Excuse me! Your shoelaces are undone.

My shoelaces come undone a lot and people get concerned that I would fall down. Strangely I have never fallen down because of my untied shoelaces. So this got me thinking, can shoe laces really cause people to fall down and if so how have I escaped almost every day. I did a 2 minute exercise and had this observation. Since while walking you never lift or put down both of your feet at the same time the only way you can fall is when you step on your undone shoelace. Moreover to fall down you will need to step on the shoelace of your other foot. Now when you plant your foot on the ground your shoelaces naturally tend to get thrown forward because of momentum.  Assuming that the shoelaces are thrown straight up in the direction you are walking and stretch to their maximum length, to make you fall down your other foot will need to land on the shoelaces. This means that your foot should not go beyond the distance that your shoelaces extend to. In other words in order for you to fall down your shoelaces should be bigger than or at least equal to half the size of your footstep. Taking that into account it is impossible for me to fall down since I have long footsteps. People who have smaller footsteps and long shoelaces however still may fall down and small children especially. This is not to say that tall people may never fall down. For example in sports where you run a lot and change direction and size of footsteps suddenly, you are still prone to falling down, because of undone shoelaces. In normal walk or run however there are very less chances of that happening. So next time you buy shoes/ shoelaces make sure they extend less than half the size of your average footstep. ;) Enjoy!

How People Form Opinions and How To Evaluate Them

When people come across a statement on which an opinion can be formed, they instantly form an opinion, mostly based on biases. The bias usually arises from relevant or irrelevant information previously gathered.  Once an opinion has been formed, they then search for support of their opinion. This is not the correct way of forming an opinion but I am yet to find a person who follows the correct procedure of first figuring out the support of all the possible opinions and then choosing the best one.

In spite of, people following the wrong way of forming an opinion a lot can be said about them and their opinions by seeing the kind of evidence they produce as their support.  I usually classify support in the following eight categories listed in the descending order of acceptance.

1.  Peer reviewed journal and conference papers: This is the best form of support anybody can have for their opinion and would have my immediate attention and the most chances of convincing me. A person with such a support would say something like this, “I believe X is correct because all these papers published in journal P, Q and R say it’s correct”.
2. Cumulative expert’s opinion: Sometimes you cannot find peer reviewed papers for your opinions. I in such cases if you can find a number of experts agree on an opinion, I would take that. A person with such a support would say something like this, “I believe Messi is a good football (yes football) player because a number of experts say so”.
3. Single expert: An opinion which is formed on the support of the verdict of a single expert or a very minuscule number of experts will draw attention but will not be sufficient to get me convinced. A person with such a support would say something like this, “I believe global warming is not happening because 2 % of climate scientists say so.”
4. Blogs: A number of people form opinions by reading blogs by other people like them. This can be very misleading since bloggers are often taken as experts while they are not. You need to understand that a bloggers opinion may or may not be backed up by facts and this will result in you having a very hollow opinion. The best you can get out of me by producing such support is a shake of a head. A person with such a support would say something like this, “I believe X is correct because I read it on a blog.”
5. Own Experience: A single person's experience can be a tricky thing and is really difficult to judge. This kind of support would be the one which would get me to do more research of my own on the opinion.A person with such a support would say something like this, “I believe X is correct because I have done X this way and it worked.”
6. Social Networking Sites: People actually do form opinions based on support from stuff posted on the facebooks of the world. Any evidence produced from a social networking site would at best produce ridicule from me. A person with such a support would say something like this, “I believe X is correct because I saw a picture posted on facebook which said so.”
7. Word of Mouth: Even fourth graders of South Park know not to trust word of mouth. This is the second worst form of support anybody can produce. To believe in something that you heard from someone else is almost as ridiculous as it can get. A person with such a support would say something like this, “I believe X is correct because my friend told me so.”
8.  Belief: And this is as ridiculous as it can ever be. A person with such a support would say something like this, “I have firm belief that X is correct” or “I have faith that X is correct.” Such a support is not even worth considering and would immediately convince me what you are saying is not correct and you are trying to protect your incorrect beliefs by shielding it with such statements.

Things to do in 2012

Graduate
Graduate
Don't get old
Take a vacation before the world ends.
See a lava lake.
Watch Sachin's 100th 100.
Burn my underwear in protest of unfair treatment of humanity
Escape the 2012 apocalypse (of course with a pretty girl. Who wants to live alone on an island?)
Repopulate the earth.

New Look

Just changed the look of the blog, the old one was ..well old. Needed a fresh look, a minimalistic design which isn't too dark or in your face and here it is.

Caffeine and Memory

Just read a very interesting paper on caffeine and how it affects our memory. Specially interesting since a number of us consume caffeine the night before an exam to mug things up or in other such instances when you have to be up all night. You probably already know too much of this stuff will make you nervy and will be no good but is it even fine to take in moderation. The answer suggested by this paper would be yes and no.

Effects of caffeine is influenced by more factors than you can think of including the time of the day, your personality, what kind of information you want to process and you gender for example. Might seem contrary but in general caffeine is better for long term memory tasks than the short term ones. Authors of this paper carried out a survey and experiment and the results show that while moderate amount of caffeine facilitated short term memory in females, contrary to popular perception it actually impaired the short term memory in males. However a higher dose of caffeine is good for both sexes.

Confused? Let's just say the paper suggests, either take no caffeine or if you have to take it take lot of it but then again not so much so as to make you restless and nervous.

Reference: The Effects of Caffeine, Impulsivity, and Sex on Memory for Word Lists, by Mary Ellen Arnold et al.

It's a New Year Folks

Didn't realize it was a new year until the first day was over and somebody called me up. Well for the first time I did celebrate the new year and during the celebrations forgot why we were doing it. Unlike last few years haven't retrospected and made any list ....maybe sometime later ... haven't got any alone time yet.

One thing I wish though is that Sachin starts this year with a century again also that I finish my PhD. At least one of them is possible.

Well Hapy New Year