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The Psychology of Luck - Richard Wiseman

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Ideas & Questions

Published: 06 February 2009

Hits: 1835

Richard Wiseman is a British psychologist who does some very interesting research, occasionally intruding upon some of our more commonly held beliefs & superstitions.

One of his more interesting studies involved "Luck"- in which a group of people were asked to self assess themselves as being "Lucky" or "Not Lucky". They were then assigned a task of reading a newspaper and counting the number of photographs they saw within it. Unbeknownst to them there was an ad within the paper that stated they could stop searching and show it to the researcher to collect a $250.00 reward. 

Lucky people noticed the ad and cashed in. Unlucky people tended to be so focused on the search for pictures of people that they missed the ad, and therefore the opportunity to make $250.00.

The results from the study were simply explained. People who reported themselves as lucky were more likely to see "The Big Picture" instead of merely focusing on the task at hand. Luck, it seemed, was a matter of personality and entirely within reach of everybody, provided they had the right outlook.

Curious? Read more about Richard Wiseman here:

Website: http://www.richardwiseman.com (Note: The navigation is a bit odd. Use the head...) or visit his YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Quirkology

Article for the Skeptical Inquirer here: http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf (Note: Adobe .pdf format.) and a short summary of his findings here: http://www.richardwiseman.com/research/moreluck.html

2 I Missed

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Link of the day

Published: 06 February 2009

Hits: 1595

Both of these topics I've covered before, but in different links. The link below is a color Cellular Automata program, based (loosely) on Conway's game of life.

http://www.collidoscope.com/modernca/

And this follows some speculation I've done as to the future of technology, and imagining additional senses. While I couldn't find the associated video on TED it's sure to be interesting....

http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/ted-digital-six.html

Punch and Judy - Jan Svankmajer

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Miscellany

Published: 06 February 2009

Hits: 2102

A short film by Jan Svankmajer - 1966. I know, I've recommended him before. But it's too good not to include here.