Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:16:04 GMT

Beliefs and Values And What Tastes Good

, conducted by Michael Allen at the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues, participants were lied to about the contents of sausage rolls they were tasting.

In some conditions they were told they were tasting real beef sausage rolls when actually they eating a vegetarian alternative that tasted the same. Then they were told they were eating the vegetarian alternative when actually they were eating the beef.

Meaty sausage rolls are aspirationalAllen and colleagues were inspired to this trickery by research demonstrating that how we experience something we eat is influenced by our beliefs. For example in one study people rated yoghurt and sandwiches labelled ''full fat'' as tastier than those labelled ''low fat''. In fact both foods were identical.

The current study differed in that it was interested in how people''s beliefs about social power affected their taste experiences. The researchers asked participants to complete a questionnaire that accessed the extent to which they seek to dominate others socially and acquire resources, wealth and public recognition.

The results showed that those who were low on social power values preferred the taste of the vegetarian sausage roll, regardless of whether they''d actually tasted the beef or the veggie alternative. Those high on social power, however, found the beef more tasty, even when it was just the veggie option labelled as beef.

Pepsi challengeIn a second test of this idea the researchers did a version of the Pepsi challenge. Participants were given either Pepsi or a store-brand cola to drink. But as before they were sometimes lied to about which one they had been given.

This time the researchers weren''t interested in social power but instead on whether people endorsed the idea that life should be exciting and full of enjoyment - something that Pepsi''s advertising encourages, and store-brand cola doesn''t have much to say about.

Again, those who most strongly agreed that life should be full of excitement thought the cola they were told was Pepsi was more tasty, whether or not they actually were drinking Pepsi or not.

Can you taste the difference?This research is a fascinating demonstration of how quite subtle differences in the way we think about food and drink can have significant influences on how we experience them. It lends more weight to certain explanations of some everyday phenomena:

• Organic food is all the rage and many claim it tastes better - others are not so sure. Organic food producers are probably relying at least partly on the psychological effect demonstrated in this study which will make their food taste better to those who endorse ''organic worldviews''
• Marketing values. Corporations spend fortunes associating their brands with certain values. In the case of food and beverage producers this study suggests the money is well spent, as long as the values they promote coincide with the consumer''s. While we tend to assume corporations are mainly trying to convince us of the quality of their goods, the associated values are an important factor in the final experience.
• Beer tastes pretty disgusting when you first try it, but some people come to associate it with good times and socialising with friends. Then, over time, it starts to taste better. Others may choose wine or some other type of beverage. We tend to think of this as becoming accustomed to, or developing a taste for that drink. But how each type of beverage tastes is probably influenced by the values you associate with it. If the way you see beer doesn''t accord with your values, then it probably won''t taste so good.

Potato for President?The authors of the study even wonder if healthy eating could be encouraged by changing the values associated with fruit and vegetables.

Whatever the outcome of the potential rebranding of fruit and vegetables (carrots march into war, aubergines win promotions and a potato is elected as President) this study is certainly a neat demonstration of one more aspect of our everyday experience which is directly influenced by our beliefs and values.

» The full paper is available on Scribd.

[Image credit: alisdair] Posted by: Jerry      Read more     Source

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:48:35 GMT

SoWine preserves your wine

When you open a new bottle of wine (and don't finish it) you stand the risk of wasting the remainder of the bottle if you don't drink it soon. The SoWine bar is designed to hold two bottles of wine and keep them at the correct temperature for drinking. The bar claims to be able to keep an opened bottle of wine fresh for 10 days which is considerably longer than most preservation methods. Get one now for around $600.

[via Gizmodo] Posted by: Emily Price      Read more     Source

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:17:27 GMT

Sunday shambles

Cross your fingers and whisper your incantations. As you read this, I think Pablo has finally managed to get back to Roundrock after a three week dry spell (in visits, not in precipitation). What surprises does the game camera hold? Have any more cattle come by to muddy the lake? Did any trees fall across the road? Will Pablo get the chance to swim in his lake for only the second time this year?

Some time in the last week, the visit count here at Roundrock Journal "surged" past the 60,000 mark. Normally that would be cause for celebration and intensive (and sometimes successful) research into who number 60,000 was. But I decided long ago to stop paying attention to visit count on this humble blog. Compared to most of you — even you whippersnapper startup blogs — my numbers are dismal. Rather than take that as an indication that my writing or subject matter is typically dismal, I ignore the numbers and go one my merry way, blissfully ignorant of any unpleasant facts.

On our trip to Springfield, Illinois several weeks ago, Libby and I skirted Hannibal, Missouri. The river was high then, but the devastating floods had not arrived yet. If you’d like to see some pix of what Hannibal looked like in flood, head over to Larry’s blog, Riverside Rambles, and especially this post.

And as long as you’re rambling, why not head over to Hal’s blog, Ranch Ramblins , and help him come up with a name for his place. The name "Roundrock" suggested itself to me for my patch, but Hal is juggling a few clever choices, and he has asked for advice. I gave him my idea.

#2 Son Adam returned from India last Sunday, full of tales about squalor, poverty, disease, and wading through water knee deep on the streets of Mumbai to get to his clinic during the monsoons. He was only with us for two days, though, before he hopped another plane for sunny California to be part of a friend’s wedding. He’s due home this evening, though his flight lands long after Pablo will be in bed, so #1 Son Seth gets the pick up duty.

The 25th Edition of the Festival of the Trees is now up over at Earth, Wind & Water. It’s a beauty, written in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the first publication of the theory of natural selection. It was an idea that was slow to catch on but that now is the foundation for all of biology and much of the rest of natural science.

Tai Haku has gone beyond simply listing the links to posts about trees. He gives informative background with a scientific perspective that is easily accessible to those of us liberal arts majors. I know you’ll enjoy it.

What is Pablo reading now? I can’t believe my summer of free reading is already one third over. (One half actually. The next library discussion is in August, and it is of a difficult, 19th Century work, so I’ll have to devote August to reading it I fear.) I finished The Virgin of Small Plains last week. It was a satisfying mystery story with a convoluted plot that tied up neatly in the end. So what am I reading now? I’ve picked up a book called Bound for Canaan , which is an erudite tome about the Underground Railroad in U.S. Civil War history. It will probably tell me more than I ever wanted to know about this subject, but I know so little now that it can’t hurt.

That photo above is of an astilbe in a pot in my backyard in suburbia. It’s an old photo, but I think it gives suitable floral fireworks for this weekend.

Missouri calendar:

• Texas horned lizards bask in open areas on sunny, hot mornings in the southwestern corner of Missouri.

Today in Missouri history:

• The Democratic National Convention began on this date in St. Louis in 1904. It nominated two candidates who barely campaigned, and Theodore Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:12:25 GMT

Kabluey

In Kabluey, Scott Prendergast "assembles an assortment of unappealing characters, an exhausted setup (spiritual emptiness in McMansion land, ho-hum) and every conceivable anxiety-inducer known to late-00s Americans - joblessness, war, credit-card debt, menial labor, economic turmoil, live offspring - to pull off what may be the best evocation of contemporary alienation in a movie so far this year," writes Mark Holcomb in Time Out New York.

"The film''s distance from factual reality oddly enhances its bleak underlying vision," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "It portrays a demoralized American work force fearfully going through the motions of life while waiting without much hope for things to get better." Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:24:05 GMT

Connect Your Corporation

SocialCast allows your corporation to network and has recently announce a new way to do so. With their latest version of SocialCast you'll be able to integrate your SocialCast corporate network with such sites as Twitter, Digg and YouTube.

Social networking can be used, on a corporate level, to make sure everyone in your corporation can cross communicate with each other. This is beneficial when information needs to be passed on from one level of your organization to another.

SocialCast offers features like idea exchange, collaboration tools, search functions and questions and answers. These are all features that make sure your company is able to make sure all employees in your corporation are able to collaborate.

Hot Topic and Jet Propulsion Laboratory are a couple of the corporations already using SocialCast for their corporate social networking needs. Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:49:48 GMT

Pummeled Pecan

When the interloping cattle were wandering about Roundrock last week, they spent some quality time among the pecans. What you see above is one of the staked and fenced pecans that I guess one or two of the cattle decided might be a good place for rubbing. Obviously, my handiwork was no match for their backsides.

The brown condition of the leaves tells me that this happened earlier than just last weekend. Or it could have been that the tree had come out with leaves this spring and then died. (The pecans have tended to do this — I think it’s just to thwart me.) I didn’t take a close look to see if those were green pecan leaves at the bottom, but I suspect that this spot in the planted grid is now a void too.

Elsewhere in the pecan plantation is this happy looking tree:

I think this one might actually make it in what seems to be a pecan-hostile territory. (I planted pecans here because someone who ought to know said it would be a good place for them. I think it would have been if there was more than just rock in the ground.) This tree is now taller than I am, which I take as a sort of important milestone achieved by the tree and by my dreams.

That’s the dam in the background, and if you can make out some white dots at about two o’clock, that’s the plastic bag experiment station.

It’s time for me to give some love to the pecans. I need to put new fencing around the survivors since their cages are getting too small. I could also mow around them a bit to give them less competition. In the late summer, the grasses and other plants here can grow taller than the pecans, depriving them of sun.

Missouri calendar:

• First day of summer/solstice: longest day of year.
• Cattail blooms are covered with pollen.

Today in Missouri history:

• Actor John Goodman is born in Affton, Missouri on this date in 1952. (I lived in Affton for a couple of years after I was married.)
• The flowering dogwood is named as Missouri''s official tree in 1955.
• Kansas Citian Mastin Gregory won the LeMans 24 Hour Grand Prix on this date in 1965.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:55:00 GMT

George Clooney Slips The Noose Again

It's beginning to look more and more like George Clooney is in fact a confirmed bachelor.

There are conflicting reports as to how and why George Clooney left Sarah Larson.

One report states that Larson's mischievousness during her youth was the factor, or that she was too young for him.

Another rumor that she blabbed too much in public about her relationship with Clooney is also making the rounds.

So take you pick as to which it is and let's see who each of these attractive people ends up with next.

Source:www.dailymail.co.uk Posted by: jim      Read more     Source

Sat, 24 May 2008 22:34:26 GMT

Nanoworms and Malignant Tumors

You've probably heard that Senator Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor called glioblastoma. This is really unfortunate news because malignant brain tumors are very difficult to treat. There are no cures or really effective remedies. However, nanotechnology research may improve clinical care as scientists discover new ways to apply technology in healthcare.

Nanoparticles called "nanoworms" may change the way doctors treat tumors. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego are collaborating with other scientists to create nanoworms that resemble earthworms. If these nanoworms can reach microscopic tumor cells, they can deliver drugs to destroy the cancer before it spreads. Can you imagine trying to explain this to a patient? The mention of nanoworms might stir up all sorts of images and preconceived notions of nanobots, robots, and other sci-fi ideas. Posted by: Joseph Kim, MD      Read more     Source

Mon, 19 May 2008 00:02:56 GMT

SomethingStore

Do you like surprises? At SomethingStore in New York, a new online shop, you can buy something for $10. But you do not know what you are buying. They will send you something, an item selected randomly. You will find out what your something is when you receive it.

It maybe something you need, something you want or something you desire. It may be a cool gadget, rare book, handmade necklace, box of gourmet chocolates, set of shiny shower curtains, popular video game, a set of kitchen knives, a pair of designer jeans, garden tool, electronic equipment, or a magazine subscription. Your something will most likely be brand new, though it may also be refurbished or antique. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Sat, 17 May 2008 02:18:02 GMT

SFIFF Dispatch. 7

David D''Arcy on an award-winning short.

One of the discoveries at the San Francisco International Film Festival was an essay on an icon who barely had the 15 minutes of fame to be a shadow on the media record of his moment in history. Death Valley Superstar takes us back to Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni''s epic 1970 meditation on the American landscape and American culture at the height of the war in Vietnam, which is never mentioned in the film.

The male lead of the movie, inspired in part by a young man who stole an airplane for a joy ride in the desert and was gunned down by the police on his return, was Mark Frechette, who was "discovered" when he was spotted in a fight at a Boston bus stop. Death Valley Superstar is a 27-minute elegy to Frechette by Michael Yaroshevsky, a Russian living in Montreal. (Before showing at San Francisco, Death Valley Superstar premiered at the International Festival of Film on Art [FIFA] in Montreal.) Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source