Thursday, September 9, 2010
Predict Me a Million
At 6: 00 a.m. this morning, I received a text
message. It read: "God told me to tell you that everything you're going
through is taken care of. If you believe in him send this to 8 people,
and in 53 seconds watch who calls."
First, I began to wonder, why didn't God tell me this when I spoke to him before I retired to bed last night? I thought him and I were cool since I confessed to having [some] help with one of my high school Math assignments. Well, kind of like A LOT of help.
Then, I wondered about the 2 pieces of fried chicken I had for lunch yesterday. I guess I should relinquish my fear of a cardiac arrest, because according to the text message, God has somehow removed the lethal level of cholesterol saturated in one piece of fried chicken far less two pieces-especially since I had no business eating it.
Next, I thought about the lottery ticket I purchased yesterday. Perhaps this means I will win the lottery and 53 seconds thereafter, 8 people are going to call and ask for money.
Frankly, that text message was more predictable than it was prophetic. In fact, I almost called the sender and asked, "Why in the world did you send me this 'nonsense' at the crack of dawn?" That would have been her "watch who calls" moment.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that a belief in God is "nonsense," but rather, emails and text messages presenting themselves as God certainly are nonsensical. My faith is in God, not in man's ability to manipulate destiny by creating a series of messages dictating what I should or should not do.
Word of advice to the creators and couriers of these so-called prophetic emails and text messages, DO NOT send them to me! I will only delete them. I am very averse to most expressions containing the word "chain:" chain-smoking, chain-reaction, chain-gang, for example. Chain-letters are absolute HELL NO's! So, do me a favor. If you're going to send me a prediction, predict me something good. If fact, why don't you predict me a million from 8 people in 53 seconds, would ya?
First, I began to wonder, why didn't God tell me this when I spoke to him before I retired to bed last night? I thought him and I were cool since I confessed to having [some] help with one of my high school Math assignments. Well, kind of like A LOT of help.
Then, I wondered about the 2 pieces of fried chicken I had for lunch yesterday. I guess I should relinquish my fear of a cardiac arrest, because according to the text message, God has somehow removed the lethal level of cholesterol saturated in one piece of fried chicken far less two pieces-especially since I had no business eating it.
Next, I thought about the lottery ticket I purchased yesterday. Perhaps this means I will win the lottery and 53 seconds thereafter, 8 people are going to call and ask for money.
Frankly, that text message was more predictable than it was prophetic. In fact, I almost called the sender and asked, "Why in the world did you send me this 'nonsense' at the crack of dawn?" That would have been her "watch who calls" moment.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that a belief in God is "nonsense," but rather, emails and text messages presenting themselves as God certainly are nonsensical. My faith is in God, not in man's ability to manipulate destiny by creating a series of messages dictating what I should or should not do.
Word of advice to the creators and couriers of these so-called prophetic emails and text messages, DO NOT send them to me! I will only delete them. I am very averse to most expressions containing the word "chain:" chain-smoking, chain-reaction, chain-gang, for example. Chain-letters are absolute HELL NO's! So, do me a favor. If you're going to send me a prediction, predict me something good. If fact, why don't you predict me a million from 8 people in 53 seconds, would ya?
Time for a Climate Change Plan B
The world's political leaders, not least President
Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, are in a state of severe,
almost clinical, denial. While acknowledging that the outcome of the
United Nations climate-change conference in Copenhagen fell short of
their demand for a legally binding, enforceable and verifiable global
agreement on emissions reductions by developed and developing countries
alike, they insist that what has been achieved is a breakthrough and a
decisive step forward.
Just one more heave, just one more venue for the great climate-change traveling circus—Mexico City next year—and the job will be done.
Or so we are told. It is, of course, the purest nonsense. The only breakthrough was the political coup for China and India in concluding the anodyne communiqué with the United States behind closed doors, with Brazil and South Africa allowed in the room and Europe left to languish in the cold outside.
Far from achieving a major step forward, Copenhagen—predictably—achieved precisely nothing. The nearest thing to a commitment was the promise by the developed world to pay the developing world $30 billion of "climate aid" over the next three years, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020. Not only is that (perhaps fortunately) not legally binding, but there is no agreement whatsoever about which countries it will go to, in which amounts, and on what conditions.
The reasons for the complete and utter failure of Copenhagen are both fundamental and irresolvable. The first is that the economic cost of decarbonizing the world's economies is massive, and of at least the same order of magnitude as any benefits it may conceivably bring in terms of a cooler world in the next century.
The reason we use carbon-based energy is not the political power of the oil lobby or the coal industry. It is because it is far and away the cheapest source of energy at the present time and is likely to remain so, not forever, but for the foreseeable future.
Switching to much more expensive energy may be acceptable to us in the developed world (although I see no present evidence of this). But in the developing world, including the rapidly developing nations such as China and India, there are still tens if not hundreds of millions of people suffering from acute poverty, and from the consequences of such poverty, in the shape of malnutrition, preventable disease and premature death.
The overriding priority for the developing world has to be the fastest feasible rate of economic development, which means, inter alia, using the cheapest available source of energy: carbon energy.
Moreover, the argument that they should make this economic and human sacrifice to benefit future generations 100 years and more hence is all the less compelling, given that these future generations will, despite any problems caused by warming, be many times better off than the people of the developing world are today.
Or, at least, that is the assumption on which the climate scientists' warming projections are based. It is projected economic growth that determines projected carbon emissions, and projected carbon emissions that (according to the somewhat conjectural computer models on which they rely) determine projected warming (according to the same models).
All this overlaps with the second of the two fundamental reasons why Copenhagen failed, and why Mexico City (if our leaders insist on continuing this futile charade) will fail, too. That is the problem of burden-sharing, and in particular how much of the economic cost of decarbonization should be borne by the developed world, which accounts for the bulk of past emissions, and how much by the faster-growing developing world, which will account for the bulk of future emissions.
The 2006 Stern Review, quite the shoddiest pseudo-scientific and pseudo-economic document any British Government has ever produced, claims the overall burden is very small. If that were so, the problem of how to share the burden would be readily overcome—as indeed occurred with the phasing out of chorofluorocarbons (CFCs) under the 1987 Montreal Protocol. But the true cost of decarbonization is massive, and the distribution of the burden an insoluble problem.
Moreover, any assessment of the impact of any future warming that may occur is inevitably highly conjectural, depending as it does not only on the uncertainties of climate science but also on the uncertainties of future technological development. So what we are talking about is risk.
Not that the risk is all one way. The risk of a 1930s-style outbreak of protectionism—if the developed world were to abjure cheap energy and faced enhanced competition from China and other rapidly industrializing countries that declined to do so—is probably greater than any risk from warming.
But even without that, there is not even a theoretical (let alone a practical) basis for a global agreement on burden-sharing, since, so far as the risk of global warming is concerned (and probably in other areas too) risk aversion is not uniform throughout the world. Not only do different cultures embody very different degrees of risk aversion, but in general the richer countries will tend to be more risk-averse than the poorer countries, if only because we have more to lose.
The time has come to abandon the Kyoto-style folly that reached its apotheosis in Copenhagen last week, and move to plan B.
And the outlines of a credible plan B are clear. First and foremost, we must do what mankind has always done, and adapt to whatever changes in temperature may in the future arise.
This enables us to pocket the benefits of any warming (and there are many) while reducing the costs. None of the projected costs are new phenomena, but the possible exacerbation of problems our climate already throws at us. Addressing these problems directly is many times more cost-effective than anything discussed at Copenhagen. And adaptation does not require a global agreement, although we may well need to help the very poorest countries (not China) to adapt.
Beyond adaptation, plan B should involve a relatively modest, increased government investment in technological research and development—in energy, in adaptation and in geoengineering.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of the Copenhagen debacle, it is not going to be easy to get our leaders to move to plan B. There is no doubt that calling a halt to the high-profile climate-change traveling circus risks causing a severe conference-deprivation trauma among the participants. If there has to be a small public investment in counseling, it would be money well spent.
Just one more heave, just one more venue for the great climate-change traveling circus—Mexico City next year—and the job will be done.
Or so we are told. It is, of course, the purest nonsense. The only breakthrough was the political coup for China and India in concluding the anodyne communiqué with the United States behind closed doors, with Brazil and South Africa allowed in the room and Europe left to languish in the cold outside.
Far from achieving a major step forward, Copenhagen—predictably—achieved precisely nothing. The nearest thing to a commitment was the promise by the developed world to pay the developing world $30 billion of "climate aid" over the next three years, rising to $100 billion a year from 2020. Not only is that (perhaps fortunately) not legally binding, but there is no agreement whatsoever about which countries it will go to, in which amounts, and on what conditions.
The reasons for the complete and utter failure of Copenhagen are both fundamental and irresolvable. The first is that the economic cost of decarbonizing the world's economies is massive, and of at least the same order of magnitude as any benefits it may conceivably bring in terms of a cooler world in the next century.
The reason we use carbon-based energy is not the political power of the oil lobby or the coal industry. It is because it is far and away the cheapest source of energy at the present time and is likely to remain so, not forever, but for the foreseeable future.
Switching to much more expensive energy may be acceptable to us in the developed world (although I see no present evidence of this). But in the developing world, including the rapidly developing nations such as China and India, there are still tens if not hundreds of millions of people suffering from acute poverty, and from the consequences of such poverty, in the shape of malnutrition, preventable disease and premature death.
The overriding priority for the developing world has to be the fastest feasible rate of economic development, which means, inter alia, using the cheapest available source of energy: carbon energy.
Moreover, the argument that they should make this economic and human sacrifice to benefit future generations 100 years and more hence is all the less compelling, given that these future generations will, despite any problems caused by warming, be many times better off than the people of the developing world are today.
Or, at least, that is the assumption on which the climate scientists' warming projections are based. It is projected economic growth that determines projected carbon emissions, and projected carbon emissions that (according to the somewhat conjectural computer models on which they rely) determine projected warming (according to the same models).
All this overlaps with the second of the two fundamental reasons why Copenhagen failed, and why Mexico City (if our leaders insist on continuing this futile charade) will fail, too. That is the problem of burden-sharing, and in particular how much of the economic cost of decarbonization should be borne by the developed world, which accounts for the bulk of past emissions, and how much by the faster-growing developing world, which will account for the bulk of future emissions.
The 2006 Stern Review, quite the shoddiest pseudo-scientific and pseudo-economic document any British Government has ever produced, claims the overall burden is very small. If that were so, the problem of how to share the burden would be readily overcome—as indeed occurred with the phasing out of chorofluorocarbons (CFCs) under the 1987 Montreal Protocol. But the true cost of decarbonization is massive, and the distribution of the burden an insoluble problem.
Moreover, any assessment of the impact of any future warming that may occur is inevitably highly conjectural, depending as it does not only on the uncertainties of climate science but also on the uncertainties of future technological development. So what we are talking about is risk.
Not that the risk is all one way. The risk of a 1930s-style outbreak of protectionism—if the developed world were to abjure cheap energy and faced enhanced competition from China and other rapidly industrializing countries that declined to do so—is probably greater than any risk from warming.
But even without that, there is not even a theoretical (let alone a practical) basis for a global agreement on burden-sharing, since, so far as the risk of global warming is concerned (and probably in other areas too) risk aversion is not uniform throughout the world. Not only do different cultures embody very different degrees of risk aversion, but in general the richer countries will tend to be more risk-averse than the poorer countries, if only because we have more to lose.
The time has come to abandon the Kyoto-style folly that reached its apotheosis in Copenhagen last week, and move to plan B.
And the outlines of a credible plan B are clear. First and foremost, we must do what mankind has always done, and adapt to whatever changes in temperature may in the future arise.
This enables us to pocket the benefits of any warming (and there are many) while reducing the costs. None of the projected costs are new phenomena, but the possible exacerbation of problems our climate already throws at us. Addressing these problems directly is many times more cost-effective than anything discussed at Copenhagen. And adaptation does not require a global agreement, although we may well need to help the very poorest countries (not China) to adapt.
Beyond adaptation, plan B should involve a relatively modest, increased government investment in technological research and development—in energy, in adaptation and in geoengineering.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of the Copenhagen debacle, it is not going to be easy to get our leaders to move to plan B. There is no doubt that calling a halt to the high-profile climate-change traveling circus risks causing a severe conference-deprivation trauma among the participants. If there has to be a small public investment in counseling, it would be money well spent.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Stocks advance as Euro bank fears ease
Stocks gained after a successful auction of Portuguese government debt apparently alleviated some concerns about Europe's banking financial system, then pared gains after the release of some rather dour observations from the Federal Reserve's Beige Book.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 46.32 points, or 0.45 percent, to close at 10,387.01. The S&P 500 index advanced 7.03 points, or 0.64 percent, to 1,098.87, while the NASDAQ climbed 19.98 points, or 0.90 percent, to 2,228.87
The Fed's Beige Book report on regional economic activity in August revealed that five of the twelve regions it tracks showed mixed or slowing activity – in July, only two regions exhibited a slowdown.
European markets gained. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.41 percent, Germany's DAX index advanced 0.76 percent, and France's CAC-40 added 0.92 percent.
Bond prices fell as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.66 percent from 2.61 percent late Tuesday.
Oil prices jumped to nearly $75 per barrel.
Airtel CL T20 now tomorrow
ACL T20: Stage set for 'golden rush'
The stage for Airtel Champions League is all set as teams sharpen their swords for the final assault.
September 10, 2010. The day the pageant of the champions begins with the supremely gifted Sachin Tendulkar
taking the field. For a little over a fortnight, the parade of
champions will carry on, mesmerising the world of cricket and wooing new
fans into the fold of an old and venerated sport. But it’s not enough
to just have the champions of the cricketing world display their wares
on the most glittering stage. What’s sport without a winner, right? And
ACLT20 has decided to crown winners all along the way to the finale of
the tournament.After every single match of CLT20 2010, the leading run-scorer will be awarded the Golden Bat emblem to acknowledge his status as first among equals, while the Golden Wicket emblem will be adorned by the leading wicket-taker. So when you see the proud badge on the chest of a player, you know he’s the king of champions at that stage of the tournament.
At the end of the tournament, the player with the highest tally of runs and that with the highest tally of wickets will receive specially commissioned prizes during the presentations at the closing ceremony (See Golden Bat / Golden Wicket below)
With teams revving up for some serious combat, players will have their own individual battles to win along the way. So will the big guns of the tournament earn the coveted prizes at the end of the tournament? Or could this just be the stage where new stars come to light? All eyes are on the champions.
Golden Bat
The Golden Bat will be awarded to the batsman with the most cumulative runs after each match of the CLT20 tournament and a badge / emblem will be worn by that batman whilst batting, if he has the most runs prior to the commencement of his innings, or whilst fielding if during his innings he overtakes the leading run-scorer in the tournament. If there are two or more batmen with the same total, the Golden Bat will be awarded to the player with the higher strike-rate.
At the end of the tournament, the holder of the Golden Bat will receive a specially commissioned prize / bat during the presentations at the closing ceremony.
Golden Wicket
The Golden Wicket will be awarded to the bowler with the most cumulative wickets after each match of the tournament, and a badge / emblem will be worn by that bowler whilst fielding, if he has the most wickets prior to the commencement of the innings, or whilst batting if during his bowling spell he overtakes the leading wicket-taker in the tournament. If there are two or more bowlers with the same total, the Golden Wicket will be awarded to the player with the better strike-rate.
At the end of the tournament, the holder of the Golden Wicket will receive a specially commissioned prize during the presentations at the closing ceremony.
Italy, Greece to lift gold prices
LONDON (Commodity Online): Once again Europe has come to the rescue of gold, which has been witnessing a steady slide during the past few weeks. With Italy and Greece plunging into crisis again, the uncertainty looming over Europe has added to the fear among investors and gold prices are set to cash in on this panic with more demand from safe haven buying.
More News
Can the Internet help Teens fight Depression?
'Gypsies' and Europe
Gold for December delivery was down 2.1 per cent this week at $1,166.60 an ounce on the Comex in New York. The metal has dropped 7.9 per cent since climbing to a record $1,266.50 on June 21. Prices on July 28 slipped to a 12- week low of $1,159.30 as holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, dropped the most in more than two years. Physical demand for gold from India, China and the wider Asian region was very visible as prices declined this week.
Spot gold added as much as $5.85, or 0.5%, to $1,169.45 an ounce in London and was at $1,167.15 on Friday.
Two major developments in Italy and Greece will definitely help gold in the coming days. On Friday, Italian parliament approved an austerity package worth more than $32bn, aimed at cutting the country's budget deficit and reassuring financial markets.
Sponsored by the government of Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, the package passed by a vote 321 to 270 votes, with four abstentions. The cuts aim to bring Italy's budget deficit under three per cent by 2010 from 5.3 per cent in 2009.
Italy's largest union staged strikes over the measures, as did magistrates, doctors and diplomats. The austerity package has won praise from European Union officials and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Following this, there have been crisis talks in Italy as Silvio Berlusconi split from his once most powerful ally, prompting speculation the government could fall.
Senior colleagues gathered to discuss the consequences of the final showdown between the premier and Gianfranco Fini after months of conflict. The pair co-founded the ruling People of Freedom party. But now it has issued a document, censuring Fini for open dissent.
Berlusconi's government was in danger of collapse after open warfare broke out between the Italian prime minister and his most senior party colleague. The dispute with Gianfranco Fini, the co-founder of the governing People of Freedom party, follows a string of corruption and sex scandals.
To add to this European fire, more fuel was added from Greece also. In Greece, truck drivers defied an emergency government order Thursday to end their strike and return to work.
The country's 33,000 licensed truck drivers walked out on Monday in protest over the government's plans to slash the price of new trucking licenses, a key provision in a multibillion-dollar plan worked out with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to help Greece avoid defaulting on its debt.
Greece had also the closure of almost a dozen consulates in Europe and South Africa due to the economic crisis that has hit the country hard this year. The decision was taken as part of government efforts to slash the state budget deficit, currently reaching 13.6 percent of the GDP, to less than three percent by 2014 and restore the national economy.
The financial rescue package, which was agreed to in early May, will require years of painful belt-tightening in Greece. In return, the nation's European partners and the IMF agreed to provide $146 billion in loans over the next three years, intended to help Greece avoid a default.
The situation is spreading panic in Europe once again and global gold market is upbeat over increased demand from safe haven buying.
More News
Can the Internet help Teens fight Depression?
'Gypsies' and Europe
Gold for December delivery was down 2.1 per cent this week at $1,166.60 an ounce on the Comex in New York. The metal has dropped 7.9 per cent since climbing to a record $1,266.50 on June 21. Prices on July 28 slipped to a 12- week low of $1,159.30 as holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, dropped the most in more than two years. Physical demand for gold from India, China and the wider Asian region was very visible as prices declined this week.
Spot gold added as much as $5.85, or 0.5%, to $1,169.45 an ounce in London and was at $1,167.15 on Friday.
Two major developments in Italy and Greece will definitely help gold in the coming days. On Friday, Italian parliament approved an austerity package worth more than $32bn, aimed at cutting the country's budget deficit and reassuring financial markets.
Sponsored by the government of Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, the package passed by a vote 321 to 270 votes, with four abstentions. The cuts aim to bring Italy's budget deficit under three per cent by 2010 from 5.3 per cent in 2009.
Italy's largest union staged strikes over the measures, as did magistrates, doctors and diplomats. The austerity package has won praise from European Union officials and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Following this, there have been crisis talks in Italy as Silvio Berlusconi split from his once most powerful ally, prompting speculation the government could fall.
Senior colleagues gathered to discuss the consequences of the final showdown between the premier and Gianfranco Fini after months of conflict. The pair co-founded the ruling People of Freedom party. But now it has issued a document, censuring Fini for open dissent.
Berlusconi's government was in danger of collapse after open warfare broke out between the Italian prime minister and his most senior party colleague. The dispute with Gianfranco Fini, the co-founder of the governing People of Freedom party, follows a string of corruption and sex scandals.
To add to this European fire, more fuel was added from Greece also. In Greece, truck drivers defied an emergency government order Thursday to end their strike and return to work.
The country's 33,000 licensed truck drivers walked out on Monday in protest over the government's plans to slash the price of new trucking licenses, a key provision in a multibillion-dollar plan worked out with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to help Greece avoid defaulting on its debt.
Greece had also the closure of almost a dozen consulates in Europe and South Africa due to the economic crisis that has hit the country hard this year. The decision was taken as part of government efforts to slash the state budget deficit, currently reaching 13.6 percent of the GDP, to less than three percent by 2014 and restore the national economy.
The financial rescue package, which was agreed to in early May, will require years of painful belt-tightening in Greece. In return, the nation's European partners and the IMF agreed to provide $146 billion in loans over the next three years, intended to help Greece avoid a default.
The situation is spreading panic in Europe once again and global gold market is upbeat over increased demand from safe haven buying.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
How People Make More Money Online With Less Effort
How People Make More Money Online With Less Effort
Can you ever imagine how does it feel when the first time you see money in your account appear after you did nothing much to generate it? I have ever feel it and I want to feel it forever. Make money online is already a benefit, people can do it from their comfortable home. No doubt, people like to be always close to their family. Stay at home whenever they want and go out with their family wherever they want to go. It sounds too good to be true, but you might be surprised if many people have been living in such life style. They do not working hard as others do. They do not go to the office, meet horrible bosses, sometimes fighting with their colleagues, and spend hours on the way to and from their offices.
In addition to those benefits of making money online from your comfortable home, you can even make money with less effort compare to the others who are still working hard even if they do not need to go to the office for their offline jobs. They are still spending hours every day and even working till late in the night. They are at home, but their family does not feel their present at home. It is not what everyone of us dreamed right? It is just the same situation you had when you were working offline in your old office. The only different is just you are not leaving your home, that is it.
The internet marketing gurus have been working years to find a way to get rid of this situation. They are looking for a system that will be able to automate everything and save their time significantly. That is the reason behind many advanced inventions today. As you can see now, there is email auto responder, form filling software, article creator software and many others invention that will helps people saving their time and working more efficient than before. The whole idea of this all is to pull people back to their initial purpose. They have chosen making money online because they want to have more time with their family. They want to have more time to do others valuable things in their life. With all of these automation, you can even make more money while you are sleep.
If you want to have such nice lifestyle, you should start to automate everything as much as you can. If you are smart, you will be able to find all these automation system by investing a little of your money as compensation to your more valuable time. That is a must, if you are too stingy in investment you will never get such nice lifestyle ever.
Can you ever imagine how does it feel when the first time you see money in your account appear after you did nothing much to generate it? I have ever feel it and I want to feel it forever. Make money online is already a benefit, people can do it from their comfortable home. No doubt, people like to be always close to their family. Stay at home whenever they want and go out with their family wherever they want to go. It sounds too good to be true, but you might be surprised if many people have been living in such life style. They do not working hard as others do. They do not go to the office, meet horrible bosses, sometimes fighting with their colleagues, and spend hours on the way to and from their offices.
In addition to those benefits of making money online from your comfortable home, you can even make money with less effort compare to the others who are still working hard even if they do not need to go to the office for their offline jobs. They are still spending hours every day and even working till late in the night. They are at home, but their family does not feel their present at home. It is not what everyone of us dreamed right? It is just the same situation you had when you were working offline in your old office. The only different is just you are not leaving your home, that is it.
The internet marketing gurus have been working years to find a way to get rid of this situation. They are looking for a system that will be able to automate everything and save their time significantly. That is the reason behind many advanced inventions today. As you can see now, there is email auto responder, form filling software, article creator software and many others invention that will helps people saving their time and working more efficient than before. The whole idea of this all is to pull people back to their initial purpose. They have chosen making money online because they want to have more time with their family. They want to have more time to do others valuable things in their life. With all of these automation, you can even make more money while you are sleep.
If you want to have such nice lifestyle, you should start to automate everything as much as you can. If you are smart, you will be able to find all these automation system by investing a little of your money as compensation to your more valuable time. That is a must, if you are too stingy in investment you will never get such nice lifestyle ever.
How to Market a Product Or Idea
How to Market a Product Or Idea
There is a lot of excitement when a new idea regarding business comes up that may expand your company or even launch a very new product to the market. These ideas may be presented to some investors who are interested to buy them and get a share of profit. Once you have a buyer of the idea you can target the market with the suitable price and earn profit in a while. But one important thing to do is to promote the product in such a way that people are aware of its availability. By reading this article one will know how to market a product or idea.
There are few things that will come handy in this process. They are a computer, word processing, a program using the spreadsheet, a presentation program and also the internet.
The first step to be done is to do a detailed research of the market available for the product. Then also see how the things have been changing over the last few days. Have an idea about its competitors and challenges faced. The legal considerations must also be identified that may come in play regarding the idea. All the copyrights patents and trademarks are obtained.
A budget is then created which includes the money needed for the plan and the miscellaneous funds required to carry out this. The start up cost is also included. Sometimes the store required and also the staff should also be included. The R&D is another part to concentrate the expenditure on.
The target market and the people are indentified. A profile can then be created with all the details that would make people to be benefited from it. The details also include the age, income, education level, their interests, etc so that it gives an opportunity for you to concentrate on what they would be interested in. Some people would like things that make things easier in life like readymade stuffs. The mode of information is also another important thing to concentrate on.
Then, the person to whom the idea is to pitched can be decided. Some products may be things that can readily be offered to the people. In this case approach the super markets. Other products have some specific people or retailers who sell it. In that case approach them. If it requires some funding, financers can be approached.
Then, a presentation can be crafted. This must have all the basic information that would interest the people who want to invest in your idea. This is about the idea or product, market and its response. It should also have some financial details and the pay back it would give. You must also give details about how much money is required to be invested and how much is returned and in how long. Number details always will impress the investors.
There is a lot of excitement when a new idea regarding business comes up that may expand your company or even launch a very new product to the market. These ideas may be presented to some investors who are interested to buy them and get a share of profit. Once you have a buyer of the idea you can target the market with the suitable price and earn profit in a while. But one important thing to do is to promote the product in such a way that people are aware of its availability. By reading this article one will know how to market a product or idea.
There are few things that will come handy in this process. They are a computer, word processing, a program using the spreadsheet, a presentation program and also the internet.
The first step to be done is to do a detailed research of the market available for the product. Then also see how the things have been changing over the last few days. Have an idea about its competitors and challenges faced. The legal considerations must also be identified that may come in play regarding the idea. All the copyrights patents and trademarks are obtained.
A budget is then created which includes the money needed for the plan and the miscellaneous funds required to carry out this. The start up cost is also included. Sometimes the store required and also the staff should also be included. The R&D is another part to concentrate the expenditure on.
The target market and the people are indentified. A profile can then be created with all the details that would make people to be benefited from it. The details also include the age, income, education level, their interests, etc so that it gives an opportunity for you to concentrate on what they would be interested in. Some people would like things that make things easier in life like readymade stuffs. The mode of information is also another important thing to concentrate on.
Then, the person to whom the idea is to pitched can be decided. Some products may be things that can readily be offered to the people. In this case approach the super markets. Other products have some specific people or retailers who sell it. In that case approach them. If it requires some funding, financers can be approached.
Then, a presentation can be crafted. This must have all the basic information that would interest the people who want to invest in your idea. This is about the idea or product, market and its response. It should also have some financial details and the pay back it would give. You must also give details about how much money is required to be invested and how much is returned and in how long. Number details always will impress the investors.
How to Make Extra Money - Unique Ways to Make Money
How to Make Extra Money - Unique Ways to Make Money
Many people these days are wondering how to make extra money from home. They find that their current incomes are not enough due to that the living costs are always increasing. Therefore, there is a demand to find ways to make extra income online. If you are one of them, below are creative ways to make money online.
Make Money With Online Data Entry Jobs
Many companies these days are outsourcing most of their tedious paper work online in order to cut cost. By employing people to do work from home such as organizing companies' databases, preparing spreadsheets, etc, companies can reduce their cost. This is because if the work is to carry out by an office worker, there are overheads that they need to take care of for running the work in an office environment. You should make use of this great opportunity to look around on the internet and find legitimate companies to work with.
Make Money Taking Surveys
There are companies who are willing to compensate you for your time in helping them fill up survey forms. These surveys are conducted mostly to provide feedback on their products or services. With the feedback acquired, companies can try to improve their products or services to help serve the consumer better and hence increasing their profit. This explains why they are willing to pay you for completing the surveys. Try to find the genuine companies to work with online.
Make Money Selling Other People's Products
Another way to make money online is to sell other people products known as affiliate marketing. Here, you need to sell their products through an affiliate link placed in your website. When anybody clicks on your affiliate link and bought something through your link, you earn a commission.
Make Money With Master Resell Rights Products
If you do not have your own product to sell, you can sell products with Master Resell Rights. These products are products that you bought online and you bought it with the Master Resell Rights. Once you bought the product, not only you can use it as your own, you can also sell them and earn 100% profit for yourself. There are lots of such products online. To find good quality ones that you can use it yourself and sell it to others, it may not be a difficult task if you know where to look for.
Many people these days are wondering how to make extra money from home. They find that their current incomes are not enough due to that the living costs are always increasing. Therefore, there is a demand to find ways to make extra income online. If you are one of them, below are creative ways to make money online.
Make Money With Online Data Entry Jobs
Many companies these days are outsourcing most of their tedious paper work online in order to cut cost. By employing people to do work from home such as organizing companies' databases, preparing spreadsheets, etc, companies can reduce their cost. This is because if the work is to carry out by an office worker, there are overheads that they need to take care of for running the work in an office environment. You should make use of this great opportunity to look around on the internet and find legitimate companies to work with.
Make Money Taking Surveys
There are companies who are willing to compensate you for your time in helping them fill up survey forms. These surveys are conducted mostly to provide feedback on their products or services. With the feedback acquired, companies can try to improve their products or services to help serve the consumer better and hence increasing their profit. This explains why they are willing to pay you for completing the surveys. Try to find the genuine companies to work with online.
Make Money Selling Other People's Products
Another way to make money online is to sell other people products known as affiliate marketing. Here, you need to sell their products through an affiliate link placed in your website. When anybody clicks on your affiliate link and bought something through your link, you earn a commission.
Make Money With Master Resell Rights Products
If you do not have your own product to sell, you can sell products with Master Resell Rights. These products are products that you bought online and you bought it with the Master Resell Rights. Once you bought the product, not only you can use it as your own, you can also sell them and earn 100% profit for yourself. There are lots of such products online. To find good quality ones that you can use it yourself and sell it to others, it may not be a difficult task if you know where to look for.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
How To Recover Deleted Files In Windows 7
At times we delete files from our recycle bin and then we wonder how to recover deleted files in windows 7. The best thing to keep in mind is that a deleted file always exists somewhere on the hard drive, it is just a difficult task to locate those files if you do not know where to look for them.
If you cannot locate a file on your hard drive or if you have deleted it or perhaps modified it, it is still possible to recover that file from a backup. If you want to know how to recover deleted files in windows 7, you can restore it from a previous version.
There is a resource in windows 7 called previous versions which is a copy of a file or a folder which Windows saves as part of your back up system called a restore point. Previous versions are also referred to as shadow copies.
This is the next step you should take when you are learning how to recover deleted files in windows 7 if you have already perused the recycle bin and have had no luck finding deleted files within that folder.
There is still another possibility, if these do not work for you and that is using a software recovery program which locates and restores your deleted files for you. It is not possible to find a file just by looking for it once it has been deleted from the recycle bin because all identifying features are stripped from it, including file extensions.
This is how your operating system reuses space on your hard drive and it is also the reason why you will be able to recover the deleted file, just as long as you use the recovery software before you save more data to your hard drive.
There's a lot of data recovery software available for instant download on the internet. The best ones also offer a free scan to inform you of which deleted files they've found. Theres a website that compares data recovery software side by side in an easy to read format.
What to Know About Guaranteed Unsecured Loans
Guaranteed unsecured loans can be a great way to fund your new business
idea. Whether you’re looking at starting a new business or branching out
your existing business, guaranteed unsecured loans can be one of the
most risk-free ways you can get the money you need.
But what are guaranteed unsecured loans? Let’s break it down and look at it in parts. First, what are unsecured loans? Unsecured loans are loans that don’t require collateral, or "securities." When you’re taking out a secured loan, you’re offering the bank an alternative means of coming up with the money if you default on the loan. If you’re taking out an unsecured loan, on the other hand, the bank doesn’t have that option. That means they’ll charge you a higher interest rate to make up for the risk that they don’t get the loan back. If they make more money on the transaction, the lender will be much more willing to take that risk on you.
A guaranteed loan is one with a third party involved. If the borrower (in this case, you) defaults on the loan, a third party comes in and pays the difference. In many business cases, the initial borrower is your corporation, and the third party is you personally. This allows the bank a lot more security in lending to you, since they know that they’ll get the money one way or another.
Guaranteed unsecured loans, then, are loans that don’t require collateral, but will be paid back even if the borrower defaults on the loan. Taking out a guaranteed unsecured loan is a way of getting the same treatment from the bank that you would with a secured loan - but without having to put your property at risk. The advantage of this type of loan is that you don’t have to pay the high interest of an unsecured loan (because the bank knows it’ll get the money back,) and you won’t lose your property to the bank.
Of course, you will have to find a third party. In a business situation, this can be easy; your business is the borrower, the bank is the lender, and your personal account is the third party that guarantees the loan. In a more personal context, finding a third party can be a little trickier. While you might be able to convince Auntie Mae that you’re worth the risk, you might want to consider a guaranteed unsecured loan as more of a business setting than a personal one
But what are guaranteed unsecured loans? Let’s break it down and look at it in parts. First, what are unsecured loans? Unsecured loans are loans that don’t require collateral, or "securities." When you’re taking out a secured loan, you’re offering the bank an alternative means of coming up with the money if you default on the loan. If you’re taking out an unsecured loan, on the other hand, the bank doesn’t have that option. That means they’ll charge you a higher interest rate to make up for the risk that they don’t get the loan back. If they make more money on the transaction, the lender will be much more willing to take that risk on you.
A guaranteed loan is one with a third party involved. If the borrower (in this case, you) defaults on the loan, a third party comes in and pays the difference. In many business cases, the initial borrower is your corporation, and the third party is you personally. This allows the bank a lot more security in lending to you, since they know that they’ll get the money one way or another.
Guaranteed unsecured loans, then, are loans that don’t require collateral, but will be paid back even if the borrower defaults on the loan. Taking out a guaranteed unsecured loan is a way of getting the same treatment from the bank that you would with a secured loan - but without having to put your property at risk. The advantage of this type of loan is that you don’t have to pay the high interest of an unsecured loan (because the bank knows it’ll get the money back,) and you won’t lose your property to the bank.
Of course, you will have to find a third party. In a business situation, this can be easy; your business is the borrower, the bank is the lender, and your personal account is the third party that guarantees the loan. In a more personal context, finding a third party can be a little trickier. While you might be able to convince Auntie Mae that you’re worth the risk, you might want to consider a guaranteed unsecured loan as more of a business setting than a personal one
5 Ways to Make Money Online Without Spending Anything
Often people come on the Internet looking for ways to make money online without spending any money to get started. In this article we will take a look at 5 ways you can get started making money on the Internet and it won't cost you one penny out of your pocket.
1. Start a blog at Blogger.com. This is free to do and it will only take you a couple of minutes to set up. Google owns this blogging platform so you will want to monetize your blog with ads from Google AdSense.
They make it very easy to get the ads on your blog. You make money every time one of your visitors clicks on one of these ads. Because you are not selling anything this is the easiest way to make money on the Internet.
2. Join a cost per action affiliate network. CPA programs pay you to get your visitor to perform a specific action such as filling out a short lead form.
When you join an affiliate network offering these kinds of programs you will have access to numerous merchants across various niches. Again this is fairly easy money to make because you do not require your visitor to purchase anything for you to earn money.
3. Become an Internet writer. There are a lot of ways to earn money writing online today. Copywriters earn six-figure incomes if they are good.
Blog writers can make extra income, or even quit their job as there are millions of blogs that need fresh content written for them. Writing content articles can pay you well as people need them for their website and article marketing needs.
4. Join ClickBank.com and sell digital information. This is the largest information website in the world and it's free to join. You get one ID number to market all of the thousands of products they have.
You can make money selling ebooks, and they also have recurring commission products that pay you on a monthly basis. Information is always in demand so this is a good way to make money without spending anything to startout.
5. Take paid surveys. You can join survey programs such as InboxDollars and have surveys mailed directly to your email inbox for you to fill out. There are many people who make a few extra hundred dollars a month taking paid surveys online and these programs are free to join.
These are five ways to make money online without spending anything to do it. Millions of people make money on the Internet today and you can too!
1. Start a blog at Blogger.com. This is free to do and it will only take you a couple of minutes to set up. Google owns this blogging platform so you will want to monetize your blog with ads from Google AdSense.
They make it very easy to get the ads on your blog. You make money every time one of your visitors clicks on one of these ads. Because you are not selling anything this is the easiest way to make money on the Internet.
2. Join a cost per action affiliate network. CPA programs pay you to get your visitor to perform a specific action such as filling out a short lead form.
When you join an affiliate network offering these kinds of programs you will have access to numerous merchants across various niches. Again this is fairly easy money to make because you do not require your visitor to purchase anything for you to earn money.
3. Become an Internet writer. There are a lot of ways to earn money writing online today. Copywriters earn six-figure incomes if they are good.
Blog writers can make extra income, or even quit their job as there are millions of blogs that need fresh content written for them. Writing content articles can pay you well as people need them for their website and article marketing needs.
4. Join ClickBank.com and sell digital information. This is the largest information website in the world and it's free to join. You get one ID number to market all of the thousands of products they have.
You can make money selling ebooks, and they also have recurring commission products that pay you on a monthly basis. Information is always in demand so this is a good way to make money without spending anything to startout.
5. Take paid surveys. You can join survey programs such as InboxDollars and have surveys mailed directly to your email inbox for you to fill out. There are many people who make a few extra hundred dollars a month taking paid surveys online and these programs are free to join.
These are five ways to make money online without spending anything to do it. Millions of people make money on the Internet today and you can too!
Making Money 24 Hours a Day
How is that possible?
A popular way on the internet is to create an information product, and sell it by creating a website. However, not all of us are able to create an information product and/or are computer savvy.
There are a few Affiliate Networks around, the famous ones being ClickBank, and PayDotCom. Each Affiliate Network have many sellers and many affiliates. Sellers are drawn to the Affiliate Networks as their products are sold by affiliates rather than having to produce marketing systems to reach their potential markets. The affiliates are assured of their commissions when a sale is made as buyers pay the Affiliate Network rather than the sellers.
It is free to join most of the Affiliate Networks and the affiliate commission can be as high as 75% of the sale. The advantage of this for those who are not computer savvy is that you do not need to set up an ordering, processing, and payment system. You are also not involved with customer complaints, keeping inventory, or shipping.
Importantly, the costs and risk are minimal. If the product that you choose to promote is not making money, move on to another product - it is as easy as that! For those of you without a website, you will need to write reviews, articles, or blogs about the product you are promoting, and provide coded links from the Affiliate Network. When someone clicks on these coded links, they will be taken to the website of the product. If a buyer buys because of your recommendation, you will be paid a commission from the Affiliate Network.
The number of subscribers to the internet is growing at an astronomical rate. People from all over the world are getting access to quicker broadband internet; as such, this is a growing opportunity to get into internet marketing, and earn extra money. Remember, you have to sleep, the internet is always "on". So this is how you can make money 24 hours a day!
A popular way on the internet is to create an information product, and sell it by creating a website. However, not all of us are able to create an information product and/or are computer savvy.
One of the new ways is to launch into internet marketing and be an
affiliate. What is an affiliate? It is basically a way to act as a
middle man on-line between sellers and buyers. The affiliate earns a
commission which comes from the Affiliate Network they choose to work
with.
There are a few Affiliate Networks around, the famous ones being ClickBank, and PayDotCom. Each Affiliate Network have many sellers and many affiliates. Sellers are drawn to the Affiliate Networks as their products are sold by affiliates rather than having to produce marketing systems to reach their potential markets. The affiliates are assured of their commissions when a sale is made as buyers pay the Affiliate Network rather than the sellers.
It is free to join most of the Affiliate Networks and the affiliate commission can be as high as 75% of the sale. The advantage of this for those who are not computer savvy is that you do not need to set up an ordering, processing, and payment system. You are also not involved with customer complaints, keeping inventory, or shipping.
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Importantly, the costs and risk are minimal. If the product that you choose to promote is not making money, move on to another product - it is as easy as that! For those of you without a website, you will need to write reviews, articles, or blogs about the product you are promoting, and provide coded links from the Affiliate Network. When someone clicks on these coded links, they will be taken to the website of the product. If a buyer buys because of your recommendation, you will be paid a commission from the Affiliate Network.
The number of subscribers to the internet is growing at an astronomical rate. People from all over the world are getting access to quicker broadband internet; as such, this is a growing opportunity to get into internet marketing, and earn extra money. Remember, you have to sleep, the internet is always "on". So this is how you can make money 24 hours a day!
Friday, September 3, 2010
How the Brain Reveals Why We Buy
How the Brain Reveals Why We Buy
Editor's note: The following is an excerpt
from Mindfield: How Brain Science Is Changing Our World by Lone Frank,
to be released in the U.S. November 10.
Say the word: neuromarketing. Doesn’t exactly sound good, does it? It’s an outlandish word that scrapes across the tongue, leaving an aftertaste of thought control, science fiction, and downright creepiness. The press surrounding neuromarketing reflects this as well. The headlines are ominous: soon, the bright boys of the advertising world will get their sticky hands on our inner "buy button." Soon, marketing experts, with the help of cutting-edge brain research, will get direct access to the inner depths of our brains where, with the right stimulation, they can unleash our buying impulses and get their cash registers ringing.
Neuromarketing is a young and growing field–some won’t even admit that it is a field yet–that is striving to reveal the inner mechanisms of our consumer behavior. You might say that this interest and the issues it raises are a natural extension or offshoot of neuroeconomics and the more general studies of how we make choices and decisions. Every so often, there is also a conspicuous overlap between neuroeconomists and researchers in neuromarketing. The studies in neuromarketing are just more specific and much more directed. And the Holy Grail lies in predicting what the brain wants.
In the advertising industry, you can see neuromarketing as an attempt to make the "art" of advertising into a science. Any marketing expert proposing a multi-million dollar project to a client would like to be able to back it up with something that looks like real data, not just hunches. To answer this need, marketing has already drawn on psychology in developing tests and theories, and ad people have borrowed the idea of the focus group from social scientists. Brain research is the third wave. And neuromarketing has taken on a warm, fuzzy glow in the advertising world, where they convene meetings and conferences about its potential and, every so often, proclaim in their journals that it is the undeniable wave of the future. Such enthusiasm is harder to find in the scientific arena. Marketing is not a science, many say, pointing out that only a small handful of studies have been published in scientific journals.
Still, the whole thing started in academic circles, when in 2003 Clinton Kilts of Atlanta’s Emory University called in a team of volunteers for a series of experiments to throw light on the brain’s role in product preferences. How does activity in brain cells mirror things we are crazy about as opposed to things we absolutely hate or that just don’t speak to us? At that point, Kilts had nothing to do with marketing or advertising in general, but the fundamental question tickled his fancy.
The volunteers came in and, in the first round, were presented with an array of various consumer goods, which they were asked to rank by appeal. Simple answers on a numerical scale. In the next phase, they were taken through the MRI scanner as they were once again shown the same goods, while the apparatus registered the brain activity they aroused. When Kilts later analyzed the reactions of the research subjects, there was a common feature that leapt to his notice at once. Every time one of them–male or female–saw a product they really liked, blood rushed to a little area towards the front of the brain. The medial prefrontal cortex lit up like a beacon in the images.
This result lit a fire under Clinton Kilts, who knew he was onto something interesting. The medial prefrontal cortex is not just any old brain region–it is an area very much involved in our self-identification and the construction of our personality in general. This part of the frontal lobes is involved when we relate to ourselves and to who we are in some way. Kilts was quick to draw his conclusion. The scanning experiments, he believed, indicated that, if you are attracted by a product, it is because you identify with it. That the product fits into the picture you have of yourself.
This was quite exciting–in a nice academic way–but the debut experiment seemed to provide an obvious opportunity to do a new sort of study of the market. Kilts could see a future where researchers didn’t have to go out and ask people what they thought about a product anymore, or rely on their vague answers and poor self-insight. No, potential consumers could just be scanned and the answers could come straight from the brain.
Say the word: neuromarketing. Doesn’t exactly sound good, does it? It’s an outlandish word that scrapes across the tongue, leaving an aftertaste of thought control, science fiction, and downright creepiness. The press surrounding neuromarketing reflects this as well. The headlines are ominous: soon, the bright boys of the advertising world will get their sticky hands on our inner "buy button." Soon, marketing experts, with the help of cutting-edge brain research, will get direct access to the inner depths of our brains where, with the right stimulation, they can unleash our buying impulses and get their cash registers ringing.
Neuromarketing is a young and growing field–some won’t even admit that it is a field yet–that is striving to reveal the inner mechanisms of our consumer behavior. You might say that this interest and the issues it raises are a natural extension or offshoot of neuroeconomics and the more general studies of how we make choices and decisions. Every so often, there is also a conspicuous overlap between neuroeconomists and researchers in neuromarketing. The studies in neuromarketing are just more specific and much more directed. And the Holy Grail lies in predicting what the brain wants.
In the advertising industry, you can see neuromarketing as an attempt to make the "art" of advertising into a science. Any marketing expert proposing a multi-million dollar project to a client would like to be able to back it up with something that looks like real data, not just hunches. To answer this need, marketing has already drawn on psychology in developing tests and theories, and ad people have borrowed the idea of the focus group from social scientists. Brain research is the third wave. And neuromarketing has taken on a warm, fuzzy glow in the advertising world, where they convene meetings and conferences about its potential and, every so often, proclaim in their journals that it is the undeniable wave of the future. Such enthusiasm is harder to find in the scientific arena. Marketing is not a science, many say, pointing out that only a small handful of studies have been published in scientific journals.
Still, the whole thing started in academic circles, when in 2003 Clinton Kilts of Atlanta’s Emory University called in a team of volunteers for a series of experiments to throw light on the brain’s role in product preferences. How does activity in brain cells mirror things we are crazy about as opposed to things we absolutely hate or that just don’t speak to us? At that point, Kilts had nothing to do with marketing or advertising in general, but the fundamental question tickled his fancy.
The volunteers came in and, in the first round, were presented with an array of various consumer goods, which they were asked to rank by appeal. Simple answers on a numerical scale. In the next phase, they were taken through the MRI scanner as they were once again shown the same goods, while the apparatus registered the brain activity they aroused. When Kilts later analyzed the reactions of the research subjects, there was a common feature that leapt to his notice at once. Every time one of them–male or female–saw a product they really liked, blood rushed to a little area towards the front of the brain. The medial prefrontal cortex lit up like a beacon in the images.
This result lit a fire under Clinton Kilts, who knew he was onto something interesting. The medial prefrontal cortex is not just any old brain region–it is an area very much involved in our self-identification and the construction of our personality in general. This part of the frontal lobes is involved when we relate to ourselves and to who we are in some way. Kilts was quick to draw his conclusion. The scanning experiments, he believed, indicated that, if you are attracted by a product, it is because you identify with it. That the product fits into the picture you have of yourself.
This was quite exciting–in a nice academic way–but the debut experiment seemed to provide an obvious opportunity to do a new sort of study of the market. Kilts could see a future where researchers didn’t have to go out and ask people what they thought about a product anymore, or rely on their vague answers and poor self-insight. No, potential consumers could just be scanned and the answers could come straight from the brain.
Vast Right Arm Conspiracy? Study Suggests Handedness May Aff
Vast Right Arm Conspiracy? Study Suggests Handedness May Aff
There are areas in the brain devoted to our
arms, legs, and various parts of our bodies. The way these areas are
distributed throughout the brain are known as "body maps" and there are
some significant differences in these maps between left- and
right-handed people. For example, in left-handed people, there is an
equal amount of brain area devoted to the left and right arms in both
hemispheres. However, for right-handed people, there is more cortical
area associated with right arm than the left.
Psychologists Sally A. Linkenauger, Jonathan Z. Bakdash, and Dennis R. Proffitt of the University of Virginia, along with Jessica K. Witt from Purdue University, and Jeanine K. Stefanucci from The College of William and Mary wanted to see if this difference in body maps leads to differences in how we perceive the length of our arms.
For this study, volunteers were brought to the lab and estimated their perceived arm length and how far they could reach with their arms. To estimate arm length, the volunteers would hold out each arm while a researcher standing in front of them would adjust a tape measure -- the volunteers had to indicate when they thought the tape was the same length as their arm. To see how far volunteers could reach with each arm, they sat at a table with a plastic chip on it. The volunteers would instruct the experimenter to move the position of the chip to estimate how far they could reach.
The results, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveal some differences in the way left- and right-handed people perceive their arms. Left-handed volunteers judged both of their arms to be the same length, but right-handed participants underestimated the length of their left arm -- they consistently perceived their right arms as being longer. In addition, right-handed volunteers thought their right hands were larger than their left, when in fact, they were both the same size. When guessing how far they could reach with their arms, left-handed volunteers estimated they could reach equally far with both arms while right-handed volunteers predicted they could reach farther with their right arm.
These findings suggest that body maps in our brain may influence how we perceive our physical bodies -- for example, if there is a lot of brain area associated with our right arm, we will view it being as longer compared to our left arm.
Psychologists Sally A. Linkenauger, Jonathan Z. Bakdash, and Dennis R. Proffitt of the University of Virginia, along with Jessica K. Witt from Purdue University, and Jeanine K. Stefanucci from The College of William and Mary wanted to see if this difference in body maps leads to differences in how we perceive the length of our arms.
For this study, volunteers were brought to the lab and estimated their perceived arm length and how far they could reach with their arms. To estimate arm length, the volunteers would hold out each arm while a researcher standing in front of them would adjust a tape measure -- the volunteers had to indicate when they thought the tape was the same length as their arm. To see how far volunteers could reach with each arm, they sat at a table with a plastic chip on it. The volunteers would instruct the experimenter to move the position of the chip to estimate how far they could reach.
The results, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveal some differences in the way left- and right-handed people perceive their arms. Left-handed volunteers judged both of their arms to be the same length, but right-handed participants underestimated the length of their left arm -- they consistently perceived their right arms as being longer. In addition, right-handed volunteers thought their right hands were larger than their left, when in fact, they were both the same size. When guessing how far they could reach with their arms, left-handed volunteers estimated they could reach equally far with both arms while right-handed volunteers predicted they could reach farther with their right arm.
These findings suggest that body maps in our brain may influence how we perceive our physical bodies -- for example, if there is a lot of brain area associated with our right arm, we will view it being as longer compared to our left arm.
Learning To Talk Changes How Speech Is Heard: 'Sound Of Lear
Learning To Talk Changes How Speech Is Heard: 'Sound Of Lear
changes the way speech sounds are heard,
according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences by scientists at Haskins Laboratories, a
Yale-affiliated research laboratory. The findings could have a major
impact on improving speech disorders.
"We've found that learning is a two-way street; motor function affects sensory processing and vice-versa," said David J. Ostry, a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories and professor of psychology at McGill University. "Our results suggest that learning to talk makes it easier to understand the speech of others."
As a child learns to talk, or an adult learns a new language, Ostry explained, a growing mastery of oral fluency is matched by an increase in the ability to distinguish different speech sounds. While these abilities may develop in isolation, it is possible that learning to talk also changes the way we hear speech sounds.
Ostry and co-author Sazzad M. Nasir tested the notion that speech motor learning alters auditory perceptual processing by evaluating how speakers hear speech sounds following motor learning. They simulated speech learning by using a robotic device, which introduced a subtle change in the movement path of the jaw during speech.
To assess speech perception, the participants listened to words one at a time that were taken from a computer-produced continuum between the words "had" and "head." In the speech learning phase of the study, the robot caused the jaw to move in a slightly unusual fashion. The learning is measured by assessing the extent to which participants correct for the unusual movement.
"Its like being handed a two-pound weight for the first time and being asked to make a movement, it's uncomfortable at first, but after a while, the movement becomes natural," said Ostry. "In growing children, the nervous system has to adjust to moving vocal tract structures that are changing in size and weight in order to produce the same words. Participants in our study are learning to return the movement to normal in spite of these changes. Eventually our work could have an impact on deviations to speech caused by disorders such as stroke and Parkinson's disease."
"Our study showed that speech motor learning altered the perception of these speech sounds. After motor learning, the participants heard the words differently than those in the control group," said Ostry. "One of the striking findings is that the more motor learning we observed, the more their speech perceptual function changed."
Ostry said that future research will focus on the notion that sensory remediation may be a way to jumpstart the motor system.
The team previously found that the movement of facial muscles around the mouth plays an important role not only in the way the sounds of speech are made, but also in the way they are heard.
Haskins Laboratories was founded in 1935 by the late Dr. Caryl P. Haskins. This independent research institute has been in New Haven, Connecticut since 1970 when it formalized affiliations with Yale University and the University of Connecticut. The Laboratories' primary research focus is on the science of the spoken and written word.
"We've found that learning is a two-way street; motor function affects sensory processing and vice-versa," said David J. Ostry, a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories and professor of psychology at McGill University. "Our results suggest that learning to talk makes it easier to understand the speech of others."
As a child learns to talk, or an adult learns a new language, Ostry explained, a growing mastery of oral fluency is matched by an increase in the ability to distinguish different speech sounds. While these abilities may develop in isolation, it is possible that learning to talk also changes the way we hear speech sounds.
Ostry and co-author Sazzad M. Nasir tested the notion that speech motor learning alters auditory perceptual processing by evaluating how speakers hear speech sounds following motor learning. They simulated speech learning by using a robotic device, which introduced a subtle change in the movement path of the jaw during speech.
To assess speech perception, the participants listened to words one at a time that were taken from a computer-produced continuum between the words "had" and "head." In the speech learning phase of the study, the robot caused the jaw to move in a slightly unusual fashion. The learning is measured by assessing the extent to which participants correct for the unusual movement.
"Its like being handed a two-pound weight for the first time and being asked to make a movement, it's uncomfortable at first, but after a while, the movement becomes natural," said Ostry. "In growing children, the nervous system has to adjust to moving vocal tract structures that are changing in size and weight in order to produce the same words. Participants in our study are learning to return the movement to normal in spite of these changes. Eventually our work could have an impact on deviations to speech caused by disorders such as stroke and Parkinson's disease."
"Our study showed that speech motor learning altered the perception of these speech sounds. After motor learning, the participants heard the words differently than those in the control group," said Ostry. "One of the striking findings is that the more motor learning we observed, the more their speech perceptual function changed."
Ostry said that future research will focus on the notion that sensory remediation may be a way to jumpstart the motor system.
The team previously found that the movement of facial muscles around the mouth plays an important role not only in the way the sounds of speech are made, but also in the way they are heard.
Haskins Laboratories was founded in 1935 by the late Dr. Caryl P. Haskins. This independent research institute has been in New Haven, Connecticut since 1970 when it formalized affiliations with Yale University and the University of Connecticut. The Laboratories' primary research focus is on the science of the spoken and written word.
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