Activity Agreement Strategy Committee

The other day I stood next to a man who was going to this meeting. I've been pondering it ever since and I still can't work out what they would be discussing there.

This is the only place on the internet that this phrase is currently used (at least until their minutes go up, I suppose). I am so proud.

The evolution of religion

An interesting article by Pascal Boyer in Nature, on the evolution of religion. Or, perhaps more accurately, the evolution of religious sensibility.

The author writes that many aspects of human behaviour leave us predisposed to religious belief. It is easier for us to believe in religion than not to believe. Atheists, it seems, have a harder time of it.

My favourite bit is where he says that

Religious concepts and activities hijack our cognitive resources, as do music, visual art, cuisine, politics, economic institutions and fashion.

I'm not sure "hijack" is quite the word I would have chosen, particularly if it's fundamentalist religion that's doing the hijacking. But it did occur to me that Keats would have enjoyed the sentiment.

O for a life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!

So did this facility provide some kind of competitive advantage?

Perhaps one day we will find compelling evidence that a capacity for religious thoughts, rather than 'religion' in the modern form of socio-political institutions, contributed to fitness in ancestral times. For the time being, the data support a more modest conclusion: religious thoughts seem to be an emergent property of our standard cognitive capacities.

Mildly amusing names for presenters: An occasional series

Date: Wednesday 18th March 2009

Title: Health of UK Military Personnel

Presenter: Dr Nicola Fear, Academic Centre for Defence Mental Health, King's College, London

Excellent job opportunity

These may be straitened times, but the salary of £1 per annum still seems a little mean. Oh, but there's a "+ negotiable". My guess is that you need to be a good negotiator in this role, or it's not going to be the job for you.

New Pepsi logo

There's something about the way that design is commissioned that sets free idiocy. Up in the stratosphere of the corporate world, it's not possible for a designer to say, "I've thought about it for a bit, and I think this looks nice." You increasingly have to justify your jottings with philosophical ramblings. And, I suppose, for the corporate executive, it's also nice to believe that your career has more meaning than selling shampoo or fizzy drinks.

Which is how things like this happen. Pepsi's new logo, explained in this document. Now where's my copy of the Emperor's New Clothes?

http://bunnitude.com/misc/files/pepsi_gravitational_field.pdf

And here's what they were really thinking about

http://www.suckatlife.com/pepsiLogoBlowatlife.html

Lost in translation

Sites that pick up press releases and publish them without a second thought are common. Well, here's a site that's tried something different - rewriting the press release. Presumably the budget for the business is pretty low, so rather than employ writers, they must be using a programme that replaces words with their synonyms. I'm not sure that they care whether or not the result is readable, but rather that there's some content there that can be found on the internet. Because if somebody, somewhere clicks on your site it will make money, one day, eventually, maybe.

I think this idea deserves to succeed, because the result is bizarre. Read the thing in isolation and it's gibberish, but find the original and you can see the strange beauty of the translation. My favourite bits are

"Queen Mary University" = "Queen Jewess University"

"principal investigator" = "capital policeman"

"heart attacks and early death" = "hunch attacks and primeval death"

"new blood tests" = "newborn murder tests" and

"pilot study" = "airman think"

Rewritten - http://www.medicalnewsbase.com/medical-research-news/major-research-effort-to-improve-quality-of-care-for-heart-patients/

Original - http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2009/6125.html

One day, all press releases will be written this way...