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The Psychology of Behaviour at Work: The Individual in the Organisation
Research into the role of music in the work place. “…score in a reading comprehension test were significantly higher in a ‘low information-load music’ condition than either a slient condition or a ‘high information-load music’ condition, where ‘information load’ was measured by tonal range, repetition and rhythmic complexity.”
The Power of Non Verbal Communication
U.C.L.A. Psychologist and researcher Albert Mehrabian illustrated the impact and importance of non verbal language in his 1967 investigation of how people communicate. Mehrabians research shows that 7% of the meaning of communication comes from verbal elements (or words), 36% comes from vocal elements (tone, pitch, rate, etc….), and 55% comes from non verbal elements (posture, expression, etc….).
The Ethics of Erasing a Bad Memory
Questions of withholding bad news, wiping out bad memories — plastering over wayward cracks in our minds with chemicals — are answered thousands of times everyday, without ever being asked.
A cognitive analysis of tagging
(or how the lower cognitive cost of tagging makes it popular)
Or tagging vs. categorising.
The most significant thing to come out of The Chaser’s APEC motorcade gag, was not that $160 million of security failed to protect the U.S. president, but this quote from NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione in relation to the stunt:
We have snipers deployed around the city. They weren’t there for show, they mean business, that’s what they were there for.
To shoot comedians perhaps? The Chaser guys were obviously no threat to the president, however, how close could they have gotten before being shot by a sniper? This seems to be the ghist of Mr Scipione’s threat, that it would be possible for a sniper to shoot someone dead, even if they posed no threat to anyone’s life.
Enough of our rights have been taken away already, such as not being allowed into Circular Quay and the Opera House security area, and people who are arrested shall be held without charge or bail. I thought that our rights were there so that laws couldn’t be made to deprive us of them. What’s the point, if our government can just turn around and make any draconian law they please?
This farce could have been held in many different places in Australia, without shutting down our entire CBD for a full week. If not Canberra, then perhaps some country town where security would be easier to manage. What do the APEC delegates need? A place to eat, sleep and meet, and little else. They don’t need a harbour view, they don’t need an animal petting zoo, and they certainly don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fireworks over Sydney harbour, to which the citizens of Sydney are told to stay away.
Our Foreign Minister and resident clown Alexander Downer, explained a few days ago on ABC’s Lateline, why APEC was to be held in Sydney:
I often say to people there are 10 or so cities in the world you’ve got to see before you die, and definitely one of them is Sydney. Even though I’m from Adelaide, Sydney is a wonderful city, so we can be enormously proud of showcasing Sydney to the world.
Sydney has literally been shut down all week. And regardless whether you think APEC is a good thing or not, it shouldn’t have been held in the middle of Sydney.
To borrow from a bill board in Pitt St mall this week:
21 great wankers, 1 great city
Most of you probably know that I do a public radio show, A Walk in the Black Forest. Some of you may know that my home town, Sydney, is host to next week’s APEC meeting. You remember APEC, that’s where the leaders of every country who has their big toe dipped into the Pacific Ocean, get to come to Sydney and take over the city for a week, while 10000 protesters tell them (justifiably) to get fucked.
We’ve been covering APEC on the show recently, what it’s like from a local perspective, and I thought if you’re not listening to our podcast versions of the radio show, you may at least be interested in the APEC segment of it. Want to know a little about what’s behind the great wall of Sydney?
Check out the A Walk in the Black Forest web site, and either listen to the APEC summary, or the full show #266.
This is what citizen media’s all about right?
It had to happen. lolcode.com
Gotta love the internets. From icanhascheezburger.