Archive for category Uncategorized
Fascination for pendulums piqued by Foucault’s in France
Posted by mark in science, Uncategorized on June 26, 2018
Earlier this month I visited the Pantheon in Paris where I observed this attendant recalibrating Foucault’s pendulum.
This French scientist’s elegant scientific demonstration of earth’s rotation has delighted observers like me since 1851. For more on this story read this Ask Smithsonian blog. Unfortunately, one morning in 1998, the cable on the 52-foot long pendulum at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (originally History and Technology when opened in 1964) snapped, nearly ‘clocking’ a staffer with its wayward 240-pound brass bob. This Foucault device being unAmerican and dangerous, it was removed in favor of the Star-Spangled Banner Preservation Project, thus eliminated a favored place for folks to gather.
By the way, I am now reading The Discoverers by The Librarian of Congress, Daniel Boorstin—the first in his wonderful Knowledge Trilogy. There, coincidentally, I learned that Galileo—only 19-years old at the time (1583) and bored by a church service in Pisa—became distracted by the swinging of a chandelier. By timing his pulse, he observed the time of a pendulum being independent of its arc length—an important discovery of a property called isochronism. This simple discovery, as pointed out by Boorstin, began a new age where science developed from observation and measurement rather than pure speculation.
Are you one of the elite 10% who can work out this test of logic?
Posted by mark in pop, Uncategorized on May 2, 2018
Four cards are laid out before you, each with a letter on one side and a number on the other. You see E, 2, 5 and F. Which cards should you turn over that will prove the following rule: If there is an E on one side, the number on the other side must be a 5? See the answer by Manil Suri, Professor at University of Maryland, in this April 15 New York Times article that asks “Does Math Make You Smarter?”.
As to whether math really does make you smarter, the answer remains unclear. However, those who do well with numbers make far more money. That is not surprising, but the multiplier may be. See this U.S. News report (or not if you failed the test above) for the statistics.
High-tech brain-wave devices that make you very sleepy, plus other innovations now being tested at experimental hotels
Posted by mark in pop, Uncategorized on April 13, 2018
While watching CBS News the morning of March 26, this report on “smart hotels” caught my eye—not so much for concerns about privacy, but more due to knowing these came by very clever experimentation by Marriot and other leading innkeepers. Perhaps not purely by coincidence, just a week before being featured in this broadcast, Marriot posted a job opening for the Manager of Digital Analytics. In similar postings by them over the past several years I see the hotel seeking someone able to “understand and apply best practices for designing statistical experiments.”
The funny thing is that I was once a subject for a factorial design by Marriott. This happened in the early 1980s during their development of the Courtyard. For a discount off my bill (I think $20—a fair amount of money back then), I got sent from room to room with various combinations and permutations of desks, chairs, bathroom layouts, etc.—so many that I became a bit bewildered trying to sort out what really hit the spot for me as a business traveler. Anyways, being into designed experiments, I enjoyed being a very small part (one data point!) of this Marriott success story in product development.
Nowadays Marriott tests their new concepts at the M Beta hotel in Charlotte seen here. Buttons throughout the property register resident’s reactions and impressions. Read more about these feedback devices and check out photos of recent innovations in this report by Innovation Leader.
My favorite hotelier, Hilton, also experiments on their rooms and services as you can see in this article by USA Today. At their Innovation Gallery in northern Virginia Hilton you can strap on a VR device and take a tour of a guestrooms of the future. Whoohoo!
As the CBS report noted, some of the new features coming at these high-tech hotels do create queasiness for them being so intrusive on one’s personal space. For example, I will take a pass on Hilton’s NuCalm device (not at all related to what’s pictured), which purportedly sends its wearers into 20 minutes of dozing that feels like three hours of deep sleep, thus evaporating stress and promoting utter relaxation. Leave my brain be, please!
Twitter far fitter for false news than the truth
Posted by mark in pop, Uncategorized on March 11, 2018
The word coming straight from MIT News (no lie!*) is that Twitter facilitates falsehoods “farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth”. People are 70% more likely to retweet wrong news than a true story.
“False news is more novel, and people are more likely to share novel information.”
– Professor Sinan Aral, MIT Sloan School of Management–co-author of The spread of true and false news online (Science, Mar 9, 2018).
We all know that it’s human nature to enjoy being the first to share previously unknown (but possibly false) information. This is nothing new; for example, in 1710 Jonathan Swift observed that “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it.” However, the technology of today allows (to paraphrase comedian Tracy Morgan) false news to travel at the speed of light, whereas what’s true continues to flow, as always, like molasses.
Costa Rica — the happiest place on Earth
Posted by mark in Uncategorized, Wellness on November 6, 2017
Life-sustaining Costa Rican “broccoli” tree towering over rain-forest trail on the slopes of the Arenal Volcano.
The latest issue of National Geographic awaited me upon my return from a wonderful vacation in Costa Rica. Based on my pleasant encounters, it was no surprise to me that this Central American country came first on the feature article about “Happiest Places”. Costa Rica also ranked #1 on the Happy Planet Index (HPI). See the Today.Com video here for the heads-up on what distinguishes Costa Rica and other joyful places around the world.
It seems to me that the recipe for happiness varies quite a lot, but one aspect of Costa Ricans that I like is them living “pura vida”—the pure, or simple, life.
“What I argue for are statistically driven things you can do to optimize your environment so you’re more likely to be happy for the long term.”
– Dan Buettner, Minnesotan author of The Blue Zones of Happiness (Source: The Atlantic.com “A Lazy Person’s Guide to Happiness”
P.S. The top 25 happiest USA cities are ranked here — the hometown for Stat-Ease came in at #22. 😊
‘Roid rage
Posted by mark in Nature, Uncategorized on October 12, 2017
Let’s not get caught off guard by an Earth-killing asteroid. As Dylan Thomas said: “Do not go gentle into that good night, …rage against the dying of the light.”
That is the mission of NASA. If you are reading this, chances are that Asteroid 2012 TC4 whizzed by today at 30,000 miles per hour—closely monitored by a network of observatories. Check out the details at this NASA website. They take asteroid defense very seriously. Their defense plans for redirecting asteroids will be tested out in 2022 on a double asteroid Didymos B as explained here.
Keep in mind that asteroid 1950DA, about three-quarters a mile wide—big enough to destroy our planet, has a 0.1% chance of hitting the earth 2818. In case NASA does not succeed in their defense efforts, start digging now and you might get hunkered down enough to survive for a short while after that.
What happens if you walk backward while carrying a cup of coffee?
Posted by mark in pop, Uncategorized on October 1, 2017
One would assume that walking backward with coffee, especially when it’s piping hot, would be nearly as dangerous as running with scissors. Not so, according to the 2017 Ig Nobel Prize winning study for Fluid Dynamics. According to Korean physicist Jiwon Han, you will likely spill less walking backward than forward. However, your chances of tripping, or crashing into a colleague (also walking backward with coffee, ha ha) “drastically increase”.*
“Rarely do we manage to carry coffee around without spilling it once. In fact, due to the very commonness of the phenomenon, we tend to dismiss questioning it beyond simply exclaiming: ‘Jenkins! You have too much coffee in your cup!’”
– Jiwon Han
As reported in this “SmartNews” post by Smithsonian Magazine, Han advises a claw-like grip on top of your cup, rather than using the handle. Other tips from University of California researchers, reported here by LiveScience, are to gradually accelerate to a very slow walk, thus avoiding disruptive oscillations, and keep your eyes on the cup, not the ground.
My secret to stop spillage is to use a very large cup and fill it only two-thirds of the way, e.g., 12 ounces of hot coffee in a 16-ounce Styrofoam cup. The ultimate solution is to use a spill-proof, lidded container. However, I prefer drinking from a cup, if possible.
*(Source: Chemical and Engineering News, 9/18/17, Newscripts—“Curating quirky science since 1943.”)
Eclipse chasing a total success
Posted by mark in Uncategorized on August 21, 2017
Some time ago I hatched a plan to take a Sunday drive down to mid-Iowa from where our party of Andersons could shoot off south or east and catch today’s eclipse. Little did I know how wily the weather gods can be for obscuring the heavens. For the last week, the forecasts ping-ponged me unmercifully between Nebraska and Missouri. I went to bed last night with Nebraska in my sights, but just before hitting the road the updated outlook pointed clearly to Missouri as our only chance, albeit very slim, to get a view of the sun at totality.
Heading south through very heavy rains we went off-interstate south of Iowa once we hit the path of the eclipse, and then zig-zagged tortuously through the back-country of Missouri until we finally reached the edge of the cloud deck near Columbia—just in time for the awesome sight of the sun being snuffed out by the moon.
From a statistical perspective, it is ironic how astronomers can be so precise in their predictions of the moon shadow, whereas the meteorologists cannot provide very accurate forecasts of cloud cover. This made this whole venture of eclipse chasing very challenging, but, given the thrilling conclusion, a great experience.
“Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.”
― Helen Keller
Average American works 3.5 hours a day
Posted by mark in pop, Uncategorized on July 1, 2017
This headline statistic makes it seem that Americans are slackers. However all this work is being done by only 60% of our population and on weekends to boot. An alarming downward trend in sleep-time is being counteracted by increased proportion of work being done at home. Based on how I’ve been laboring later and later at my home office, I think these two statistics may be inversely correlated—more work means less sleep. For more details, see this Wall Street Journal briefing on the statistics released by the Labor Department last Tuesday. It includes data on how much cooking and housework the men do versus women. I’m taking a hands-off position on that. ; )
P.S. Bloomberg Business recently reported that Europeans work an hour less a day than Americans. See their statistics here. We really need to take cue from our colleagues across the Atlantic and take more vacation. Also, Europeans retire earlier than Americans. Here in the U.S. more people are working past 65 than at any point in the past 50 years. This strikes close to home with me turning 64 this month and still working full time. However, I like to keep busy and enjoy my work (and the pay), so I cannot complain. Also, I am thankful not to be forced into retirement. But one of these days…
Statistics to make distracted drivers more aware this month
Posted by mark in Uncategorized, Wellness on April 24, 2017
April is now the Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month (formerly it was just math–no stats). It also is Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
Putting these two themes together brings us to data published this month by Zendrive, a San Francisco-based startup that uses smartphone sensors to measure drivers’ behavior. They claim that 90% of collisions are due to human error, of which 1 in 4 stem from phone use while driving.
These statistics are very worrying to start off with. But, according to this blog, it gets far worse when you drill down on Zendrive’s 3-month analysis of 3-million anonymous drivers, who made 570-million trips and covered 5.6-billion miles:
- Drivers used their phones on 88-percent of the trips
- They spent 3.5 minutes per hour on calls (an enormous amount of time considering that even a few seconds of distraction can create dire consequences)
About a third of US states prohibit use of hand-held phones while driving. Does this reduce distraction? The stats posted by Zendrive are not definitive.
It seems to me that that hands-free must be far safer. However, this ranking of driving distractions* (benchmarked to plain driving—rating of 1) does not provide much support for what is seemingly obvious:
- Listening to the radio — 1.21
- Listening to a book on tape — 1.75
- Talking on a hands-free cellphone — 2.27
- Talking with a passenger in the front seat — 2.33
- Talking on a hand-held cellphone — 2.45
- Interacting with a speech recognition e-mail or text system — 3.06
For all the fuss about talking on the phone, whether hands-free or not, it does not cause any more distraction than chatting with a passenger.
This list does not include texting, which Consumer Reports figures is 23 times more distracting than talking on your cell phone while driving.**
Please avoid any distractions when you drive, especially texting.
*Source: This 10/16/15 Boston Globe OpEd
**Posted here