[the myth of multi-tasking] inefficient and shallow

How To Shower - Men Vs Women - The most popular videos are here

Gender differences?

My friend here has a theory that no one actually "multi-tasks" - he or she is "time-slicing", i.e. creating a timetable mosaic of filled in spaces.

Whilst many agree that women do this better than men, there are downsides to it, e.g.:

An example of a negative impact that divided attention or multitasking can cause is when someone’s attention is stretched as in “divided attention,” memory is negatively affected. Psychologist John Arden (2002) writes in his book about theories on multitasking that “Multitasking decreases your memory ability.” He also claims that for every new task that you take on “you dilute your investment in each task.” (Arden, 2002)

Also, it's a myth that it is more efficient:

Dr. David Meyer, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, claims that multitasking can actually slow you down (Seven, 2004). He says that through research he has discovered that the more complex activities a person takes on, the more time it actually takes in the long run. His point is in agreement with Arden’s (2002) written views. Again, when you take on multiple tasks, you cannot perform them all at an optimum level. Meyer is also in agreement with Arden that when you are multitasking too much, you can experience short-term memory problems or difficulty concentrating.

... and:

Dr. Glenn Wilson (2005) recently performed a study for Hewlett Packard to explore the productivity of multitasking. What he discovered is astonishing. The average worker’s functioning IQ, a temporary qualitative state, drops 10 points when multitasking. That is more than double the four point drop that occurs when someone smokes marijuana.

As for the gender difference:

Dr. Marcel Just, Director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University agrees with Meyer. His studies on brain mapping, with participants between the ages of 18 and 32, show that women only score higher when asked to listen to two things at the same time (Just, 2001).

I like the vertical, linear model. Whilst every effort is made to fill each space with effect energy usage, as my friend says, you can only do one thing at a time. When you split your attention to concentrate on another thing, even for a short time, the divided attention dilemma comes in.

He points out that it depends on the task.

When putting the spuds in to cook, it's pointless sitting watching them, so you do another task. Well, that's agreed but time is still linear. I was thinking more of the general manager walking along with his entourage, with people coming at him, left, right and centre, to whom he replies in shotgun, staccato fashion.

I'd like to do a time and motion study on him to see just how efficient he is overall. There is the little matter of the depreciation in the quality of his attention due to the constant switching, no matter how second nature it becomes.

Certainly there are tasks which can run themselves and so you spread your attention over different fields but in the end, it is still linear, time.

Is it a myth to say that multi-tasking is more efficient and it's certainly not more in-depth? Is it also a myth that women do it significantly better? There is a definite psychological mindset [of which women have only a part stake in the territory] in which the person sees him/herself as more effective if doing things this way. It's like a self-reassurance he/she wants those who matter to share.

At this point, the whole shebang is brought to a shuddering halt by observation, i.e. in the workplace, women DO seem to perform multiple tasks better. Why? If you accept the psychological test results, then there has to be another reason.

My friend comes up with a reason - women are more interested in doing it this way, therefore they've had tons of practice, therefore they do it better. Put her on a rugby field with it's intricate plays and would she do as well? Put her on a dance floor and she'll most certainly drop into her rhythm as if it's second nature, which it is.

Another thing to look at is exactly which tasks she is actually multi-tasking - how demanding is each and how in-depth is each? How much lateral thinking is required?

In the end, one would have to conclude that the gender differences in this are minor but the differences in life stories, interests and what has been practised so far may be immense. These are erroneously construed, by many, as gender differences.

[the power of people] separate yet together

Firstly, Ordo asks today:

Are we seeing the beginning of another Great Depression?

We're certainly on the brink of one, but whether we totter over the edge or not depends on how world governments respond to the current financial crisis. Unfortunately, nobody really has a clue what to do.

Martin Kelly has similar thoughts.

Ordo, I see it, not as being dependent on what governments do but on what WE do, as people. Guthrum's and Wat Tyler's piece touch on the matter and David Farrer quotes Vox Day:

This isn't a failure of free market capitalism. It's precisely the opposite, it's the failure of government-controlled faux market capitalism.

An example of good intervention, on the other hand, is the way that a threatened blogger can be supported. Read Alwyn's piece on this:

Last year there was a blog consensus that the blogosphere would stand up to rich people trying to bully individual bloggers when Asmanov went after Bloggerheads, where is that blog support for Kez [Kezia Duggdale ]?

There are other issues as well, such as social engineering [read Richard Havers on this] and people out there who can put things so much better in one paragraph than I can in five strung out posts, such as:

Ultimately a Fabian State will be a “Failed State”, under UN current definitions, given the administration costs associated with a deliberately destabilised civil society, and the absence of industry and jobs resulting from a high taxation bureaucratic regime that administers lorry-loads of “sand” to the economic “cogs”. The nature of this failed state must necessarily be militaristic.

Here is another beauty:

Incompetent state structures have been put in place, at monumental expense, to substitute for the State Destroyed structures, those of the “family”, primarily, and continue to grow their legal mandate for ever more state intrusion into the personal lives of the citizens, all in the name of social cohesion, which the Fabian thought processes have set out to, and succeeded in, destroying/undermining in the first place.

Anon now waxes lyrical but also to the point:

Imagine that, like some kind of science fiction dictator, you intended to rule the world. You would probably have pinned over your desk a list something like this:

[1] Eliminate personal knowledge.
Make it hard for people to know about themselves, how they function, what a human being is, or how a human fits into wider, natural systems. This will make it, impossible for the human to separate natural from artificial, real from unreal. You provide the answers to all questions.

[2] Eliminate points of comparison.
Comparisons can be found in earlier societies, older language forms and cultural artefacts, including print media. Eliminate or museumize indigenous cultures, wilderness and nonhuman life forms. Re-create internal human experience—instincts, thoughts, and spontaneous, varied feelings—so that it will not evoke the past.

[3] Separate people from each other.
Reduce interpersonal communication through life-styles that emphasise separateness. When people gather together, be sure it is for a prearranged experience that occupies all their attention at once. Spectator sports are excellent, so are circuses, elections, and any spectacles in which focus is outward and interpersonal exchange is subordinated to mass experience.

[4] Unify experience, especially encouraging mental experience at the expense of sensory experience.
Separate people's minds from their bodies, idealise the mind. Sensory experience cannot be eliminated totally, so it should be driven into narrow areas. An emphasis on sex as opposed to sense may be useful because it is powerful enough to pass for the whole thing and it has a placebo effect.

[5] Occupy the mind.
Once people are isolated in their minds, fill the brain with prearranged experience and thought. Content is less important than the fact of the mind being filled. Free-roaming thought is to be discouraged at all costs, because it is difficult to control.

[6] Encourage drug use.
Recognise that total repression is impossible and so expressions of revolt must be contained on the personal level. Drugs will fill in the cracks of dissatisfaction, making people unresponsive to organised expressions of resistance.

[7] Centralise knowledge and information.
Having isolated people from each other and minds from bodies - at this point whatever comes from outside will enter directly into all brains at the same time with great power and believability.

[8] Redefine happiness and the meaning of life in terms of new and increasingly uprooted philosophy.
Anything makes sense in a void. Formal mind structuring is simple. Most important, avoid naturalistic philosophies; they lead to uncontrollable awareness. An emphasis on sex as opposed to sense may be useful because it is powerful enough to pass for the whole thing and it has a placebo effect.

They may well be the Statist's Standing Orders but in Britain, say, there is also a strong innate, quiet determination within the indigenous people to passively resist this seemingly all-powerful push and ultimately one has to believe that the human being will win out and here's where I part from my humanistic brothers in that I firmly believe in that biblical expression 'ye are gods'.

This expression does not say, IMHO, that each of us is an island in him/herself but rather that there is a bit of the deity in each of us, connected to the whole and unable to exist on its own, just as the hand or foot cannot exist without the rest of the body and mind. I believe that that is what caused all the trouble way back when it was discovered what G-d was up to - recreating really good things in a package called Man.

I believe the primary purpose of a certain force I nether fully understand nor wish to understand was to separate man from his higher self, to bestialize him, to do dirt on him and this force has legions of accolytes because it is the province of the weak-willed, the ones who prefer the easy solution and are attracted by bells and whistles.

That explains a lot, such as why Man sees himself as controlling his destiny when he can't, why he sees himself at the centre of his universe, when he's not, why he destroys so easily but can only build under certain circumstances. We don't like to see ourselves as mere cogs in the machine but people like the Australian aborigines find no problem in that, in being at one with the whole of nature. We don't like to see ourselves as the star's tennis balls, do we?

Why are we satisfied with staying in our little boxes and not relating neighbour to neighbour? Get down to specifics and look at WW2 or any other conflict where the people have ultimately won out, [only to go under again].

Right here is where some of us part ways, I suppose.

The socialist construct is that social cohesion, being such a powerful force, is best served by mindless Socialism, as Anon described above, of forcing people to combine in ultimately unproductive and inefficient ventures, whilst killing off incentive.

Some of us, though, point to two things:

1. the silent [divine?] power which is produced when humans combine for good purposes, such power, by definition, only operating well when it is free of constraints and yokes and is a voluntary combining of individual powers;

2. the vital importance in humans being able to pursue personal goals in an atmosphere which encourages that and supports it without applying constraints. So if you've worked all your life for certain things, the politics of envy is abandoned. Rather than glance enviously across at our neighbour, we try to do well ourselves and find people are willing to help people who try to help themselves.

The State is powerful and creates it's own new autocratic entity to sustain itself but the divinity inside people who combine for good always ultimately wins out, though at a terrible cost.

Phew! [What did I just have for breakfast?]

[are we going mental] it’s going global

According to this article, mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders and depression are common and under-treated in many developed and developing countries, with the highest rate found in the United States, according to a study of 14 countries.

Five illnesses I'd really not like to have are:

1. In Micropsia. objects are perceived by the sufferer as being much smaller than what they actually are in reality. For example, your pet dog appears the size of small mouse.

2. G. M Beard in 1878 observed that, when given a sudden command in a loud enough voice some individuals will carry out that command instantly and without a thought, even if you tell them to hit out a loved one.

3. People may believe that they have lost parts of their bodies or even their souls and some might go as far as to really believe that they are already dead and are indeed a walking corpse.

4. Where one hand appears to take on a personality all of its own and acts in such a way that is completely out of control, the alien hand may unbutton shirts or remove clothing whilst the other hand is trying to button up or get dressed.

5. Some people experience their external genitals shrinking or disappearing, especially when caused by cold water or cold weather, putting it down to wicked gods.

I have a theory that we're all mentally ill to a certain extent, in the same way that there are degrees of homosexuality and heterosexuality in each individual. Most of us might accept the epithet "eccentric" but would take it a bit amiss being labelled "left field".

Some of the most sane-seeming, e.g. the people in charge up there ... well ... least said the better. Sociopaths are easier to spot and there are checklists about on the net. I have an article that most bosses are mentally ill but that might be stretching it a bit.

And those who claim to be thoroughly sane ... methinks they possibly protesteth too much.

Lastly, there does seem, to me, to be an increase in "brittleness" and "strangeness" in little ways with many people across society, this maybe stemming from stress in today's society.

[consider sicily] an alternative break

From Welshcakes and I thoroughly endorse this:

LEARN ITALIAN IN SICILY - 2

I [Welshcakes, that is] am posting this on behalf of the English International School in Modica.

Since I last wrote about the School's services, we have received many enquiries regarding our prices, the cost of accommodation, transport and so on. I hope that the following information will be helpful:

ITALIAN COURSES FOR SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES
The School offers individual, semi-individual [2 students] and group courses and can tailor a course to your needs. All teachers are mother tongue.

We organise our courses according to the level of students' knowledge of Italian: elementary, intermediate or advanced.

Courses last a minimum of one week (Monday to Friday) but we can extend the number of weeks at students' request.

Course structure
Semi-standard [2 hours per day]
Standard [4 hours per day]
Intensive [6 hours per day]

We can also organise personalised courses for students enrolling for individual lessons: students can decide, with the teacher, how many hours and how many days of tuition they require during the week. Students who enrol for semi-individual or group courses can also request some individual lessons to clarify certain points or for extra practice.

Lesson content
Conversation
Grammar
Lexis
Idioms
Analysis and comprehension of descriptive, narrative and poetic texts where appropriate.
Italian and Sicilian traditions and customs.

Students will also be able to see some Italian films and plays.

On request we will organise excursions so that students can see some of the architectural and natural wonders of Sicily, such as the Baroque heritage of the Val di Noto, the nature reserve at Vendicari, Greek monuments at Syracuse and Agrigento and those of the Arab-Norman period in Palermo.

Course fees
There is an enrolment fee ( which also covers the cost of course materials) of € 50 for all courses.

Fees for a one -hour lesson
Individual - € 25
Semi-individual - € 15
Group - € 10

Fees for one week of individual tuition
Semi-standard course [2 hours per day] - € 225
Standard course [4 hours per day] - € 500
Intensive course [6 hours per day] - € 750

Fees for one week of semi-individual tuition [2 students]
Semi-standard course [2 hours per day] - € 150
Standard course [4 hours per day] - € 300
Intensive course [6 hours per day] - € 525

Fees for one week of group tuition
Semi-standard course [2 hours per day] - € 100
Standard course [4 hours per day] - € 200
Intensive course [6 hours per day] - € 350

These prices do not include excursions, cinema or theatre tickets.

Booking procedure

The € 50 enrolment fee is payable upon registering for the course. The balance must be paid, by bank transfer, 3 weeks before your course commences.

GETTING TO MODICA
To get to Modica you need to fly into Fontanarossa Airport, Catania as Palermo is a 4- hour bus journey away. Direct flights are operated from the UK and you can also fly to Catania from Rome, Milan or Pisa. From the airport the AST company operates an efficient and direct bus service to Modica. A taxi to Modica for up to 3 people would cost € 130, whilst a minibus for 6 people would cost € 160 [prices valid until 31.12.08].

ACCOMMODATION
Here are 2 examples of bed and breakfast prices in Modica: Bed and breakfast at the Luna Blu, in historic Modica Bassa would cost € 25 per person per night. Bed and breakfast at The Garden, Modica [within walking distance of the School] would cost € 40 - 50 per person per night. It is also possible to rent a modern, self-catering apartment for 2 people in Modica Bassa from € 25 per person per night.

CAR HIRE
You can find information about car hire and other services in Modica here.

CONTACT US
Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

Contact: Catherine Ciancio, Director of Studies
Tel: +39 0932456613
Fax: +39 0932456613
Email: english_int.school@virgilio.it

[luvverly day] the day we went to the dvla

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
I'm off to the ^&*$£()*ing DVLA

Yep, Higham is off on another identity-establishing jaunt today to a far flung town, finding his way around said town, wading his way through conflicting statements on multiple guidance leaflets and helpline advice, buying a cripplingly expensive lunch and then tackling the transport system [especially the return without any identity documents which will have been left at the DVLA for loss and later retrieval], before eventually arriving back here .

The real joke though is that he thinks he can also encompass taking his specimen to the local doctor, as per request and registering at another local employment office, minus the requisite documents, all on the one day.

But the joke's on them because I've already lost most of my hair so I can't lose much more.

LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE

Well, what fun that was. The DVLA itself was not really a problem but that is a problem in itself in that no real questions or issues were raised which I could imagine there might have been. Thought I'd ask the lady about the rumour that the DVLA lost passports and things and she said, 'Oh not that much really.'

The smile froze on my face.

Later, seeking employment, the usual status issues arose but hopefully that'll be sorted out tomorrow. 'Oh, we don't get many of those over here,' she said, meaning people who've been gallivanting round the world. 'Yer well travelled then, aren't ye?'

Hopefully that's not held against me when we get down to the nitty gritty.

The return bus ride took us by the scenic route so that was nice too. Luvverly day?

[scanner] horror movie coming to you soon

US airports Los Angeles, New York's JFK, Baltimore-Washington, Denver, Albuquerque, Ronald Reagan Washington, Detroit, Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix Sky-Harbour, Washington Dulles and Las Vegas are now employing whole body scan technology on randomly selected passengers:

Unlike the puffer machines, which blast a person with air, then vacuum the particles and scan them for traces of explosives, the body-imaging machines use millimetre waves. A passenger steps into the machine and remains still for a few seconds, while the technology creates a three-dimensional image of the passenger from two antennas that simultaneously rotate around the body.

Millimetre waves use electromagnetic waves to generate an image based on the energy reflected from the body, creating a robotic image. The energy emitted is 10,000 times less than that of a cell phone, the TSA said.

They're scheduled for introduction at other US airports and it is probably a question of time until they enter the UK.

My question is: 'Is overseas travel the fun experience we like to delude ourselves it once was [ignoring transfer problems, hotels not up to scratch, being shunted into a tourist zone with all the others, interesting breakfast arrangements at the hotels, food hygiene and hotel building construction issues, pool hazards et al]?"

Could "the authorities", from the initial document renewal and submission phase through to the insurance lodgment for compensation phase later, be trying to give us a simple message:

"Much better to stay home and be a good little boy or girl?"