From Wired.com:

Sometimes seeing means deceiving before believing, depending on your age. Children and adults size up objects differently, giving youngsters protection against a visual illusion that bedevils their elders, a new study suggests.

This unusual triumph of kids over grown-ups suggests that the brain’s capacity to consider the context of visual scenes, and not just focus on parts of scenes, develops slowly, say psychologist Martin Doherty of the University of Stirling in Scotland and his colleagues. Even at age 10, children lack adults’ attunement to visual context, Doherty’s team concludes in a paper published online November 12 in Developmental Science.

As a result, visual context can be experimentally manipulated to distort adults’ perception of objects’ sizes. But Doherty’s group finds that children, especially those younger than 7, show little evidence of altered size perception on a task called the Ebbinghaus illusion.

“When visual context is misleading, adults literally see the world less accurately than they did as children,” Doherty says.

This pattern holds for Scottish children and adults in the new study as well as for Japanese children and adults who participated in other investigations conducted by Doherty’s team.

Some researchers argue that East Asians focus broadly on the context of what they see while Westerners focus narrowly on central figures. Doherty says the new findings instead indicate that adults in both Scotland and Japan can’t help but track visual context, although this tendency was stronger in the Japanese adults.

Other investigators have noted that children with autism don’t succumb to visual size illusions, consistent with the idea that autism involves an excessive focus on details. But visual context largely eludes all young children, not just those with autism, Doherty asserts.

Even if the new findings hold up, it’s still possible that further research will show that children with autism develop a susceptibility to size illusions more slowly than those without it, remarks psychologist Danielle Ropar of the University of Nottingham in England.

Psychologist Carl Granrud of the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley calls the new study convincing but “somewhat surprising.” Children exhibit sensitivity to visual context on some other visual tasks, he says, such as one in which two equal-sized horizontal lines are perceived as differing in length when flanked by diagonal lines.

Earlier research has yielded conflicting evidence that children fall prey to the Ebbinghaus illusion, partly because of weaknesses in study designs, Doherty says.

His team studied 151 children, ages 4 to 10, recruited from a Scottish primary school and nursery school. Another 24 volunteers, ages 18 to 25, were college students.

Participants viewed a series of images containing pairs of orange circles in which one circle was 2 percent to 18 percent larger than the other. An experimenter asked participants to point to the circle that “looked bigger.”

Control images showed only two orange circles. In other images, each orange circle was surrounded by gray circles intended either to hinder or aid accurate size perception.

Misleading images showed the smaller orange circle surrounded by even smaller gray circles to boost its apparent size. Large gray circles surrounding the larger orange circle were intended to shrink its apparent size.

In helpful images, large gray circles surrounded the smaller orange circle to make it appear smaller than it actually was. Small circles surrounded the larger orange circle to magnify its apparent size.

Four-year-olds correctly identified the larger circle in 79 percent of control images. That figure rose with age, reaching 95 percent in adults.

For 4- to 6-year-olds, accuracy of size perception for misleading images remained at about what it was for control images. Misleading images increasingly elicited errors from older children and tricked adults most of the time. Adults made almost no errors on helpful images. Kids from age 7 to 10 erred on a minority of helpful images, while 4- to 6-year-olds performed no better than chance.

Below: (a) Most people see the further circle as being larger than the nearer one, though they are equal. (b) Adding surrounds, as in the Ebbinghaus illusion, increases the perceived size difference between the two circles. (c) The large element in the centre of the second row from the top may be seen as being larger than that arrowed below, but they are equal.

Images: Martin Doherty

Para melhorar o desempenho dos alunos norte-americanos e estimular o progresso das áreas de Ciências, Tecnologia, Engenharia e Matemática (STEM), Barack Obama convocou grandes editoras de games e instituições ligadas à indústria do entretenimento para integrar o programa “Educar para Inovar”. Obama divulgou, nesta segunda-feira, que o investimento será de US$ 4,35 bilhões. Mas segundo a revista Wired,  a parceria com empresas privadas pode adicionar ao fundo cerca de US$ 260 milhões.

Reconhecendo o poder pedagógico dos jogos eletrônicos para crianças e adolescentes, empresas como a Sony, Entertainment Software Association (ESA) e Fundação MacArthur se uniram ao governo para lançar uma série de ações competitivas na área de design para games.

Dois concursos nacionais serão implementados em 2010:

• O Game Changers compõe a próxima edição do Digital Media and Learning Competition, da Fundação MacArthur, que já vem aplicando ações inovadoras no processo de aprendizado, ao utilizar jogos eletrônicos, redes sociais e celulares. A Sony e a Fundação MacArthur, em parceria com a ESA e ITI, apoiam a competição que consiste na criação de um novo jogo, baseado nos princípios do STEM, que utilizará as ferramentas colaborativas do game LittleBigPlanet. Além disso, a Sony doará mil PlayStations 3 e cópias do seu título, para  bibliotecas e organizações comunitárias de locais com baixa renda.

“Na educação de hoje, as crianças desenvolvem talentos ao  jogar videogame. Resolução de problemas, pensamento estratégico e  flexibilidade são os tipos de habilidades que  os adultos vão precisar para ter sucesso no século XXI”, comenta Dean Garfield, presidente e CEO do Conselho de Tecnologia da Informação (ITI).

• Novamente juntas, a ITI e ESA lançam o STEM National Videogame Competition, em parceria com Joan Ganz Cooney Center de Sesame Workshop, Games for Change e E-Line Ventures. O objetivo é desafiar crianças e adolescentes no desenvolvimento de ideias para jogos baseados em navegação de sites e com abordagem nas áreas de Ciência, Tecnologia, Engenharia e Matemática. Os vencedores recebem US$ 300 mil e seus jogos serão utilizados nas salas de aula.  O anúncio sobre a competição acontecerá no início de 2010, com a apresentação das regras e procedimentos de inscrição. Os vencedores serão anunciados na exposição E3 2010, em junho. Outras quatro parcerias foram anunciadas, entre elas, com a Warner, Discovery e Vila Sésamo.

Fonte: prnewswire.com, gamasutra.com e wired.com
Imagem: whitehouse.gov e playstation.com

Today I took Jack to the barbershop at Meijer’s (yes. I DO know that it’s Meijer. But I’m from Michigan. So we call it Meijer’s. Technically we are correct… because it used to be Meijer’s Thrifty Acres… but I digress.) where the hair cuts are relatively cheap ($12).

It was Jack’s first trip to a barber chair. The first five years of hair cuts came courtesy of my Momma or myself. We did a pretty decent job for the most part. Lately his hair has gotten all thatchy and crazy, not to mention long, and so it was time to seek out the professionals.

He did pretty well. He was squirmy and wiggly and a little apprehensive about the squirt bottle but the end result was good. I tipped the nice lady $3 for “combat pay.”

On the way home we stopped at the donut store for a “First Trip to the Barbershop” treat. Jack munched his little chocolate and glazed donut holes in the backseat and somehow we started talking about my Dad. Jack wanted to know if Bompa got his hair cut at a barbershop, too. I said that yes but that sometimes my mother cut his hair, too.

“Did Bompa have donuts when he got his hair cut?”
“You know, Jack– I think he probably did sometimes. It’s a very Bompa-thing-to-do to have donuts when you get your hair cut.”

Jack muleed this over and chewed thoughtfully on his donuts.
“Mommy? Did he die?”
“Yes, Jack.”
“Today??!”
“No Jacky. It was a long time ago. Before you were born.”
“So he’s not here any more?”
“Right. But remember– Bompa lives in heaven with Jesus and the angels now.”
“I don’t want him to be gone. I want him to be here!”
“I know sweet pea. I do, too.”

We drove a few blocks.
“Mommy? Why does Bompa live in heaven?”
“Well… Because when you believe in Jesus and you die; you get to live in heaven with him and all the angels. And Bompa loved Jesus very much and believed in Jesus. He asked Jesus to live in his heart so when Bompa died he got to go to heaven to live.”
“Mommy! I want to have Jesus live in my heart, too!”
“Well, Jack– all you have to do is say a little prayer to ask Jesus. Do you want to do that?”
“Yes Mommy! Can I call him?”
“Call who?”
“Can I call Jesus?”
“No sweetie. Not on the phone. But you can say a prayer and I promise that Jesus will hear you.”

We discussed it a little more and, a block later, my little son said something to the effect of “Dear Jesus. Please come live in my heart. Thank you! Amen”

We’ll see where this all goes. It’s nice when some things are relatively simple.

A native shrub with lovely red stems for winter color, bright white flowers
in spring followed by white fall berries, and solid maroon leaf fall color.
Always a popular and sturdy landscaping plant for irrigated locations!

The americans, make a press release in which they strongly affirm that they discover water on Mars.

For demonstration they bring pictures too…

Psalm 92:1-2 (New Living Translation)

1 “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High.”

2 “It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening,”

1 Corinthians 15:57 (New King James Version)

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Psalm 30:5 (New King James Version)

“For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.”

Philippians 2:14 (New International Version)

“Do everything without complaining or arguing,”

As we wind down to the end of another year we tend to reflect on the past year and what has or what has not happened in our lives.  There are so many people that go around complaining, always looking at what’s wrong in their lives. Their happiness and joy depends on everything in their lives being just right.  They think they cannot be happy until all of the circumstances in their lives are right.  They see the negative in every situation, and then they wonder why they are not enjoying their lives.  Face it, we all experience times in our life when we feel down for various reasons, but we can’t allow our circumstances to control our emotions nor our situations.  Realistically, we can’t go around with an ungrateful, unthankful attitude.  It is a heart issue, and when we do not get to the root cause and start being more grateful, our situations are never going to change.

The devil seeks to fill your mind with negative thoughts and emotions that cause you to complain and feel down because simply put, the devil is a discourager.  But God is your encourager and the lifter of your spirit.  God didn’t give us mouths to complain about everything that is wrong in our lives.  You may not have everything you would like today.  In fact, you may be dealing with a lot of problems and right now, and cannot even see a way out.  But know complaining is only going to make matters worse.  Quit taking inventory of everything that is wrong, and start thanking God for what is right, for what God has already done or what He is already given.  Until you have a grateful attitude, you are going to stay right where you are.  Remember this: no matter how many negative things you have going on in your life right now, there is somebody who would love to trade places with you.  For instance, you may not like your job right now and complain, complain and complain every single day you are there, but realize today that there are so many people that would love to have a job to go to everyday.  You may not like where you are living, but there are so people who don’t have a homes today.  You may only have a ten dollars in your pocket or even just ten dollars in the bank, but know that there is someone who wishes they had that ten dollars today.  We need to change our perspective on the things in our lives and start being more grateful and looking for what is right.

We all experience times of frustration and distress over unfilled hopes and dreams or even an unfortunate loss.  You may be saying today, “Lord, I have been through so many disappointments this year.  I lost my job, I lost my business, I lost my house, I am always financially strapped and my marriage didn’t work out.  Lord, I have just lost so much this year.  How is it possible that you expect me to be grateful or look for the good through my situation?”  It is normal to feel some disappointment when things don’t go according to your plans.  But know and remember this today, we need to follow God’s Plan for our lives.  Yes, things may have made you feel sad temporarily, but when you know that weeping only lasts for a time and joy is just around the corner, you will start to feel better.  When you remember that if it had not been for the goodness of God; you could have lost it all.  If it had not been for God’s grace and mercy, you may not even be here today.  So, stop looking at what you have lost, stop looking for what’s wrong and start thanking God for what you have left and what is right in your life.  Remember Psalm 30:5 today, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

A Prayer for Today

Lord, I am reminded of the song, by Walter Hawkins today called Be grateful.  Be grateful, there is someone else who is worse off than me. Be grateful, there someone else who would like to be in my shoes.  Be grateful even though the hard times and good ones too.  So Lord, no matter what comes against me today, I am going to have a grateful attitude.  I am going to look for what is going right in my life today and not constantly look for what is going wrong.  Lord, I am going to find some reason to give You thanks today.  Yes, I may not have a job right now, but I thank God for you keeping me in my home.  Yes, financially things may be extremely tough right now, but Lord I thank You for always making a way, when it seems like there is no way.  Yes Lord, I may have had experienced a loss today, but I thank God for your grace and mercy and your keeping power.  Lord I am going to change my perspective, look at things in a different light and stop looking at what is wrong and start looking at what is right in my life today.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

On Friday, the talk show queen Oprah Winfrey made the announcement that in September 2011 her show will end.  “After much prayer and careful thought, I decided that next season, season 25 will be the last season,” Winfrey told audience members. “I love this show. … This show has been my life and I love it enough to know when it’s time to say goodbye.”  She made sure to thank all her loyal viewers for their support over the years before the end of Friday’s show.  And don’t worry, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Oprah.  She plans to start a cable channel called O.W.N. or the Oprah Winfrey Network and its a joint venture w/ Discovery.  She’s done alot for different organizations, the City of Chicago, needy families and children, teachers and more.  She’ll truly be missed but never forgotten as the talk show queen!!!

Imagine a digital working environment where high-definition scanned documents may be summoned at will, and are worked on simultaneously by several historians located in different parts of the world. The document functions not only as a visual facsimile of the original, but also as a ’smart text’.

What does this mean exactly? Let’s say you are a medieval historian, interested in a 7th century manuscript. The digital document not only allows you access to a high-resolution copy of a document you would have been forced to travel half way across the world to see, but is linked to all the relevant literature pertaining to the manuscript. Any word in the text may be instantly translated by a Medieval Latin dictionary, any obscure abbreviation automatically defined, and all the secondary literature written about the document is available at the click of a mouse button. If you want to tag a certain sentence and attach a comment for a member of your work group, that is also possible. Finally, the software can learn your field of interest and suggest material for further reading.

Martianus Capella, Marriage of Philology and Mercury (Wikimedia)

This is just a small example of the future vision of digitization and what it can do for historical research. An ambitious Dutch project, currently underway, already provides scans, transcriptions and glosses for a ninth-century manuscript of Martianus Capella’s De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (‘On the marriage of Philology and Mercury’).

Despite large strides being made, the vision of a platform integrating and coordinating the various existing databases is not yet a reality for historians. Where are we today in terms of reaching this goal? Digital libraries differ from their traditional counterparts in several ways. A physical library can be cataloged according to Dewey, or the Library of Congress methods. When it comes to digital libraries, every project ‘reinvents the wheel’, as it were, and creates a cataloging system incompatible with other ongoing digitization enterprises. This is a problem, because the vision of digitization requires the merging of as many databases as possible to make it effective. When digital archives are unable to work in concert, the entire point of digitization is defeated.

One possible solution for this concern is standardization. By standardizing the entire corpus of scanned documents worldwide, a uniform archive may be created, thus allowing for easy access. But achieving this would require a monumental effort on the side of librarians and software engineers, slaving away to modify the already existent databases. A smarter solution would be to create a work environment which would link the various databases together, and would know how to handle the various standards used by different libraries. This, of course, requires the cooperation of as many digital archives as possible, something that as of today has not occurred.

An initial attempt at such an enterprise is the EU’s Discovery Project, integrating two components, dubbed Philosource and Philospace. The idea behind Philosource is to link together a large number of digital libraries dealing with philosophy, making them accessible through one platform. Philospace acts as a second layer on top of Philosource, consisting of a network of software apps located on researchers’ desktops, allowing for the creation of a shared work environment, incorporating meta-text and annotations to be shared by the research community working on a certain document.

In effect, the bodies regulating today’s digitization efforts are commercial entities, such as Google. In many respects, this is a good thing, because this sort of solution does not require funding by research bodies, which are already financially strained, and the outcome is generally made available to everyone. However, leaving the initiative up to big business also has its drawbacks – commercial bodies are seldom motivated to digitize obscure manuscripts of the sort historians find interesting. Theirs is a wide approach, where historical research requires an in-depth look at digitization. For such an ambitious program to take place, what is needed is a working financial model, allowing universities to participate in, and profit from such an endeavor.

University and research institution libraries spend increasing portions of their annual budgets on subscriber services for online resources. It is only logical that if a large number of university libraries pool their resources, a financial model can be worked out, granting access to as many scholars as possible. This model could have a social facet as well; scholars from poorer countries would enjoy cheaper access to these databases, and the majority of the financial burden would be shouldered by wealthier institutions. Since the money for digitization is already being spent by universities, it stands to reason that a more efficient, egalitarian and productive method would benefit not only individual scholars, but the discipline as a whole.

Imagine a pool. Imagine moving from the shallow end towards the deep end of the pool. Do you let your head go below the water or do you keep your head above water? If you go far enough into the deep end, will you sink or swim?

In a business setting, there are no pools or oceans, so why is it that when it comes to making business decisions, people seem to have their heads below water?

The answer is simple: their heads are in a pool of emotions.

Whether it’s a pool of water or a pool of emotions, to give your business the chance at its well-deserved success, you must keep your head above the pool. You must acknowledge that you, like everyone you know, has emotions floating around inside which will never change-it’s part of our psychological makeup. The key is to identify how your emotions are influencing your vision and business model, accept your emotions as what they are, and isolate them so that your business decisions and behavior can be based on rational strategic planning, rather than emotional and irrational thinking.

Your “business” may be the business of either your professional or your personal life. Despite what project you are actively working to develop, your decisions determine its development and lifeline. Your thoughts heavily influence, if not determine, your actions. Even no decision or action is a decision, because you are choosing to forgo moving forward, which leaves you stagnant. In everything you do, you have a choice – even when there seems like there is no choice, there is one. You are rejecting viable choices and resisting change because of fear and doubt; It’s your emotions that are clouding your vision. Making choices suggests change and with change comes fear, doubt, and anxiety. Your fears likely have little to do with the decision at hand, but more to do with your own individual hang-ups. I can help you put them aside on the Freudian couch so you can head to the boardroom where your business decisions belong. To make a decision you have to make choices that reflect your strategic planning rather than your emotional state of mind. When your emotions are flooding your thoughts and your personal life is your focus, you need to isolate emotions and you go see a mental health professional; when your emotions are getting in the way of your professional life and/or the development of your business, you need to isolate emotions and you go to MyBrandStrategist.

Primeira e até à data única experiência de condução em areia nas pistas de Mira.

VIDEO

Temos muitas actualizações para fazer aqui.. com calma isto vai lá..

Nos últimos dias… o Discovery não tem tido descanso..

Cu putin timp in urma, Descopera.ro prezenta, in cadrul unei stiri, imaginile inedite ale unei foci-leopard, realizate de un fotograf al National Geographic in sudul Argentinei, aproape de Antarctica. Acum, si o poveste cel putin surprinzatoare, avand acelasi subiect, a iesit la suprafata.