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Microsoft Product to Monitor Workers Through Their Computers
Microsoft has filed
a patent for a system which would allow employers to monitor employees' physical states through their computers or laptops.
Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker's productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.
The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees' performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer's assessment of their physiological state.
Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a "unique monitoring system" that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read "heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure", the application states.
The system could also "automatically detect frustration or stress in the user" and "offer and provide assistance accordingly". Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker's weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.
This is the most obnoxious, appalling invention from Microsoft yet. The privacy implications alone are mind-boggling. And if the economy slides into recession and the unemployment rate keeps rising, future workers will have no choice to submit to such intrusive monitoring if they want a job.
Posted on January 16, 2008
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Speak Up Or Die
A new report
says that women who keep quiet and don't argue back in their marriages die much earlier.
Married women who keep silent during marital disputes have a greater chance of dying from heart disease and other conditions than women who speak their minds, new research shows.
But the same can't be said of married men who keep disagreements to themselves. They had the same life expectancy during the 10-year study as men who spoke out.
The research, which spanned from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, was the latest to show that how couples fight affects not only their relationship but their health.
Lead author Elaine A. Eaker, a Gaithersburg, Md., epidemiologist, said the message for women was clear. "When in conflict with your spouse, it helps to express yourself," she said.
The study of 3,000 men and women published online in July by the journal Psychosomatic Medicine set out to examine the relationship between marital stress and coronary heart disease or death. Participants were asked what topics they fought over and whether workplace problems spilled into their lives at home.
In general, marriage benefits health, particularly that of men. Married men live seven years longer, and married women live two years longer, than single men and women, respectively. Married people as a group have better psychological health than never-marrieds.
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Michael J. Rohrbaugh, co-director of the University of Arizona's Family Research Laboratory, who is conducting a study of heart patients, said the pronouns that couples use in speech -- whether "me" or "us" -- seem to predict the course of a spouse's heart disease during the subsequent six months.
"There is something about 'we talk' -- the collective or communal idea that 'we are in it together' that is important," Rohrbaugh said. Although that study is not completed, Rohrbaugh said the connection between the phrase "we talk" and health appears to be stronger in women than in men. For women with heart disease, repeatedly using the words "I" or "me," he said, "is like the kiss of death."
Ladies, it's time to speak your mind. Keeping it in can kill you.
Posted on September 25, 2007
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Burning Man Arson Caught
 The guy who ruined everyone's Burning Man festival by burning the giant effigy too early has been arrested.
Burning Man became Burnt Man four days early on Tuesday, and a San Francisco performance artist was arrested on suspicion of igniting the signature figure of the counterculture festival in the remote Nevada desert.
The early morning fire scorched about 85 percent of the structure, Burning Man spokeswoman Andie Grace said. Event engineers decided it would be best to dismantle it and rebuild a less elaborate version, accomplishing in two days what normally takes weeks so the figure would be finished in time for Saturday night's scheduled burning, she said.
The approximately 40-foot-tall wood and neon structure was supposed to go up in flames in the ceremonial climax of the weeklong annual event. Burning Man, an art, music and performance festival that draws thousands of people, began in San Francisco in 1986 and moved to Nevada's Black Rock Desert in 1990.
Many festival-goers who were awake watching Tuesday's lunar eclipse said they saw a man deliberately ignite the figure at about 3 a.m., Grace said.
"It was in plain sight of many people," she said. "Everyone is looking at it this morning, this big black figure in the sky and that wasn't supposed to burn, saying, 'Now what do we do?'"
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Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County, Nev., jail on suspicion of arson, illegal possession of fireworks, destruction of property and resisting a public officer, according to the sheriff's department. He posted a $25,632 bond, a sheriff's dispatcher said.
Sheriff's officials did not know whether he had a lawyer. No one answered at two phone numbers listed in his name.
Addis is an actor and writer who is active in the San Francisco arts scene and recently portrayed Hunter S. Thompson in a play about the late journalist known for his drug-fueled lifestyle, according to entertainment listings posted on the Internet.
Burning Man will go on as planned on Saturday with a smaller Burning Man. You can learn more about the Burning Man Project (which runs this year from August 27 - September 3, 2007)
here. And all we can say to buzzkill king Paul Addis is: not cool dude. Not cool at all.
Posted on August 30, 2007
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The Three Year Itch
A new study reports
that most marriages are happy for only about three years. In fact, according to one expert, some people start getting less happy at the wedding reception.
Forget the proverbial seven-year itch.
Not to disillusion the half million or so June brides and bridegrooms who were just married, but new research suggests that the spark may fizzle within only three years.
Researchers analyzed responses from two sets of married or cohabitating couples: one group was together for one to three years, the other for four to six years.
While the researchers could not pinpoint a precise turning point - the seven-year itch, as popularized in the play and film about errant husbands, was largely a theory - they found distinct differences between the groups.
"We know the earlier ones are happier," said Prof. Kelly Musick, a University of Southern California sociologist. "The initial boost that marriage seems to provide fades over time."
Research also showed that the median duration of first marriages that end in divorce remains a little more than seven years, which means that those couples will likely spend more than half their married lives less happy than they were when they cut the first slice of wedding cake.
"Some folks start getting less happy at the wedding reception," said Larry Bumpass, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who wrote the study with Professor Musick.
Is there a three-year itch?
"There is not necessarily anything magical about year three," Professor Musick said. "We know that typically when marriages end in divorce, half end before seven or so years and half end after. This is the same idea."
How's that for some upbeat news?
Posted on July 2, 2007
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It's Hip to Be Stressed
An article on MSNBC.com says that being stressed out is now chic.
"It's chic to be stressed," says Leslie Reisner, a Los Angeles psychologist and corporate trainer specializing in stress. "Not only do many of us want the stress in our lives, we want more stress than the next guy. It's the new way of keeping up with the Joneses."
You know the script. If you mention you worked until 10 p.m., your co-worker ups the ante to 10:30. If you are up to your neck in e-mail, she's up to her eyeballs. If you are tied in knots, someone else's knots are bigger, tighter, knottier.
The rat race has a new finish line. It's not who gets there first, but who's the most hassled along the way.
Tyler Hill, a 30-year-old graphic designer for a Seattle dotcom, recently overheard such a duel in the cafeteria at work. "One guy was telling this other guy that he was about to go on vacation, and how it had been a while since he'd taken one. And the other guy says: 'Well, I've been here four years and I've been so incredibly busy I've never been able to take a vacation.'"
We live in such a competitive society that we are now competing for who has the most stressful life. You can find out if you are a competitive stresser by taking this quiz.
Posted on December 6, 2006
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Teens Prefer to be Chipped
A recent British poll reveals that teens would prefer to pay for purchases using a chip embedded under their skin.
Some customers are willing to have microchip implants as a means of paying in stores, a report out today says.
Teenagers are more open to the idea of having a high-tech shopping experience, the Tomorrow's Shopping World report suggests.
Around 8 per cent of 13 to 19-year-olds were open to the idea of microchip implants while 16 per cent wanted trolleys to be fitted with SatNav systems.
This compared to just 5 per cent and 12 per cent respectively for adults asked the same questions. Two thirds of teenagers and 62 per cent of adults questioned for grocery think tank IGD's report wanted self-scanning systems at shop check-outs.
Some 7 per cent of people in both age groups were willing to use biometric iris or retina recognition payment systems.
On a more low-tech note, 61 per cent of adults and 57 per cent of teenagers wanted staff to pack their bags in shops.
And a "cashless society" is not expected to have materialised within the next decade.
The report says 39 per cent of teenage respondents and 30 per cent of adults said they would still be using cash in 10 year's time.
It adds: "The current and future progress of technology services in store is counter-balanced by the need for shopping with some form of 'human contact'."
One third of adults and 40 per cent of teenagers wanted lots of staff involvement with the shopping experience.
The report, sponsored by technology services company EDS, followed an IGD poll of 500 teenagers and a similar number of adults about their predicted grocery shopping habits for the next decade.
These teens really need to read more cyberpunk. Because these things always start out innocuously enough with a chip under the skin, then the next thing you know you're part of the Collective. Resistance is Futile.
Posted on October 11, 2006
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Las Vegas No Longer Offers 24 Hour Marriage Licenses
 So you're partying in Vegas and feel that urge to marry that nice dancer you just met. No problem, right? It's Vegas, so you can get a wedding license 24 hours a day, right? Well no more. If you feel the need to get married at 3 am (like Britney Spears did once up on a time, pre-K-fed) you are
out of luck.
Getting married is as much a tradition in Las Vegas as slot machines and buffets. But when the urge to merge comes in the wee hours, you'll have to wait.
The county government said that starting next week, its marriage license bureau will no longer be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Citing budget constraints, county officials said the graveyard shift is being scrapped. Would-be brides and grooms will be able to apply for licenses only between 8 a.m. and midnight, seven days a week.
Officials told the Las Vegas Sun that there's really not much demand for marriage licenses during the overnight hours. Fewer than 4 percent of licenses are issued on that shift, city officials said.
Among them was a license issued to Britney Spears. However, the marriage was annulled after two days.
We just can't believe this. Think of the chilling effect this new law is going to have on spur of the moment, insane celebrity marriages. It's enough to make a tabloid reporter cry.
Posted on August 22, 2006
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The Return of the Retrosexual
You've heard of the metrosexual man, the well-groomed, straight guy who always looks his best. But the retrosexual man is making a comeback -- he's the guy with a pot belly, messy hair and a heart of gold. Think Jack Black in Nacho Libre.
Well, it's certainly back, especially in Hollywood, where being a bit hairy and showing a little paunch isn't necessarily such a bad thing anymore.
Behold, the era of the everything-old-is-new-again "retrosexual" is upon us. And the celebrity set is leading the charge.
You probably already know the "metrosexual," or at least you've maybe heard of him. It's that guy who, just when you are finally relaxing into your heated spa chair, shows up to get a pedicure all for himself. He dresses well, trims all unnecessary body hair, and spends more time in the gym than watching the game.
By contrast, a "retrosexual" is a manly man, an alpha male who may have the physique of a Shar-Pei dog (a little wrinkly and flabby, yet endearing), the manners of a 5-year-old (the kind who makes armpit farting noises at the dinner table) and the ability to pull you in for a hot, sweaty kiss and then go right out and fix your darn car.
Bill Van Parys, Executive Editor of Details magazine, isn't exactly impressed with a celebrity who can't keep himself looking nice in public.
"I honestly think some people are just looking to validate their sloppy appearance … there are certainly some actors who could show a little more effort at public events, instead of showing up at premieres in bowling shirts or what not," Van Parys told Access Hollywood.
If you want to see the celebrity retrosexual in his native habitat, just check out Will Ferrell running around in his 'tighty whiteys' in "Talladega Nights," or Jack Black in a too-tight pair of polyester pants in "Nacho Libre."
Jennifer Aniston has her very own retrosexual.
Her ex, Brad Pitt, is the ultimate metrosexual, no matter how many motorcycle rides he takes around Santa Monica.
But with his puppy-dog eyes and everyman bod, Vince Vaughn is the retrosexual who has captured Jen's heart.
Even Kid Rock — who could never be accused of unnecessary grooming — has found himself a pretty little lady to share a beer with (again) — Pamela Anderson!
Ben Affleck has always been a closet retrosexual, which is why he fits right into the upcoming summer comedy, "Clerks II," which is inundated with the manly and the burpy.
We think Van Parys is right: this is just a sneaky way for men to look like slobs. Nice try, though.
Posted on July 24, 2006
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It's A Tattoo Nation
Apparently, we're a Tattoo Nation. A recent survey shows that 36% of Americans aged 18 to 29 have at least one tattoo.
The study, scheduled to appear Monday on the Web site of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, provides perhaps the most in-depth look at tattoos since their popularity exploded in the early 1990s.
The results suggest that 24 percent of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed; that's almost one in four. Two surveys from 2003 suggested just 15 percent to 16 percent of U.S. adults had a tattoo.
"Really, nowadays, the people who don't have them are becoming the unique ones," said Chris Keaton, a tattoo artist and president of the Baltimore Tattoo Museum.
But body art is more than just tattoos.
About one in seven people surveyed reported having a piercing anywhere other than in the soft lobe of the ear, according to the study. That total rises to nearly one in three for the 18-to-29 set. Just about half — 48 percent — in that age category had either a tattoo or piercing.
Given their youth, that suggests the percentage of people with body art will continue to grow, said study co-author Dr. Anne Laumann, a Northwestern University dermatologist.
"They haven't had time to get their body piercing. They haven't had time to get their tattoo. They are just beginning to get into it and the number is already big," Laumann said.
Just think, in about 30 years or so a majority of seniors will be wrinkly, sagging and covered in tattoos. We can't wait.
Posted on June 13, 2006
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Grilling Out To Impress
In an article entitled "Pimp My Grill", The New York Times delves into the latest suburban obsession: having a bigger and better grill than the guy next door. The article examines the lives of men who think that grilling out is somehow cool.
A Kalamazoo grill can suck a standard tank of propane dry in two and a half hours. Not that backyard grill-users would want to crank every burner simultaneously and reach the full 154,000 B.T.U. capacity of this $11,290, six-and-a-half-foot-wide brute. But, as with a Porsche that can go 175 miles an hour on the autobahn, some owners find it sweet to know they've got that kind of juice under the hood.
"Our gas line had to be doubled in capacity from the house," said Connie Dove of York, Me. She and her husband, Mo Houde, took delivery last year of a Kalamazoo Bread Breaker Two Dual-Fuel grill with an infrared rotisserie cradle system and a side burner.
They hooked the 600-pound stainless steel hulk into their home's main propane supply, choosing not to mess with standard tanks, which each hold only four gallons of fuel. That's enough to allow a typical backyard grill to run at maximum for 15 hours, according to the Propane Education and Research Council in Washington.
"It is very, very powerful," Ms. Dove said. "A turkey you can have in an hour and a half."
The Bread Breaker, which has a temperature gauge that reaches 1,000 degrees, is one of an increasingly popular breed of supergrills that are becoming backyard status symbols, as Americans, mostly of the male variety, peacock with an object that harks back to the earliest days of human existence.
As Memorial Day marks the official beginning of grilling season, many men will find themselves almost genetically drawn to throwing hunks of raw meat onto a fire and poking them with tongs. It's a pull that some will spend almost any amount of money to satisfy, said Pantelis A. Georgiadis, the owner of Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, the grill manufacturer based in Michigan. "There is a market segment we call the 'man cook with fire' types," he said.
When Daniel Conrad, a lawyer, moved to Dallas four years ago from Pittsburgh to join the woman who would become his wife, his parents bought him a small Weber grill. "It wasn't big enough for my ego," Mr. Conrad, 34, said. "So I got this giant enormous Weber grill."
Now, he rushes home to his wife — and to his baby, a Weber Summit Gold D6, to slow-cook ribs or experiment with smoking turkeys. "Grilling has become my creative outlet," Mr. Conrad said. "The only two extravagances I have in my life are my car and my grill." He drives a Mercedes.
Mmmm...news flash: you're a suburban dad who's grilling out. By definition, the Coolness Factor is a big negative one. Sorry guys, but it's the truth. You never see George Clooney grilling out on some ridiculously large contraption -- he has a chef that does that. And after the feast is prepared, a devoted Italian staff brings him his grilled meat on the terrace of his villa on Lake Como. Now that's impressive.
Posted on May 29, 2006
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Joining The Compact and Opting Out of Consumerism
USA Today reports on a growing trend where people join The Compact. Despite its name, The Compact does not involve pagan rituals or anything like that. People who sign up pledge to live simpler lives and to opt out of consumerism. The goal is only to buy food, toiletries and prescription drugs. No Manolos, no iPods, no Frappucinos. Nothing frivolous.
It began as a simple, or simply terrifying, pledge taken by a small group of friends feeling overwhelmed by all the things in their lives. Over a potluck dinner two years ago, they made a pact: Buy nothing new except food, medicine and toiletries for six months.
The effort lasted a year before falling victim to the demands of modern life. But the commercial craziness of the Christmas season brought the group back together a few months ago.
Only now they're not toiling in relative anonymity. A whiff of media interest over the past month has turned their tool-sharing, library-going, thrift-store-shopping band into a full-fledged cultural phenomenon with more than 700 members joining through their Yahoo website. Groups are meeting in Maine, Alabama, Texas, Oregon and Wisconsin, and satiated consumers in Japan and Brazil are making inquiries.
The original group named itself the Compact after the Mayflower Compact, a civil agreement that bound the Pilgrims to a life of higher purpose when they landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.
The goal of the members wasn't so much to save money, or even the environment, as much as it was to simplify their lives, says Rob Picciotto, a high school French teacher who attended that first potluck. "It saved us time because there was less time spent shopping. We still buy groceries and go to the drugstore, but we don't go to Target on a Saturday, which was a ritual before just to see what the sales were," he says.
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Not that the idea is embraced by everyone. In Chilliwack, British Columbia, Tira Brandon-Evans says that when she and her husband told friends they weren't going to exchange Christmas and birthday presents, they acted as if she'd suddenly developed a mental illness.
She jokes that from her friends' reactions, you would have thought she had announced plans to have a sex change or join a satanic cult.
We were going to join The Compact and take a pledge to opt out of our materialistic, hedonistic lifestyle, but fortunately we were distracted by this amazing shoe sale at Nordstrom's before we could do something we might regret a few minutes later.
Posted on March 23, 2006
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Hate Your Job? Too Bad, Because Retirement is a Long Way Away
Hate your job? Well, don't dream of retirement, because they're getting ready to raise the retirement age, big time.
The age of retirement should be raised to 85 by 2050 because of trends in life expectancy, a US biologist has said.
Shripad Tuljapurkar of Stanford University says anti-ageing advances could raise life expectancy by a year each year over the next two decades.
That will put a strain on economies around the world if current retirement ages are maintained, he warned.
He also told a science meeting in St Louis that 50-year or 75-year mortgages may not be unusual in the future.
Dr Tuljapurkar was speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in the Missouri city.
"People are going to do things they didn't get round to in their working lives. Current institutions are really not equipped at the moment to deal with such long lives," Dr Tuljapurkar said.
"We are going to have to plan a lot more carefully, which people are not very good at."
That's no lie...we can't even seem to plan what we're going to have for dinner until about five minutes beforehand.
Posted on February 21, 2006
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Bad News for the Ugly
As if the unattractive don't have enough problems in life: a new study concludes that the uglier you are, the more likely you are to commit a crime.
Not only are physically unattractive teenagers likely to be stay-at-homes on prom night, they're also more likely to grow up to be criminals, say two economists who tracked the life course of young people from high school through early adulthood.
"We find that unattractive individuals commit more crime in comparison to average-looking ones, and very attractive individuals commit less crime in comparison to those who are average-looking," claim Naci Mocan of the University of Colorado and Erdal Tekin of Georgia State University.
Mocan and Tekin analyzed data from a federally sponsored survey of 15,000 high-schoolers who were interviewed in 1994 and again in 1996 and 2002. One question asked interviewers to rate the physical appearance of the student on a five-point scale ranging from "very attractive" to "very unattractive."
These economists found that the long-term consequences of being young and ugly were small but consistent. Cute guys were uniformly less likely than averages would indicate to have committed seven crimes including burglary and selling drugs, while the unhandsome were consistently more likely to have broken the law.
The advice here is clear: be sure to have attractive parents, otherwise you're facing a life of crime.
Posted on February 20, 2006
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Gossip Sites Crucial For Human Survival
Those of you who feel guilty as you furtively check the Web to see what Philanderer Extraordinaire Jude Law has been up to or to obsessively check to see if Angelina Jolie has adoped yet another child can relax. Gossip is not only important: it's crucial for human society to function. The New York Times reports in an incredibly long article on a group of investigative researchers who have discovered the benefits of gossip.
Gossip has long been dismissed by researchers as little more than background noise, blather with no useful function. But some investigators now say that gossip should be central to any study of group interaction.
People find it irresistible for good reason: Gossip not only helps clarify and enforce the rules that keep people working well together, studies suggest, but it circulates crucial information about the behavior of others that cannot be published in an office manual. As often as it sullies reputations, psychologists say, gossip offers a foothold for newcomers in a group and a safety net for group members who feel in danger of falling out.
"There has been a tendency to denigrate gossip as sloppy and unreliable" and unworthy of serious study, said David Sloan Wilson, a professor of biology and anthropology at the State University of New York at Binghamton and the author of "Darwin's Cathedral," a book on evolution and group behavior. "But gossip appears to be a very sophisticated, multifunctional interaction which is important in policing behaviors in a group and defining group membership."
When two or more people huddle to share inside information about another person who is absent, they are often spreading important news, and enacting a mutually protective ritual that may have evolved from early grooming behaviors, some biologists argue.
We're performing a crucial societal function here, people.
Posted on August 18, 2005
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Everything Bad Is Good for You?
Just when you thought you had reached your limit of having yet another expert tell you that everything you do is bad for you, along comes a new book that pooh-poohs all the experts.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How
Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson is here to make you feel better about all your bad habits.
A New Yorker article explains Johnson's theory.
As Johnson points out, television is very different now from what it was
thirty years ago. It's harder. A typical episode of Starsky and Hutch,
in the nineteen-seventies, followed an essentially linear path: two
characters, engaged in a single story line, moving toward a decisive
conclusion. To watch an episode of Dallas today is to be stunned by
its glacial pace-by the arduous attempts to establish social relationships,
by the excruciating simplicity of the plotline, by how obvious it was.
A single episode of The Sopranos, by contrast, might follow five
narrative threads, involving a dozen characters who weave in and out
of the plot. Modern television also requires the viewer to do a lot of
what Johnson calls "filling in," as in a Seinfeld episode that subtly
parodies the Kennedy assassination conspiracists, or a typical Simpsons episode, which may contain numerous allusions to politics or cinema or
pop culture.
But it's not just watching TV that's gotten harder. Games are harder, too.
Twenty years ago, games like Tetris or Pac-Man were simple exercises in motor coordination and pattern recognition. Today's games belong to another realm. Johnson points out that one of the "walk-throughs" for "Grand Theft Auto III"-that is, the informal guides that break down the games and help players navigate their complexities-is fifty-three thousand words long, about the length of his book. The contemporary video game involves a fully realized imaginary world, dense with detail and levels of complexity.
So, let's see if we've got this straight. Playing computer games and watching TV are more difficult than the activities pursued by those who lived before TV was invented. We're smarter than people of 100 years ago whose entertainment might have consisted of playing easy games like chess, reading Plato in the original Greek and enjoying Shakespeare's plays. Got it.
Posted on May 12, 2005
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