Open Knowledge

"The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s ambitious plan to revitalize recreation areas and the ecology by establishing the “Floating Island,” three large-scale, man-made floating islets on the Han River near Banpo Bridge in the heart of Seoul, will be launched tomorrow after a year of construction, according to the city government.

With a combined investment of 96.4 billion won ($83.9 million) from the city government and a consortium of construction companies, the second island, named Viva and measuring 3,271 square meters (35,209 square feet), will be set up over two days beginning today and buoy on the river tomorrow. Currently, construction of the whole project is 58 percent finished. The other two islands, Vista (4,737 square meters) and Tera (1,200 square meters), will debut on the river later and the three islands that make up the Floating Island will be unveiled to the public in August, government officials said."

But she categorically insists that her clients wear a condom. What if a client offered her $1 million to have sex without a condom? Allie pauses to consider this question. Then, exhibiting a keen understanding of what economists call adverse selection, she declares that she still wouldn’t do it — because any client crazy enough to offer $1 million for a single round of unprotected sex must be so crazy that he should be avoided at all costs. About 60 percent of her appointments were for a single hour.

Ask leaders what they think makes employees enthusiastic about work, and they’ll tell you in no uncertain terms. In a recent survey we invited more than 600 managers from dozens of companies to rank the impact on employee motivation and emotions of five workplace factors commonly considered significant: recognition, incentives, interpersonal support, support for making progress, and clear goals. “Recognition for good work (either public or private)” came out number one.

Unfortunately, those managers are wrong.

Having just completed a multiyear study tracking the day-to-day activities, emotions, and motivation levels of hundreds of knowledge workers in a wide variety of settings, we now know what the top motivator of performance is—and, amazingly, it’s the factor those survey participants ranked dead last. It’s progress. On days when workers have the sense they’re making headway in their jobs, or when they receive support that helps them overcome obstacles, their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak. On days when they feel they are spinning their wheels or encountering roadblocks to meaningful accomplishment, their moods and motivation are lowest.

Can you think yourself to orgasm? Does orgasm boost fertility? Is your clitoris just a mini penis? Can the dead get erections? Why does Viagra only work for men? Expanding on a talk she presented at the Ted Conference in 2009, Mary Roach, author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, will take us on a droll journey, with detours through barnyards and laboratories, through our understandings and misunderstandings of our sexual parts, their relationship to our minds, and the techniques of the scientists who have studied them.

Via Safire L.

Via Cliff Williamson.

When they were presented [with physical exercise instructions] in an easy-to-read print font (Arial), readers assumed that the exercise would take 8.2 minutes to complete; but when they were presented in a difficult-to-read print font, readers assumed it would take nearly twice as long, a full 15.1 minutes (Song & Schwarz, 2008b). They also thought that the exercise would flow quite naturally when the font was easy to read, but feared that it would drag on when it was difficult to read.

Via Valerie Hajdik

Hart next tried offering these participants the choice between a low dose of meth and a small monetary voucher, at different times of day. The prediction was that, meth being a potent reinforcer, users would take it compulsively; what he found was that people would take it in the morning but not in the evening, when it would stop them sleeping -- using it to get through the day in the same way office workers self-administer caffeine; and if the monetary reward was large enough, they would pass up the dose. These findings call into question the notion that addiction is driven by the reward of a chemically induced euphoria and that meth -- legally prescribed to treat ADHD, narcolepsy and obesity -- is the destructive drug so maligned by the NIDA and the popular press. Hart's conclusion was that his subjects were indeed making rational choices about their drug use.

Networks portray a multitude of interactions through which people meet, ideas are spread, and infectious diseases propagate within a society. Identifying the most efficient "spreaders" in a network is an important step to optimize the use of available resources and ensure the more efficient spread of information. Here we show that, in contrast to common belief, the most influential spreaders in a social network do not correspond to the best connected people or to the most central people (high betweenness centrality). Instead, we find: (i) The most efficient spreaders are those located within the core of the network as identified by the k-shell decomposition analysis. (ii) When multiple spreaders are considered simultaneously, the distance between them becomes the crucial parameter that determines the extend of the spreading. Furthermore, we find that-- in the case of infections that do not confer immunity on recovered individuals-- the infection persists in the high k-shell layers of the network under conditions where hubs may not be able to preserve the infection. Our analysis provides a plausible route for an optimal design of efficient dissemination strategies.

The results showed that women gave the highest attractiveness ratings to men with the highest levels of prenatal testosterone. The men with the lowest testosterone in turn got the lowest attractiveness ratings. "Men can communicate their testosterone levels through the way they dance," Lovatt told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "And women understand it -- without noticing it.

Via Ian Erickson.

My friend Danielle's school, Innovations Academy, is in the news. Danielle is one of my favorite people--tough, smart, hardworking, and kind. If I were a parent in the San Diego area, they would be going to her school.

Passive barriers are subtle factors that prevent you from changing your behavior. Unlike “active” barriers, passive barriers describe the lack of something, making them more challenging to identify. But once you do, you can immediately take action to change your behavior.

You can apply barriers to prevent yourself from spending money, cook and eat healthier, exercise more, stay in touch with your friends and family, and virtually any other behavior. You can do this with small changes or big ones. The important factor is to take action today.