Café del Nightmare

Imagining the Tenth Dimension

2009-08-18T13:21:00.002+01:00

This animation illustrates the concepts presented in chapter one of the book "Imagining the Tenth Dimension" by Rob Bryanton.

Audiotool - Digital Music Studio in your web browser

2009-08-13T12:07:00.003+01:00

Produce your own electronic music with the Hobnox Audiotool. All in your web browser.

Record your tracks live. Choose your set-up, add, remove and arrange the devices you need and record your track to the ‚myFiles’ section of your Hobnox account. From there, publish and share. The first step towards timeline & sequencer, saving arrangments & remixing tracks is done!

District 9

2009-07-31T19:12:00.000+01:00

It Might Get Loud

2009-07-31T06:40:00.003+01:00

Rarely can a film penetrate the glamorous surface of rock legends. It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos – The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented. Concentrating on the artist’s musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist. The movie revolves around a day when Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play.

Apple working to restore Music packaging fetish

2009-07-31T06:28:00.002+01:00

Apple is working with the four largest record labels to stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads, in a move it hopes will change buying trends on its online iTunes store.

The talks come as Apple is separately racing to offer a portable, full-featured, tablet-sized computer in time for the Christmas shopping season, in what the entertainment industry hopes will be a new revolution. The device could be launched alongside the new content deals, including those aimed at stimulating sales of CD-length music, according to people briefed on the project.

Physical album sales have fallen sharply as music retailing has evolved from CD album purchases in retail outlets to digital downloads of songs from online stores.

Although consumers continue to purchase large amounts of digital music, they are buying individual tracks rather than higher-margin albums.

Apple is working with EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music Group, on a project the company has codenamed “Cocktail”, according to four people familiar with the situation.

The labels and Apple are working towards a September launch date for the project, which aims to boost interest in albums by bundling liner notes and video clips with the music.

“It’s all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music,” said one executive familiar with the plans.

Apple wants to make bigger purchases more compelling by creating a new type of interactive album material, including photos, lyric sheets and liner notes that allow users to click through to items that they find most interesting. Consumers would be able to play songs directly from the interactive book without clicking back into Apple’s iTunes software, executives said.

“It’s not just a bunch of PDFs,” said one executive. “There’s real engagement with the ancillary stuff.”

The music companies declined to comment.

Album sales in the US fell 14 per cent in 2008 to 428.4m units, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks retail sales data.

The new touch-sensitive device Apple is working on will have a screen that may be up to 10 inches diagonally.

It will connect to the internet like the iPod Touch – probably without phone capability but with access to Apple’s online stores .

Apple is gambling that it can succeed where everyone else has flopped, including Microsoft, which tirelessly pushed a tablet-ready version of its Windows operating system as a personal favourite of founder Bill Gates.

The entertainment industry is hoping that Apple, which revolutionised the markets for music players and phones, can do it again with the new device.

“It’s going to be fabulous for watching movies,” said one entertainment executive.

Book publishers have been in talks with Apple and are optimistic about their services being offered with the new computer, which could provide an alternative to Amazon’s Kindle.

from FT.com

William Shatner reads Sarah Palin's resignation speech

2009-07-28T22:14:00.000+01:00

Is Sarah Palin secretly a beat poet? Do her words make little to no sense because she is so immersed in language and lyrics that she operates on a plane we cannot grasp? We sincerely doubt it, but that was the implication last night as William Shatner appeared on the "Tonight Show" and read Sarah's resignation speech in his typical Shatner way, with all the lilting and soft drum beats we've come to expect. It was quite magical.

Tim Burton's Alice - Trailer - WOW!

2009-07-23T02:39:00.001+01:00

Nirvana vs Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up

2009-07-20T12:47:00.001+01:00

Mash up by DJ Morgoth (DJ based in Germany who runs Mashup Your Bootz). Video by thriftshopxl.

Tenori-On by Yamaha

2009-07-20T02:10:00.003+01:00

Digital musical instrument for the 21st century, TENORI-ON. [wiki entry]

A 16x16 matrix of LED switches allows everyone to play music intuitively, creating a "visible music" interface.

£919, everyone?

More info & videos here.

Meddle by Little Boots with piano, stylophone and tenori-on.

Michael Jackson's turning point - Pepsi & painkillers

2009-07-16T15:07:00.010+01:00

During the sixth take of the commercial, performed in front of 3000 fans at L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium on 27 January 1984, a faulty pyrotechnic set Jackson's hair on fire. He suffered second degree burns to the face and scalp. Pepsi settled out of court, and Jackson donated his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, CA, which now has a "Michael Jackson Burn Center"

This was the turning point.

Before Pepsi incident = Jackson 5, Epic, Jacksons, Off The Wall, Thriller, Moonwalk, Black superstar.

After Pepsi incident = burns, painkillers, 3rd nosejob, We Are The World, The Girl Is Mine, Beatles catalogue, skin changing color, anorexia, bad injury on Bad tour, more painkillers, Bubbles, Neverland, Heal The World, more painkillers, Jesus Juice, Jordy Chandler (13) child abuse case, strip search, panic attacks, Valium, Ativan, Xanax, Dangerous Tour cancelled, rehab, anorexia, $22m out of court settlement with Chandlers whilst hospitalised, more rehab, married Lisa Marie Presley for 2 years, panic attacks - collapsed during rehearsals, married Debbie Rowe for 3 years, had two jewish children, Invincible promo cancelled, dangled Blanket, Bashir doco, Arvizo (13) child abuse case, Demerol (pethidine), $300m loan, Neverland closed, AEG book 10, 30, 50 dates, massive pressure, more Demerol (3 x a day), anorexia, heart arhythmia, anxiety, Dilaudid, Vicodin, Zoloft, Xanax, Soma, Paxil, Prilosec, Lorazepam, Midazolam and finally Propofol.

New Apple iPhone Patents

2009-07-12T10:00:00.002+01:00

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published several Apple patent applications. Remember, this doesn’t mean we’ll see this stuff on an iPhone or iPod Touch in the next year, perhaps we may never see them.

Object Recognition: One patent application , filed on June 17th, 2008, describes methods by which a mobile device user could detect an object via camera, RFID sensor or other means and have their device automatically identify and provide additional information on the object. In Apple’s background information on the patent, an example of an art museum is used, describing how a user might take a photo of a piece of art and wish to have it automatically identified and additional information on it provided, or engage in an audio tour or podcast and wish to access additional content beyond that provided in the audio files.

Facial Detection: Another patent application, filed on March 8th, 2008, addresses the use of facial detection to allow a device to determine whether a user is passively interacting with the device. As an example, Apple describes how a user watching a video may have to periodically interact with a device in order to prevent a screen saver from activating. Apple’s invention utilizes automatic facial detection via a camera on the device to determine that a user is present. The method may also be used to grant or deny users access to restricted applications or other data.

Message Filtering: Conceived as an extension of Parental Controls, this application, filed January 3rd, 2008, covers the ability for users to filter incoming or outgoing text-based messages based on their content. User-defined criteria could allow messages containing objectionable material to be edited to remove the content or be blocked entirely. Additionally, the technology could be used to require certain content to be present in messages. For example, a parent might require that messages contain proper spelling and grammar, or certain vocabulary words, or a certain number of words in a foreign language over a set period of time in order to aid a student in his or her studies.

Managing Multiple-Recipient Messages: In a patent application filed January 6th, 2008, Apple describes a method for managing messages with multiple recipients. The invention covers the ability for an application monitor whether the message has been delivered to all recipients, and if not, provide a simple interface for resending at a later time to those who have not received the message.

Unread Message Alerts: An application filed January 3rd, 2008 covers the ability for a device to automatically provide unread message alerts when a user is about to contact another party. For example, as a user begins to compose an e-mail to another person, the device may alert the user to unread messages from the second party that they may wish to view before sending their e-mail. The alert criteria may simply include the message recipient’s name, but could also be expanded to specify content on the same subject as the intended message.

Voice Modulation: In a final patent application filed April 2nd, 2008, Apple describes methods for modulating voice audio output to simulate additional voices. Apple’s examples describe a mother who could have an audiobook read in her voice to her child or a student who wishes to alter a section of a podcast lecture for emphasis.

You Are What You Is

2009-07-10T23:51:00.002+01:00

The brain's default mode network -- a series of connected areas that work hardest when most of the brain is at rest -- is active during daydreaming and mind-wandering. Many scientists believe the default network has two major hubs, one in the posterior cingulate cortex with the precuneus and one in the medial prefrontal cortex (shown above).

“I think the default mode network is the most exciting thing that has happened in cognitive neuroscience in quite some time,” says Peter Fransson, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Default brain settings may lead to daydreaming and mind-wandering, but the network also conducts serious business. Neuroscientists still hotly debate the network’s exact functions, however. Among its jobs may be running life simulations, providing a sense of self and maintaining crucial connections between brain cells. A few researchers doubt the network is anything special at all.

But evidence suggests that a malfunctioning default network is involved in diseases and disorders as diverse as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, Tourette syndrome, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

More at Science News.

Dean Street on fire

2009-07-10T15:28:00.005+01:00

White building next to The Red Fort and opposite Quo Vadis is very much on fire.

Michael Jackson's Arcade basement contents in 360° Interactive Panoramas

2009-07-08T23:04:00.002+01:00

This is a virtual tour of the arcade section of the "Collection of the King of Pop", the Michael Jackson exhibition held on April 19-15, 2009 at the Beverly Hills display area of the auction site (NB not at Neverland). The Julien's auction was pulled at the last minute after Jackson decided he did not want to sell it all after all.

Click on a picture to go there.

Internet radio sites and music industry reach agreement over royalties

2009-07-08T11:10:00.002+01:00

“If the rates weren’t resolved, we were sunk,” says Tim Westergren, co-founder of the popular music-streaming website Pandora.

Deal with SoundExchange allows large webcasters such as Pandora to pay lower per-song royalties or 25% of their total revenue.
By Jim Puzzanghera, LA TImes
July 8, 2009

WASHINGTON -- The music won't stop for Internet radio after a group of webcasters struck an agreement with SoundExchange, the organization that collects royalties for musicians and record companies, over payments for playing music online.

The settlement ends a 2 1/2 -year-old dispute that had threatened to silence the nascent Internet radio business and had forced some people who started online stations as a hobby to quit for fear of accruing expensive royalty bills.

The deal is part of a series of agreements made this year that cover various sectors of the industry, including small webcasters and conventional radio stations that simulcast their broadcasts online, and have resolved much of the controversy.

Tuesday's settlement allows websites that stream music to avoid per-song royalty payments that were set in 2007 by a special federal court and that many Internet radio sites said would force them out of business. Instead, Pandora Media Inc. and other large webcasters can choose an alternative rate structure that allows them to pay lower per-song royalties or 25% of their revenue -- a major break, given that many webcasters don't make much money yet.

"If the rates weren't resolved, we were sunk. So this is a huge relief," said Tim Westergren, co-founder of Pandora, the Oakland, Calif., webcaster that has about 30 million registered users. The company forecasts $40 million in revenue this year and hopes to become profitable next year, he said.

The new per-song rates start at 0.08 of a cent per listener for each song played and rise to 0.14 of a cent in 2015, when the agreement ends. The rates set in 2007 by the Copyright Royalty Board started at 0.0762 of a cent but were to more than double to 0.19 of a cent by 2010. Under the new agreement, large webcasters pay whichever is greater, the per-song fee or 25% of their revenue. Smaller commercial webcasters -- those with $1.25 million or less in total revenue -- would pay between 10% and 14% of their sales or 7% of their expenses, whichever is greater.

"It's a substantial reduction in the per-song streaming fee, and that was really the crux of the problem for us," said Westergren, who has been a leading voice in the fight against the royalty rates.

The Copyright Royalty Board allows SoundExchange to negotiate different rates on behalf of the musicians and record labels. And legislation passed by Congress allows a deal struck with one webcaster to apply to any others that want to accept it.

Tuesday's deal was struck with three webcasters -- AccuRadio, Radio IO and Digitally Imported, said John Simson, executive director of SoundExchange.

The Digital Media Assn., which represents webcasters and other online media providers, said it was pleased with the agreement and expected some of its members to opt for the deal. The agreement will help Internet radio grow, said Paul Krasinski, chief executiveof Ando Media, an Internet radio tracking company.

SoundExchange came to agreements this year with the National Assn. of Broadcasters, which represents over-the-air radio stations, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which represents public radio stations. It also struck a deal with small webcasters. But rates for large ones, such as Pandora, were unresolved until Tuesday. The deal is retroactive to 2006 and extends through 2015.

"We were able to come up with an interesting, experimental approach," said Simson, whose organization includes major record labels such as Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group as well as independent labels. "We're still in a developing business, so we said, 'Let's try something that gives us a really nice upside if they're successful.' "

The agreement works for "pureplay" webcasters -- those that simply play music, often supported by advertisements. Those sites may have very low revenue while the Internet radio model continues to evolve.

Websites that stream music but also sell other products won't find the deal so appealing because they must pay a percentage of all their revenue, Simson said.

Codex Sinaiticus

2009-07-06T00:22:00.005+01:00

The oldest bible in the world, the Codex Sinaiticus, written in Greek in the fourth century but now scattered between the British Library, Germany, Russia and St Catherine's monastery in Egypt's Sinai desert, will be reassembled online today in a £1m scholarship exercise.

Nobody alive has seen all the pages together in one place. The pages of the codex, described as "a jewel beyond price" by Scot McKendrick, head of western manuscripts at the British Library, which has the largest part, have been scattered for over 150 years.

From today, scholars or the merely curious anywhere in the world will be able to search all the surviving text, down to thumbnail-sized fragments found at St Catherine's, free online.

The pages can be searched in facsimile, transcribed or translated. The digital photography is of such high resolution that insect bites and scars of some of hundreds of animals whose hides became the vellum pages can be seen.

An exhibition which opens today at the British Library traces the history of the manuscript, and the project that involved collaboration between the British Library, the monks in the Sinai, Leipzig University library, the national library of Russia in St Petersburg, and the Instititute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing at Birmingham university.

From Parchment to Pixel: the virtual reunification of Codex Sinaiticus is at the British Library, free, until 7 September.

www.codex-sinaiticus.net

07/07/05 London Bombings - The Conspiracy Files

2009-06-30T23:27:00.003+01:00

on BBC iPlayer here.

Problems with hacked iPhone 2G upgrade to 3.0

2009-06-21T23:23:00.005+01:00

"Could not activate cellular data network: You are not subscribed to a cellular data service"
Fix: Put in the correct APN settings at Setting / General / Network / Cellular Data Network /
On UK Orange, it's
APN: orangeinternet
Username : orange
Password : multimedia

Super fast Battery drain & overheat

There's a dodgy setting with PUSH notification keeping the phone awake & looking.
Delete email accounts on iPhone. Then manually type them in again.

YouTube doesn't work.
DevTeam is aware of this and working on a fix.

Find my iPhone doesn't work.

Twitter Search Operators

2009-06-21T22:53:00.000+01:00

Search Operators

You can type these search operators directly into the search box. (Alternatively, you can use the advanced search formto automatically constuct your query.)

Operator	Finds tweets...
twitter search	containing both "twitter" and "search". This is the default operator.
"happy hour"	containing the exact phrase "happy hour".
love OR hate	containing either "love" or "hate" (or both).
beer -root	containing "beer" but not "root".
#haiku	containing the hashtag "haiku".
from:alexiskold	sent from person "alexiskold".
to:techcrunch	sent to person "techcrunch".
@mashable	referencing person "mashable".
"happy hour" near:"san francisco"	containing the exact phrase "happy hour" and sent near "san francisco".
near:NYC within:15mi	sent within 15 miles of "NYC".
superhero since:2009-06-20	containing "superhero" and sent since date "2009-06-20" (year-month-day).
ftw until:2009-06-20	containing "ftw" and sent up to date "2009-06-20".
movie -scary :)	containing "movie", but not "scary", and with a positive attitude.
flight :(	containing "flight" and with a negative attitude.
traffic ?	containing "traffic" and asking a question.
hilarious filter:links	containing "hilarious" and linking to URLs.
news source:twitterfeed	containing "news" and entered via TwitterFeed

Civilization (MEGAPLEX) 2008 by Marco Brambilla

2009-06-20T01:31:00.003+01:00

Civilization (MEGAPLEX), 2008 by Marco Brambilla
Client: The Standard Hotel, New York
Editor/Research Assistant: Beau Dickson
Assistant: Swapna Tamhane
Production Company: Crush, Toronto
Representation/Images Courtesy of: Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica
Marco Brambilla Directorial Representation:
Ebeling Group U.S.A

Q&A with Marco Brambilla:

Tell me how you got involved with The Standard & this project.
I work as a video artist - the owner of the Standard was familiar with my work from a show in New York. He commissioned a video piece to be featured as a permanent installation at the new Standard hotel in New York.

Was there any type of creative brief given to you?
They were interested in a work which could be installed in the elevators. Other than that there was no brief - the understanding was that I would propose a work and they would either approve it or I would come up with another approach.

How did you come up with the concept for this art installation?
The idea of doing a “video mural” had interested me for quite some time and the journey from hell to heaven depicted in this way seemed to be a good fit.

How did you approach this project?
The first phase was the longest and most involved because it was all about researching and then sampling the film clips. I then put together both a chronological video sequence of the “journey” from hell to heaven and “photoshoped” collages using still images to create the composition. These elements were then brought to the people at Crush to translate this into motion using the video clips as loops. There was a great deal of trial and error involved at this stage and I was constantly making adjustments as we proceeded through the final composition to ensure the moving composite would be as seamless as possible.

Were there any challenges?
I don’t thing anything like this had been done before so the technique was being refined as the content was being assembled. This could not have been done without an intimate collaborate with Crush at every stage since there were so many variables to deal with simultaneously.

Tell me how it will be used in The Standard, NY
It will playback on a high-definition monitor which will be seen through a viewing port in each of the elevators at the hotel and move according to the direction of the elevator.

More here.

20 Most Popular Social Networking Websites | June 2009

2009-06-18T12:52:00.000+01:00

Here are the 20 Most Popular Social Networking Websites ranked by a combination of Inbound Links, Alexa Rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast. Although no traffic metrics are completely accurate we do believe the data below to be useful for gauging relative audience size.

Social networking and blogs more popular than email

2009-06-18T12:49:00.002+01:00

by Austin Modine, The Register Music and Media, 9th March 2009 20:11 GMT

More people visit social networking sites or blogs than use web-based email, according to a new study by Nielsen Online.

The media bean counter claims over two-thirds of the world's population frequent what it calls "member communities," which includes both social network and blogging sites. Member communities make up the fourth most popular category, overtaking email as the world's most common online activity after search, general interest portals, and PC software applications.

Nielsen said that between December 2007 and December 2008, social networking and blogging sites combined reached 66.8 per cent of the world's online population. These sites account for one in every 11 minutes spent online worldwide, according to the firm's research.

In the UK, social sites account for one in every six minutes the average internet user spends online. Nielsen also found that UK users have the highest tendency to visit a social networking site on a mobile handset, trailed by US and French audiences. The number of UK mobile social networkers is up more than three-fold over Nielsen's count last year.

Conspicuously absent from the list of online activities: pornography. As usual, Nielsen doesn't share how it arrives at its numbers, so we're left to guess whether porn is actually less popular than web email, or perhaps folks just don't view porn when being tracked by Nielsen.

Facebook takes the crown
Facebook is the most popular of the social networking sites globally, dominating the segment in the UK, Italy, Australia, France, Spain and Switzerland.

Facebook's greatest reach is in the UK, with 47 per cent of Britons online using the site, the study claims. Facebook's stake of users is also greater in both Italy (44 per cent) and Australia (38 per cent) than in its native US (33 per cent.)

Interestingly, the fastest growing demographic of Facebook users are those aged 35 to 49 years old (more than 24.1 million users). The site also has almost twice as many visitors between 50 to 64 years old (+13.6 million) compared to those under 18 years old (+7.3 million).

With age, apparently comes a greater attention span. Of the social segment, Nielsen says that Facebook has the highest average time viewing per person than any other site (three hours 10 minutes).

A copy of the Nielsen report is available here (PDF) ®

TweetDeck goes mobile and makes for the clouds

2009-06-17T00:39:00.002+01:00

by Iain & The Team at TweetDeck

When I started developing TweetDeck, almost a year ago, I was trying to solve a very specific problem. Twitter provided an amazing new source of information but was already becoming unwieldy. When I missed a tweet from one of my real world friends I realised there was no way to weight the importance of people I followed or easily digest the avalanche of information. Thinking about this I realized that this was an increasing problem across the entire Web – not just with Twitter. More and more, sites are serving consumers streams of information rather than static web pages. And today’s browsers aren’t set up to help us filter and digest this new format. So I started TweetDeck with a focus on Twitter but a bigger vision, to become a new browser for the real-time Web.

Today, we’re taking a step closer to that goal. From our humble beginnings just one year ago, we’ve had such an overwhelming response from you, our users. Your support and ideas have helped get TweetDeck to where we are today – building a team in London, constantly improving the product, and trying to change the way people view streamed, real time data from the Web. And now, we are happy to announce big improvements to TweetDeck, both on and off the desktop.

First, we are announcing TweetDeck for the iPhone, which means that you can now take all your TweetDeck favourites, including columns, groups and saved searches, everywhere you go. Browse through columns with the flick of a fingertip, see what’s new as it arrives with notifications and simply shake your iPhone to refresh. And we’re giving you all of this goodness for free. Watch this space, TweetDeck for iPhone will be available on the Apple App Store soon.

Second, we’re releasing a new version of TweetDeck for the desktop, with lots of new features that have been in high demand and things like sync that make the iPhone app possible. Here are the highlights:

Sync – you can automatically synchronise TweetDeck between your desktop and iPhone, making it really simple to import your columns and groups so you can be up and running on iPhone in a matter of minutes – no reinventing the wheel. Sync works in the background so whenever you change a group or add a new search column it’s updated and available on all your computers and your iPhone. This also means that everything can be backed up in case your computer ever crashes.

Multiple account support – you can now have multiple accounts with no need to switch between them. Whether you’re on the desktop or iPhone we’ve made it simple to see all your columns, for all your accounts and tweet from any account or even cross-post tweets to numerous Twitter accounts at the same time.

Unlimited columns – you’ll be happy to hear that you can now have as many columns as you’d like on TweetDeck. No more 10 columns limit, now the sky’s the limit.

Local trends – rather than only being able to see what’s trending on Twitter as a whole, with local trends, you can now see what’s hot among your own friends and colleagues. You’ll be able to run local trends on any of your columns in TweetDeck.

Here’s a quick list of everything else that you can expect to see in the new desktop version:

Conversation window - View an entire dialogue all at once.
Video playback - Watch Qik or 12seconds video clips from the comfort of TweetDeck.
New ‘Block & Report Spam’ button - Just one click will delete the message from view, block the user and report them to Twitter.
TweetDeck Recommends column - Find new and interesting people to follow whether you’re a Twitter newbie or a veteran of the Twitterverse.
‘Reply All’ - Tweet everyone mentioned in a tweet in just a couple of clicks.
YFrog - Share and preview YFrog photos inside TweetDeck.
Smart filter – Start typing a username to find a person and add them to a group quickly and easily.
RE (In reference to) tweets – Easily comment on a discussion.

Look out for some more in-depth blog posts on each of the key new features in the next few days on our blog and Twitter account. For now, download it for yourself and try it out and, when it's available, get the new iPhone version from the Apple App Store. Please let us know what you think at hello@tweetdeck.com. And if you love TweetDeck please help us to spread the word about TweetDeck by tweeting and telling your friends about us. Thanks!!

Michael Eavis's guided tour of Glastonbury

2009-06-15T14:59:00.004+01:00

Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis gives Paul Lewis a tour of Worthy farm before the crowds descend for this summer's music festival for The Guardian.

Talking to women makes men thick

2009-06-12T15:17:00.002+01:00

Researchers: talking to women makes men thick
Interacting with the opposite sex will make men's brains stop working, say psychologists at the Radboud University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands
by: Tom Chivers, The London Paper
27 May 2009

MEN aren't the brightest of creatures at the best of times. And new research shows that talking to attractive women makes them even dimmer.
What’s more, researchers think that men are so busy showing off in an attempt to pull that their brain has no capacity for anything else.
The study found that after speaking to a female, men become markedly less competent at tasks like maths or word games. And if that woman is someone the man finds attractive, they become even worse.
The trial, by psychologists at Radboud University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, asked whether interaction with the opposite sex affects cognitive function. They made participants – both male and female – talk with a stranger, of either sex, and complete a cognitive task, like mental arithmetic, before and after the interaction.Perhaps predictably, women were completely unaffected.
When men – whether single or not – spoke to women, their ability to carry out the task dropped. But when they spoke to other men, their abilities remained unchanged. Women’s performance stayed the same throughout.
The researchers suggest that men are more likely than women to "consider mixed-sex interactions in terms of a mating game", meaning that they are "prone to engage in effortful and cognitively demanding attempts to impress an opposite-sex partner" – or, in layman’s terms, they are always trying to get the woman into bed, and that takes brainwork.
The research was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.