Jung Fun!

You make Pearson cry

Three examples of misinterpreting correlations.

The Little ARG That Failed

Between the giant banners advertising the D-9 alternate reality game (ARG) with anti-alien slogans, beyond the Dharma Initiative recruitment booth, there was a little stack of postcards at Comic-Con that read "You are being deceived — www.youarebeingdeceived.com." It was the calling card for an ARG that nobody saw. How do I know? Because io9 built the You Are Being Deceived ARG, complete with a phone number you can call and two mysterious linked URLs, as an experiment in marketing and mass deception. What happens when you try to deceive people but your lies are drowned out by better-funded lies? Allow me to recount our strange tale. Link

For the Brain, Remembering Is Like Reliving

Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but also, in part, how the brain is able to recreate it.

Link

Magenta Ain't A Colour

A beam of white light is made up of all the colours in the spectrum. The range extends from red through to violet, with orange, yellow, green and blue in between. But there is one colour that is notable by its absence (click here to check). Pink (or magenta, to use its official name) simply isn’t there. But if pink isn’t in the light spectrum, how come we can see it?

Here’s an experiment you can try: stare at the pink circle below for about one minute, then look over at the blank white space next to the image. What do you see? You should see an afterimage. What colour is it? Link

Bill recommends, Rethinking Thin

Entry level I/O position

HUMAN RESOURCES ASSISTANT
Job #:	7907
Category:	HUMAN RESOURCES
Description:	This is an entry level Human Resources position under the HRIS division. The duties are as followed: New hire entry, edit/maintenance of all new hire entry and review of all new hire paperwork Terminations Manual Check Requests-new hires and terminations PCA's- location changes, grade & title changes, cost center changes, status changes, and salary changes, etc. Requests for Leave/Returns from Leave Document imaging: document preparation and scanning Location Report for Payroll (Attach copies of pca's and forward to Payroll) Ad hoc Business Objects reports Expense Reports Reception coverage & lunch relief Approval of employee data changes in ESS and Monitor HRIS Support folder in Outlook I-9 follow up and updates Other duties as assigned/Special projects as assigned
Requirements:	Proficient typing skills, data entry experience, Basic Excel and Word. Access a plus. Familiarity with Oracle and/or PeopleSoft a plus but not necessary
Location:	NEW YORK, NY USA
Travel Coverage:	Not specified
Minimum Experience (yrs):
Required Education:	Some College Classes
Relocation Offered:	No
Authorization required to work in this country:	Required

http://search0.smartsearchonline.com/pb/jobs/jobdetails.asp?current_page=1&city=&location=&job_type=&emp_status=&country=&k1=&k2=&k3=&k4=&k5=&k6=&k7=&k8=&salary_min=&co_num=&apply=yes&job_number=7907

Emergency Mobilization on the Budget at the Governor’s NYC Office

Emergency Mobilization on the Budget at the Governor’s NYC Office:

Tuesday, December 16, 4:00-5:00 P.M., Third Avenue and 41^st Street

Dear Colleagues,

This Tuesday, December 16, Governor Paterson will release his proposed State budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. All indications are that it will include deep cuts to CUNY and a plan to close part of the State’s budget gap through increased CUNY tuition. In response to the anticipated budget—which may be the most damaging for CUNY in many years—the PSC has called an Emergency Mobilization on Tuesday, December 16 from 4:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. in front of the governor’s New York City office.

At 4:00 that day, representatives of faculty, staff and students from across the University will join me to deliver 55,000 signed postcards to the governor calling for public investment in CUNY. We will meet with the governor’s director of higher education. Our message will be amplified by the thousands of members of the CUNY community who have signed the postcards: In a time of economic distress New York should invest more—not less—in CUNY.

I am writing to ask you to make an exceptional effort to participate in the mobilization on Tuesday. There is an alternative to budget cuts and regressive taxes, and Albany needs to see how strong the support for it is. New York would have $17 billion more in income this year alone if it simply restored the tax cuts enacted between 1994 and 2005. Over the past 30 years, New York has cut the tax rate on the highest income bracket in half. The budget problem would be solved if the State restructured the personal income tax for greater fairness.

It’s not too late to call on Albany to reverse course. We need to be at the governor’s office in numbers to make our point. Please contact caikin@pscmail.org to let us know that we can count on you to be there: Emergency Mobilization on the Budget: Tuesday, December 16, 4:00-5:00 P.M., Third Avenue and 41^st Street.

In solidarity,

Barbara Bowen

President, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY

Jobs/Internships

Hi guys,

I'm helping my boss at a nonprofit org find an incredible intern for next semester, so I pasted a bit of info about it below. If this sounds like your cup of tea, or may know someone else who'd find it useful, please pass it on!

On a personal note, the Young People For office is young, everyone is super nice, freakishly intelligent and very committed to the progressive cause. I've learned ridiculous amounts here this semester and my boss was a good teacher--she is my favorite kind of web nerd; if you're into PHP and accessible and pretty pretty CSS web design, she will definitely love you. If you wanted an introduction to the nonprofit world, this is a great opportunity!

----

Young People For (YP4) is an NYC-based nonpartisan program of People For the American Way Foundation. YP4 empowers progressive college student leaders to create lasting change in their communities.

We have openings for web and communications interns for the Spring 2009 semester. We'd love to extend this opportunity to your students, particularly those who have web design, blogging, and/or copy editing experience. Read the full description: http://www.youngpeoplefor.org/about/jobs/web-and-communications-intern

We are seeking NYC-based interns who are able to work either full- or part-time. We're happy to arrange academic credit. Our interns don't fetch coffee or make photocopies; we put interns to work in areas that interest them, such as creating newsletters, coding, blogging, conducting research and developing new web projects.


----

Feel free to respond if you have any questions!

Lis
elisabeth@sent.com

The success of "crowdsourced" websites like YouTube and Wikipedia has puzzled psychologists, since a small number of people do most of the work for little obvious reward, while the rest benefit, seemingly without giving anything back. New Scientist.

York's art!

Although I've made fun with (not at) the art here at York, I really love it and I'm glad it's here.

Dr Cripps and his class created a webpage celebrating York's art.

Strange Experiments Create Body-Swapping Experiences

Scientists now have manipulated people’s perceptions to make them think they have swapped bodies with another human or even a "humanoid body," experiencing the sensations that the other would feel and giving the illusion of being inside the other's body.

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/081202-body-swapping.html

New Report Shows Unionization Advances Pay and Benefits for Women

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) released a report this week that found unions generally have a positive impact on the salaries and benefits of women workers. The study, Unions and Upward Mobility for Women Workers (see PDF), found that all other factors controlled, women who joined a union were more likely to have health insurance through their employer, a pension plan, and higher earnings than their non-unionized equivalents. The study also established that unionization benefits lower earning female workers just as significantly as those with higher paying jobs.

John Schmitt, who authored the study and is a Senior Economist at CEPR said in a press release that "for women, joining a union makes as much sense as going to college…All else equal, joining a union raises a woman's wage as much as a full year of college, and a union raises the chances a woman has health insurance by more than earning a four-year college degree."

Media Resources: CEPR Press Release 12/2/08; CEPR Report 12/08

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