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Wednesday, March 30, 2005 |
like a monkey driving a car.
This article in Businessweek says that "the study of neuroeconomics may topple the notion of rational decision-making.According to the new science of neuroeconomics, the explanation might lie inside the brains of the negotiators. Not in the prefrontal cortex,where people rationally weigh pros and cons, but deep inside,where powerful emotions arise.Brain scans show that when people feel they're being treated unfairly,a small area called the anterior insula lights up, engendering the same disgust that people get from, say, smelling a skunk. That overwhelms the deliberations of the prefrontal cortex. With primitive brain functions so powerful,it's no wonder that economic transactions often go awry. "In some ways, modern economic life for humans is like a monkey driving a car," says Colin F. Camerer,an economist at California Institute of Technology".
Why Logic Often Takes A Backseat [Smart Mobs]
10:04:17 PM 
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Wireless Web treads fine line on campuses.
Law student Brian Gabriel was sitting in class, using his laptop computer to buy home brewery supplies. His professor called on him to explain the international jurisdiction of war criminals. "I actually think I had the (beer Web site) minimized when he actually called on me," said Gabriel, who insists he knew what was going on well enough to answer the question aptly.
[The Journal]
5:20:59 PM
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The Podcast Hotel.
 The Podcast Hotel, explains Corante's Alex Williams, will turn a hotel in Portland, Oregon, into a podcast and videoblog studio. It's a place where people come to learn and share how these content creation tools can be used in any way they want, be it for their personal use, their business or their community.
Guests at the Podcast Hotel will create podcasts and videoblogs.
They'll spread out into the city of Portland. I look forward to riding bikes with video cameras attached to our helmets. We're planning a podcast music jam. We're thinking about a fashion show for independent designers where the models are the podcasters and videobloggers.
Experts will be there to share and show how the tools can be used. Newbies will be coached and get the chance to learn how to produce sharp, authentic works. There will be "how to," discussions, "think tank," talks and demonstrations.
cast Hotel will actively involve the city of Portland and will seek people from other cities to participate, too. It happens July 15-17, 2005, in Portland, Oregon. Alex Williams should have more, shortly.
Via Daily Wireless [unmediated]
7:39:06 AM
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Spring has sprung!
Peepers
Following several chilly, damp days, it finally turned into spring this afternoon. And tonight I heard the peepers for the first time in 2005. My guess is they were audible during the last spell of warm weather a week or so ago, but I didn't notice them then.
But it seems they are later this year than usual for Maryland -- late February/early March is more typical.
Here is something very cool: a frozen frog time lapse video -- from icicle to first spring leap. As the accompanying article explains, peepers and a number of other frog species survive winters through a process of cryo-preservation -- their hearts and brains stop working, and they become frog-shaped chunks of ice. (At the same time, their bodies turn stored food into a kind of antifreeze, preventing ice crystals from forming inside their cells).
When it warms up, they thaw out and are ready to sing and mate. [Global Suburb]
7:25:02 AM
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meta-Grokster.
The MGM v. Grokster (liability standards for Peer-To-Peer technology) case has now been, and will be, chewed-over by all The Usual Suspects, with extensive coverage. This is the sort of situation for the saying: It doesn't matter what I think, it matters what the court thinks.
The reports indicate that judges at least are taking the issues very seriously. Especially the iPod problem. So while I'm still pessimistic, at least things apparently aren't as bad as they could be. And there might actually be a narrow decision that doesn't do sweeping damage. My guess is for a fragmented, divided set of opinions, which is probably the best reasonable outcome possible. [Infothought]
7:23:20 AM
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File Sharing Has Supreme Moment. The debate over file sharing reaches the Supreme Court, where the justices worry about finding a test to measure the infringement potential of new tech and ponder the effects on future inventions. Katie Dean reports from Washington. [Wired News]
7:23:11 AM
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Lively Debate as Justices Address File Sharing. The Supreme Court showdown in the Grokster case between old-fashioned entertainment and new-fangled technology found the justices responsive to Grokster. By LINDA GREENHOUSE. [NYT > Business]
NYT on the Grokster Oral Arguments (Donna Wentworth).
Linda Greenhouse files her report for the NYT, and again we hear the Court's concern for the future innovator -- or as we now know him, the "guy in the garage":
Justice David H. Souter asked Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., the lawyer arguing for the Hollywood studios and the recording industry, to envision "a guy sitting in his garage inventing the iPod."
"I know perfectly well that I can buy a CD and put it on my iPod," Justice Souter said. "But I also know if I can get music without buying it, I'm going to do so." Since that possibility was so obvious, he continued: "How do we give the developer the confidence to go ahead? On your theory, why isn't a foregone conclusion from the outset that the iPod inventor is going to lose his shirt?"
That David Souter, the least technically minded of the justices, who still drafts his opinions by hand on a legal pad, could even invite a dialogue about iPods, much less suggest that he could be tempted to engage in illegal file sharing, was an indication of how this confrontation of powerful interests had engaged the court.
But by the end of the lively argument, any prediction about what the court will actually decide appeared perilous.
[Copyfight]
7:18:42 AM
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