Daily Digest: Science, Tech, and Foodie News for 14 June (and make-up from all the other days I missed while hanging out at Disney)
Here’s some of the interesting stuff I’ve been reading about in today’s science and tech news (follow the hotlinks for the full stories). Apologies for some of the older stories – I was having too much fun checking out Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to post 
Of course, I could always blame the rash of solar flares for my posting hiatus. Are solar flares really a factor in communication? Well, NASA can tell you what to expect – they even have a 2012 FAQ page! And if you think weird sun activity is cool, check out the surfer waves rolling across the sun’s surface, even if only this guy can actually surf them.
In genetics, scientists are developing a fast desktop method for analyzing your genes, so you can check out your genetic health and just how deeply rooted that “oh look – shiny!” reaction is. And you can also analyze the programming of the teenage mind in the hopes of figuring out just why the hell Justin Bieber is a big deal. I blame it on the fact that it’s not just the X-Men, we’re all mutants.
In foodie news, lobbyists are nosing their way into cafeteria pickings and asking for, no surprise, more junk food. If I’m ever nuts enough to generate MSB v 2.0, she’s bringing her own lunch to school. The recent e.Coli outbreak doesn’t make me any less happy about school food.
Not savvy enough to make your own lunch? You don’t need culinary school for that. Despite complaints that culinary school attendance is down, with the Internet, there’s a lot out there for chefs who are reading, researching, and learning at home. I learned most of my cooking from my dad. Turns out dads matter a lot, so both in honor of upcoming Father’s Day and your own well-being, go thank yours!
That’s your science, tech, foodie, and geek update for the day – hope everyone has a great one!
Star Wars Weekend at Disney Hollywood Studios!
Geek heaven! Sorry about the lack of updates, but I’ve been having some fun getting my geek on with all the other Star Wars fans at Star Wars Weekends, Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ celebration in honor of the Star Tours ride reboot! Instead of just having a single possible adventure, now the ride integrates a combination of opening scenes and planet adventures so that there are 52 possible combinations. That makes the chances of you getting the same combination of rides about 1:20,000!
The park hosted a number of different events including a Star Wars themed parade (featuring Vader’s Fist, the fighting 501st), Jabba’s Hut (merchandise center), adventure shows, interviews with the cast (original trilogy, new trilogy, and Clone Wars), autograph signings, picture opportunities, and…well, you know, the typical Disney over-the-top that we all love
A special favorite was the Jedi Training Academy, where all the parents out there could sign up their little padawans to get some instruction in the rudiments of light saber fighting, and then let them test their skills against Darth Vader himself! (Of course, there was one little girl who decided Vader was just too cool and bent her knee instead of fighting – I would have given money to see her parents’ expressions!)
Check out the photo gallery for some highlights from the weekend!
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- Jedi Mickey!
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- Photo ops with C3PO and R2D2
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- Somehow Darth Goofy doesn’t have the same effect…
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- Darth Vader always strikes an imposing form
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- Not one of Threepio’s better days…
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- Imperial entanglements…
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- The 501st Regiment – these guys are serious! Check ‘em out: http://www.501st.com/
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- Scouts out!
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- Sandpeople!
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- Vader is watching you
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- Jedi Training Academy – where the little padawans test their skills against the Dark Side
Daily Digest: Science, Tech, and Foodie News for 7 June 2011
Here’s some of the interesting stuff I’m following in today’s science and tech news (follow the hotlinks for the full stories) -
Space, the final frontier...for cucumbers? We are totally missing out on our opportunities to grow space fruit now that we don’t have a space program. Meh. But that doesn’t stop us from appreciating the wonders of outer-space SciFi as Super 8 hits theaters with a few surprising twists: non-cheesy special effects that actually apply to the plot, no product placement, and, gasp, a STORY! Loved this movie! But if you can’t get out to the movies, check out the previews for this sweet system. Hopefully this one is hacker free. Otherwise, this is how we’re going to all have to start paying our bills. Still trying to figure out how this is a crime…
In other news relevant to us foodies out there, while the Germans are battling e-coli on their sprouts, the CDC is hard at work finding new ways to alert the public to food issues, including engaging people via social media. My sister, the queen of social media, recently finished a lot of work evaluating social media in this venue and found it surprisingly credible, so check the CDC and their fellow agencies out on facebook and twitter to stay up on the latest! And winning our award for the MSB showcase link of the day, check out Food Quality News at http://www.foodqualitynews.com for the latest on food safety.
That’s your news update for the day, and hope everyone has a great one!
On the Burner – Generals are sexy? Who knew!
When we used the California Q-Sort (CAQ; Block, 1961, 2008) to evaluate various leaders for our last study, the last thing we expected was for our four U.S. Army Generals to pop up as universally “sexy” or “attractive” but “risky” as relationship prospects among our female participants, yet that’s exactly what happened. All of our female participants cited finding the generals attractive, even though they wouldn’t necessarily want anything to do with them. Odd? Perhaps. But explainable.
The California Q-Sort (CAQ) started as a tool for psychologists to standardize their subjective evaluations of patients, but has evolved as a method for quantifying first impressions of subjects in research, and using that quantification of personality to develop a personality profile. This system has participant observers sort 100 validated personality traits into most and least characteristic categories. Check out the Block publications for more information on how this works. The end result is a highly reliable, highly correlated personality profile.
GEN Stanley McChrystal, one of our evaluated leaders
As part of our family research, we’ve been using the CAQ to evaluate first impressions of various categories of leaders. We added four U.S. Army Generals – GEN H. Norman Schwarzkopf, GEN Stanley McChrystal, GEN David Petraeus, and GEN John P. Abizaid – to the latest mix, and discovered that not only did these four men fit into the leader profile we developed, but they shared seven of the top “most characteristic traits” and seven of the “least characteristic” traits. There were some differences that were also interesting, with our generals popping up much higher on the ethics scale than the other leaders. Traits such as “makes moral judgments,” “behaves ethically, has a personal value system,” and “is dependable and responsible” showed up as “most characteristic” traits for our generals, while they were much farther down the list for some of our other leaders.
Then we came to the comments. The “sexy but scary” comments written in by our female participants made us laugh. Then they made us think. Why would women find these guys attractive but want nothing to do with them?
Turns out there’s a pretty simple biological answer for this: testosterone. Most of our generals pop high on the characteristics indicative of testosterone – dominance behaviors, square jaws, shape of brows, etc. Testosterone is indicative of genetic health in men (Ellis and Nyborg, 1992) and biologically, women know this and find it attractive. From this standpoint, since our generals are sporting all kinds of traits indicative of genetic health, it’s not surprising that our female participants found them attractive. But why would they find them risky as relationship prospects?
Follow the QR code to the bios of our evaluated leaders
Reference the Booth and Dabbs study on testosterone and marital success rates (Booth & Dabbs, 1993), men with high testosterone are a much higher risk for marital infidelity. Biologically, women also know this, and are typically wary of such men.
The highly traditional environment the Army creates has definitely muted this aspect of the four generals we studied – they’re all in long-term marriages – but given the recent brouhaha over other examples of high testosterone (ahem Schwarzenegger cough cough), we can see that there’s still a basis for this biological reaction.
We’ve published our results of Q-Sorting social media influencers already and are working on putting together another series of papers on our further leadership personality findings. Interested? Stay tuned for more on this subject!
For more information:
Block, J. The Q-sort in character appraisal: Encoding subjective impressions of persons quantitatively. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2008.
Block, J. The Q-sort Method in Personality Assessment and Psychiatric Research. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1961.
Booth and Dabbs. “Testosterone and Men’s Marriages,” Social Forces, vol. 72, no. 2, Dec 1993.
D’Alessandro, D. Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building A Successful Personal Brand and Fighting to Keep It. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Ellis, and Nyborg. “Racial/ethnic variations in male testosterone levels: a probable contributor to group differences in health,” Steroids, vol. 57, issue 2, Feb 1992, pp. 72-75.
Freberg, K., Graham, K., Freberg, L. “Leaders or Snakes in Suits: Perceptions of Today’s CEOs.” APS, 2010. Not yet published.
Freberg, K., Graham, K, McGaughey, K., and Freberg, L. ”Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personality.” Public Relations Review, vol. 37, issue 1, March 2011, pp. 90-92.
Goldberg, L.R. “Man vs. Model of Man: a rationale, plus some evidence, for a method of improving on clinical inferences.” Psychological Bulletin, 73, 442-432 (1970).
Nichols, T., & Holmes, A. “Nonparametric Permutation Tests for Functional Neuroimaging: A Primer with Examples.” Human Brain Mapping, 15(1), 1-25, 2001.
Daily Digest: Science, Tech, and Foodie News for 6 June 2011
Here’s some of the interesting stuff I’m following in today’s science and tech news (follow the hotlinks for the full stories) -
We’ll start with the news Apple presented me with the moment I pulled up my iTunes this morning – Apple has decided to scrap their attempts to synchronize your iLife with MobileMe and has instead launched the iCloud. More efficient, or just an attempt to keep brand synchronization with another iLabel? We’ll see how well that goes over, and whether or not there are any advantages there over the home mobile network all your various iDevices let you set up. And hopefully there’s a bit more security involved with the iCloud than with the Playstation, XBox, and Wii – now that Nintendo has announced their database was hacked, too, all the major players on the console market have suffered security breaches ;p However, since one of those resulted in the sneak preview of Halo 4, it can’t be considered all bad…
Still, if you’re concerned about your security while gaming, it might be a good time to look into your personal security and your health. Experts are increasing their warnings about the risks of vitamin D deficiency so you’d better get out there and get your sunshine, the best source of vitamin D out there. It’s also your best chance of getting exercise and warding off obesity. Experts say that even yo-yo dieting is better for your body than staying overweight, but your best bet for longevity and sticking around long enough to see this antimatter research turn into warp drive technology is getting your BMI down to the healthy range and keeping it there! And here’s my requisite plug for Jenny Craig. Any diet plan that gives you chocolate cake as part of the plan is all right in my book.
And since today is the 6th of June, let’s take a moment to remember the brave souls who charged into the mouths of machine guns in order to ensure our safety, sixty-seven years ago.
That’s your news update for the day, and hope everyone has a great one!
Among Psychologists: Presenting at the 23rd Annual APS Convention in Washington DC
APS runs some of the best conferences to attend, whether you’re a psychologist or not. Even though I’m a statistician by training, I always feel like I come away with dozens of ideas for new ways to apply my expertise, and a few new tricks of the trade being used in different areas! And if there’s any discipline with an abundance of weird science, it’s psychology!
It’s also a chance for me to get together with family. My geekdom is a function of both nature and nurture – I come from a family of geeks who enjoy exploring and researching (my father is into marketing, my mother is a psychologist, and my sister is in public relations and communication), and the APS convention always gives us a chance to collaborate on something interesting.
This year our topic was “Reverse Engineering Leadership,” and we used existing psychology techniques (the Jack Block Q-Sort) to evaluate first impressions of the personalities http://themsbproject.wordpress.com/ various leaders (social media influencers, CEOs, and four-star generals), and to see if there was a leader personality prototype shared across the three types. It turned out that our leaders did share enough personality traits in this small-slice look to qualify for a Q-Sort personality prototype, and while this was interesting, the differences were also extremely interesting. We’re looking forward to putting together and publishing a few interesting papers on the subject!
For more information, check out my sister Karen’s blog on the subject, and see our interview with the APS Observer where we talk about our research!
