Author: tom

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quotes

Quote #289: There are no solutions here

There are no solutions here – it’s about what problems you choose to address on an ongoing basis

Rob Riordan, via @AlecPatton

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tweets

Tweets for 2012-09-06

  • Academics: what is a reasonable time to wait after submitting a paper before nudging the editor for a response? #
  • tbh, those "wettest summer for 100 years" stats don't work for me. I'd rather have a headline which reported a z score. Or is that just me? #
  • Nottingham #
  • "Stopped clocks and dead phones" My BBC column from last week, now live on http://t.co/85RrPPSd http://t.co/GkENyjMh #
  • Go Estonia! But how do you teach a six year old to code? Anyone? #
  • Meanwhile, in the basement of consciousness, the clocks have stopped and phones gone dead http://t.co/GkENyjMh #
  • Welcome to the Academy! RT @jamesb I'm doing a bit of teaching http://t.co/RBOYgpvZ #
  • Elsevier support just told me that 4 months is typical for "under review" stage. cc @PsychScientists @chrisdc77 @JimGrange @MarcusMunafo #
  • Browsing the "Psychology" section of a 2nd hand bookshop provides good evidence that people have no idea what psychology is #

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Tweets for 2012-08-30

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quotes

I hear new news every day

I hear new news every day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland, &c., daily musters and preparations, and such like, which these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain, monomachies, shipwrecks, piracies, and sea-fights, peace, leagues, stratagems, and fresh alarms. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions, edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints, grievances, are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets, currantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy, religion, &c. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, plays: then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villanies in all kinds, funerals, burials, deaths of Princes, new discoveries, expeditions; now comical then tragical matters. To-day we hear of new Lords and officers created, to-morrow of some great men deposed, and then again of fresh honours conferred; one is let loose, another imprisoned; one purchaseth, another breaketh: he thrives, his neighbour turns bankrupt; now plenty, then again dearth and famine; one runs, another rides, wrangles, laughs, weeps &c. Thus I daily hear, and such like, both private and publick news. Amidst the gallantry and misery of the world: jollity, pride, perplexities and cares, simplicity and villany; subtlety, knavery, candour and integrity, mutually mixed and offering themselves, I rub on in a strictly private life.

Robert Burton (1577-1640), The Anatomy of Melancholy (p.19)

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tweets

Tweets for 2012-08-23

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tweets

Tweets for 2012-08-16

  • AHRC "science in culture" theme http://t.co/0sVQFDP7 is the pun deliberate? #
  • Upcoming call for AHRC Science in Culture theme large grants http://t.co/XS8ZnPIk #
  • I am about to be on BBC Radio Sheffield to discuss this amnesia case http://t.co/wK0sGfir 'The woman who has lost 20 years from her memory' #
  • Crowd-sourced analysis of terms of service. http://t.co/gXxwf8xU next stop: an app that reads contracts, tells you how standard they are #
  • More olympics psychology from me on @BBC_Future. UK readable link http://t.co/1yYrBUAw "Olympic lessons in regret" #
  • New in Cog Sci from M Mirolli: analysing when a minimally cognitive agent develops representations http://t.co/XK2CGJgc #
  • Academic Colleagues: I recommend caution when dealing with @Podiumfor2012, who I have found to be manipulative and deceitful #
  • HP Printers and Scanners have good linux support. Hurrah for HP! #
  • Author of the great http://t.co/ojkCoz1J blog leaves important update on my "red for victory" column: http://t.co/2rkay373 #
  • And he's on twitter as @brainsidea. Thanks for the comment Richard! #
  • Just booked my flights for New York in September. Who fancies a beer? #
  • Now on http://t.co/85RrPPSd my column for @BBC_Future, "what a silver medal can teach us about regret" http://t.co/2dXeOPmg #
  • RIP Duncan Luce, author of the bible "Response Times and their role in infering elementary mental organisation" http://t.co/ha34IqaC #
  • Driskell's (1994) meta-analysis of the benefits of mental practice http://t.co/726eAsg7 short story: it works #
  • Imagining how you'll study leads to better grades than imagining why you should study http://t.co/VJHeECbr #
  • Recommended source for a history of the behaviourism-cognitivism debate in psychology anyone? #
  • Now live: Stafford & Bell (2012): Brain network: social media and the cognitive scientist http://t.co/3IMoNHFk cc @vaughanbell #
  • Featuring: twitter! cognitive science! Glamourous neurotweeps such as @deevybee and @edyong209! Get it while it's hot http://t.co/3IMoNHFk #
  • Our article on how social media are transforming science now FREE to access, because @TrendsCognSci get it http://t.co/qB1Exeal #

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tweets

Tweets for 2012-08-09

  • Take a tour of Sheffield Music City, http://t.co/r0nEEZcX courtesy of @PublicityDept #
  • Struggling to generate many examples of sentences without the letters "I" and "K", for an experiment. #
  • That's 1 down, just need 29 more! RT @thefalken: @tomstafford "A sentence with no letters has none." #
  • "not just useless piffle about technology; it is also an endorsement of some rather noxious political ideas" http://t.co/6TBXEYX2 BOOM! #
  • Ok twitter, now I need example sentences which don't contain the letters O or L. Can you help? #
  • My latest for @BBC_Future now up on mindhacks http://t.co/f0TQIG8b a cautionary tale of scientific research with an Olympic theme #
  • Amazing visualisation of the global arms trade http://t.co/b7gGwKrf Campaign Against the Arms trade http://t.co/UCP5m9eL #
  • The great E.C. Tolman, on what 'rat psychology' can teach us about academic freedom http://t.co/PU9L8gpd via @criener @EPCharles #
  • Using implicit memory to store passwords. A sort of behavioural biometrics http://t.co/zcFtEStd via @Neuro_Skeptic #
  • A doctor referred to as cDa29…'is the first tetrachromat known to science' http://t.co/QunMNE3w via @neuroconscience #
  • Editor's final demand b4 publication: remove all use of 1st person plural. Means I have to edit my paper to make it harder to read! #
  • Is also against APA style http://t.co/62wAngcV #
  • Do you have an advanced degree in maths/eng and could solve a theoretical problem with a robot art project? http://t.co/ZJ5hfAUa #
  • We will pay you in pure kudos if you can help! http://t.co/ZJ5hfAUa if you live in Sheffield, beer too #
  • Wow twitter, you are super helpful on a Tuesday night! Thanks for all the RTs and replies. I've got some great leads on a solution… #
  • …if anyone wants to do some of the work, i'm still open to that too! Knowing the answer != implementing the answer #
  • So, people of Sheffield, what would you like to see at your very own Festival of Science? #

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sheffield

Seeking help: Drawing machines

Matt is making a drawing machine. A robot which will live on a wall and plot out paths which are an algorithmic solution to the artistic seeds that Matt feeds it. I’m helping Matt, but we’re stuck with a bit of the maths.

Due to artistic and practical constraints, this is how the robot will work: there will be two motors, top left and top right, from which a ‘pen’ is suspended. Our problem is about how to change the length of the chains from which the pen is suspended to draw a straight line between two points. I’ve done a diagram to make this easier to explain. The crudely drawn black circles are the two motors. There is a small blue circle (a start point), and the two chains in green (with lengths l1 and r1 respectively. The target endpoint is show as a red cross, with the chains shown in purple (with lengths l2 and r2 respectively (obviously there are only ever two chains, one right and one left, not four).

Calculating the length of the chains at the start and the end is fairly trivial. The problem is at what rate to turn the motors to lengthen or draw in the chains to get between the start and the end points drawing a straight line. For artistic reasons it is absolutely essential that the line drawn between two points is straight.

I had a go at solving this. You can have a look at this python code (incidentally, my first ever python script!). The problem is, my solution makes curved lines, like this (points along the path shown as blue dots)

The chains need to be tightened by some amount during travel to stop a curve being described, but I know enough maths to know that I don’t have a hope of solving this one. Can you help?

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quotes

Quote #287

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.

Gore Vidal, I’m told

Categories
tweets

Tweets for 2012-08-02

  • Workshop for Google Data Analytics Social Science Research http://t.co/vqUZmpNl via @DigiWorldSheff #
  • Want to learn python by looking at examples of small complete scripts which do simple tasks. Can anyone recommend link? #python #lazyweb #
  • Discussion on this @Neuro_Skeptic post is illuminating about many issues in academic writing http://t.co/vc9Lint1 #
  • Feel slightly weird that my (scientific) life story is told in the august issue of @psychmag http://t.co/fBh0WK5W #
  • But very happy to be able to give credit to two of my scientific inspirations: Professors Andrew Mayes and Kevin Gurney #
  • At the 1992 Olympics the Lithuanian basketball team collected their bronze medals in tie-die http://t.co/x2BJbMCh #
  • 'new' publication How do we use computational models of cognitive processes? http://t.co/IrR80evY I survey how models are use in cog sci #
  • Summary: All is not as neatly Popperian as the textbooks would have you believe! http://t.co/IrR80evY #
  • RT @Neuro_Skeptic Induction of lucid dreams: A systematic review of the evidence http://t.co/RpiwD6sd #
  • More on lucid dreams, including that vital "how to" guide, in our free ebook https://t.co/3cJMEUY3 #
  • A cautionary tale of scientific research, with an Olympic theme: does wearing red make you better at fighting? http://t.co/COShjl0J #
  • Can anyone recall an expt where ppts gave more compensation to plane crash victims who nearly made it to safety? Google has failed me #

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links

Links for summer 2012

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tweets

Tweets for 2012-07-26

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tweets

Tweets for 2012-07-19

  • A good example of the complete contempt an advert can display for its target http://t.co/TcSLDzzk #
  • Data sleuthing causes resignation of another social psychologist, @edyong209 reports http://t.co/UrwCP1Zo #
  • Berlin report http://t.co/TTrE3lOv an even-more-pondering-than-usual post #
  • My latest for @BBC_Future, how possession distorts our values and how to fight back (uk-readable link) http://t.co/p6lGWQ09 #
  • Sinister RT @PaulLewis: We cannot name the judge, court or case. But here is the most we can say court ban on BBC film: http://t.co/B9yXQNYg #
  • I take that back, the court order is probably not sinister, it is probably due to someone in the doc being involved in an ongoing case #
  • 2007 paper with a nice review of the idea that colour might enhance performance (in brief: evidence is checkered)
    http://t.co/Bc2uDggQ #
  • I said "Perception is about meaning". http://t.co/TTrE3lOv Blog comment asks: "what is the citation for that?" Any one got any offers? #
  • Reading (and puzzling over): The Master and his Emissary, The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist #
  • Seeking a touch-typist in Sheffield who will volunteer to have their brain fMRI scanned on the 8th of August. Y'know, for science. Pls RT #

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tweets

Tweets for 2012-07-12

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Tweets for 2012-07-05

  • This is surely a great example of some principle of the psychology of reasoning: "the Beatles never existed" http://t.co/ZoGUgkdf #
  • And so to sunny Aberystwyth for three days… #
  • .@mikedewar dude, next time you try to convince a scientist to switch to python, mention this http://t.co/SfezcChX #
  • "Infants in Control: Rapid Anticipation of Action Outcomes in a Gaze-Contingent Paradigm" http://t.co/GDu83V8S #
  • That last paper conceptually very similar to our new action acquisition task http://t.co/N83NUmuD except training eye-movements #
  • Couldn't we solve SEO spam by google instituting a *penalty* for sites seen to be spamming? #
  • Currently spammers only have potential benefits, and bloggers bear the cost #
  • "Why I am always unlucky but you are always careless" http://t.co/Ie2R3keH my latest column for @BBC_Future #

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Tweets for 2012-06-28

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Tweets for 2012-06-21

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Tweets for 2012-06-14

  • Prolonged rock climbing activity induces structural changes in cerebellum and parietal lobe. http://t.co/yf4ORWZs BUT correlation only study #
  • My department's student society is on twitter @SheffuniPSYCHOS Hi guys! #
  • Making plans for my Berlin mindhacks adventure http://t.co/EmUOZjqo #
  • More Berlin plans: hacking crowd psychology http://t.co/gNB0Z78j #
  • I've promised I will think of a third intervention for Berlin, based around the idea of 'unconscious perception'. Any suggestions?? #
  • Travelling in mainland Europe by train? Ring the Deutsche Bahn UK Booking Centre http://t.co/u66IYPrQ they are awesome #
  • Dan Simons has pointed out that footage of his "door experiment" is online. http://t.co/Wf24ZomJ Thanks Dan! my plan: http://t.co/EmUOZjqo #
  • "Rowers' high: behavioural synchrony is correlated with elevated pain thresholds" http://t.co/6OKCqXTf via @emmafraggle #
  • Today's mission: write my column for @BBC_Future without mentioning evolution..difficult when nothing in biology makes sense without it #
  • Dear @EMTrains, a promise to reply within "20 working days" to my cycle reservation is NO USE AT ALL #
  • Dear @EMTrains, why don't you just admit that you don't want people with bikes to use your trains? It would be easier on both of us #
  • Corinne Rose: This is your brain on urbanism http://t.co/3ibLXbHf I'm part of Corinne's programme in Berlin this summer #
  • Tomorrow can wait: Exploring Europe with an autistic child http://t.co/pZnwbtVm #

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quotes

By the same impure urgency

I have no explanation for my own vile ambitions. Confronted with your pus, I could not stop to examine my direction, whether or not I was aimed at a star. As I limped down the street every window broadcast a command: Change! Purify! Experiment! Cauterize! Reverse! Burn! Preserve! Teach! Believe me, Edith, I had to act, and act fast. That was my nature. Call me Dr. Frankenstein with a deadline. I seemed to wake up in the middle of a car accident, limbs strewn everywhere, detached voices screaming for comfort, severed fingers pointing homeward, all the debris withering like sliced cheese out of Cellophane – and all I had in the wrecked world was a needle and thread, so I got down on my knees, I pulled pieces out of the mess and I started to stitch them together. I had an idea of what a man should look like, but it kept changing. I couldn’t devote a lifetime to discovering the ideal physique. All I heard was pain, all I saw was mutilation. My needle going so madly, sometimes I found I’d run the thread right through my own flesh and I was joined to one of my own grotesque creations – I’d rip us apart – and then I heard my own voice howling with the others, and I knew that I was also truly part of the disaster. But I also realized that I was not the only one on my knees sewing frantically. There were others like me, making the same monstrous mistakes, driven by the same impure urgency, stitching themselves into the ruined heap, painfully extracting themselves

F., in Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers (1966), p.175

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tweets

Tweets for 2012-06-07

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academic Me psychology

Fundamentals of learning: the exploration-exploitation trade-off