When Lousy Code Strikes, Google Dispatches Its Elite ‘Gopher Team’

At http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/07/gopher/?mbid=social10246204

• By Klint Finley
• 07.29.13
• 6:30 AM

Brad Fitzpatrick was using the most routine bit of Google software you can imagine when the damn thing stalled. The download was 99 percent done and just stopped. Download stalls happen every day, but Fitzpatrick took it personally. He's an engineer at Google, one of the most tech-savvy companies on the planet. This simply isn't supposed to happen.

"It was embarrassing that Google couldn't serve a 1k file," Fitzpatrick said, telling the story last week at an open-source conference in Portland, Oregon. "So I bitched about it on our internal Google+ site."

He was not alone. People had been complaining for years about the unreliability of the dl.google.com system, an invaluable bit of software that handles just about everything you might download from Google, from Chrome browser install files to the Android source code to tiny shared JavaScript libraries.

The problem was the software underpinning the file server system was more than five years old. It had simply languished.

"If code doesn't receive constant love it turns to shit," Fitzpatrick said.

The original C++ code wasn't well documented, its automated tests weren't up to snuff and no one really knew how it was supposed to work. People kept making incremental changes, resulting in a patchwork programmers refer to as "spaghetti code." The unreliability was driving the server operations team crazy, but no one had time to rewrite something that technically worked. So Fitzpatrick volunteered to do it. That's the kind of thing he does at Google, where he's part of an team of about 25 engineers creating a custom programming language called Go.

"It took them a while to realize I wasn't being flippant," he said.

Fitzpatrick was only too happy to spend time re-writing something that technically worked — for another team, no less — because he needs guinea pigs. Fixing that bit of a code was a great opportunity to use Go and test it in a real-world system.

Go started as a Google-only project, but it's been branching out. It was created by computer science veterans Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike and Ken Thompson. Thompson is the co-creator of the Unix operating system and the godfather of the C programming language. Pike worked with Thompson at Bell Labs. Griesemer is known or his work on Java compilers.

Dennis Ritchie (standing) and Ken Thompson with a PDP-11, circa 1972. Photo: Bell Labs

Go sought to combine the ability to handle a massive number of concurrent users — like the quirky telco language Erlang or the trendy server side JavaScript platform Node.js — with the speed of a language like C++. A distributed file server system that handles a massive number of simultaneous downloads from all over the world is exactly the sort of thing Go should excel at.

And it does, according to Fitzpatrick.

The new dl.google.com software contains fewer lines of code, uses less memory and, most importantly, is more reliable, he says. But he also learned a lot about the language along the way, and built a new open source caching library. He also discovered a few deficiencies in the Go language.

"I'm glad I was the first person to experience certain pain points," he said in an interview after his talk at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention. The team was able to make many improvements to the way the language handles clustering and file transfers. The project was such a success that the Go team now regularly volunteers to help other teams with small projects. Even Griesemer pitches in. This "gopher team" has assisted the search team, the Chrome team and the customer survey team and others that Fitzpatrick isn't allowed to talk about.

The gophers help out wherever they can, but they're not advocating a complete takeover by the language. Some teams want to keep using the languages that they've been using. The teams are also sensitive to duplicate work.

"We try to use existing open source software whenever possible," says Chris DiBona, Google's open source manager. That means using the best software for the job, regardless of whether it's written in Java, Python or something else entirely. That's fine with Fitzpatrick.

"Our primary job with Go is make Google more efficient," he says.

The language still isn't widely used outside of Google, but it's notched a few converts.

Former VMware CTO of cloud platforms Derek Collison believes the language is the future of the cloud. "The management layers and infrastructure layers of the newer technologies that provide this cloud delivery model?" he told us earlier this year. "Within two years, a majority will be written in Go."

Couchbase, an open source database that powers applications for companies like Zynga and NTT DoCoMo, is written partially in Go. Its developers have also written parts of the system in Erlang, C and C++. But Go provides the best of both worlds, says Couchbase software architect J. Chris Anderson. "We've found that Go offers a concurrency model almost as powerful as Erlang, but with a developer friendly type system," he... ( more at http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/07/gopher/?mbid=social10246204 )

Hired by an algorithm: Entelo gets $3.5M to expand data-based recruiting

At http://gigaom.com/2013/06/19/hired-by-an-algorithm-entelo-gets-3-5m-to-expand-data-based-recruiting/

By Jeff John Roberts

Jun. 19, 2013 - 4:00 AM PDT

photo: Sarah Holmlund

Summary:

Professionals are generating an ever-growing pool of public data that sends signals about their skills — and their availability. A start-up has made a business of parsing that data for tech firms, and now wants to expand to academe and other professions.

Workers in fields like technology and academia are posting more information about their professional lives online, creating a pool of public data that can be machine-sifted to find job candidates.

That's the idea behind Entelo, a start-up that believes algorithms can replace much of the heavy lifting performed by recruiters and HR departments. The San Francisco-based company, whose clients include Yelp and Square, parses millions of data points to create what amounts to a "professional graph" for thousands of skilled employees.

As my colleague Derrick Harris explained, Entelo's data-aggregation software combs through sites like Github and LinkedIn to find job candidates who are likely to be not just qualified, but also available (a burst of online activity is one of the strongest signals someone is ready to move).

Entelo now has over 80 paying clients and ten full-time employees, and on Wednesday it announced a $3.5 million funding round led by Battery Ventures with the participation of Menlo Ventures. The company will use the cash to expand its engineering operations and, eventually, to push into new professional verticals beyond tech.

In a phone interview, CEO Jon Bischke explained: "The recruiting industry is broken because some people don't know companies are looking to hire them while others are being constantly being bothered by recruiters when they don't want to move."

Bischke says Entelo's value is easy to demonstrate to clients because they can simply contrast its ROI versus other forms of recruiting. As for pricing, the company rejects the "pay for success" model typically used by head-hunters; instead, it charges clients $6,000 per license to use its search engine and predictive analytics... ( more at http://gigaom.com/2013/06/19/hired-by-an-algorithm-entelo-gets-3-5m-to-expand-data-based-recruiting/ )

VIDEO: This Is Your Life in Jelly Beans

At http://mashable.com/2013/06/22/life-jelly-beans-video/

Serious introspection usually doesn't come in sugary form, but that's what makes this video so sweet. Using candy, Ze Frank has created a visual representation of the average American's lifetime. One jelly bean equals one day, 28,835 beans... ( VIDEO and more at http://mashable.com/2013/06/22/life-jelly-beans-video/ )

Whole human brain mapped in 3D

At http://www.nature.com/news/whole-human-brain-mapped-in-3d-1.13245

Ten-year 'BigBrain' effort yields 1-trillion-byte atlas of fine-scale cerebral anatomy.

Helen Shen

20 June 2013 Corrected: 21 June 2013

Expand

Researchers used a special tool called a microtome cut a human brain preserved in paraffin wax into 20-micrometre thick slivers and map its anatomical structure with high resolution.
Image of Amunts, Zilles, Evans et al.

An international group of neuroscientists has sliced, imaged and analysed the brain of a 65-year-old woman to create the most detailed map yet of a human brain in its entirety. The atlas, called 'BigBrain', shows the organization of neurons with microscopic precision, which could help to clarify or even redefine the structure of brain regions obtained from decades-old anatomical studies.

"The quality of those maps is analogous to what cartographers of the Earth offered as their best versions back in the seventeenth century," says David Van Essen, a neurobiologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, who was not involved in the study. He says that the new and improved set of anatomical guideposts could allow researchers to merge different types of data — such as gene expression, neuroanatomy and neural activity — more precisely onto specific regions of the brain.

The brain is comprised of a heterogeneous network of neurons of different sizes and with shapes that vary from triangular to round, packed more or less tightly in different areas. BigBrain reveals variations in neuronal distribution in the layers of the cerebral cortex and across brain regions — differences that are thought to relate to distinct functional units.

The atlas was compiled from 7,400 brain slices, each thinner than a human hair. Imaging the sections by microscope took a combined 1,000 hours and generated 1 trillion bytes of data. Supercomputers in Canada and Germany churned away for years reconstructing a three-dimensional volume from the images, and correcting for tears and wrinkles in individual sheets of tissue.

The researchers describe their results today in Science¹, and will make the full data set publicly available online. It shows the brain at a resolution of 20 micrometres — 50 times higher than the typical 1 millimetre resolution of atlases based on whole-brain scans.

"This completely changes the game in terms of our ability to discriminate very fine structural and physiological properties of the human brain," said study co-author Alan Evans, a neurologist at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University in Canada, at a press conference on 19 June.

"Their quality really looks very high," says Christof Koch, chief scientific officer at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington. The Allen Institute maintains its own human brain atlas, which provides structural data at slightly lower resolution than that of the latest study but includes extensive annotations and maps of gene expression².

Research roadmap

BigBrain is part of the Human Brain Project, a 10-year, €1-billion European initiative to create a supercomputer simulation of the human brain. Detailed knowledge of neuronal clustering could help to set realistic parameters for the simulation, says lead author Katrin Amunts, a neuroscientist at the Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf in Germany.

Although the atlas shows data from only one person's brain, it is an important starting point for interpreting data from other brains in the future, adds Van Essen, who compares BigBrain to the sequencing of the first human genome. "Getting a really accurate map in one individual is, I think, very valuable," he says.

The atlas will serve as a reference with which other data sets can be aligned, and the BigBrain team plans to work with the Allen Brain Institute to link information from their two databases.

Computing push

Since the BigBrain effort began in 2003, technology has advanced to enable researchers to scan human brain sections at a resolution of one micrometre. But completing another atlas at such a high resolution would create about 20,000 trillion bytes of data — more than the most advanced computers today could process efficiently, says... ( VIDEO and more at http://www.nature.com/news/whole-human-brain-mapped-in-3d-1.13245 )

Oslo Running Out Of Trash, How Much Is Yours Worth?

At http://www.industrytap.com/oslo-running-out-of-trash-how-much-is-yours-worth/5514

Oslo, Norway is a city of 1.4 million people that finds itself in the enviable position of having to import garbage. In fact half of Oslo's residents need a steady supply of garbage in order to power appliances and heat their homes. Pal Mikkelsen, head of Oslo's Waste-to-Energy Agency, sites "400 plants currently operating in the region due to construction of these facilities over the past several decades."

The following diagram show a typical garbage burning plant with outputs of electricity, landfill, water vapor and "cleaned" flue gasses:

Overcapacity in Northern Europe

This huge capacity for garbage burning vastly outpaces local waste production. Northern Europe produces about 150 million tons of burnable trash a year but their installed capacity for incineration is 700 million tons.

In general these facilities burn waste to produce heat which boils water generating steam to drive electric turbines. The systems are from 15 to 30% efficient but cogeneration or recycling waste heat provides homes with hot water and recycled flue gas fumes for biogas production powering Oslo's Metro bus system; cogeneration increases efficiency to between 75% and 100%.

Governments Involved in Solving Problem

Oslo has begun importing garbage from England, Ireland and Sweden and is studying the efficacy of importing garbage from the... ( more at http://www.industrytap.com/oslo-running-out-of-trash-how-much-is-yours-worth/5514 )

The Largest Garbage Dumps in the World:

Many of these plants receive 10,000 to 20,000 tons of new garbage a day and could be suitable locations for this type of plant:

• Bordo Poniente Landfill, Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico
• Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• Fresh Kills Landfill, New York City (closed in 2001)
• Lago Dump, Nigeria (500 container ships dump elecronic waste each month)
• Apex Regional Landfill, Las Vegas, Nevada (Will close when it has recieved 1 billion tons of garbage)
• Sudokwon Landfill, South Korea (adds 6.3 million tons of garbage per year)
• Puente Hills Landfill, Los Angeles, California (Holds 3.7 million tons on 700 acres)

David Schilling

David lives in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, and regularly visits MIT, Harvard, Boston University, Northeastern, Boston's leading companies and labs, the stacks at Boston Atheneaum and Boston Public Library to uncover and research story ideas. You can also find David on Google+.

5 Reasons You WANT Negative Reviews

At http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog/post/1269353

Rainy Kaye January 30, 2013

We all strive for excellence in our work. Sometimes, though, others don't think we measure up. It can be annoying, heartbreaking, or downright infuriating. Others will remind us that not everything is everyone's cup of steeped leaf water, and we'll eventually put down the chocolate, or wine, and get on with our existence.

But could it be we actually need negative reviews? Yes!

Here are five reasons why:

Congratulations! You're real. In the throes of self publishing and sock puppet reviews, it's important to establish a piece of work—and the creator behind it—is honest. One of the surest ways to do this is by receiving negative reviews. Since nothing is universally loved, not even Harry Potter, then a book with only five-star reviews is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

Marketing: You're doing it right. When a book is first born, it usually finds itself passed around from one loving supporter to another. And that's okay. Eventually, though, your baby will have to find its legs and start exploring the world. That means it will be outside the safety of the village, and into the wild. And some things out there will want to have it for breakfast. In short, if your book hasn't garnered a few negative reviews, you haven't sent it out far enough.

Welcome to the classroom. Before publication, a book should have been revised, beta read, and edited. Even with all that, your manuscript likely only saw less than a dozen people. Once out in the world, it—hopefully—will reach hundreds, or even thousands of readers. Among all the voices, some might ring true with thoughts and opinions no one had considered before. Don't dismiss constructive criticism just because it was accompanied by a one-star.

In the words of Picard. Anyone with even the slightest bit of knowledge about a marketing will tell you that word of mouth is the best way to promote anything. This means you need people to talk about the book. Negative reviews often generate conversation among readers. No need to get involved. Just let it run its course. Engaged readers pique curiosity along the way.

It's good for the soul. Praise is nice. If you managed to see a book through from start to finish, you've earned all the bubbly feedback. But even Shakespeare had critics (and now entire classrooms pick his work apart). Sometimes it takes a negative review or two to keep us grounded and, therefore, real to our fans.

No one likes negative reviews. It's okay to be privately hurt or even angry about... ( more at http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog/post/1269353 )

About the Author:
Rainy Kaye is an aspiring overlord. In the mean time, she runs Book and Blog Services, blogs at Rainy of The Dark, and is preparing to debut an epic paranormal series all from her lair somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona. When not planning world domination, Rainy can be found appeasing her inner geek or traveling to strange parts of the world. She is fueled by coffee, encouraged by chocolate, and lives in fear of the household felines plotting her demise. She's married to a man who excels at humoring her.

What to do when...you're caught in an email war

At http://www.careerchickchat.com/2012/11/what-to-do-whenyoure-caught-in-email-war.html

The opportunities for misunderstandings, misinterpretations and conflict over email are many. Without meaning too - it's not hard to end up in the middle of a conflict on email that you have to work your way out of - even if you're not sure how it started in the first place!

With most people receiving at least 100 emails a day at work - it's easy to understand how quick messages, sent when you're in a hurry, stressed or thinking about something else, may not be your (or someone else's) best literary effort.

But an email war does not do anybody any good.

For a start it's not an efficient way to resolve an issue or seek a resolution to a business problem. And nobody comes out of a written email conflict with an enhanced business reputation - especially if it's a public battle and there are lots of people copied or included on the email.

You could be caught in an email battle (or be caught in an ambush) in a variety of ways.

You've sent off a quick email and it's been misinterpreted and elicited an angry response. There are more than enough challenges ensuring that what you mean is what people actually understand you to mean when you are talking to them. And that's when you have the benefit of your body language, pitch and tone of voice to help convey what you mean. In writing it's even harder! Something you write sounding one way in your head can be taken quite another on email.

Alternatively someone is frustrated by a situation and fires off a message with half the world (well, it seems like it) included or cc'd on the message. Their reason may have been fine (these are all the people involved in the issue, they think) but what they actually do is create a messy situation that results in multiple emails and often confusion about who is doing what. (The saying about too many cooks in a kitchen applies to email as well!) Someone gets upset, a little bit terse and before you know it the emails are flying back and forth and a proverbial mountain has been made out of the molehill.

Or even worse (I think) is the person who sends emails and copies their manager or other 'important' people in order to get a response. I think this is a very heavy handed approach and akin to bullying. It certainly  demonstrates that the person the email has been sent to isn't trusted to do what has been asked. (There's a lot to this topic of email cc'ing that I'll tackle in my next post!) Or that the person sending it is too lazy to negotiate!

What it often comes down to is that the person who has been copied often feels the need to weigh in on the issue, be directive or want explanations and you have more email havoc!

Whoever starts it or however you got involved (your fault or not) the trick is how to get out of the conflict, resolve the issue and ensure that relationships and reputations (particularly yours!) are not damaged.

Consider these options:

Get off email

The best way I've found to diffuse the situation is to take the issue off email and call or go to see the key person involved.

You'll have the advantage of being able to ask questions, get immediate answers and be able to respond appropriately in a very short time frame. You'll also be able to use body language and voice tones and intonations (both yours and theirs) to support the communication. This will help you understand where they are coming from and assist you reinforce or position what you are saying. A little bit of gentle humor can work wonders in a conversation. On email it often doesn't work at all.

An actual conversation can really help take the heat out of a situation that is about to implode on email.

Making contact offline also shows that you have prioritized the issue and are concerned about their position by taking the time, interest and energy to make a call. It is usually well worth the effort. And if a 5 minute phone call saves 5 emails back and forth in all probability it's going to be a lot faster!

Talk to the key person 

The situation is going to dictate who is the best person for you to talk to about the issue. If an email is only between you and one other person - then they're the one you call!

But if there are multiple people involved - have a quick think what is the cleverest way to get to the best resolution. If it's your manager or senior stakeholder you will want to talk to them.

Depending on the situation it may be that another quick call to one of the others involved to find out the information you need or agree on the resolution is needed before you make the call to your manager.

If there are delays in getting a response or the answer you need I would make a call to the senior person and let them know why you're calling, what you are doing to resolve the issue and exactly when you will be back to them with more information.

If you do need to reply by email:

Be clear

There are some circumstances (time zones, availability etc.) where the issue has to stay on email.

Be really clear in what you write; don't say anything that can be subject to misinterpretation. Ask someone to proof read your response to make sure that your meaning is obvious.

Take the emotion out

Don't reply to an email when you are angry or emotional. Go for a walk, do something else and it at all possible, leave it until the next day before you respond. Angry exchanges back and forth will ignite, not resolve, a situation.

Remove the cc's

If you do need to respond by email it's better if you can do it without an audience. Whoever has been copied is likely to have opinions or want to become involved - which will just add complexity to the resolution of the issue.

Communicate with the other party involved directly. Once you have achieved the outcome you can then go back to the cc's and let them know the outcome. Most will be relieved that the problem is solved and that they haven't had to be subject to multiple emails.

Manage expectations

If there's going to be a time lag before there is a conclusion you might want to send just one email and let people know what is happening and that you will let them know the outcome. You'll be seen as professional, the emails will be reduced and most importantly everyone can get on with business.

A follow up note

Every time I suggest that calling or going to see the person involved might be an effective way of resolving an issue I get comments like "but I need an email trail" or "there won't be a record of who said what". 

Which is true.

But I think it's often used as an excuse to stay behind the safety of a keyboard rather than have to have a tough conversation. And unfortunately some organizational cultures require that you cover your back by having proof of everything that happens (the business equivalent of a Kevlar vest?)

The way around this is to send a follow up email after any offline conversations or agreements. For example,  "Just a quick note to confirm our agreement on .... to ...." or " A short note to thank you for helping to resolve..." 

This provides another chance to confirm the outcome,... ( more at http://www.careerchickchat.com/2012/11/what-to-do-whenyoure-caught-in-email-war.html )

Do Salamanders' Immune Systems Hold the Key to Regeneration?

At http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130520163727.htm?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_health+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+News+--+Top+Health%29

May 20, 2013 — Salamanders' immune systems are key to their remarkable ability to regrow limbs, and could also underpin their ability to regenerate spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their hearts, scientists have found.

In research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences researchers from the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University found that when immune cells known as macrophages were systemically removed, salamanders lost their ability to regenerate a limb and instead formed scar tissue.

Fire salamander. (Credit: © Jürgen Fälchle / Fotolia)

Lead researcher, Dr James Godwin, a Fellow in the laboratory of ARMI Director Professor Nadia Rosenthal, said the findings brought researchers a step closer to understanding what conditions were needed for regeneration.

"Previously, we thought that macrophages were negative for regeneration, and this research shows that that's not the case -- if the macrophages are not present in the early phases of healing, regeneration does not occur," Dr Godwin said.

"Now, we need to find out exactly how these macrophages are contributing to regeneration. Down the road, this could lead to therapies that tweak the human immune system down a more regenerative pathway."

Salamanders deal with injury in a remarkable way. The end result is the complete functional restoration of any tissue, on any part of the body including organs. The regenerated tissue is scar free and almost perfectly replicates the injury site before damage occurred.

"We can look to salamanders as a template of what perfect regeneration looks like," Dr Godwin said.

Aside from "holy grail" applications, such as healing spinal cord and brain injuries, Dr Godwin believes that studying the healing processes of salamanders could lead to new treatments for a number of common conditions, such as heart and liver diseases, which are linked to fibrosis or scarring. Promotion of scar-free healing would also dramatically improve patients' recovery following surgery.

There are indications that there is the capacity for regeneration in a range of animal species, but it has, in most cases been turned off by... ( more at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130520163727.htm?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_health+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+News+--+Top+Health%29 )

Why Specific Goals Matter Less than You Think

At http://www.jonathanfields.com/blog/goals-matter/

Today's guest contributor is writer, coach, violinist, filmmaker, law school graduate, and web designer, Emilie Wapnick. Emilie works with multipotentialites to help them build lives and businesses around ALL of their interests and she's the troublemaker behind Puttylike.com.

+++

"I moved to Portland to find community, a home… To settle down," I spoke softly.

She looked at me with big eyes.

"Now I have to choose between Portland, and the thing that Portland represented, which is what I actually wanted."

Like many 20-somethings of my generation, I have consciously designed most facets of my life. I chose self-employment to provide me with freedom and a sense of contribution, I chose a broad theme for my business over a niche in order to express my multipotentiality, I gave real thought to the friends in my life, to how I wanted my day to look, to how I wanted to feel, and to where I wanted to live.

How lucky we are to live in a time and place where this is possible, and to be privileged enough to enjoy this freedom.

I've been very deliberate about designing my life ever since realizing that I could. But what happens when the universe that you trust, that has been so good to you, decides to impose some of its own conditions? Do you stick with your original plan or do you shift, maybe giving up some of that autonomy you hold so dear? (In this case, moving to a new city with the person you love.)

There is one thing that makes decisions like these easier; it's knowing what it is that you are truly seeking, behind the specific city or the specific career or goal. What do these things that you are striving for represent?

Do you really want to be a film director, or is it that you love working with big teams and seeing a creative vision come to life? If so, you could probably get the same feelings from being the leader of a nonprofit organization or the conductor of an orchestra. I'm not saying that you should pursue these avenues instead, but it's worth knowing.

Is programming really what you love to do? Or is it the problem solving, the attention to detail, the service, the feeling of solitary work, of a deep flow state that you get when you are coding? Maybe these feelings could also be achieved in other ways too.

I see it everywhere. We confuse the specific form that our goals take for the goals themselves. We become wrapped up in one medium, and think that because we use paint to express our ideas we are a painter or that because we use legal doctrines to help people navigate the system, we are a lawyer. We become tied to, and thus defined by one role. We don't see that it is empowering others that we seek, or inspiring a particular feeling or connecting with another human being. We don't see the Why behind what we do.

There is danger in becoming attached to the specific and not knowing what your goals represent or why you love what you love. The danger is that your industry might die or you might become bored with a particular medium/job, and then lose your whole sense of identity.

When you dream about the sort of life you want to create, do just that... ( more at http://www.jonathanfields.com/blog/goals-matter/ )

+++

Emilie Wapnick works with multipotentialites to help them build lives and businesses around ALL of their interests. She is the troublemaker behind Puttylike.com. Her work has been featured in The Financial Times and Lifehacker.

- See more at: http://www.jonathanfields.com/blog/goals-matter/#sthash.A6AYMCUk.dpuf

Beta Readers: What they are and why we need them

At http://melissafoster.com/content/beta-readers-what-they-are-and-why-we-need-them

Beta Readers: What are they and why we need them

I'm asked every week about beta readers. Do authors need them? Why? Are you losing sales by offering your manuscript to others first? Will they change your story? HOLD ON! Slow down, and let's take a look.

Beta readers are readers who read your manuscript for more than just its enjoyment value. Betas read your work with a critical eye, looking for pace, characterization, spelling and grammar errors, and general flow of the story.

Are beta readers editors?

No, beta readers are not editors. They will typically catch easy-to-spot errors, but it is not their job to be the editor of your work. You should hire a professional, experienced editor (structural and developmental) and copy editor/proofreader.

Why do we need beta readers?

As authors, we already know the backstory of every character, the settings we want to convey. We know where they our characters are heading, the trouble they will endure, and even what they are thinking—the problem is that because we know these things, we are not really reading the story. We are reading the story as we already know it to be, and many times, what we know, leads us to write a less fleshed out story. Beta readers can pick up on inconsistencies and pieces of the story that were left out (because they existed only in our heads and never made it to the story). Beta readers can tell us if our characters are likable, relatable, and interesting. They can show us how the actions and/or dialogue may be misinterpreted by readers. Beta readers help our stories become the best they can be before hitting the shelves.

Isn't that what editors do?

Yes and no. Structural and developmental editors are looking for pace, characterizations, and flow of the story, from an editorial standpoint. Professional and experienced editors are trained to look for story structure, which readers are not. Editors, for example, will look for goals of your protagonist and the speed at which they progress, differentiations between characters' dialogue and mannerisms. Editors evaluate the changes that your characters move through in the book, consistent point of view, and pace of the story in a way that most beta readers cannot.  Copy editors and proofreaders are looking for grammatical errors and typos—a job that is not sufficiently handled by beta readers. Think of beta readers as your pre-publishing audience, and editors as the ones who take your book from a great read to a polished novel.

What should I look for in a beta reader?

Many authors ask their best friends and family members to be beta readers. That can be helpful, if your friends and family members can give you honest, even to the point of harsh, criticism without worrying about your reaction. However, I also suggest that you find authors whose work you respect and find to be well written. On the World Literary Cafe there is a Beta Reader and Critique Groups forum where you can connect with others and find beta readers, or look for sites like Critique Circle. Take your time. Finding strong beta readers who enjoy your genre and understand the basics of strong writing can take time. 

When do we hire beta readers?

Some beta readers receive manuscripts chapter by chapter, while others wait to read until the manuscripts are complete and have already been edited. The way you work with your beta reader will depend on what your goal is while working with them. Working with beta readers before structural editing may not be wise, as your story can change dramatically during the structural editing... ( more at http://melissafoster.com/content/beta-readers-what-they-are-and-why-we-need-them )

Article written by Melissa Foster, founder of Fostering Success, World Literary Café, and The Women's Nest, as well as a bestselling award-winning author.

Day of the Dead trademark request draws backlash for Disney

At http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/10/us/disney-trademark-day-dead

By Cindy Y. Rodriguez, CNN

May 11, 2013 -- Updated 0631 GMT (1431 HKT)

(CNN) -- Is it possible to trademark the name of a holiday? The Walt Disney Company was interested in doing so.

On May 1, the entertainment giant filed an application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to secure the phrase "Día de los Muertos," or "Day of the Dead," across multiple platforms. Disney subsidiary Pixar is releasing a film -- for time being called "The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dia de los Muertos" -- this fall.

Here's the problem -- Día de los Muertos is a traditional holiday celebrated on November 1 and 2 in Mexico and across Latin America. People honor the lives of lost family members or friends by building altars, holding processions, decorating gravesites and placing offerings for loved ones. Over the years, the holiday has gained a foothold in the United States, too.

Disney hoped to secure the rights to the title "Day of the Dead" and such themed merchandise as fruit preserves, fruit-based snacks, toys, games, clothing, footwear, backpacks, clocks and jewelry.

But the Latino community raised a ruckus about the application on social media.

Tweets included "Tell @Disney not to trademark Day of the Dead. Culture is NOT for sale!" from Presente.org, a national organization that "exists to amplify the political voice of Latino communities."

"Are we okay with @DisneyPixar commercializing our culture?" tweeted Think Mexican, a Tumblr blog that says it's aimed at "connecting the Mexican community through culture and information."

"How could Disney allow such a blunder," marveled Lalo Alcaraz, a Mexican-American editorial cartoonist and founder of Pocho.com. "I knew they weren't copyrighting the holiday, but I couldn't believe they would let someone in their legal department let this happen. On the surface, it looks like Disney is trying to copyright the holiday."

Alcaraz is the author of La Cucaracha, a nationally syndicated comic that focuses on the country's changing cultural and political landscape. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Los Angeles Times and Variety.

People on social media pressed Alcaraz for an editorial cartoon in response to the Disney decision. He responded with "Muerto Mouse."

On Tuesday, a petition went up on Change.org to stop the Disney effort, stating that the attempt to trademark Día de los Muertos was "cultural appropriation and exploitation at its worst." On Friday evening, the petition had more than 21,000 signatures.

"Our spiritual traditions are for everyone, not for companies like Walt Disney to trademark and exploit," wrote Grace Sesma, the petition's creator. "I am deeply offended and dismayed that a family-oriented company like Walt Disney would seek to own the rights to something that is the rightful heritage of the people of Mexico."

In 2003, the Day of the Dead celebration was entered on the UNESCO list of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

"The Indigenous Festivity dedicated to the Dead are deeply rooted in the cultural life of the indigenous peoples of Mexico," UNESCO told CNNMexico.

But after the backlash, Disney withdrew its application this week.

"The trademark intended to protect any potential title of the movie or related activity," a spokeswoman for Disney told CNNMexico. "Since then, it has been determined that the title of the film will change, and therefore we are withdrawing our application for trademark registration."

Disney did not comment on whether social media reactions directly led to the decision to withdraw the application.

This isn't the first time Disney has sought to trademark a controversial phrase.

In 2011, it tried to secure "SEAL Team Six," the Navy SEAL team that captured and killed Osama bin Laden, seeking exclusive rights for use on items from video games to backpacks. However, after receiving an overwhelming response from critics, Disney withdrew the... ( more at http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/10/us/disney-trademark-day-dead )

Research finds Second Life program can help with weight loss and maintenance

At http://www.kumc.edu/news-listing-page/second-life-weight-loss.html

May 03, 2013 ( Last modified: May 20, 2013 )

By Greg Peters

New research shows the virtual reality world of avatars created in Second Life can help people keep weight off once they lose it.

A study led by Debra Sullivan, Ph.D., professor and chair of the University of Kansas Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, used Second Life's three-dimensional, virtual reality environment to study both weight loss and maintenance.

"I saw a presentation by a faculty member in occupational therapy who was teaching a class in Second Life, and I thought that it was crazy," Sullivan says. "But my next immediate thought was that it would be crazy not to use it for weight management."

As a result, Lycopene — Sullivan's red-headed avatar — was born, as were those of the 20 participants in the research project.

Sullivan's research team studied the 20 overweight and obese people in a program that involved either real-life or virtual reality meetings every week for three months. At the end of that period, all the subjects took part in a weight-maintenance program using Second Life, which is used in everything from gaming to education to the arts.

Sullivan found that while virtual reality compares favorably with face-to-face interactions in controlling weight loss, its true benefits can be seen more readily in weight maintenance. The results are published in the May/June 2013 "Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior."

"For weight loss, if you do the program as we suggest, then you are successful," says Sullivan. "Maintenance is when real-life behavior change really makes a difference. You have to make more decisions on your own. I think being able to practice those behaviors in Second Life led to better adoption of behavior changes in real life."

In the study, participants created avatars that could interact with the other cyber-dwellers in the group. Training and education took place on island space in Second Life that was owned by KU Medical Center and controlled by Sullivan's researchers. Participants used headsets and microphones to communicate with others within the group.

To access the island, participants logged in to Second Life software that had to be installed on the computer they were using to gain secured access to the island. Second Life can automatically work with websites like YouTube to pull in content to use within the simulation.

During meetings of the avatars in a virtual conference room, group leaders could show videos or present other materials.

Sonny Painter, an educational technology liaison, and Tennille Fincham, an eLearning support specialist, were tasked with making the original KU Medical Center island come to life from the reaches of KU Medical Center's Teaching and Learning Technologies offices. This was familiar ground for the pair since they had helped other departments use Second Life for a variety of projects.

Second Life has a variety of preset island templates that can be customized. KU Medical Center's original island environment included a conference room, house, gymnasium, grocery store, restaurant and buffet. Each room provided the avatars with a setting to interact with each other as well as to check on calorie counts in food items, calories burned during exercise and other helpful information.

Sullivan says by using the role-playing scenario of Second Life, participants can simulate real-life situations without many of the consequences and repercussions. For example, the avatars can practice meal planning complete with calorie counts for trips to the grocery store, dining out or attending holiday parties, all in the anonymity of cyberspace. The goal of the simulation is to create a friendly environment where people can spend time researching healthier lifestyles without the fear of being judged.

As a result of her preliminary research, Sullivan's team has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue the research. Painter and Fincham are now hard at work at their electronic workbenches creating KUMC Healthy U, a new island that will be used when the research starts again in July 2013 with 202 new subjects, who will take part in an 18-month study.

The new island will expand opportunities for the participants. On KUMC Healthy U, avatars will be able to take advantage of restaurants with cashiers that total the amount of calories on customers' trays as they check out. A kiosk, known as Fast Food Frenzy, will link avatars to the websites of various restaurants, so that they can calculate the calories in their meals.

The new island also includes a more elaborate gymnasium, complete with a swimming pool where avatars can register the calories burned as they swim, tread water or take part in activities in the water. Trainers in the gym will be able to help the research subjects by answering basic fitness questions. Avatars can also access fitness videos while doing their simulated running on treadmills.

One of the highlights of the new island will be trails where avatars can walk, run or bike while Second Life keeps tabs on the calories burned.

"All participants will receive the same weight-loss program for six months and then be randomized to either virtual reality or remain with a traditional method for 12 months of weight-loss maintenance," Sullivan says. "We aim to compare the difference in weight loss maintenance between the two groups at the end of the 12-month maintenance phase."

Her team also hopes to assess factors that might influence weight change, such as physical activity, calorie intake, and the consumption of fat, protein, carbohydrates and micronutrients and food groups. They also plan to monitor how closely subjects obey the study protocol to see if that influences the outcomes, as well as how often participants attend meetings, turn in behavior-tracking data, log in to Second Life and what they do once they get there.

Researchers also plan to collect data on any changes in a subject's ability to set and obtain goals and problem-solving skills, Sullivan says.

So what began as a whim sparked by a colleague's presentation in the use of Second Life has blossomed into research into weight loss and maintenance that could help dietitians and other health professionals find better... ( more at http://www.kumc.edu/news-listing-page/second-life-weight-loss.html )

Sullivan is the lead author on the study. Other KU Medical Center authors include Joseph Donnelly, Ed.D.; Jeannine Goetz, Ph.D., RD; Cheryl Gibson, Ph.D.; Richard Washburn, Ph.D.; and Tennille Fincham. Other co-authors include Jaehoon Lee, Ph.D., from the University of Kansas; and two former KU Medical Center faculty and staff, Bryan Smith, Ph.D., and Stephanie Gerald.

Can Losing Weight In Your 'Second Life' Help In Your First?

At http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/05/19/185164635/can-losing-weight-in-your-second-life-help-in-your-first

by Steve Mullis
May 19, 2013 5:41 AM

A player avatar runs on a treadmill in the virtual world of Second Life. Researchers used the online game to see if it could help people maintain weight loss habits in the real world.
Courtesy of Univeristy of Kansas Medical Center

There is no shortage of diet programs available to those that seek to lose weight. But for many, taking those initial steps into a weight loss and exercise program can be an intimidating leap.

A from the University of Kansas Medical Center, however, shows that the online game helped some people lose weight — and keep it off — in real life.

Second Life is an online game that takes place in a massive virtual world populated by other players represented by avatars. Players can shop, socialize, date, buy virtual property and just about anything else you can do in the real world — including eating and exercising.

Dietician Debra Sullivan told Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin that it's often maintaining weight loss that many people struggle with, and the study found using Second Life helped.

"The behaviors that they were able to practice in Second Life translated better than our face-to-face group," Sullivan says.

Exercise played a role too. The participants in the study had all of things available to them in the real world like a gym, a pool and running paths. Sullivan says a lot of people that are overweight don't feel comfortable going in to the gym initially, and that the game can help get over that fear.

"Their avatar doing those things in Second Life, we believe does inspire them to do those activities in real life," she says.

As a result of her preliminary research, Sullivan's team has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to... ( more at http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/05/19/185164635/can-losing-weight-in-your-second-life-help-in-your-first )

Second Life Founder’s New Virtual World Uses Body-Tracking Hardware

At http://www.technologyreview.com/view/514776/second-life-founders-new-virtual-world-uses-body-tracking-hardware/

Tom Simonite

May 20, 2013

Hardware that tracks your head, eyes, and hands will make the follow up to Second Life very different from the pioneering virtual world.

The founder of the once-popular virtual world Second Life, Philip Rosedale, is working on a new 3-D digital world that looks like it will be operated using gestures and body-tracking hardware. Rosedale declined to talk about his new company, called High Fidelity, just yet. But videos and other material posted online by the company suggest it is working on an impressively immersive virtual-reality experience where you control an avatar using head and hand movements.

In the YouTube video embedded below, a crude avatar copies the head movements of someone at High Fidelity wearing spectacles with an exposed circuit board attached. A simple but workable animation even mirrors the man's speech with the avatar's own mouth. (The text being read is from Snow Crash, a Neal Stephenson novel that features a virtual world called the Metaverse and popularized the term"avatar.")

Rosedale this week tweeted a photo of headphones with similar exposed electronics that he described as "head gyros," presumably referring to gyroscopes used to detect rotation.

This ad asking for contractors states that High Fidelity even has a Google Glass app to allow head motion to "move the avatar head and/or joints," and this video shows that they also have code that enables a smartphone to be used like a Wii controller to take control of a character in a virtual world.

Another want ad asks for help using Leap Motion's camera-based gesture controller "for controlling the motion of the avatar." A similar ad asks for a small circuit board that could be mounted to spectacles to bounce infrared light off a person's eyeball and detect the reflection, a method used in eye-tracking systems. That could offer a way to use your gaze to control that of your avatar.

The High Fidelity website offers few clues as to how all this will come together, summing up what the company is doing like this:

"We're building a new virtual world enabling rich avatar interactions driven by sensor-equipped hardware, simulated and served by devices (phones, tablets and laptops/desktops) contributed by end-users."

That suggests that using the world won't involve connecting to a central server, as did Second Life. Instead software on the computers of the people that want to use the world will create and run the world. That sounds challenging to coordinate, but the High Fidelity site also suggests that you might earn "virtual world currency in exchange from helping to power the grid," implying that there may be incentives to leave your computer working on the simulation even when you're not actively using it.

As for what the final result will be like, the best decription on High Fidelity's site is this:

"We think richly rendered avatars capturing head movements, eye movements, and body language offer much more compelling person-to-person interaction possibilities that the poorly-lit, awkwardly-framed facsimiles of ourselves we share through videoconferencing today."

What little can be seen of the company's work so far suggests that it could be some time until that vision is... ( VIDEO and more at http://www.technologyreview.com/view/514776/second-life-founders-new-virtual-world-uses-body-tracking-hardware/ )

Why Have Virtual Worlds Declined?

At http://metaversetribune.com/2013/05/15/why-have-virtual-worlds-declined/

by Sigmund Leominster
Published May 15, 2013

"So little time, so much to do."

In a recent blog post entitled, "5 Reasons Virtual Worlds Died" [1], Simon Newstead, the CEO of mobile games company, Frenzoo, paints a dismal picture of the slow decline in people's participation in virtual worlds. He mentions the Second Life® environment by name and appears to be referring heavily to it in his list of criticism. And if not, he's thinking in terms of the more "open, user-created" types of world, rather than the tightly constrained Halo® or Call of Duty® scenarios.

To summarize, he argues that virtual worlds have (a) no purpose or goals,
(b) no quick feedback, (c) no theme, (d) too much of a learning curve for newbies, and (d) the needs of players in these worlds can be met else-
where.

This may be true of Second Life or OpenSim grids but according to figures published in 2012, the online gaming community is still pretty strong and generating a lot of cash. A report generated by the marketing and consult-
ing firm DFC Intelligence revealed that players of the game League of Legends logged over 1.3 billion hours of activity during the year, followed by a more modest – but still impressive – 600,000 hours logged by World
of Warcraft devotees.

GAME	LOGGED HOURS
League of Legends	1,292,502,456
World of Warcraft	622,378,909
Minecraft	371,635,651
Heroes of Newerth	184,520,156
Diablo III	172,907,605
Battlefield 3	171,852,550
MapleStory	165,503,651
StarCraft II	163,980,293
World Of Tanks	145,702,931
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3	126,754,082
Source: DFC Intelligence Report, 2012.

Meanwhile, during the same period, blogger Daniel Voyager [2] noted a steady decline in the maximum number of people online in Second Life on a daily basis – the "concurrency level." He also points out that the number of regions (land) has dropped from 31,078 in January, 2012 to 28,290 by December. Voyager suggests that people have been switching to the OpenSims grids, where the cost of doing business is lower.  And the recent closing of third-party currency exchanges as a result of changes to Linden Lab's Terms of Service is likely to depress the economy in Second Life as some merchants pull out due to difficulties in cashing out Linden dollars into their local currencies.

The idea that people are switching to the OpenSim environments is an example of another reason why virtual worlds may be declining; the sheer multiplicity of options. As more and more online environments become available, the more likely it is that people will explore those and possibly stay. In the short term, there will be winners and losers as people migrate from metaverse A to metaverse B, but this will only serve to spread people across the worlds and not necessarily increase the overall use of virtual worlds. Just like entropy in the real universe, there will be some local "heating and cooling" in particular spots in the entire virtual universe but ultimately there will be fewer and fewer people in more and more worlds to the point, potentially, where everyone can have his or her private world, waiting for visitors to stop by for a while.

Finally, there is another significant finite resource to consider: time. With only 24 hours in a day, spending 6 hours in Second Life means not spending it in any other place. And the more new options that appear, the less time is available to players/residents. Competition for time continues to grow as new forms of social media present themselves. Newstead makes a crucial point when he says that "needs can be met elsewhere" because people who use Second Life for social reasons can take part in much larger social spheres using Facebook, Twitter, and even Google Circles! And the ubiquity of text messaging is such that for many people under 25 the idea of being in constant SMS contact with your friends is as natural as breathing.

The phrase, "So little time; so much to do" has never... ( more at http://metaversetribune.com/2013/05/15/why-have-virtual-worlds-declined/ )

Sources

[1] Newstead, S. (2013). 5 Reasons Why Virtual Worlds Died. Blog Post, May 12, 2013. http://iteratingfun.com/post/50274986215/reasons-virtual-worlds-died

[2] Voyager, D. (2012). Second Life user concurrency 2012 winter update. Blog post December 5, 2012. http://danielvoyager.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/second-life-user-concurrency-2012-winter-update

Rude and overworked? Blame tech

At http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/052913-blame-tech-270239.html

Mobile devices to blame for a rise in bad manners, CIOs tell Robert Half Technology

By Ann Bednarz, Network World
May 29, 2013 03:01 PM ET

Network World - IT execs say employees are getting ruder on the job, and they're blaming technology for the rise in bad manners. Specifically, mobile technology is leading to more breaches in workplace etiquette, according to survey data from Robert Half Technology.

The IT staffing specialist polled 2,300 CIOs from U.S. companies with at least 100 employees. The CIOs were asked what effect the increased use of mobile electronic gadgets has had on workplace etiquette, and 64% said etiquette breaches have increased. That's up from 51% who said the same thing in 2010. Nearly a third (32%) said etiquette lapses have stayed the same, and 4% noted a decrease.

Work behavior deemed potentially offensive includes: checking email while someone is trying to have a one-on-one conversation; leaving an unnecessarily long voice mail message; paying more attention to a laptop than to a speaker during a meeting; and not turning off a smartphone ringer during an in-person meeting.

Mobile devices have helped people become more productive at work, but also potentially more distracted, according to John Reed, senior executive director of Robert Half Technology (RHT). "If you're not fully engaged in a conversation or meeting, you may spend more time replying to emails than listening," Reed said in a statement. "These devices can also make it easier to mistakenly offend colleagues when you fire off a communication too quickly, or use the wrong medium for the message."

Meanwhile, a majority of IT executives today find themselves working outside of traditional business hours -- a practice made easier thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices. Polled by RHT, 73% of CIOs said they check in with work "often" or "somewhat often" on evenings and weekends. The remainder said they infrequently (12%) or never (14%) check in outside normal business hours. (1% said they didn't know.)... ( more at http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/052913-blame-tech-270239.html )

Ann Bednarz covers IT careers, outsourcing and Internet culture for Network World. Follow Ann on Twitter at @annbednarz and reach her via email at abednarz@nww.com.

19-year-old Dutch engineering student Boyan Slat devises plan to rid the world’s oceans of 7.25 million tons of plastic

At http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/plan-aims-rid-oceans-7-25m-tons-plastic-article-1.1299892

The Ocean Cleanup Array project would then sell the retrieved particles at an estimated profit. But the plan has already draw the ire of some biologists who fear for sea life that may become entangled during the plastic recovery process.

By David Knowles / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, March 26, 2013, 9:56 PM

Sometimes it takes big ideas to solve big problems.

A 19-year-old Dutch aerospace engineering student has come up with what he believes is a way to remove millions of pounds of plastic trash from the world's oceans.

Dubbed the Ocean Cleanup Array, Boyan Slat's concept involves anchoring 24 sifters to the ocean floor and letting the sea's own currents direct the plastic bits into miles of booms, or connected chains of timbers used to catch floating objects.

What started out as a college paper earned Slat the Best Technical Design award from Delft University of Technology.

From the start, Slat said he was motivated to get to work by the very scope of the problem facing the world.

"It will be very hard to convince everyone in the world to handle their plastics responsibly, but what we humans are very good in, is inventing technical solutions to our problems," Slat said on his website. "And that's what we're doing."

Powered by the sun and ocean currents, the Ocean Cleanup Array network aims to have as little impact on sea life as possible while sifting out some 7.25 million tons of plastic over the course of just five years.

The bulk of the ray-shaped sifters and booms would be set up at the edges of the five swirling ocean gyres to trap the most plastic particles possible.

Able to function in high seas and rough weather, the booms would trap floating plastic bits, then suck them into a trash sifter. Once the plastic is retrieved, Slat envisions, it will be brought ashore and sold.

"This concept is so efficient, that we estimate that by selling the plastic retrieved from the 5 gyres, we would make in fact more money than the plan would cost to execute. In other words; it's profitable," Slat's website states.

The plan is not without its critics,... ( more at http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/plan-aims-rid-oceans-7-25m-tons-plastic-article-1.1299892 )

People’s Faces Recreated From the DNA Found In Chewing Gums and Cigarette Butts

At http://www.boredpanda.com/stranger-visions-dna-3d-portraits-heather-dewey-hagborg/

This may sound like a science fiction story, but American artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg recreates people's faces from the DNA she finds on various objects tossed away in the streets. For Heather, an old chewing gum or a cigarette butt has the potential of turning into a 3D portrait of someone who used it and didn't bother to look for a trash bin.

Heather extracts the DNA and studies certain regions of the genome that differs for every person. She then sends the results to a lab and gets back what are basically text files filled with sequences of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs, the nucleotides that compose DNA. Then Heather feeds this information into a custom computer program she wrote to parameterize a 3D model of a face to represent... ( more at http://www.boredpanda.com/stranger-visions-dna-3d-portraits-heather-dewey-hagborg/ )

Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD

At http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/suffer-the-children/201203/why-french-kids-dont-have-adhd?fb_action_ids=10200571130493665&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%2210200571130493665%22%3A10150652026799798}&action_type_map={%2210200571130493665%22%3A%22og.likes%22}&action_ref_map=[]

French children don't need medications to control their behavior.

Published on March 8, 2012 by Marilyn Wedge, Ph.D. in Suffer the Children

Copyright © Marilyn Wedge, Ph.D.
Marilyn Wedge is the author of Pills are not for Preschoolers: A Drug-Free Approach for Troubled Kids

In the United States, at least 9% of school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD, and are taking pharmaceutical medications. In France, the percentage of kids diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is less than .5%. How come the epidemic of ADHD—which has become firmly established in the United States—has almost completely passed over children in France?

Is ADHD a biological-neurological disorder? Surprisingly, the answer to this question depends on whether you live in France or in the United States. In the United States, child psychiatrists consider ADHD to be a biological disorder with biological causes. The preferred treatment is also biological--psycho stimulant medications such as Ritalin and Adderall.

French child psychiatrists, on the other hand, view ADHD as a medical condition that has psycho-social and situational causes. Instead of treating children's focusing and behavioral problems with drugs, French doctors prefer to look for the underlying issue that is causing the child distress—not in the child's brain but in the child's social context. They then choose to treat the underlying social context problem with psychotherapy or family counseling. This is a very different way of seeing things from the American tendency to attribute all symptoms to a biological dysfunction such as a chemical imbalance in the child's brain.

French child psychiatrists don't use the same system of classification of childhood emotional problems as American psychiatrists. They do not use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM.According to Sociologist Manuel Vallee, the French Federation of Psychiatry developed an alternative classification system as a resistance to the influence of the DSM-3. This alternative was the CFTMEA (Classification Française des Troubles Mentaux de L'Enfant et de L'Adolescent), first released in 1983, and updated in 1988 and 2000. The focus of CFTMEA is on identifying and addressing the underlying psychosocial causes of children's symptoms, not on finding the best pharmacological bandaids with which to mask symptoms.

To the extent that French clinicians are successful at finding and repairing what has gone awry in the child's social context, fewer children qualify for the ADHD diagnosis. Moreover, the definition of ADHD is not as broad as in the American system, which, in my view, tends to "pathologize" much of what is normal childhood behavior. The DSM specifically does not consider underlying causes. It thus leads clinicians to give the ADHD diagnosis to a much larger number of symptomatic children, while also encouraging them to treat those children with pharmaceuticals.

The French holistic, psycho-social approach also allows for considering nutritional causes for ADHD-type symptoms—specifically the fact that the behavior of some children is worsened after eating foods with artificial colors, certain preservatives, and/or allergens. Clinicians who work with troubled children in this country—not to mention parents of many ADHD kids—are well aware that dietary interventions can sometimes help a child's problem. In the United States, the strict focus on pharmaceutical treatment of ADHD, however, encourages clinicians to ignore the influence of dietary factors on children's behavior.

And then, of course, there are the vastly different philosophies of child-rearing in the United States and France. These divergent philosophies could account for why French children are generally better-behaved than their American counterparts. Pamela Druckerman highlights the divergent parenting styles in her recent book, Bringing up Bébé. I believe her insights are relevant to a discussion of why French children are not diagnosed with ADHD in anything like the numbers we are seeing in the United States.

From the time their children are born, French parents provide them with a firm cadre—the word means "frame" or "structure." Children are not allowed, for example, to snack whenever they want. Mealtimes are at four specific times of the day. French children learn to wait patiently for meals, rather than eating snack foods whenever they feel like it. French babies, too, are expected to conform to limits set by parents and not by their crying selves. French parents let their babies "cry it out" if they are not sleeping through the night at the age of four months.

French parents, Druckerman observes, love their children just as much as American parents. They give them piano lessons, take them to sports practice, and encourage them to make the most of their talents. But French parents have a different philosophy of discipline. Consistently enforced limits, in the French view, make children feel safe and secure. Clear limits, they believe, actually make a child feel happier and safer—something that is congruent with my own experience as both a therapist and a parent. Finally, French parents believe that hearing the word "no" rescues children from the "tyranny of their own desires." And spanking, when used judiciously, is not considered child abuse in France.

As a therapist who works with children, it makes perfect sense to me that French children don't need medications to control their behavior because they... ( more at http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/suffer-the-children/201203/why-french-kids-dont-have-adhd?fb_action_ids=10200571130493665&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%2210200571130493665%22%3A10150652026799798}&action_type_map={%2210200571130493665%22%3A%22og.likes%22}&action_ref_map=[] )

Scientists supersize quantum mechanics

At http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100317/full/news.2010.130.html

Largest ever object put into quantum state.

Geoff Brumfiel

A quantum drum has become the first visible object to be put into a superposition of quantum states.A. Olsen/iStockphoto

A team of scientists has succeeded in putting an object large enough to be visible to the naked eye into a mixed quantum state of moving and not moving.

Andrew Cleland at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his team cooled a tiny metal paddle until it reached its quantum mechanical 'ground state' — the lowest-energy state permitted by quantum mechanics. They then used the weird rules of quantum mechanics to simultaneously set the paddle moving while leaving it standing still. The experiment shows that the principles of quantum mechanics can apply to everyday objects as well as as atomic-scale particles.

The work is simultaneously being published online today in Nature and presented today at the American Physical Society's meeting in Portland, Oregon¹.

According to quantum theory, particles act as waves rather than point masses on very small scales. This has dozens of bizarre consequences: it is impossible to know a particle's exact position and velocity through space, yet it is possible for the same particle to be doing two contradictory things simultaneously. Through a phenomenon known as 'superposition' a particle can be moving and stationary at the same time — at least until an outside force acts on it. Then it instantly chooses one of the two contradictory positions.

But although the rules of quantum mechanics seem to apply at small scales, nobody has seen evidence of them on a large scale, where outside influences can more easily destroy fragile quantum states. "No one has shown to date that if you take a big object, with trillions of atoms in it, that quantum mechanics applies to its motion," Cleland says.

There is no obvious reason why the rules of quantum mechanics shouldn't apply to large objects. Erwin Schrödinger, one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, was so disturbed by the possibility of quantum weirdness on the large scale that he proposed his famous 'Schrödinger's cat' thought experiment. A cat is placed in a box with a vial of cyanide and a radioactive source. If the source decays, it triggers a device that will break the vial, killing the cat. During the time the box is shut, Schrödinger argued, the cat is in a superposition of alive and dead — an absurdity as far as he was concerned.

Wonderful weirdness

Cleland and his team took a more direct measure of quantum weirdness at the large scale. They began with a a tiny mechanical paddle, or 'quantum drum', around 30 micrometres long that vibrates when set in motion at a particular range of frequencies. Next they connected the paddle to a superconducting electrical circuit that obeyed the laws of quantum mechanics. They then cooled the system down to temperatures below one-tenth of a kelvin.

At this temperature, the paddle slipped into its quantum mechanical ground state. Using the quantum circuit, Cleland and his team verified that the paddle had no vibrational energy whatsoever. They then used the circuit to give the paddle a push and saw it wiggle at a very specific energy.

Next, the researchers put the quantum circuit into a superposition of 'push' and 'don't push', and connected it to the paddle. Through a series of careful measurements, they were able to show that the paddle was both vibrating and not vibrating simultaneously... ( more at http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100317/full/news.2010.130.html )

References

• 1. O'Connell, A. D. et al. Nature doi:10.1038/nature08967 (2010).

Research impact: We need negative metrics too

At http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v497/n7450/full/497439a.html

• J. Britt Holbrook,
• Kelli R. Barr
• & Keith Wayne Brown

Nature 497, 439 (23 May 2013) - doi:10.1038/497439a

Published online: 22 May 2013

Research metrics are ambiguous — a paper may be cited for positive or negative reasons. Funding agencies and universities focus on positive impact in evaluating research, which increasingly includes alternative metrics ('altmetrics'; see Nature 493, 159 and Nature 495, 437–440; 2013). We think that researchers can generate a more complete account… ( more at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v497/n7450/full/497439a.html )

The study showed that humans who used Google a lot were becoming worse at remembering certain things

At http://www.businessinsider.com/the-human-body-as-you-know-it-is-over-2013-4

Nicholas Carlson | Apr. 15, 2013, 8:54 AM

Here is what happens.

Humans invent technology. 

Then technology re-invents humans.

According to NewScientist, most humans were pretty lousy at using hand tools when they were first invented 1.7 million years ago.

The reason: primitive wrists that were "good for hanging from branches, but too weak to grasp and handle small objects with much force."

But by 800,000 years ago, humans had great hands for using tools.

What happened between those years?

A newly discovered set of bones – from between those eras, 1.4 million years ago – gives us a clue.

The 1.4 million-year-old bones reveal human hands that were better for using tools than the ones from 1.7 million years ago, but not as good as hands from 800,000.

The 1.4 million year-old-hand had "a small lump at its base – the styloid," that allowed helped stabilize wrists, allowing the hand to grip smaller objects.

The newly-discovered bones reveal that, over time, human hands progressed along an continuum of evolution.

Human bodies evolved to better use human-invented technology.

The New Scientists puts the theory this way: "As stone tools became more widespread, those who had the wrist structure to use them would have had an evolutionary advantage over their weaker-wristed kin."

What does this mean for today's humans? 

It means new technologies like the Internet, Google search, and portable, powerful computers such as the iPhone are inevitably going to change us as a species – re-wiring our brains and molding our bodies.

You can already see this happening. 

First of all, a person and a people's technical literacy and economic prosperity are obviously linked in a cycle where one improves and reinforces the other.

Secondly, there is the impact that Google is having on our brains.

In 2011, Science published a study called: "Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips."

The study showed that humans who used Google a lot were becoming worse at remembering certain things. To many, the study seemed to suggest that Google was making us stupid.

But what the study actually showed was that humans have simply learned to remember differently – in a way that allows us to actually remember, and use, much more information.

Ars Technica nicely summarized its conclusion: "People are recalling information less, and instead can remember where to find the information they have forgotten."

Our brains are adapting to a world in which we can store and find information in a centralized brain.

It's pretty amazing. It took our hands 900,000 years to grow fully accustomed to physical tools.

Google was invented less than 20 years ago, and it's already re-wiring our bodies.

Imagine how human brains and bodies will work in another 20 years, when computers will have been next to, on, or in bodies for generations – providing constant connection to each other and all the information in the... ( more at http://www.businessinsider.com/the-human-body-as-you-know-it-is-over-2013-4 )