inhabiting the historical field as manifestations of extrahistorical ?agencies?? the search for the causal laws that determine the outcomes of processes discovered in the historical field? He considers individual entities to be less important as evidence than the classes of phenomena to which they can be shown to belong.
The Contextualist argument also seems very anthropological. Explanations are found ?by the revelation of the specific relationships they bore to other events occurring in their circumambient historical space? the aim of explanation is to identify the ?threads? that link the individual or institution under study to its specious sociocultural ?present?.?
Contextualism seeks to avoid both the radically dispersive tendency of Formism and the abstractive tendencies of Organicism and Mechanism. It strives instead for a relative integration of the phenomena discerned in finite provinces of historical occurrence in terms of ?trends.?
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And, if the historian who is inclined toward Contextualism would aggregate the various periods he has studied into a comprehensive view of the whole historical process, he must move outside the Contextualist framework ? toward either a Mechanistic reduction of the data in terms of the ?timeless? laws that are presumed to govern them or an Organicist synthesis of those data in terms of the ?principles? that are presumed to reveal the telos toward which the whole process is tending over the long haul.
For White real history, what is accepted and expected by professional historians, is Formist and Contextualist, while works that are better described as philosophy of history tend to be either Organicist or Mechanistic. Moreover the professional historians reject the philosophy of history clique for precisely this reason. White concludes that behind this move are ethical and ideological choices.
Here these choices seem to be framed as history-from-the-right versus history-from-the-left:
Commitment to a particular form of knowledge predetermines the kinds of generalizations one can make about the present world, the kinds of knowledge one can have of it, and hence the kinds of projects one can legitimately conceive for changing that present or for maintaining it in its present form indefinitely.
?Explanation by Ideological Implication?
Throwing down the political gauntlet makes for a smooth segue into White?s examination of ideological explanations. The role played by ideology in a historical account reflects, ?the ethical element in the historian?s assumption of a particular position on the question of the nature of historical knowledge.?
Following Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia (hadn?t read that one either), White outlines four basic ideological positions: Anarchism, Conservatism, Radicalism, and Liberalism. In a foot note, White states that Mannheim also included Fascism. He writes, ?The four basic ideological positions identified by Mannheim, however, represent value systems that claim the authority of ?reason,? ?science,? or ?realism.?
Every ideology attaches itself to a specific idea of history, we can read this in how they express their desire for social change, what they think is the optimal pace for that social change, and the temporal orientation of their political utopias. We can now use these criteria as means to read a history in order to determine what its ideological implications are.
All ideologies take the prospect of change seriously:
This is what accounts for their shared interest in history and their concern to provide a historical justification for their programs? It is the value accorded to the current social establishment, however, that accounts for their different conceptions of both the form of historical evolution and the form that historical knowledge must take.
White is not advocating for one ideology or another. Nor does he presume that there is some extra-ideological ground from which he could pass judgment on the ideology of others. Primarily his interest is to show how ideological considerations enter into historical accounts.
The questioning of the place of ethics in realist representation are strongly echoed in Anthropology as Cultural Critique (1986):
I consider the ethical moment of a historical work to be reflected in the mode of ideological implication by which an aesthetic perception (the emplotment) and a cognitive operation (the argument) can be combined so as to derive prescriptive statements from what may appear to be purely descriptive or analytical ones.
This one final long quote about ideology makes me think deeply about the politics of representation in settler narratives about American Indians, a genre which frequently constructs an apology for conquest out of the myth of the American melting pot:
?the kind of feeling engendered in the audience of a drama that has achieved a definitive Comic resolution of all the apparently tragic conflicts within it. The tone of voice is accommodationist, the mood is optimistic, and the ideological implications are Conservative, inasmuch as one can legitimately conclude from a history thus construed that one inhabits the best of possible historical worlds, or at least the best that one can ?realistically? hope for.
?The Problem of Historiographical Styles?
Now it?s time to put it all together. White moves to synthesize his poetic analysis into what he calls ?historiographical styles? that represent particular combinations of emplotment argument and ideological implication. I found this passage to be less useful than others.
White claims that there are ?elective affinities? among the various modes he has described that may be used in concert for explanatory effect, although it?s not necessary that the different pieces be arranged in this way.
Emplotment?..Argument??.Ideology
Romantic??..Formist???.Anarchist
Tragic????Mechanistic?..Radical
Comic????Organicist??.Conservative
Satirical???.Contextualist?.Liberal
I told you it was old school structuralism.
?The Theory of Tropes?
And now for some more Kenneth Burke, only by way of Levi-Strauss and Roman Jackobson. This section in particular has some very long footnotes that are full of interesting citations. Here?s the one?s that I pulled:
- Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind, pp.205-44
- Jackobson, ?Linguistics and Poetics,? in Style and Language, Sebeok ed.
- ?The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles,? in Fundamentals of Language, Jackobson and Halle ed.
- Lacan, ?The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious,? in Structuralism, Ehrmann ed.
- Benveniste, ?Remarks on the Function of Language in Freudian Theory,? in Problems of General Linguistics.
- Vico, ?Poetic Wisdom,? in The New Science of Giambattista Vico
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White comments on the problems of using figurative language in the social sciences and how they differ from those of, say, physics which is presumed not to have figurative language at all:
What formal terminological systems, such as those devised for denoting the data of physics, envisage is the elimination of figurative usage altogether, the construction of perfect ?schemata? of words in which nothing ?unexpected? appears in the designation of the objects of study? The fundamental problem of ?realistic? representation of those areas of experience not terminologically disciplined in the way that physics is, is to provide an adequate schema of words for representing the schema of thoughts which it takes to be the truth about reality.
If you don?t have your copy of A Grammar of Motives handy, I will remind you that Burke?s four tropes are metaphor, metonymy, synechdoche, and irony.
Irony, Metonymy, and Synecdoche are kinds of Metaphor, but they differ from one another in the kinds of reductions or integrations they effect on the literal level of their meanings and by the kinds of illuminations they aim at on the figurative level. Metaphor is essentially representational, Metonymy is reductionist, Synecdoche is integrative, and Irony is negationl.
More evidence of Metahistory?s prescience: metonymy goes on to become a very hot concept for the postmodernists and poststructuralists. It?s very interesting to see it getting defined so thoroughly here:
In Metonymy, phenomena are implicitly apprehended as bearing relationships to one another in the modality of part-part relations, on the basis of which one can effect a reduction of one of the parts to the status of an aspect or function of the other? an agent-act relationship? or a cause-effect relationship? the phenomenal world can be populated with a host of agents and agencies that are presumed to exist behind it? The ?part? of experience which is apprehended as an ?effect? is related to that ?part? which is apprehended as ?cause? in the manner of a reduction.
Metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche are for White all ?na?ve? and against this he posits Irony as ?sentimental? because it is self-conscious. As a discipline that relies so heavily on self-reflection its easy to spot cultural anthropology intimate connection to rhetorical Irony:
It has been suggested that irony is essentially dialectical, inasmuch as it represents a self-conscious use of Metaphor in the interests of verbal self-negation. The basic figurative tactic of irony is catachresis (literally ?misuse?), the manifestly absurd Metaphor designed to inspire Ironic second thoughts about the nature of the thing characterized or the inadequacy of the characterization itself. The rhetorical figure of aporia (literally ?doubt?, in which the author signals in advance a real or feigned disbelief in the truth of his own statements, could be considered the favored stylistic device of Ironic language.
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It is therefore ?dialectical,? as Kenneth Burke has noted, though not so much in its apprehension of the process of the world as in its apprehension of the capacity of language to obscure more than it clarifies? They appear to signal the ascent of thought in a given area of inquiry to a level of self-consciousness on which a genuinely ?enlightened? ? that is to say self critical ? conceptualization of the world and its processes has become possible.
No wonder this sounds so familiar! White?s definition of Irony describes the anthropological ideal of Writing Culture, ?It is, in short, a model of the linguistic protocol in which skepticism in thought and relativism in ethics are conventionally expressed?.
When you put it that way, skeptical in thought and relative in ethic doesn?t sound so bad, actually.
Matt Thompson is adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University. He was once cast as a soldier in Andrew Jackson's army in a theatrical production on an Indian reservation.
Source: http://savageminds.org/2012/09/28/notes-on-the-poetics-of-history/
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Saturday, September 29, 2012
Q&A: Todd Crawford of Impact Radius on state of affiliate marketing ...
Door Geno Prussakov, september 28th, 2012
As affiliate marketing matures, newer threats and challenges also evolve. However, the opportunities are still bountiful, and with the right approach a merchant can still succeed marketing their brand and business through a well-built affiliate program.
Today's guest is Todd Crawford, a recognizable affiliate marketing veteran, co-founder of Impact Radius, and former VP of sales and business development at Digital River's oneNetworkDirect.
In 1998 Todd also contributed to the founding team at Commission Junction, where he later served as Vice President for more than seven years.
What are the major challenges with which you see affiliate managers struggle?
Balancing time between revenue generating activities and administrative activities.? I think many people get bogged down with the day-to-day administrative tasks and don?t focus enough energy on the revenue generating part of the job.? The key takeaway is creating as many efficiencies as possible to minimize the time required for day-to-day stuff so you free up more time to develop incremental revenue opportunities.
What do you view as the main affiliate program growth opportunities?
The affiliate channel is often kept separate from other media and ad distribution channels because of the performance pricing.? There?s a significant opportunity to pull other distribution channels into the performance category because of the improvements in tracking and reporting. For example, a lot of companies offering distribution with mobile or through remarketing are willing to do so on a performance-basis. I think there?s a lot of room for growth and expansion with media partners that historically were bucketed in the display or search channels.
In April 2012 an Illinois Circuit Court Judge ruled the affiliate nexus tax unconstitutional. However, more and more states are considering going the route of the "affiliate tax". Is there a good solution to this snowballing affiliate nexus tax situation?
The only real solution is a national Internet sales tax or some kind of tax that applies equally to all advertisers regardless of the media type that drove the conversion.
How can affiliate networks help merchants to continue working in the states with the affiliate nexus tax legislation?
I am not sure that affiliate networks or any other third-party can help solve nexus issues.? Technology cannot solve nexus issues.? The advertiser is responsible for interpreting and complying with any and all applicable tax laws.? It has been my experience that advertisers rely on their legal counsel or CFO for this advice. Beware of technologies that tell you they can solve nexus issues.
What about the "Do Not Track" legislation? Is affiliate marketing industry in danger here? And does Impact Radius have relevant solutions?
I am confident that privacy and marketing can co-exist peacefully.? Eventually, websites will not be able to generate revenue if consumers opt out of monetization of content.? I believe these sites will restrict access to visitors that do not wish to be tracked.? Consumers will have a choice - visit our site and allow us to make money or do not access our content.? In the end, I think most consumers will understand this? trade off? as fair and reasonable and doesn?t compromise their person information or security.
What are the top 3 things that affiliate managers (and merchants) should be looking at while choosing an affiliate network?
Yes, I am really looking forward to participating on this panel.? The first distinction I would like to make is that Impact Radius is a technology provider, not a network - this puts us in a unique position to help advertisers and agencies better manage their top relationships - from both a cost perspective and an incremental revenue perspective.? The first thing to look for when selecting any technology vendor is how will it solve your problems or allow you to meet your revenue objectives? When choosing a network, you need to know how the technology will support your needs and objectives.?
The second consideration is cost.? Networks typically charge a fee based on the success of your program - the bigger it gets, the more you pay.? If you or your agency are doing all the work of growing the program, does this pricing model make sense for your business?? The third consideration is do you even need a network to attract and manage partners? Most advertisers see 90%+ of their volume coming from a handful of top partners. These top partners are generally well known in the industry and easy to contact and recruit - especially if you are a medium to large brand.
Over the next 4 years Forrester predicts a steady growth for affiliate marketing. What are the top 3 areas of opportunity for affiliates these days?
- Content -- Developing unique content that attracts repeat visitors is the single most valuable asset any publisher can invest in.
- Mobile -- I believe in a few more years mobile will surpass online - so the sooner you get there, the sooner you will be successful.
- Media -- Utilizing more accurate and flexible tools to enable and measure more media channels to increase traffic to your site(s). Do not rely solely on search (paid or organic) for your livelihood.? Diversification into other media channels reduces your dependence on one channel for the majority of your traffic.? If you?re not already testing social, retargeting, email, etc. - it?s time to start!
If you were to leave affiliate managers with just one advice today, what would it be?
Communicate the value of your channel (and your contribution) to internal teams throughout the week, month, quarter and year.? Utilize every metric available to you to understand how your channel compares and interacts with other marketing efforts and educate your company on what you?ve learned.
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Friday, September 28, 2012
Chemistry blogging and journalism: Eat the fruit, don't count the trees
I have been blogging about chemistry and related topics since 2004. Since then I have had the chance to witness the rise of the chemistry blogosphere. What started as a small, loose collection of opinionated men and women has turned into a group of serious and well-informed bloggers who blog with authority and nuance. Partly because blogging about chemistry is not as attractive as blogging about cosmology or evolutionary biology, the chemistry blogosphere has relatively few blogs. However in my view this has also translated into an unusually high ratio of signal to noise. Speak to people who frequent this world and ask them who they think the good bloggers are, and you will usually hear lists of names that are not only similar but also exhaustive. My own contributions to this world have been very modest but there are others who have set high standards and who will undoubtedly continue to guide the high-quality discourse.
With this background in mind, I was a little disappointed to see a parting editorial by Rudy Baum who has served as editor-in-chief of Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN), the flagship publication of the American Chemical Society. C&EN has been the main source of chemical information and analysis for the chemical community for almost a hundred years. In his capacity Mr. Baum has contributed valuable input to the magazine. He has done an admirable job in keeping the whole enterprise together and has also been very active in interacting with the chemical community, including chemists who write blogs. In fact his own team of outstanding writers, scientists and journalists publish their own blog which has consistently produced insightful, high-quality content.
In his parting editorial Mr. Baum had the following words to say about blogs:
?Technology has profoundly changed journalism during my tenure with C&EN. Much of the change has been positive?who can imagine doing research on a topic without access to the Internet??but the business model for journalism remains very much in a state of flux. The silly mantra, ?Information wants to be free,? overlooks the fact that quality information requires effort, and effort costs money.
Blogs are all well and good, they add richness to the exchange of information, but they are not journalism, and they never will be.?
Blogs also made an appearance in another discussion arising from a university library?s decision to cancel their subscription to ACS journals because of high prices. A post by the librarian about this was met with the following response by the ACS?s Director of Public Affairs
?We find little constructive dialogue can be had on blogs and other listservs where logic, balance, and common courtesy are not practiced and observed,?
I would like to address the C&EN editorial first. I was not aware of the source of that ?silly mantra? that ?information should be free? until a few fellow bloggers pointed out that it originated with Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, the same lavish volume which inspired Steve Jobs during the early phases of his career. It was reiterated by Richard Stallman who started the open software movement at MIT. The quote is more subtle than what it appears in Mr. Baum?s editorial. The point is that throughout human history, for reasons related not just to cost but also to availability and censorship, information has had to tread the fine line between being withheld and being widely available. Stallman made it clear that by ?free? he was not talking about the price but about availability. He was alluding to the fact that information by its very nature is like a restless beast that wants to spread around through the human medium. History has amply demonstrated that we as a society want to know, and at some point we do. And Stallman was saying this in an age when the internet was still very limited and access to information was severely constrained compared to today.
The age has changed but information is still restricted or expensive in many cases where it should not be so. Unfortunately, simply quoting the ?information wants to be free? gives the impression that consumers of information really think that it doesn?t cost anything to produce it. That?s simply not true. Almost every person who I have talked to about open access realizes that it takes cost and effort to edit, referee and produce information. However we are also aware of how much cheaper this process can be compared to what it is, especially because of the exceedingly low costs of bandwidth and storage space. These low costs make it possible for enterprises to be supported mainly through volunteer donations. The fact is that journals and magazines as a whole are still mainly stuck in the old model where a group of editors make it their full-time job to finely craft, edit and publish information. Although the technology for disseminating information has changed, the mindsets find it hard to let go. There is of course still a prominent role for official high-quality information that is carefully vetted and journal editors still do an admirable job of striving for quality, but the fact is that there are now multiple ways of producing and accessing the same information, with blogging being one of the simplest. This proliferation of content creation and production channels has resulted in the entirely reasonable mantra that ?most information should be very cheap, and at least some information should be free?.
The difference between free and cheap is huge; it?s the same as the difference between zero and any finite number. And it?s this mantra that?is the source of the campaign against publishers like Elsevier who practice unfair ?bundling? and sport huge profit margins. More importantly though, I think there?s at least some evidence to refute Mr. Baum?s statement that ?quality information requires effort, and effort costs money?. By now Wikipedia has been proven to be a resounding example of the fact that quality can come without money through the efforts of millions of volunteers who contribute knowledge and information for a variety of reasons. Most of these contributors have contributed an immense amount of their time without asking us for a penny and the Wikipedia servers are mainly maintained through volunteer donations. Articles on Wikipedia have been vetted by experts in their respective areas (including Nature) and have been consistently found to contain high-quality information.
However I find myself more disappointed to hear Mr. Baum?s thoughts on blogging. What exactly does he mean when he says ?science blogs will never be journalism?? I see journalism defined mainly in three terms; news, opinion and analysis. As far as I am concerned, science blogs have contributed to each of these phases of journalism over the last decade or so. High-quality content not driven by money has been an outstanding feature of the chemical blogosphere.
Let?s start with opinion. Opinion has always been a principal function of blogging; in fact that?s why many of us started our blogs, to hold forth in all our self-important erudition on a variety of topics. As far as news is concerned, those of us who are reporting on the latest chemical breakthroughs, safety issues, chemical controversies and the human side of chemistry are communicating exactly the kind of news that magazines like C&EN report. I am not saying that magazines are not doing a good job of reporting the relevant news, just that bloggers can also be equal to the task.
And then there?s analysis. I believe this is an area in which bloggers have been outstanding. Whether it?s?Derek Lowe analyzing the state of the pharmaceutical industry,?Chemjobber analyzing the state of the job market,?Chembark analyzing the state of chemical publishing or?SeeArrOh analyzing the state of chemophobia, I believe that bloggers have repeatedly subscribed to the highest standards of fact checking, careful thinking and clear exposition. Sure, we all make mistakes, but I think many of us can agree that when it comes to episodes like the sodium hydride ?oxidation? debacle or the structure of?hexacyclinol, chemistry bloggers have been at the forefront of sounding the alarm and of meticulously charting the flaws, often before more ?official? news sources scoop the story up. This is even more true of the rest of the science blogosphere where bloggers are fighting creationism, climate change denial and the anti-vaccination movement. In some cases their analysis has been far more thorough and well-informed than the official sources. Even a preliminary look at some of the major blog posts written by chemistry bloggers would convince the ACS?s PR director that ?logic, balance and common courtesy? are not just alive but are thriving in the chemical blogosphere.
The benefit of a magazine like C&EN is of course that all this information is in one place instead of being scattered around various sites and it has done a great job in achieving this goal, but this is hardly a general argument against the ability of blogs to do good science journalism. Perhaps what Mr. Baum means that all blogs don?t contribute to journalism, but that?s a far cry from saying that they?can?t and that they never will. Surely Mr. Baum is familiar with the high-quality service that veteran chemistry bloggers have provided over the last decade. Surely he is aware of the fact that members of his own very capable staff have often featured and linked to posts, both their own and others. At the very least his opinion should have been tempered by a recognition of the good that has come out of chemistry blogging during the last few years.
I will leave you with an?excellent post regarding this very perceived distinction between science blogging and science journalism written by Ed Yong, one of the most accomplished science bloggers around. It seems that Ed really hits the nail on the head in locating the source of criticism of science blogs:
To an extent, I get why it?s played. I think people are rightly worried about their industry. As I said at the start: massive sinking ship. People see a profession in trouble, they want to save and protect it. They see these random interlopers trying to claim a stake and they think that it somehow devalues this noble thing that they?re trying to defend. I certainly agree that good journalism in all its forms is a necessary thing that is worth defending. But no one has ever saved something by playing with definitions. You protect journalism by trumpeting its values, criticising people who do it poorly and supporting those who do it well, regardless of the medium they happen to use. You won?t buoy up journalism through taxonomy.
Indeed, you don?t buoy up journalism through conventional, narrow-minded classification. You buoy it up by recognizing high-quality content in your field, irrespective of the source. There?s an old proverb which roughly says ?Enjoy the fruit, don?t count the trees?. If the fruit is sweet and satisfying, do you really care where the trees come from and how many there are?
This is an updated and revised version of a post I wrote on my FoS blog The Curious Wavefunction.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1616f2fdbb5e34205b1ad87333e1b864
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Thursday, September 27, 2012
Buzzword bingo for #intranet conferences | Intranetizen
Are you tired of ?thinking outside the box?? Well we are too, and according to a recent survey, so are your intranet?s users. In a recent poll, employees admitted to being baffled by?workplace jargon?ten times a day on average.
In this special pre-conference post, the Intranetizens explain why jargon should be both avoided and embraced, and invite you to test their commitment to clear communication.
Specialist language has its place in the workplace, and on your intranet too (sometimes). But overused, it makes communications hard to understand and web pages difficult to find (if your pages say ?earth moving implement? and your colleagues are searching for a spade, your intranet is only going to disappoint).
Internal communicators have traditionally fought the good fight against complicated jargon, but as content management on intranets has become devolved to the business, it?s important anyone with content-editing responsibility understand how to make their communications clear. To avoid your intranet becoming an indecipherable mess of departmental buzzwords, ensure your editors get some training and guidance on best practice and writing for the web.
And for God?s sake, avoid corporate talk in all of your own content. The next time you feel the need to reach out, touch base, shift a paradigm, leverage a best practice or create synergy, by all means do it. Just don?t?say?you?re doing it in your online communications. Before pressing publish, think ?is there an easier way to say this??.
That kind of language has it place, though. If you?re talking to execs about your intranet ideas and proposals, you?ll need to speak their language ? even if that language is essentially bullshit. The role of the intranet manager is to speak to users and stakeholders about their needs and translate this into a clear, costed business proposal that execs can sign off. That means gaining the trust of your senior execs and budget-holders, by presenting your ideas and findings to them in a way they can understand.
The latest tech buzzwords can also be annoying; but again, they have their place. As we blogged last week, gamification is an ugly word for a generally sound concept. All too many of these words (collaboration, social, engagement) have become thrown around so much that their intent has been lost. But if buzzwords are what?s needed to convince your budget-holders, then it?s a small price to pay.
Intranet managers are a rare breed ? as well as speaking the lingo of users across the business, and of execs, we?re fluent in Geek. We take what users tell us and translate this into solid requirements that can be turned into functioning pages and software by our friends in IT. There are few roles which see you involved with ? and talking to ? such a wide range of stakeholders as intranet management. That?s what makes it one of the finest jobs around.
But you don?t need to talk in buzzwords to talk about intranets, and we and Intranetizen try not to. We tells it as it is, keep it real, etc. And to prove that, we are inviting those of you who are attending Interaction next week to hold us to it.
We?ve produced a series of Intranet Buzzword Bingo cards for you to download and use when we appear at Interaction Intranet Conference next week, and any conferences we speak at in the future.
Pick one of these five cards, then listen out as we try to get through our lightning presentations without using too much intranet jargon.
If you can get through a whole presentation (let alone a whole conference) without checking off more than one buzz word from your card ? you are probably at a great conference learning some great new things? or you have stumbled into the wrong place and you?re at a AA meeting, or something.
?
Source: http://intranetizen.com/2012/09/27/intranet-bingo/
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Here's The Exact Reason Apple No Longer Has ... - Business Insider
Apple no longer has Google-based maps because Google wouldn't allow Apple to include voice guided turn-by-turn navigation directions in its mapping application, John Paczkowski at All Things D reports.
A source familiar with the situation tells Paczkowski, "There were a number of issues inflaming negotiations, but voice navigation was the biggest ... Ultimately, it was a deal-breaker."
Apple tried to negotiate with Google to get turn-by-turn navigation, but Google wouldn't give up that data without some concessions from Apple. Google wanted more Google branding in the maps as well as the inclusion of Lattitude, Google's Foursquare-esque social network that tracks people if they opt-in.
Apple didn't want to include either of those things in its maps. So it decided to do its own maps. The result has been a PR disaster for Apple. There are numerous complaints from users about mislabled, or just missing locations. Users are angry at Apple for removing Google-based maps for a product that's inferior. But, it looks like Apple might not have had much of a choice.
It was either going to have to offer maps that were missing turn-by-turn directions, thus making them weaker than Android, or it was going to have to ugly Google branding and hand over more user data to Google through Latitude.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-apple-no-longer-has-google-based-maps-on-the-iphone-2012-9
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Assembling an Avenger - Inside the Brain of Iron Man
When I first started reading comic books there were many superheroes that interested me. Naturally the list included Batman, Iron Man, Daredevil, Captain America, Thor, Nova, the Flash, the Black Panther, the Phantom, and lots more.
What I enjoyed best of all were team ups where you got more heroes per page. Classics like the Fantastic Four, the Justice League, the Justice Society, and the Defenders as well as the Inhumans, the Invaders, and the Legion of Superheroes. The group to top the list for me, though, has always been ?The Avengers?. They are ?Earth?s Mightiest Heroes? after all.
The Avengers are also the Earth?s super group of scientists. Back in the 1963 debut story (penned by Stan-the-man-Lee, of course) ?The Coming of the Avengers!?, the original line-up included Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, and the Hulk. This was arguably the most well-educated superhero group ever, well, assembled.
The scientists in that group included Dr. Bruce Banner (atomic physicist, the Hulk), Tony Stark (Iron Man, who may or may not have a PhD but has 2 master?s degrees in engineering from MIT), Dr. Hank Pym (sub-atomic physicist, Ant-Man), Janet van Dyne (not sure about her training, but she knew her way around the lab as the first Wasp), and Dr. Donald Blake (physician and surgeon, Thor).
That?s a line-up of heavy hitters of science that even one of my superheroes of science, Sir Francis Bacon, could be proud of. This remains even when it?s admitted that while rampaging around as the Hulk, we don?t usually get many insights about the Higgs-Boson and Thor isn?t typically trying to help treat injuries. Despite that, I am going to go ahead and assign the original Avengers line-up an A+ in scientists, if not always for science itself.
The 2012 Avengers movie re-envisions the origin and uses a plot that?s a lot closer to the excellent Marvel ?Ultimates? story lines. In the spirit of recreating and reinvisioning story lines, in this post I want to concentrate on turning the lens of science on good ole? Shellhead.
Iron Man is one of those few superheroes representing a more ?realistic? take on what might be possible. As I wrote in ?Inventing Iron Man?The Possibility of a Human Machine?, his origin story has some very plausible bits to it. This makes him seem more accessible as a character. But it?s accessing the mind of the Golden Avenger?connecting the Iron Man exoskeleton to Tony Stark?s brain?that is the main focus here.
Malleable Maps in Iron Man?s Mind
Starting in utero, a calibration of the motor and sensory inputs to and from your body parts began. This process has continued in your brain throughout your life. This results in a loose ?mapping? of neurons that goes on in the somatosensory and motor parts of your brain. As a result you have multiple representations of your body in your brain. This gives rise to our sense of self, body ?image?, and body ?schema?.
These representations have been refined and tuned throughout your life along with your changing body size and the experiences you?ve had. Except in the case of tragic accidents where a limb may have been lost or amputated, your body has always been there with you 24/7. Your body is you and it?s there all the time.
It turns out that tool use can alter these representations. But tools that we use aren?t part of our body and aren?t with us all the time. At least not physically. But are they with us in our brains? We use tools only when we need them (we always need our bodies). It turns out that the sensory maps of our bodies in our brains can be reshaped to include parts of the way we use tools.
This kind of melding with the tool is termed ?embodiment?? and reflects the plasticity your nervous system experiences to keep you as a fully functional you. This process is heavily influenced by the sensation of moving the tools and the visual input that you get from seeing yourself using the tools.
The main premise of my Iron Man book is that for Tony Stark?s exoskeleton to work as we see it work in comics, graphic novels and movies it would need to be connected directly to the brain and spinal cord of the user. It would need to be the most fantastic brain machine interface ever created.
My view of Iron Man is very similar to the version that Warren Ellis created in the Marvel Iron Man ?Extremis? story arc. Warren advanced the concept of an embedded interface between the nervous system and a highly modular armor. In broad strokes, this is really the only way it could work. But if such an ultimate brain machine interface existed could such a ?tool? be incorporated into the cortical representation of a real human brain?
Extending your reach beyond your grasp?
French and Italian scientists headed up by Lucilla Cardinali, confirmed brain plasticity from tool use in a really simple but clever study back in 2009. They developed a long hand-held ?grabber? like those used to clean up trash from parks and streets without the user having to bend over.
In this experiment the researchers asked participants to practice using the grabber to pick up and move things around on a table. They measured reaching and grasping movments before and after using the grabber. Surprisingly, practice using the grabber changed later arm movements performed even when the grabber wasn?t used!
There were changes in pointing movements and in how long participants perceived their arms to be. They thought their arms were longer, likely because the tool allowed them to reach further. From a functional perspective within the brain, their arms were longer since they could reach further with the grabber.
This plasticity is related to changing those body maps in the brain as a result of using a tool. Tools give us different abilities, like reaching further in this example, and this change in function pushes the plastic changes in the brain. The strength and length of that plasticity is not completely certain.
Could the changes become durable enough to become real memories for a new representation or map? We know that limb amputation can lead to changes in the maps. It leads to emptying some territory in those maps and taking over of territory by brain cells for other regions. The opposite perspective, that is, what happens when you add something to a map that is already complete, isn?t well understood.
Enter the alien arm?
Primate research using neural prosthetics controlled by the brain show very strong changes that occur after only a few weeks. These ?prosthetic motor memories? are in features of long-term memories. So it seems that the brain can incorporate foreign parts into this schema.
This idea of incorporating foreign parts into the body was shown in 1998 by Matthew Botvinick and Jonathan? Cohen at Carnegie Melon in Pittsburgh. They conducted what is now known as the ?rubber hand illusion?.
Using a life-sized rubber arm as an ?alien limb?, these scientists hid the left arm of each participant behind a blinding screen. Participants then focused their vision on this ?alien limb?. Using small paintbrushes, the experimenters then simultaneously stroked the alien hand (fully in view) and the real hand (hidden out of view behind the screen). After 10 minutes of this conditioning, participants were asked a number of questions about the experience.
Some of the answers were astounding. They suggested an illusion which provided touch sensation on the alien limb and not the real hand. That is, they seemed to feel the touch of the viewed brush as if the rubber hand had actually sensed the touch. One participant said that ?I found myself looking at the dummy hand thinking it was actually my own.? This powerful illusion has now been employed in many other experiments with similarly striking results.
A Swedish scientific team headed by Henrik Ehrsson extended the ?rubber hand illusion? to upper limb amputees. Using procedures similar to the initial experiment above, they created a sensation of embodiment that a rubber hand was actually a real hand attached to the stump where the amputated limb used to be.
Although this illusion works well in able- bodied persons, the researchers weren?t sure if it could still work after amputation. Strong illusions were actually found in one third of the amputees. Interestingly, the illusions were more powerful when the tests were done soonest after amputation.
The illusion was so powerful that in some cases suddenly plunging a syringe into the rubber hand produced physiological responses of anxiety (changes in skin conductance) that would occur if the hand was part of their body! Clearly a process of ?embodiment? was occurring. This group has recently done something that provides a bit of an answer to something I have been puzzling over since I wrote ?Inventing Iron Man?.
Paul?s puzzle?
Here it is: I don?t really understand where the Iron Man suit of armor could be represented in the somatosensory and motor cortices of Tony Stark. Above we discussed how we can reshape our body schema with practice using tools and in response to trauma like limb amputation. But those approaches all make use of neuronal territory that exists and is reshaped or was lost and is reused. What about something completely new like a whole new body? That?s what is meant to be shown in the Figure below.
And it?s an experiment from Ehrsson?s group that helps us get to the answer. Instead of jumping directly to the idea of a whole new body, they asked instead: ?Could it be possible that, in the not-so-distant future, we will be able to reshape the human body so as to have extra limbs? A third arm helping us out with the weekly shopping in the local grocery store, or an extra artificial limb assisting a paralysed person?? These questions are certainly on par with considering the question of embodying the Iron Man exoskeleton.
To see if you can really trick your brain into thinking you have an extra arm they used a variation of the ?rubber hand illusion?. And it includes a very bold placement of a 3rd limb?the rubber arm?right beside the person?s actual arm. So it?s right out there in full view. They then did the basic procedure of brushing the real fingers and those of the rubber hand. All while participants looked on.
Of course, the rubber hand illusion worked again. This elegant experiment included all kinds of control conditions and even some physiological measures like galvanic skin response that all showed the fake arm could even be ?threatened? by danger (this time by cutting with a knife). The upshot was that those in the study felt like they had a second right hand!
The concluding paragraph of this paper reads as follows: ?Thus, under certain circumstances, healthy humans can experience somatic sensations that seem to violate the human body plan.? This real-life research work is the closest thing I?ve found that possesses the answer to whether there is enough neuroplasticity to adapt to a full Iron Man exoskeleton. The answer is a tentative yes!
On Machine, (Hu)man, and Mind
A prosthetic limb or exoskeleton that is meant to be incorporated into the user?s body schema needs to include sensors and feedback. For example, sensors on the digits of the Iron Man suit could be used to activate brain areas that normally get that sensation from the real fingers! The idea is that over time the sensation from the artificial sensor would become integrated into the perceptions of the person such that they are ?one with the body?. Embodiment.
This means that an Iron Man suit of armor should have sensors on the fingers, hands, toes, etc. that would normally be activated on Tony Stark?s body. Using this approach, Tony would embody Iron Man like he declared by saying ?the suit of Iron Man and I are one? in Iron Man 2.
Since the lines between science and science fiction are pretty labile, it?s likely not a surprise that real experimental work shows this to be very useful. In 2010, Aaron Suminski, Nicholas Hatsopoulos, and colleagues at the University of Chicago used a ?sleeve? placed over a monkey?s arm to help learn how to move a cursor on a computer screen driven by recording activity in motor cortex.
Including sensation from the robotic limb improved the ability to learn the brain-machine interface commands. The scientists at the University of Chicago allowed the monkeys to use visual and somatosensory feedback together and learned how to control the cursor much faster and more accurately than without those sensations.
Back in 2011, my ?Inventing Iron Man? book had only been out for a few months when I was asked to comment on a paper just about to appear in ?Nature?. A research team at the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering headed by Miguel Nicolelis, a pioneer and leader in the area of brain machine interface, trained two monkeys using brain activity to control and move a virtual hand.
The critical piece in this experiment?and a requirement for functional training with the fictional Iron Man exoskeleton?was that electrical activation in the sensory and motor parts of the brains were used. Motor signals were used to drive the controller and then feedback was given directly into the brain by stimulating the sensory cortex when the monkeys made accurate movements. This huge advance actually provides patterns of electrical stimulation to the brain that mimic sensory inputs in movement.
This is really asking what happens when you take tool use?where the Iron Man suit of armor is the tool?to the extreme? What would happen in the brain if the tool is a representation of the body? What would happen to the body maps if we increase the representation of the body in the brain without first taking something away?
Would the neural plasticity associated with this affect the connection between your brain and your real body? How strong would the plasticity?the remapping?be and would you forget how to use your own real body if you used it too much? There remain a lot of questions. And a lot of work needs to be done. To borrow a bit of physics/engineering/mathematics jargon, some ?non-trivial? problems remain.
Some trivia about non-trivial problems?
A major non-trivial problem has to do with the ?form and function? relationships in biology. The cool thing about most of the body is that you can tell a lot about physiology (how it works) from the anatomy (how it looks). Function comes from form.
In your cardiovascular system you?ve got a big muscular pump in the form of the heart that receives and pushes blood all around the body. Taking a good look at the heart along with all the piping coming in and out, allows a reasonable estimate of what it does and how blood flows in the body.
In the case of the human nervous system, you have a big brain containing about 100 billion neurons. Those 100 billion neurons might have on average ~5000 connections from other neurons. That could produce about 100 trillion connections. A pretty big number. Far bigger than the estimated number of galaxies in the universe estimated to be between 200 to 500 billion. Overall this is a huge number of connections to consider.
This is part of what allows the nervous system to present with a much broader scope. Not because the anatomy is impenetrable or that much more complicated within different areas of the brain. It is certainly complex, but the general features of the connections from those 100 billion neurons form into tracts and bands of connections within the brain that can be reasonably identified (mostly).
The real non-trivial problem comes from the fact that the function?the behaviour?of the brain cannot be directly predicted from anatomy. Enter those 100 trillion connections. The key thing is that the network activity in the brain emerges from the activity of whatever synaptic connections are active at any given time. It is a constantly shifting landscape of network activity.
For a simple approximation of this complexity, imagine sitting in a ship that is rising and falling on the swells of the Mediterranean. Boats all around you rise and fall such that at any given moment you see different boats. Those boats all represent active connections between neurons that are expressed when you can see them and silenced when you cannot. To complete the metaphor, multiply by many trillions.
The real answers to these questions lie ahead. While we await those answers and work towards their solutions, let?s close with one of my favourite neuroscience quotes. The South African zoologist Lyall Watson (1939-2008) wrote: ?If the brain were so simple we could easily understand it, we would be so simple we couldn?t.?
Luckily for us and the advance of knowledge there are many scientists who keep trying to illuminate the function of the human brain. In true ?Avengers? fashion, the lack of simplicity is offset by the vigor and rigor of their efforts. I look forward to future developments. Developments, possibly inspired by fiction, but created for a new reality in neurorehabilitation (see Figure below).
?
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b0450c11b7b17a64aed45480365a0ec3
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Tools & Home Improvement Equipment: Master Lighting Guide for ...
Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers (Kindle Edition)
By Christopher Grey
By Christopher Grey
Review & Description
Time-tested lighting strategies that will improve the quality of a portrait are detailed in this book for beginning photographers. Terminology used by industry pros is explained, the equipment needed to create professional results is outlined, and the unique role that each element of the lighting setup plays in the studio is explored. Photographers learn how color, direction, form, and contrast affect the final portrait. The concise text, photo examples, and lighting diagrams enable photographers to easily achieve traditional lighting styles that have been the basis of good portraiture since the advent of the art.
Time-tested lighting strategies that will improve the quality of a portrait are detailed in this book for beginning photographers. Terminology used by industry pros is explained, the equipment needed to create professional results is outlined, and the unique role that each element of the lighting setup plays in the studio is explored. Photographers learn how color, direction, form, and contrast affect the final portrait. The concise text, photo examples, and lighting diagrams enable photographers to easily achieve traditional lighting styles that have been the basis of good portraiture since the advent of the art.
Read more
Find out More for the best price at Amazon
Source: http://tools-home-improvement-equipment.blogspot.com/2012/09/master-lighting-guide-for-portrait.html
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Source: http://new-technology-of-computer.blogspot.com/2012/09/tools-home-improvement-equipment-master.html
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Source: http://karissa-wisteria.blogspot.com/2012/09/tools-home-improvement-equipment-master.html
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Source: http://santosrandell58.typepad.com/blog/2012/09/tools-home-improvement-equipment-master-lighting-guide-for.html
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Source: http://actuate-follower.blogspot.com/2012/09/tools-home-improvement-equipment-master.html
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3 Top Trends in the Video Game Market Today
As the video game market continues to push forward with innovative games, technological advances, and new ways of reaching out to all kinds of consumers, what are some of the top trends in this market?
The video game market has been around for over 40 years, and since its heyday until now, the market never seems to stop innovating. There is always a new piece of technology being incorporated into the games, a new way of games being delivered to consumers, and entirely new genres of games that pop up. Here are some of the top trends that are just starting to catch on.
With games that allowed users to pick up the controller and start swinging away with it as if it were a baseball bat, golf club, tennis racquet, or just about anything else imaginable, sales of the Nintendo Wii picked up very quickly for over a year, beating out Sony and Microsoft, despite having inferior processing power and graphics capabilities.
Recently, sales of the Wii have dropped, but this can be attributed to the fact that the novelty of motion-based gaming by itself has worn off, but this has not deterred efforts by Sony and Microsoft. The ?Sony Move? is the Playstation 3?s answer to the Wii, which also requires the use of special controller, but is able to track gamer?s movements very accurately and precisely. Not to be outdone by this, Microsoft fired back with its Xbox Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360, which requires no controller at all, and relies on a camera that accurately maps the points on the gamers? bodies to detect motion that translates to the movements of the characters on the screen.
While still in its infancy, motion-based gaming is one of the basic building blocks necessary to bring out games that give players truly immersive game play. Combined with other emerging technologies such as augmented reality and haptic feedback, maybe in a few years, we can start to see video games that allow players to not only play a video game, but also be able to move, see and feel as if they were really in the game.
Mobile games have been around for quite some time. As a child, I remember my uncle in Japan sending me a Christmas gift in 1980. It was a portable video game from Nintendo called a ?Game & Watch?. It was a very simple game machine that could only play one game, so the graphics were not computer generated, but simply pictures that were etched into the screen, and lit up at the appropriate times. Since then, portable games have come a long way, with Nintendo dominating this market first with its Gameboy series, and then the Nintendo DS series. Sony has also been in the game for a while with its more robust Playstation Portable and Playstation Vita portable consoles. The more recent offerings from Nintendo and Sony allow gamers to play against one another online, and even have options to get onto 4G networks for true anytime, anywhere gaming.
Facebook, has also been making quite a few inroads into the mobile arena, as people want to update their thoughts, whereabouts, etc. at the moment, instead of waiting until they can get in front of a computer. Gamers are no different. If they are playing a portable game and get a high score, they want to immediately have this updated on the scoreboards to let the world know. At the same time, games running on Facebook?s own platform are evolving at a very rapid pace, and now, there is a race to see which of these games will be the first big hit to go ?cross-platform?, meaning which game will allow players to play against one another between facebook and mobile platforms.
Sony, being the consumer electronics giant that it is, has put in some of its own know-how into the Playstation 3, and comes included with a Blu-Ray Disc player that can play your blu-ray titles, DVD titles, and even CDs. For Microsoft, coming from a PC background, provides a simple way for people to access media files from other Windows based computers in the home network, as well as includes a DVD player and in subsequent versions of the Xbox 360, will include a Blu-ray disc player.
For all three platforms, they can all access popular streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and others. Nintendo?s Wii is the only console that is not aggressively seeking to dominate the living room, and provides the least to offer outside of playing video games.
Video games are taking the world by storm, and new paradigms in business and gameplay have started to change the way we think about them. As they start to move more into our daily lives, like it or not, they are not only here to stay, but you will start to see more of their influence in just about everything we do.
The video game market has been around for over 40 years, and since its heyday until now, the market never seems to stop innovating. There is always a new piece of technology being incorporated into the games, a new way of games being delivered to consumers, and entirely new genres of games that pop up. Here are some of the top trends that are just starting to catch on.
1. ?Motion Based Gaming
On a sunny, but cool March morning, I sat in an overcrowded auditorium in San Jose, CA eagerly awaiting the keynote speaker to come out and make his announcements. Outside, people were carrying signs that said things such as ?Give it to us, Iwata-san!?, in reference to the keynote speaker, Mr. Satoru Iwata, the CEO of Nintendo. It was here that he unveiled the Nintendo Wii. He explained that Nintendo wanted to create a system so simple that a small child or a grandma could pick up the controller and be able to play right away without learning anything. This kicked off a revolution of motion-based gaming.With games that allowed users to pick up the controller and start swinging away with it as if it were a baseball bat, golf club, tennis racquet, or just about anything else imaginable, sales of the Nintendo Wii picked up very quickly for over a year, beating out Sony and Microsoft, despite having inferior processing power and graphics capabilities.
Recently, sales of the Wii have dropped, but this can be attributed to the fact that the novelty of motion-based gaming by itself has worn off, but this has not deterred efforts by Sony and Microsoft. The ?Sony Move? is the Playstation 3?s answer to the Wii, which also requires the use of special controller, but is able to track gamer?s movements very accurately and precisely. Not to be outdone by this, Microsoft fired back with its Xbox Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360, which requires no controller at all, and relies on a camera that accurately maps the points on the gamers? bodies to detect motion that translates to the movements of the characters on the screen.
While still in its infancy, motion-based gaming is one of the basic building blocks necessary to bring out games that give players truly immersive game play. Combined with other emerging technologies such as augmented reality and haptic feedback, maybe in a few years, we can start to see video games that allow players to not only play a video game, but also be able to move, see and feel as if they were really in the game.
2. ?Mobile and Social Media Gaming
Smartphones have started to become more ubiquitous, and for many it?s hard to remember how life was before they existed. In addition to making phone calls, they are great at checking email, browsing the web, and iPhone users have the added benefit of doubling up in using them as an iPod or as an mobile version of the ?iTunes Jukebox. Games and smartphones seem to go together hand-in-hand, as we see through the app stores on the iOS and Android platforms, which are flooded with many game offerings.Mobile games have been around for quite some time. As a child, I remember my uncle in Japan sending me a Christmas gift in 1980. It was a portable video game from Nintendo called a ?Game & Watch?. It was a very simple game machine that could only play one game, so the graphics were not computer generated, but simply pictures that were etched into the screen, and lit up at the appropriate times. Since then, portable games have come a long way, with Nintendo dominating this market first with its Gameboy series, and then the Nintendo DS series. Sony has also been in the game for a while with its more robust Playstation Portable and Playstation Vita portable consoles. The more recent offerings from Nintendo and Sony allow gamers to play against one another online, and even have options to get onto 4G networks for true anytime, anywhere gaming.
Facebook, has also been making quite a few inroads into the mobile arena, as people want to update their thoughts, whereabouts, etc. at the moment, instead of waiting until they can get in front of a computer. Gamers are no different. If they are playing a portable game and get a high score, they want to immediately have this updated on the scoreboards to let the world know. At the same time, games running on Facebook?s own platform are evolving at a very rapid pace, and now, there is a race to see which of these games will be the first big hit to go ?cross-platform?, meaning which game will allow players to play against one another between facebook and mobile platforms.
3. ?Game Consoles Are Fighting for Control of Our Living Rooms
In the past, video game consoles just did one thing: play video games. They were usually plugged in next to your VCR, cable box, or DVD player, among other devices near the TV. Nowadays, all of them do much more than just play video games.Sony, being the consumer electronics giant that it is, has put in some of its own know-how into the Playstation 3, and comes included with a Blu-Ray Disc player that can play your blu-ray titles, DVD titles, and even CDs. For Microsoft, coming from a PC background, provides a simple way for people to access media files from other Windows based computers in the home network, as well as includes a DVD player and in subsequent versions of the Xbox 360, will include a Blu-ray disc player.
For all three platforms, they can all access popular streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and others. Nintendo?s Wii is the only console that is not aggressively seeking to dominate the living room, and provides the least to offer outside of playing video games.
Video games are taking the world by storm, and new paradigms in business and gameplay have started to change the way we think about them. As they start to move more into our daily lives, like it or not, they are not only here to stay, but you will start to see more of their influence in just about everything we do.
Guest Author: ?Freelance writer Benjamin Baker is addicted to writing, and a thorough researcher. He is married with three children and loves to go fishing and camping in his free time. ?While browsing the internet for ideas to add to his series of article on gaming, he came across http://www.menshideaway.com. ?He?s now going to build a private gaming room in his house for him and his sons.
Source: http://www.tubeblogger.net/2012/09/3-top-trends-in-video-game-market-today.html
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Reports Show Casino a Raw Deal for Buffalo - Buffalo Rising
He spotted her one day on the Louisiana Street bridge -- an elderly woman on the sidewalk slowly walking across, so he stopped to offer her a ride.? It turned out that she was making her way to the casino.? She had scraped together $500 toward her water bill, which she had just paid at the water authority, and all the money she had left was $50.? Her grown children weren't helping her with her expenses, she complained, but the week before she had won some money at the casino.? So she was on her way back to try to win some more.
It pained John McKendry to hear that, as he's no fan of the casino.? In fact, this small businessman in the Cobblestone District is one of several plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Buffalo casino, and knows the deal about casino gambling better than most.? Still, that's where the woman was headed, so John, not without some concern, dropped her off there.
Later that day, back at his offices, John saw the same woman walking down Perry Street, and went out to talk with her.? She had lost her $50 at the casino, and was making her way back to the West Side.? With a heavy heart, John gave her a ride home.
A story like this can easily get lost amid all the high-profile and high-drama controversy over the Buffalo casino.? Coming on the scene late in the Pataki administration, it was once one of the hottest issues in Western New York.? First there was the to-ing and fro-ing about a suburban vs. downtown location.? Then the massive protest at project initiation in 2005 and the controversial demolitions and environmental concerns on the project site.? The 2006 protracted, head-butting negotiations between City Hall and Seneca Gaming, which became so rocky that at one point Mayor Brown declared an impasse.? And the raucous public hearing prior to Common Council's narrow vote to approve the sale of Fulton Street.
But the potential "hidden" cost of having casino gambling in the City of Buffalo, especially surrounded by one of the poorest neighborhoods in all of western New York, has always been on the minds of many.? When the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino appeared likely to go forward, a group of plaintiffs led by CACGEC, the Coalition Against Casino Gambling in Erie County, and funded by the Wendt Foundation, filed suit, claiming the US Department of Interior acted illegally in granting a permit for an off-reservation casino.? One of the primary drivers behind this action was the fear of stories like the elderly woman, but multiplied by hundreds or thousands, in a city already afflicted by significant poverty and ill equipped to handle such impacts.? In 2012 the legal action remains active and has been making its way through the courts -- having been successful in establishing that point of law but not yet in securing an injunction against operation.
And in addition to the lawsuit, other work has been underway to engage the community on this issue and try to get a handle on its scope.?? CACGEC conducted a regular series of "Conversations on Gambling" on WUFO AM1080, on which this writer appeared while I was researching an earlier article.? And two recent reports have added increased weight to the idea that a casino in Buffalo is an extremely dicey deal for the community.
The first of those reports, a study carried out by Professor Steven Siegel, a Buffalo resident who teaches at Niagara University, shows the casino will be a raw deal for local business and the local economy.? His findings were discussed before Buffalo Common Council, and triggered a (weak, in my view) rebuttal from Seneca Gaming.? Bolstering his findings are their consistency with those from elsewhere in the nation where this has been studied -- see for example, Bad Odds (from the Wall Street Journal, via Scribd), covered by Buffalo Rising in 2007.? So, overwhelmingly, both regional and nationwide studies now show that primarily local casinos do not produce economic development for localities -- at least not positive economic development.? And Seneca Gaming has stated in Federal filings that its casino ambitions in Buffalo are to target, predominantly, locals.
The second report, Poverty and Casino Gambling in Buffalo, released last year by the Partnership for the Public Good, considers the socioeconomic impact of having a casino in the city.? The message?? For poverty-stricken Buffalo, drawing the casino card only weakens an already shaky hand.? Sam Magavern of the Partnership told me that the idea for the report was suggested at a community forum in 2010.? While the Partnership's press release (PDF) provides a good overview of the report's findings, it's worth taking a look at the full report (PDF).? It's accessible, nicely laid out, and a revealing read.? It's also footnoted, so you can delve deeply and to your heart's content.? Below I've excerpted some passages I found especially revealing.
For 2012, opposition to casino gambling was chosen as a "plank" in the annual public policy advocacy platform of the Partnership for the Public Good.? PPG worked with CACGEC and Citizens for a Better Buffalo (a group aiding the casino lawsuit) to focus expertise and public attention on the issue.? One of the outcomes has been the Buffalo Common Council resolution which will be submitted this week.
To many, the casino project represents bad planning and urban design.? To others, it is not smart economic development.? But even more visceral is the social injustice of predatory gambling targeting our city's vulnerable poor, elderly, and weak-minded.? Folks like the woman who was walking to the casino with her last $50.? Statistics may blur them all together, but to John McKendry and others who pay attention, each remains a face.
When it comes to poverty, yeah, Buffalo needs a new pair o' shoes.? But when you run the numbers, rolling the dice on casino gambling looks like the wrong way to go about getting 'em.
Stay tuned for more developments.
Excerpts from PPG report, Poverty and Casino Gambling in Buffalo
Casinos increasingly a venue for poor and minorities
We all know the oft-quoted statistic of Buffalo being the third-poorest city in the nation. So the presence of a casino targeted primarily at locals (as stated in Seneca Gaming documents) raises profound questions. According to the PPG report:
People living in or near poverty are very susceptible to gambling, especially when it is close at hand and convenient. According to a 2004 study, people in the lowest income quintile have more than three times the rate of pathological gambling than people in the top four quintiles. The [study] authors note that the "poor may see gambling as an escape from poverty, making them more prone to gambling pathology."
Disturbingly, the study also found that race was the most significant predictor of problem gambling, with minorities having higher rates than whites.
NGISC [National Gaming Impact Study Center] also found that African-Americans were at more risk for these problems, and that pathological gambling was found proportionately more among the young, less educated, and poor (4-11). Perfetto [a source quoted in the report] reports that 14 percent of extremely frequent casino users have very low household incomes.
Interestingly, this marks a change from 1975, when upper income groups were more prone to compulsive gambling; the authors suggest the change may have come due to the growth in opportunities to gamble for the poor.
The casino around the corner
Compulsive gambling becoming predominantly a problem of poor and minorities represents a turnabout from a few decades ago.? According to the PPG report:
How much people gamble is closely related to how close and convenient the gambling opportunities are. The National Opinion Research Center states that having a casino within 50 miles is associated with roughly double the rates of problem and pathological gambling (NORC, 28). Similarly, Welte [a source quoted in the report] states that people within 10 miles of a casino have more than twice the rate of problem or pathological gambling as people further away (7.2 percent versus 3.1 percent) (2004).
The proximity factor is particularly important for people with low incomes, who are less likely to be able to afford trips to "destination" casinos and resorts.
Not just people living in poverty, but impoverished neighborhoods as a whole are at particular risk for problem and pathological gambling. Welte's research shows that people in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods gamble, on average, 72 times per year, while those in the least disadvantaged areas gamble only 29 times per year. Given that in the Buffalo-Niagara metro area 81.4 percent of African- Americans live in high poverty neighborhoods, Welte's findings are particularly troubling.
Unfortunately, the Buffalo Creek Casino is located in a high poverty zone - in census tract 13.02, where the per capita income in 1999 was $11,127, and 59 percent of households were below the poverty line. A major public housing project, the Commodore Perry Homes, is just a few blocks from the Casino.
In the five adjacent census tracts, the per capita income was $11,649, and the poverty rates ranged from 26 percent to 42 percent in 1999. Within walking distance of the Casino one finds areas of dense and extreme poverty, such as tract 71.02, with 3,275 residents and a poverty rate of 47 percent; tract 16, with 4,316 residents and a poverty rate of 44 percent; and tract 71.01, with 4,389 residents and a poverty rate of 53 percent. For the 29,760 people who live nearest the Casino, the per capita income in 1999 was only $13,142.
Just as putting a toxic dump in a low-income area is an environmental injustice, putting a casino in an impoverished neighborhood is a social injustice.
The casino in context: explosive growth of gambling
From the PPG report:
This [report] comes amidst a growth in gambling of near-epidemic proportions. New York has pulled behind New Jersey and Nevada in gaming activity. And nationwide, gambling losses more than doubled in the decade between 1994 and 2003, from Nationwide, gambling has also soared. While in 1994, Americans lost $30 billion in gambling, by 2003 they were losing $68 billion - spending more on gambling than on movies, videos, DVD's, music, and books combined (18).
The core of casino gaming is the closed, contained environment, plus slot machines. The essence of operating a casino is creating an environment in which people will play slot machines as often and as long as possible. As the California Research Bureau notes, "Video poker, slot machines, and other video gambling terminals are the most addictive forms of gambling as well as the most effective at generating revenue. These machines combine quick-cycling, sensory-rich experiences, the psychologically attractive principal of intermittent reward, and the statistically inevitable house advantage which are assured to produce significant gambling losses over time"
Casino patrons are not just gambling with the cash they bring to the casino. According to the NGISC [National Gaming Impact Study Center], patrons bring only 40 percent to 60 percent of the cash that they end up wagering. They get the rest from ATMs, credit markers, and cash advances (casinos charge fees for cash advances ranging from 3 percent to 10 percent or more).
The casino as an economic boon? Not so much, to not so many.
The report suggests one bright spot is the potential for members of the Seneca Nation to reap economic benefits of casino gaming. However, what's played out along these lines has been uneven and inequitable, at best. So far, the casino seems to have primarily benefited well-connected "high rollers."
According to the PPG report:
As feared, corruption and inequity have become problems in the ensuing years. The experience of the Seneca Niagara Casino shows, however, that tribe members are gaining fewer of the jobs and profits than might be expected. In 2004, only about 100 of the 2,145 workers at Seneca Niagara were Seneca, and, as of 2004, the jobs started at less than $5 per hour plus tips (Zremski). Meanwhile, the head of SGC [Seneca Gaming Corporation] was receiving a $574,615 salary with a $650,000 bonus. By 2007 his salary was to increase to $1.2 million, with a bonus of up to $400,000.
Unfortunately, much of the initial profit from the Seneca Niagara casino flowed to a Malaysian gambling mogul named Lim Kok Thay. Lim loaned the Seneca Gaming Corporation $80 million to build the casino at the astronomical interest rate of 30 percent, with the loan earning Lim $96 million over its five-year life. A casino finance expert called it "the worst deal I've ever seen."? There have also been cases of corruption among those connected with Seneca Gaming, including significant kickbacks in a land deal for a golf course.
Source: http://www.buffalorising.com/2012/09/ppg-report-casino-a-raw-deal-for-buffalo.html
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