The QLog

Earth Hour is Tonight!

Learn more about Earth Hour here.

The main goal: turn off all lights and non-essential electrical appliances for an hour tonight at 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

Why: 1. Save Electricity. 2. Increase Awareness (including self-awareness) about the resources that are consumed during day-to-day living in the 21st century.

Practice Makes Perfect, Part Two

Practice is Important; however, good feedback is the key!

After more research, Thorndike revised his original model some years later to include feedback as an essential ingredient. Without some metrics, it is virtually impossible to measure progress. Both negative and positive feedback loops are necessary to improve any skill over time. This is why students receive grades and professional athletes review their own performance after the game.

Practice Makes Perfect, Part One

Psychologist Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949) offered the "Law of Exercise" which stated that "the more times a response is made in a given situation, the stronger it becomes. As a behaviorist, he suggested that stimulus-response associations are strengthened through repetition. This was an early idea about learning, based on animal studies.

In other words, he claimed that Practice Makes Perfect.

Question: is it really that simple?

10 Great Gas Saving Tips

With gas pricing rising, smart driving and thoughtful energy conservation makes more sense than ever. Below are ten great gas saving tips that will help you spend less at the pump and increase your overall mileage.

1. Do not drive solo. Instead, car pool and split the gas bill or choose public transportation.

2. Use muscle power: walk, jog, or bike for local trips. It is good for you body, your pocket book, and your planet. 

3. Plan first. Organize your activities/events and then group as many errands into one trip as possible. This requires that you take the most efficient route.

4. Avoid "jackrabbit" starts and sudden stops. When starting your car, press the accelerator slowly. When breaking, apply force slower so the car come to a more gradual stop.

5. Driver slower and more steadily. Cars get much better mileage (sometimes 20% more) at 55 mph then at 70 mph. Remember: driving at a constant rate is best as slowing down and speeding up wastes fuel.

6. Clean your car. Empty your automobile's trunk and keep very little in your car as the extra weight means a higher energy expendure per trip (and fewer miles per gallon).

7. Tires matter. Keep your tires properly inflated and aligned. Each tire should be periodically spun, balanced and checked. Insure that your car's tires are inflated to the maximum recommended pressure.

8. Use the correct oil. Modest mileage improvements (1%) can be achieved by opting for the grade of motor oil recommended by the car manufacturer. It is important to change your oil every 3000 miles. When purchaing oil, look for the phrase "energy conserving" on the API performance label as it contains friction-reducing additives.

9. Time shift: When possible, avoid driving during rush-hour or other peak traffic periods.

10. Replace air filters. A dirty air filter is a problem as it causes an engine to work harder and burn more fuel. New engine air filters will improve your gas mileage. It's a good idea to check your air filter when your change your oil.

Bonus Tip: Avoid all unnecessary trips. 'Sunday Driving' is a thing of the past.

Experience Totality Today

By Totality I mean the Total Eclipse of the Moon!

Do something different tonight: witness a full lunar eclipse (assuming that the skies are clear in your area this evening) The entire event will be visible from a large area including part of Africa, Europe, North America, and South America.

The lunar eclipse starts at 8:43 EST. Totality itself will begin at 10:01 EST and last for 50 minutes. The entire shows will end at 12:09 EST on February 21, 2008.

Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are 100% safe to watch. You can look directly at the 'disappearing' moon without any special filters.

Although the entire event will not be visible from the US West Coast, you still will be able to see the majority of the eclipse.

For more detailed information, see the below links:

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html

http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/LEprimer.html

Mythbusters, Part 3: You Lose Most Body Heat From Your Head

When I was growing up, my Mom taught at a Catholic grade school where the priest gave basically the same sermon to the children every day in winter. Instead of probing any deep theological message, he offered this PSA at morning mass: "Your head is like a chimney. Wear Your Hat." My mom would remind my sister and I to wear our own hats when it was cold out, by jokingly repeat the same manta.

This leads me to the last mythbuster for now: you lose most body heat from your head. This statement is partially true, depending on the context. 

I've heard several different competing claims the amount of heat loss from the head, but the various estimates range from 75% to 95%.

If this were true, then one should be able to to stay extremely warm by simply wearing a ski mask or hat while nude. Yesterday, it was 10 below (F) in Wisconsin; however, I decided against conducting the full experiment.

The brain is an extremely metabolic active part of the body and it does produce more heat than other parts of the body (like the pink finger); however, the heat is lost more from the head as in modern Western society, it is normally uncovered while the torso, arms, and legs are fully clothed. 

If the entire body is covered, including the head, there is a very little heat loss anywhere. Likewise, if the entire body is naked, then heat is lost from all surfaces and the percentage from the head does not come anywhere near 75%.

What is more likely true is this: of the body heat that is lost, the head contributes the majority when it is directly exposed to the environment while the rest of the body, except for the hands and feet, are fully clothed. 

Mythbusters, Part 2: You Only Use 10% of Your Brain

The idea that a human beings only use 10% of their brain is often mentioned by motivational speakers and various self-help gurus. It is a great explanation to explain past failures with only one caveat: it is completely false and the origins of the concept seem to be based on outdated science. If 90% of your brain was removed, you would cease to function.

Neurologists that have studied the brain have used modern imaging techniques such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and PET scans (positron emission tomography) to monitor brain activity. Many different studies have demonstrated that a wide variety of locations within the brain are used. Also, some tasks are highly specialized and are controlled by very localized portions of the brain while other complex behaviors utilize many different parts of brain at the same time.

Nevertheless, what does seem to be true is that human beings often use LESS than their full mental capabilities due to sloppy thinking, ingrained habits, and static world views. Almost everyone has the potential to increase their overall creativity and problem solving abilities. 

For a much more detailed account on this myth, including more on the cultural history, see the following book chapter:

B.L. Beyerstein, Whence Cometh the Myth that We Only Use 10% of Our Brains? in Mind Myths. Exploring Popular Assumptions about the Mind and Brain edited by S. Della Sala, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, pages 3-24, 1999

Mythbusters, Part 1: Your Body is 90% Water

Recently, I've heard three urban myths about the human body and I'm going to take the next few days to debunk them rather quickly.

Question: Your Body is 90% Water. True or False?
Answer: False!

Although I do have a background in biology, this is not needed to quickly think through this idea, especially if you ever have seen a human skeleton. Consider your bones. The human body contains many bones, some of them fairly large. The entire volume and weight of the human skeleton is much higher than 10% of the body. Additionally, every cell is has thousands of different carbon-based molecules such as proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, each performing a different function in parallel. Animals eat food for both energy and raw organic materials. If our bodies were only 10% carbon-based, then we would consume much less solid food at dinner and instead would be drinking more fluids to maintain that 9:1 ratio.

Yet, the human body does contain a very significant amount of H2O as it is about 60% water. What is true is that one should drink, on average, 2 liters (approximately 8 glasses) of water each day to re-hydrate due to a variety of biological functions. You can read the more detailed health recommendations on this topic from the Mayo Clinic here.   

Diet Day and 14 More Years!

If weight loss or fitness is a goal for 2008, then these two items might interest you.

1. National Diet Day is the Second Tuesday of January (today). No, this is not a day to pick a fad diet. Instead, it is recommended that you choose a long-term plan and adopt healthy lifestyle habits that includes a smart diet that you can sustain for many years.

2. The PLoS Medicine, a peer-reviewed open access journal, published a new study today that concluded that four very basic and easy behaviors could add as many as 14 years to one's lifespan. The evidence came from the EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Study which had a large data set of 20,244 men and women.

The four longevity lifestyle behaviors are:

• not smoking
• being physically active
• moderate alcohol intake
• eating at least five vegetable servings a day

If you are looking for some lifestyle habits to improve your life, these are obviously a good four to adopt today.

Here is the download citation for the full article:

Combined Impact of Health Behaviours and Mortality in Men and Women: The EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Study Khaw KT, Wareham N, Bingham S, Welch A, Luben R, et al. PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 1, e12 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050012

Here is the link to the PLoS editorial on the article:

From Theory to Practice: Translating Research into Health Outcomes The PLoS Medicine Editors PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 1, e15 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050015

PK Parties: The Emperor is Naked Again

The backstory: I was invited to a PK Party for New Year's Eve as the hostess wanted a 'skeptic' to attend. I choose to decline as spending 4-5 hours witnessing individuals warp cutlery with their hands and then claim that this feat was accomplished solely via their minds seemed like a poor use of my time.

I am a very positive person and rarely say anything negative. Yet, like the innocent child from the famous tale, I will point out when the Emperor is naked!
What is a PK Party? It is a 'spoon bending' party influenced by the fraudulent claims of magician Uri Geller and turned into a social phenomenon by Jack Houck.

Instead, I'd like to share a five minute clip from Penn and Teller's television series B.S.! (a show dedicated to debunking all sorts of popular nonsense) which will explain why I'll be doing something else on NYE. Warning: this clip does contain some adult language; however, if you would like to see what a scam PK Parties really are, this is your chance.