Braaaaaains…

From New Scientist magazine comes an article all about that clump of neurons you call your noggin. Is it new information? Not really, but it does lend some authority to the sort of common-knowledge things we knew before.

It’s comprised of 11 different areas (the article, not the brain), and a few stood out to me.

But it isn’t simply a matter of getting some calories down. According to research published in 2003, kids breakfasting on fizzy drinks and sugary snacks performed at the level of an average 70-year-old in tests of memory and attention. Beans on toast is a far better combination, as Barbara Stewart from the University of Ulster, UK, discovered. Toast alone boosted children’s scores on a variety of cognitive tests, but when the tests got tougher, the breakfast with the high-protein beans worked best. Beans are also a good source of fibre, and other research has shown a link between a high-fibre diet and improved cognition. If you can’t stomach beans before midday, wholemeal toast with Marmite makes a great alternative. The yeast extract is packed with B vitamins, whose brain-boosting powers have been demonstrated in many studies.

And here I thought my mom was shitting me when she said that protein was brain food. Well, hats off, Ma. But wait… beans? Marmite? Maybe not. Something tells me that we won’t see anybody eating the right breakfasts anytime soon. Hell, most people can’t abstain from eating junk when it involves their weight or health. No one’s going to give a damn about test scores.

Don’t stop now, there’s more:

IT’S a dream come true for those who hate studying. Simply walking sedately for half an hour three times a week can improve abilities such as learning, concentration and abstract reasoning by 15 per cent. The effects are particularly noticeable in older people. Senior citizens who walk regularly perform better on memory tests than their sedentary peers. What’s more, over several years their scores on a variety of cognitive tests show far less decline than those of non-walkers. Every extra mile a week has measurable benefits. [...] There’s another reason why your brain loves physical exercise: it promotes the growth of new brain cells.

Noooooo! First it’s a good diet, now it’s exercise. And exercise is more important than ever, on many fronts (pandemic obesity, prevalent heart disease, &c.)

SKIMPING on sleep does awful things to your brain. Planning, problem-solving, learning, concentration,working memory and alertness all take a hit. IQ scores tumble. “If you have been awake for 21 hours straight, your abilities are equivalent to someone who is legally drunk,” says Sean Drummond from the University of California, San Diego. And you don’t need to pull an all-nighter to suffer the effects: two or three late nights and early mornings on the trot have the same effect.

I know this one. Take a look for yourself at the entire article, since there are a few data there that you might not know (it takes 15 minutes to regain a state of deep concentration after a phone call), but overwhelming it seems that anything which helps the body also helps the brain. A sensible diet, exercise, a normal sleep schedule, and the incorporation of music and reading into one’s everyday activities. In other words, general wellness.

Unfortunately, what I think is perhaps the most important and the most discouraging piece of information in the piece is that about pending pharmaceuticals that may stave off Alzheimers, &c. It’s important because these medicines may be a godsend, but it’s dangerous because the quick-fix solution (treating symptoms) fails to address the real reason we are so sick in the first place: we take horrible care of ourselves. Dietwise, a viewing of Supersize Me! will let you know just how bad we (Americans especially) are.

On a semi-related note, I can just see this sort of brain-strengthening advice become a new cult for the crazed parents of overachieving children. Poor Timmy gets toast and beans every morning so his GPA stays high.

§626 · May 26, 2005 · 3 comments · Tags: ,

Physics is phun!

From the Bad Movie Physics website comes the basic physics quiz. I got a 77.5%. In my defense, it’s been years since my last physics class, and I rushed through this one.

Also, you should take the quintessential Geek Quiz. It’s wide ranging, so it encompasses everything from techno-geeks to traditional school nerds to D&D fans to Trekkies, so it’s impossible to score highly unless you’re a geek in all senses of the word. I scored a 39.05325%, on the following scale:

+ Geekish Tendencies................................≥09%
++ Geek.............................................≥15%
+++ Total Geek......................................≥25%
++++ Major Geek.....................................≥35%
+++++ Super Geek....................................≥45%
++++++ Extreme Geek.................................≥55%
+++++++ Geek God....................................≥65%
+++++++! Dysfunctional Geek.........................≥75%
§622 · May 25, 2005 · 2 comments · Tags:

Another music meme

From Lauren comes another music meme. She didn’t tag me, but she did give an open invitation to participate, and it’s a Sunday night with nothing eventful happening. So.

1. What is the total volume of musical files on your computer?

Musical files? 107GB, counting both classical and modern. With audiobooks and comedy, it’s a bit more.

2. What song are you listening to right now?

“Catch Without Arms” by Dredg. From their new album, which is wonderfully delicious in an aural sense.

3. Last CD I bought?

I actually got a couple at dirt-cheap prices today. The first was Dredg’s El Cielo ($0.99), the second was Boy Hits Car’s self-titled debut ($0.99), and the third was Starless – Sleep: Perchance to Dream. I already had the Dredg, but it’s not a great copy, and this one was the rerelease with better artwork.

4. Five songs you listen to a lot and which mean something to you:

  1. Pain of Salvation • This Heart of Mine (I Pledge). I associate this song with meeting my girlfriend, so even if it borders on a cheesy lovesong bit, I still really like hearing it. Actually, I listen to the album a lot, and thus invariably hear this song.
  2. Fiona Apple • Never Is a Promise. My affection for this song doesn’t have a backstory or anything. I think it simply may be the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. I think if I had the capability to weep, it would be with this playing.
  3. Opeth • When. Besides being a cool song, this is the one that got me into Opeth, and got me into metal in general, really. Now, when I say “metal,” it’s a tricky situation, because the genre as a whole has been eating itself for years now. But “progressive metal” like Opeth is still producing some truly excellent bands.
  4. Ben Folds • Carrying Cathy. I’ve begun to associate this song with someone whose friendship I valued for years, but which was always marred by something or other, and ended quite badly. We’re on good terms now, but a major regret that I have is managing to cock up so badly at my interpersonal skills.
§621 · May 22, 2005 · 3 comments · Tags: ,

Sideways

Sideways Sideways by Rex Pickett
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Year: 2004
Pages: 368

My opinions as to Sideways the movie are well-documented. It was with some trepidation that I started in upon this original novelization, because the movie had achieved a certain precarious status in my mind. I wanted the book to be a fulfillment of that lofty bar.

It both succeeds and it doesn’t. It borders on ridiculous to judge a book based on its fidelity to its movie adaptation, but after reading Rex Pickett’s book, I must say that I vastly prefer what Alexander Payne did with the story. So many details differ between the two media: in the book, Miles breaks Jack’s nose, not Terra/Stephanie; Maya is much less virtuous; Miles doesn’t have a Richebourg, but rather shares Maya’s Jayer Richebourg, and Jack’s ’82 Latour, &c.

It’s one of those strange situation where the majority of the plot is the same, but there are enough of the small details to seriously affect the overall impression of the piece. One of the things I liked about Payne’s adaptation was that he really cleaned up the characters, removed some of the extraneous (if funny) bits from Pickett’s work that wouldn’t have flown on screen, and even managed to turn the wine into an extended metaphor. Miles and Maya’s porch scene? Didn’t happen in the book; just sex at a spa. The book reads as a bit more frat comedy than romantic dramedy.

But enough about the movie already. There’s only so much you can qualify a book by its counterparts. In terms of the actual writing style, I would have to say that Pickett shows a lot of promise. There were some truly magnificent passages in the book, though the dialogue was a little stilted and awkward at times. If I had to describe Pickett’s rhetorical style succinctly, I would say this: “[Sideways] can be rich and powerful and exalting, but [it] usually seem[s] prosaic to me for some reason.”

Pickett needs to learn to clean up his story a little, and perhaps work a bit on character construction (I know, it’s a horrible thing to say, and had I not seen the movie, I would probably be lauding Pickett for his multidimensional characters), but I think we’ll see great things from Pickett in the future.

§620 · May 22, 2005 · 1 comment · Tags:

On file compression, briefly

At work today, I decided to do a test of various file archivers/compressors. I didn’t test for compression time because that would require a set testbed, and I have actually work I need to do while this is going on. However, in terms of compression ratios, this might be a handy guide. I chose my computer’s Windows folder, as it is a good mix of some multimedia, text, and binary files. Arguably, my methodology could be better, but this is by no means a definitive test.

Compression Type Version Settings Short Size Specific Size Compression Ratio (higher is better)
None n/a 1.56GB 1’677’492’229 bytes 0.0%
zip Best 738 MB 774’632’117 bytes 53.83%
rar 3.5b4 / Best 641 MB 672’352’805 bytes 59.92%
7z 4.18b / Ultra 380 MB 399’218’775 bytes 76.21%
uha 0.6 / PPM 418 MB 439’032’243 bytes 73.83%
ace 2.6 b5 / Maximum 523 MB 549’003’502 bytes 67.28%

Conclusions: The clear winner here is 7-zip. Not only was it relatively fast, but it even manages to beat the fabled UHARC compression (which, arguably, may show better results in a purely multimedia test, from which it draws its lofty reputation), and all with a neat interface akin to WinRAR (which still captures the best overall compressor award for its interface and extra functions). I was extremely surprised at how well the 7z compression fared.

§619 · May 20, 2005 · 2 comments · Tags: ,

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