The scales of human morality

 
David DeSteno, associate professor of psychology, discussed the science of human character for a "Science on Screen" event at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline on Monday. Credit: Craig Bailey

“In reality, we rationalize. We deny, or we couldn't go on living,” says Judah Rosenthal, the successful ophthalmologist whose perfect life begins to unravel in Woody Allen’s 1989 film, “Crimes and Misdemeanors.” In order to go on living, Rosenthal must rationalize the series of risky and uncharacteristic decisions that nearly destroy him.

Discussing the Allen film with a packed audience at the Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Science on Screen event on Monday night, David DeSteno, associate professor of psychology in the College of Science, asked, “Why do any of us sometimes act in ways that surprise ourselves…ways that, quite frankly, are out of character?”

The Science on Screen events pair film screenings  with introductions by notable figures from the world of science, technology and medicine. The films serve as an opportunity for the speakers to discuss current scientific research or technological advances.

“Crimes and Misdemeanors” served as a chance to explore research on character. The standard view of character takes a black-and-white approach, in which the seven deadly sins will lead one to a life of misery and the seven heavenly virtues will make for a happy, successful person.

But is pride always bad? Is chastity always good? DeSteno noted that pride can make us strive to gain resources, and chastity, if always adhered to, would mean the extinction of our species.

“The problem with this,” DeSteno said, “is that it logically doesn’t add up. … If you’re a bad guy and you do something good, that’s an aberrant event. But if you’re a good guy and you do something bad, it’s a window to your true soul. As a scientist I just cannot accept that.”

DeSteno proposed a more flexible idea of human moral behavior. Instead of a scale balanced between good and evil, perhaps virtue is flanked by two opposing desires: what's good for us now versus what's good for us in the long-term.

With support from the National Science Foundation, DeSteno studies human character in the lab. For example, to explore hypocrisy, he asks participants to judge the fairness of their own behavior and that of another in the same task. Even when the two behaviors are identical, participants consistently judge others more harshly.

While Judah Rosenthal initially cannot fathom the idea of killing his mistress to preserve his own virtuous life, he eventually rationalizes it. We often judge others for their immoral choices, DeSteno said, but when faced with the same circumstances can we be certain we’d act more honorably?

“We assume someone who is sleazy is never going to be good,” he said. “We assume someone who is trustworthy is never going to be bad and when they are, it surprises us.” But if we can accept a more variable idea of character, we can understand “the forces that turn saints into sinners and cowards into heroes.”

Provided by Northeastern University

"The scales of human morality." February 23rd, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-scales-human-morality.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Making Solar Power Competitive with Coal

ENERGY

A study identifies early-stage technologies that could be combined to cut the cost of solar panels in half.

• BY KEVIN BULLIS

Audio »

By the end of the decade, manufacturers in the United States could make solar panels that are less than half as expensive as the ones they make now. That would be cheap enough for solar power to compete with electricity from fossil fuels, according to a new study in Energy & Environmental Science. The cost reductions will come via technology that's already being demonstrated in research labs at startups, universities, and major solar manufacturers, and could involve silicon, the material most solar panels are made from today.

The report, from researchers at MIT led by Tonio Buonassisi, a professor of mechanical engineering and manufacturing, identifies early-stage technologies that, if employed together, could reduce the cost of making solar panels to 52 cents per watt. Currently, the cost is over a dollar per watt. At 52 cents per watt, assuming similar cost reductions for installation and equipment such as inverters, solar power would cost six cents per kilowatt-hour in sunny areas of the U.S.—less than the average cost of electricity in the U.S. today. Solar power in sunny areas now costs roughly 15 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, although the cost can be sharply higher in small installations or in cloudy areas where solar installations generate less electricity.

The best way to reduce the cost per watt is to make solar cells more efficient—as a result, more power can be produced with a given amount of material and factory equipment. Increasing efficiency also decreases installation costs, since fewer solar panels are needed. But efficiency improvements aren't enough to reach 52 cents a watt. Manufacturers will also need to make solar cells from thinner silicon wafers, make wafers in a way that wastes less silicon, and speed up manufacturing. If a high-efficiency solar cell design slows down manufacturing or requires thick wafers, it likely won't lead to the necessary cost reductions.

One major way to reduce costs involves technologies that offer an alternative to the wasteful process now used to make silicon wafers. Currently, half of the high-quality silicon needed to make wafers ends up as waste. One startup, 1366 Technologies, makes thin wafers directly from a pool of molten silicon. It plans to replace conventional crystallization furnaces, sawing stations, and ingot-handling equipment with a single machine that requires fewer workers to operate. Others startups are replacing sawing with processes that free thin wafers of silicon from a larger piece of silicon using chemical etching, or by peeling them off.  

Once manufacturers have thin wafers, they also need equipment and processes that can handle them without breaking them. It's possible to make silicon solar cells as thin as 25 micrometers while maintaining their performance, but most manufacturers use 180-micrometer wafers that are more durable. One approach to handling thin wafers involves processing wafers on top of a sheet of glass. The glass acts as a support during manufacturing; when the solar panel is complete, it protects the cells from the elements. Magnetic levitation systems that would float the wafers along a production line could also help with the handling of thin wafers.

Some high-efficiency solar cell designs lend themselves to thin wafers. One involves sandwiching a wafer of crystalline silicon between two layers of amorphous silicon, as is done with a type of solar cell now produced by Sanyo. This symmetrical structure reduces stress on the wafer. Such cells can be processed at lower temperatures than conventional solar cells. Other cell designs could also work with thin wafers. One puts all of the electrical contacts on the back of a wafer—a process that could be well-suited to processing the cells on a sheet of glass. The U.S. company Sunpower uses a version of this cell design.

Much of the technology described in the report hasn't been demonstrated at full production scale. The techniques for making wafers without sawing, in particular, face a number of issues, such as producing high enough quality silicon, making wafers in the right shape and size, or producing them reliably and at a high rate.

To make solar power more competitive, installers will also need to reduce costs. Installation and the cost of inverters, wiring, land, and financing account for half—and sometimes as much as 80 percent—of the cost of solar installations. Much of this needed cost reduction could be achieved by improving efficiency, which would reduce the number of panels needed in a project.

Eventually, silicon solar panels could be even cheaper than 50 cents a watt, Buonassisi says. That will require finding ways to manufacture more challenging designs—for instance, including a nanostructured layer that improves light absorption, which would allow silicon cells that are only one micrometer thick to perform as well as conventional solar cells.

Girls' Verbal Skills Make Them Better at Arithmetic, Study Finds

Science Daily — While boys generally do better than girls in science and math, some studies have found that girls do better in arithmetic. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that the advantage comes from girls' superior verbal skills.

"People have always thought that males' advantage is in math and spatial skills, and girls' advantage is in language," says Xinlin Zhou of Beijing Normal University, who cowrote the study with Wei Wei, Hao Lu, Hui Zhao, and Qi Dong of Beijing Normal University and Chuansheng Chen of the University of California-Irvine. "However, some parents and teachers in China say girls do arithmetic better than boys in primary school."

Zhou and his colleagues did a series of tests with children ages 8 to 11 at 12 primary schools in and around Beijing. Indeed, girls outperformed boys in many math skills. They were better at arithmetic, including tasks like simple subtraction and complex multiplication. Girls were also better at numerosity comparison -- making a quick estimate of which of two arrays had more dots in it. Girls outperformed boys at quickly recognizing the larger of two numbers and at completing a series of numbers (like "2 4 6 8"). Boys performed better at mentally rotating three-dimensional images.

Girls were also better at judging whether two words rhymed, and Zhou and his colleagues think this is the key to their better math performance. "Arithmetic and even advanced math needs verbal processing," Zhou says. Counting is verbal; the multiplication table is memorized verbally, and when people are doing multiple-digit calculations, they hold the intermediate results in their memory as words.

"Better language skills could lead to more efficient verbal processing in arithmetic," Zhou says. He thinks it might be possible to use these results to help both boys and girls learn math better. Boys could use more help with verbal strategies for learning math terms, while girls might benefit from more practice with spatial skills.

Classic Maya Civilization Collapse Related to Modest Rainfall Reductions, Research Suggests

This is a temple in the Kingdom of Tikal, one of the most prominent of the Classic Period. (Credit: Professor Medina-Elizalde)                                                                      Science Daily  — A new study reports that the disintegration of the Maya Civilization may have been related to relatively modest reductions in rainfall.

The study combines records of past climate changes from stalagmites and shallow lakes to model 40 per cent reductions in summer rainfall and reduced tropical storm activity over the region. The work is published in the leading scientific journal Science.The study was led by Professors Martín Medina-Elizalde of the Yucatan Center for Scientific Research in Mexico and Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton in the UK. Professor Rohling says: "Our results show rather modest rainfall reductions between times when the Classic Maya Civilization flourished and its collapse -- between AD 800-950. These reductions amount to only 25 to 40 per cent in annual rainfall. But they were large enough for evaporation to become dominant over rainfall, and open water availability was rapidly reduced. The data suggest that the main cause was a decrease in summer storm activity."

Professor Medina-Elizalde, who led the study while at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton working with Professor Eelco Rohling, says: "For more than a century, researchers have related the demise of the Classic Maya civilization to climate change, and especially to drought. No sound estimates had been made about the severity of this drought, but some have suggested extreme scenarios. New data made it possible to finally get detailed estimates. To do this, we developed a model that coherently explains changes in critical datasets of change in the region's balance between evaporation and rainfall."

Professor Rohling explains why such modest rainfall reductions would cause the disintegration of a well-established civilisation: "Summer was the main season for cultivation and replenishment of Mayan freshwater storage systems and there are no rivers in the Yucatan lowlands. Societal disruptions and abandonment of cities are likely consequences of critical water shortages, especially because there seems to have been a rapid repetition of multi-year droughts."

The scientists also note that the reconstructed droughts during the demise of the Classic Maya Civilization were of similar severity as those projected by the IPCC for the near future in the same region. Professor Medina-Elizalde adds:

"There are differences too, but the warning is clear. What seems like a minor reduction in water availability may lead to important, long-lasting problems. This problem is not unique to the Yucatan Peninsula, but applies to all regions in similar settings where evaporation is high. Today, we have the benefit of awareness, and we should act accordingly."

This research was funded by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council.

Fort Steuben Bridge Demolition

How muscles waste away

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Permanent disconnection between nerves and muscles may be the reason behind progressive loss of muscle mass and function in elderly people, Perth-based researchers have found. Their findings open up opportunities for new interventions to slow down muscle loss and improve health and quality of life. "If your nerves are letting go of muscles, then that is a one-way trip to loss of muscle function," the researchers explained, based on their published observations in aged mice in the medical and science journal PLoS One. Compromised muscle function and loss of muscle mass in older age is known as sarcopenia, an increasing health problem with an expanding aged population. "It is not a disease but part of life," said Associate Professor Tea Shavlakadze and Professor Miranda Grounds from the School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology at The University of Western Australia.  Everyone over 60 is affected by this progressive ageing condition to some degree. They said mice aged 29 months (roughly equivalent to 80-year-old humans) showed an alarming absence of healthy connections between nerves and muscles at the contact points for nerve stimulation on muscles.  A loss of connections at these contact points was linked to a lack of cross-talk between nerves and muscles.  Muscle activity decreased, leading to loss of function. Further studies by Professors Shavlakadze and Grounds are currently underway to understand why nerves let go of muscles in older age.  Their observations identify a new target for reducing sarcopenia and strengthen the argument for regular exercise to slow down muscle wasting. The UWA researchers aim to develop new therapeutic approaches to combat sarcopenia and maintain a high quality of life with ageing. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Windows 8 consumer preview build 8250 leaked ?

Windows 8 consumer preview is scheduled to be released on February 29. As we know that Microsoft has recently provided Windows 8 build 8250 to OEM partners. Now we are getting reports from our various sources that Windows 8 consumer preview build 8250 has been leaked and is available for download via torrent.

Here are the details of the torrent-

File Name :windows.8.beta-build.8250.x86.d.iso
SIZE : 3,439,132,672 bytes  
MD5: D2FC8211F4AD1E7BC06A8B4AD78759F3  
SHA1: 429C1643B522FB9ED2F8B4B5BDE029C9021F8BEF  
CRC32: 1FEABB6B

Further this screenshot has been posted -

-- 

Thank's & Regards,

Deepak Mhatre

HOW TO BUILD THE CASH YOU NEED

Where to Look to Raise Cash For Your Business

BY ERIKA NAPOLETANO

A visit to the South rarely leaves you hungry. I’m a Southern girl, so I know of what I write. But on a recent trip to meet with companies at Venture Atlanta, Georgia’s largest investor showcase, I found plenty of companies left hungry–for funding. And that’s a hunger that a heap of barbecue, fried okra and collard greens–washed down with tea, swaaait or unswaaait–can’t satisfy.

“As a region, we’re in a great position when it comes to innovation. We have more intriguing companies than capital, however,” says Alan Taetle, general partner at Noro-Moseley Partners, one of Atlanta’s oldest venture capital firms. “While we’re actively working to attract more capital to the region, companies developing a business outside those areas are currently faced with a choice: Grow organically, which generally means slower, or go beyond our region to raise capital.”

The situation isn’t unique to the South. In markets across the U.S., local funding biases dictate the types of companies most likely to find at-home financial support. So how can entrepreneursbranch out and capture the funding they need when local isn’t a viable option?

Look to the crowd.

If you’re a dedicated do-it-yourselfer, you might want to explore internet fundraising.Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are leading the way for entrepreneurs and businesses of all types to gain financial support from around the globe. (For more on crowdfunding, see this article.) They’re powerful tools for publicity-savvy entrepreneurs who seek an established network to promote their companies, and a way to get cash without ties to angel or VC dollars. Remember: The sites charge funding and processing fees that will be deducted from successful capital raises; keep the fees in mind when creating your fundraising goal.

Reach out.

Look to the example of TripLingo, which launched in May 2011 with slightly more than $200,000 in angel funds. Though the company, creator of a foreign-language app, already had a proven audience base when it tried to raise seed funding, it couldn’t get any traction in the Atlanta venture scene.

Continue reading this article at Entrepreneur.com after the break!

SIX TOP PATENT PRODUCING COMPANIES

These companies all produce more patents than any other companies. Find out which ones are and why this may be helping or harming their business here!

24/7 Wall Street shares…

The U.S. Patent Office and Trademark Office awards hundreds of thousands of patents to American and global companies each year. IFI Claims Patent Services, a producer of patent databases, released its top 50 ranking of the global companies awarded the most U.S. utility patents in 2011.

These are the top biggest patent-producing companies for 2011.

Most of the corporations at the top are among the worst performers across all industries. Share prices of seven of them plunged more than 40% in 2011. Five of the companies also lost money last year. Hitachi and Panasonic, in the top 10, each lost more than $1 billion.

Of the top recipients, only three are particularly successful companies. For years, they have held the largest market share in highly profitable businesses. Korean giant Toshiba has been extremely successful in consumer electronics, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) dominates the operating system market and IBM (NYSE: IBM) is the market leader in enterprise computing. These companies have been able to rely on their constant revenue streams to support heavy investment in research and development.

6. Microsoft Corp.
> 2011 patent grants: 2,311
> Country: United States
> Profits: $20.6 billion (6th most)
> Sales: $66.7 billion (97th most)
> 5-yr. stock price change: -10.97%
> Value: 50th largest in the world

Microsoft’s awarded patents dropped substantially in the past year. In 2010, the company was awarded 3,094 patents in the U.S. Last year, the number was just 2,311, resulting in the U.S. company being passed by Japanese companies Canon, Panasonic and Toshiba. The software and computer company’s stock has remained stable, with share prices down 11% in the past year. This is roughly in line with the rest of the market. The company’s consistent revenue stream from its Windows operating system, server products and Xbox game console, among others, allows it to invest heavily in research and development. Last year, the company earned $20.6 billion, the sixth-biggest profit globally.

5. Toshiba Corp. JP
> 2011 patent grants: 2,483
> Country: Japan
> Profits: -$211.2 million (69th biggest loss)
> Sales: $68.3 billion (89th most)
> 5-yr. stock price change: -61.9%
> Value: 509th largest company in world

Toshiba, another mature Japanese tech company, produces a wide variety of consumer electronics, communications and network systems, as well as systems related to transportation, water and sewer infrastructure. Due in part to the scope of the industries in which it is involved, the company had been among the top 10 of patent recipients for the past five years. Moreover, in the past couple of years, the company made a significant jump, awarded nearly 800 patents more in 2011 than in 2009. The company’s jump in technology development has not corresponded with financial success. Toshiba shares are down more than 60% in the past five years, and last year, the company lost $211 million.

4. Panasonic Corp. JP
> 2011 patent grants: 2,559
> Country: Japan
> Profits: -$1.1 billion (26th biggest loss)
> Sales: $79.4 billion $79.4 (70th most)
> 5-yr. stock price change: -73.67%
> Value: 482nd largest in world

The nearly century-old Japan-based Panasonic is a manufacturer of consumer electronics. It is most well-known for its televisions, video recording and viewing equipment, and batteries. In order to remain competitive in the ever-evolving world of technology, the company must stay innovative. Since 2006, Panasonic has averaged approximately 2,100 U.S. patents per year, including 2,559 last year. However, things have not been going well for the company. Shares are down nearly 75% over the past five years, and the company lost $1.1 billion last year. Among the 2,000 largest companies in the world, this loss was the 26th worst.

3. Canon K K JP
> 2011 patent grants: 2,821
> Country: Japan
> Profits: $3 billion (167th most)
> Sales: $45.7 billion (163rd most)
> 5-yr. stock price change: -50.23%
> Value: 141st largest in world

Canon is the 141th most valuable company in the world, and the fifth most valuable in Japan, according to the Forbes 2000. The company manufactures a variety of consumer electronics and other products, but it is most well-known for its optical and imaging products, which include printers, cameras and video recording devices. Over the past five years, the company has been granted 2,300 patents on average per year. Canon’s shares are down more than 50% over a five-year period, but the company did make $3 billion last year.

2. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd KR
> 2011 patent grants: 4,894
> Country: Korea
> Profits: $13.7 billion (20th most)
> Sales: $133.8 billion (20th most)
> 5-yr. stock price change: +67%
> Value: 33rd largest in world

While there are eight Asian companies among the top 10 patent recipients, the only one that is currently doing well is from South Korea — not Japan. Samsung Electronics is the largest company in Korea by a wide margin and is the 33rd largest in the world. The company has a stake in nearly every technology-based industry on earth, including construction, chemicals, finance, semiconductors and consumer electronics. The company has had a great deal of success in the smartphone market. In the past five years, the company’s awarded patents roughly doubled. At the same time, share price has jumped 67%. Last year, the company earned $13.7 billion. It recently said it would increase 2012 capital expenditure to $41 billion.

1. International Business Machines Corp.
> 2011 patent grants: 6,180
> Country: United States
> Profits: $14.8 billion (17th most)
> Sales: $99.9 billion (41th most)
> 5-yr. stock price change: +80.4%
> Value: 31st largest in world

The perennial leader in patents has been, and remains, IBM. Last year, the company was awarded 6,180 separate patents, more than any other two companies combined — excluding Samsung. This is the 19th consecutive year in a row that the company has been the top patent producer in the world. The massive IT company has substantial market share in business technology consulting, as well as computer software and hardware development. The company made $14.8 billion in profits last year. Over the past five years, IBM shares are up more than 80%.

Get more information from 24/7 Wall Street!

 

Amazing Forced Perspective..

Hanging~3-D art pieces..

3-D FLOATING ART

I don't know where these artists get the time, the patience, or the talent but if I had a quarter of what they have... oh, the things I would think about doing.