Dashboards Are Latest Hub Of Auto-Design Renaissance

Friday, February 14th, 2003

Dashboards Are Latest Hub Of Auto-Design Renaissance explains that “in an increasingly crowded market, designers are under more pressure to make cars stand out,” and moving the dashboard gauges is one way to do that:

The Saturn division of General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp.’s new Scion youth division and Nissan Motor Co. are all rolling out vehicles with interior designs that move the dashboard gauges out of their traditional box behind the steering wheel toward the center of the dashboard.

What kind of usability studies are they doing?

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Sumo Heavies Throw Weight Behind Crime Fighting

Friday, February 14th, 2003

Can near-immobile sumotori catch criminals? I don’t know, but as Sumo Heavies Throw Weight Behind Crime Fighting points out, they may deter crime:

About 10 wrestlers from Isenoumi Stable, as sumo gyms are known, began nightly patrols in their neighborhood in the east of Tokyo this week, hoping their bulk would deter would-be crooks.

Posted in Fitness, Martial Arts | No Comments »

Trapeze Artist Attacks Rival with Castration Tongs

Friday, February 14th, 2003

How made-up does this sound? Trapeze Artist Attacks Rival with Castration Tongs:

A lovesick 58-year-old German man was sentenced to seven years in jail after attacking a factory worker with a pair of bull castration tongs in the western town of Duesseldorf, a state court said on Friday.

The circus trapeze artist had tried to emasculate the man using the steel pincers after accusing him of having a relationship with his former girlfriend, a 46-year-old belly dancer who performed in the same circus.

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Mike Myers Samples Unusual Film Deal

Friday, February 14th, 2003

On the one hand, it’s about time. On the other hand, I’m surprised Hollywood made the move. Mike Myers Samples Unusual Film Deal explains:

Mike Myers has inked an unusual production deal with DreamWorks in which the actor will insert himself, other actors and new plots into existing films to create new properties.

The studio is calling the process “film sampling,” similar to the music business practice in which an artist takes part of an existing song and works it into his own tune, sometimes with new lyrics and music.
[...]
The idea isn’t new; Woody Allen created new dialogue for a Japanese film and released it as “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” in 1966. More recently, commercials have altered old movie footage starring John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart and Fred Astaire to promote beer, soda and vacuum cleaners.

They didn’t mention Wooden Allen’s Zelig or Steve Martin’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.

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Virus May Block HIV’s Destructive Power

Friday, February 14th, 2003

Some viruses are friendly. Sometimes. According to Virus May Block HIV’s Destructive Power, the fairly harmless GB virus C blocks HIV:

An ancient virus that has tagged along harmlessly through human evolution appears to improve people’s chances of surviving AIDS by blocking HIV’s ability to infect blood cells, new research shows.

Several recent studies have found that people who are infected with the recently discovered bug, called GB virus C, are substantially less likely than usual to die from AIDS. Experts assumed that GBV-C somehow interferes with HIV, but just how this protection works has been a mystery.

Now experts think they have the answer: It thwarts HIV’s ability to infect cells by wiping away one of the chemical docking posts that HIV needs to make its entry.

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Ibuprofen Could Be Bad for Heart Patients

Friday, February 14th, 2003

According to Ibuprofen Could Be Bad for Heart Patients, ibuprofen blocks aspirin from thinning the blood:

Fresh evidence adds to suspicions that ibuprofen could be dangerous for most heart patients because it can block the blood-thinning benefits of aspirin.

New research published this week in The Lancet medical journal found that those taking both aspirin and ibuprofen were twice as likely to die during the study period as those who were taking aspirin alone or with other types of common pain relievers.

Scientists believe ibuprofen clogs a channel inside a clotting protein that aspirin acts on. Aspirin gets stuck behind the ibuprofen and cannot get to where it is supposed to go to thin the blood.

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Jim McGee on the IT Silver Bullet

Friday, February 14th, 2003

Jim McGee, who teaches at the Kellogg School of Management, made an amusing metaphor about information technology:

While technology marketing frequently portrays information technology as a silver bullet, all of us who have lived inside organizations can point to far more self-inflicted wounds than dead monsters.

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Ebola Suspected in Republic of Congo

Thursday, February 13th, 2003

Ebola Suspected in Republic of Congo says that ebola may be back:

Ebola is one of the world’s deadliest viral diseases, causing rapid death through massive blood loss in up to 90 percent of those infected. The disease spreads through bodily fluids. Primates, a food source for many central Africans, can carry the infection.
[...]
“Right now, the teams are having a lot of trouble working with the villagers, who believe the disease is a terrible curse. The population doesn’t believe in Ebola,” Moka said. “And when they see the men in the white suits, they flee.”

Remind me never to go to Africa. The good news?

Ebola generally kills rapidly, meaning the disease burns out before it can spread great distances.

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Fitness May Prevent Cancer Deaths Among Men

Thursday, February 13th, 2003

According to Fitness May Prevent Cancer Deaths Among Men, fit men and thin women are less likely to get cancer:

The study included 2,585 women and 2,890 men who were followed from the early- to mid-1970s to 1998. At the start of the study, volunteers performed a treadmill test to measure their heart health and had their body mass index, or BMI, measured. BMI is a measure of weight in relation to height used to gauge obesity.

After taking into account factors that could influence health, Evenson’s team found that the fittest men were about half as likely to die from cancer as less fit men. Fitness levels did not have a significant effect on cancer deaths in women, however.

But a woman’s BMI at the start of the study was related to her chances of dying from cancer during the next 25 years, according to the report. Women with the highest BMI were almost 50% more likely to die from cancer than less obese women.

Posted in Fitness, Science | No Comments »

How Europe’s Armies Let Their Guard Down

Thursday, February 13th, 2003

How Europe’s Armies Let Their Guard Down explains how Europe’s armies got old and fat:

One reason Europe has so many soldiers is its strong military labor unions. Unheard of in the U.S. and Britain, these unions trace their history to the end of the 19th century, when disgruntled Dutch soldiers, unhappy about living conditions, banded together into a group called Ons Belang (Our Interests). Similar groups soon sprang up around Western Europe. In the 1970s, European military unions gained sweeping collective-bargaining rights, though they stay out of war-planning and deployment issues.

Military labor unions? What the…?

The average age of a Belgian soldier is 40 — compared with 28 in the U.S. and 29 in the U.K. Most Belgian military personnel can retire at 56 with full pension benefits. The Defense Ministry acknowledges too many of its soldiers are too old, and says it is trying to recruit younger people.
[...]
People who were drafted or signed up in the 1970s and 1980s were guaranteed full employment until retirement. Though it varies from country to country, some European governments, including Belgium, still have that policy today.

Not exactly a 21st-century operation.

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Match.com, AT&T Wireless Try Location-Based Dating

Thursday, February 13th, 2003

Match.com, AT&T Wireless Try Location-Based Dating explains how the potential for stalking is being taken to the next level:

The system matches users according to their profiles and, for now, zip codes, and the matched users can then message each other. By the end of the month, Match.com said, the service will be enhanced with location-based technology, which will match users based on the approximate geographical location of their cellphones.

Mr. Nakao said the location technology is based on the carriers’ experience setting up e911 — an emergency system mandated by the Federal Communications Commission that allows emergency calls from cellphones to be pinpointed geographically.

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The ‘Jock Tax’ May Soon Hit More High-Paid Professionals

Thursday, February 13th, 2003

I may have to avoid making any money in California. The ‘Jock Tax’ May Soon Hit More High-Paid Professionals explains:

Shortly after Mr. Jordan’s stellar performance with the Chicago Bulls against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1991 National Basketball Association championship, California started aggressively enforcing an existing law that required non-residents to pay state income tax on income earned while in the state. The biggest targets of this enforcement have been highly compensated professional athletes and entertainers who aren’t California residents — after all, revenue-department officials can see when Mr. Jordan or Jon Bon Jovi was in town just by looking in the newspaper.

Over the last decade, 20 states — most of them home to professional sporting and major entertainment venues — have adopted similar jock taxes, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax-education and research group based in Washington, D.C.

Posted in Business, Policy | No Comments »

Work & Family Mailbox

Thursday, February 13th, 2003

Something’s wrong when the Wall Street Journal is recommending that you have the kids research current events or that you fill a jar with conversational topics so the family has something to discuss at dinner time. From the Work & Family Mailbox:

Even if you find the time for dinner, you may encounter another kind of trap: The kids don’t want to eat together. Some families find they have little to say to each other at first, or that their conversations are drowned out by the siren song of the TV, Internet or video games.

To counter this, some parents ask the kids to take turns researching a current-events issue and come to the table prepared to discuss it, says Meg Cox, a writer on family rituals and author of “The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays & Everyday,” set for publication in April by Running Press. Though many children resist at first, they usually begin to enjoy being the experts and questioning each other.

Another idea: making a “conversation jar” with topics jotted down on slips of paper. Think up the ideas during a school holiday or snow day, then pluck them out at random during a quiet dinner, suggests Ms. Cox, who is a former writer for The Wall Street Journal. Some examples: “The most surprising thing about me is _____” or “If I had a million dollars I would _____” or “The world would be a better place if _____”

Those aren’t bad suggestions, but, again, something’s wrong if your family can’t talk at the dinner table.

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Americans Are Getting Fatter, And Technology Is to Blame

Thursday, February 13th, 2003

Americans Are Getting Fatter, And Technology Is to Blame presents another look at the problem:

The government’s authoritative National Health Examination Survey found 30% of adults in 1999-2000 were obese by the technical medical definition. That’s up from 23% in 1988-1994 and 15% in 1976-1980.
[...]
Some blame the food industry for deceiving us into eating more fatty and caloric foods. Others link the increase in weight to the decrease in smoking. Still others blame a sedentary lifestyle in which playing games on computer screens replaces athletic activity, and cars and elevators eliminate the need to walk.

It’s obvious that technology has made us richer and food cheaper, in terms of the hours we have to work to feed ourselves. And of course, technology has changed the physical nature of daily work. Once most of us were paid to exercise on the job, University of Chicago professors Tomas Philipson and Richard Posner observe. Now many of us pay to exercise at the gym. But all that explains why Americans weigh more than we did in 1903, not why we’re heavier than in 1983.
[...]
We eat more because improved technology — from the microwave oven to flavor-protecting preservatives to packaging — cuts the time it takes to prepare food. As recently as 1978, only 8% of homes had microwaves. At last count, 83% did.

Posted in Fitness, Technology | No Comments »

"Smart Bullets" Are Designed To Chase a Fleeing Enemy

Thursday, February 13th, 2003

The title, “Smart Bullets” Are Designed To Chase a Fleeing Enemy, is a bit misleading, but the article does explain what the military’s trying to do to improve soldiers’ aim:

Tests conducted in 1990 at Fort Benning, Ga., found the U.S. Army had a problem. Its soldiers’ aim was off.

Way off. On a normal shooting range, basic trainees can hit targets about 220 yards away 80% of the time. But under confusing conditions mimicking the “fog of war,” Army researchers found the accuracy of infantrymen hefting M16s plummeted to just 20%.
[...]
Mr. Shisler says the Fort Benning simulations, in which soldiers ran in place to raise their heart rates and then fired on pop-up and moving targets, helped persuade gun designers they needed a radically new approach to killing or wounding antagonists.

This reminds me of my favorite ergogenic-drug story: Olympic biathletes were using beta-blockers, heart medication, to bring their pulse down after cross-country skiing, so they could shoot more accurately. I’m not sure how they brought it back up to ski again.

Anyway, the Army’s trying to side-step soldiers’ poor aim with the XM29:

The first smart-weapon to combine those concepts is the XM29. The Army is investing more than $130 million into the blocky, black gun, which fires both regular rifle bullets and air-bursting 20mm rounds that scatter metal fragments at a predetermined distance.

The gun, whose marketing tagline is “No Place To Hide,” packs some $28,000 in electronic gear, including a laser range finder that measures the distance to an enemy in the cross hairs. A ballistic computer on the gun then programs an electronic fuse inside the round, which counts the number of rotations it makes as it hurtles through the air, exploding at a precise distance.

Posted in Technology, War | No Comments »

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