āTreatedā chocolate makes you happier
CHOCOLATE has wonderful powers ā witness our report last week on the correlation between per-capita chocolate consumption and a nationās haul of Nobel prizes (3 November). Now Tony Burton points us to the apparently very serious paper āEffects of Intentionally Enhanced Chocolate on Moodā, published in Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing ().
The paper describes an experiment in which subjects were given chocolate which had been ātreatedā with health-giving āintentionsā by, we are told, ā(1) a pair of experienced meditators, (2) an electronic device imprinted by six experienced meditators, [or] (3) a ritual performed by a Mongolian shamanā. A fourth group was given untreated chocolate. Neither the subjects nor those delivering the chocolate knew which sample was which.
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The authors report a statistically significant effect, in which those consuming sort-of-prayed-over chocolate scored more of a mood improvement than those eating plain old plain chocolate. (A declaration of interest here: Explore is published by Elsevier, part of Reed Elsevier, which owns Ā鶹“«Ć½.)
So far, so remarkable. Even more so is the paperās conclusion, in which the authors insist that in āfuture efforts to replicate this findingā¦ persons holding explicitly negative expectations should not be allowed to participate for the same reason that dirty test tubes are not allowed in biology experimentsā. Tony asks whether this may be āthe most comprehensive pre-emptive strike everā against any attempt to replicate the results.
More intriguing still is the statement that āGiven theoretical support and experimental evidence for retrocausal effects, replication of intentional phenomena may be inherently limited because once conducted and published, an experiment might be influenced by a potentially infinite number of future intentions.ā
If this is true, it may be worth rechecking the published paper, in case Feedbackās having accidentally spattered chocolate on our computer screen has retrocausally altered the findings.
Brian Grout forwards a promotion from Lab Manager magazine which promises to reveal āHow a laboratory execution system will increase your labās efficiencyā
Poppleton University ā reality or myth?
A SHOOT is sprouting in the groves of British academe: Poppleton University. We discovered it while browsing the website , which exists as āa platform for academics to share research papersā.
But hang on a minute. That Poppleton University couldnāt be connected ā could it? ā with the Poppleton University that features in Laurie Taylorās for the London magazine Times Higher Education. This has been described, , as ālike , one of the truly great columnsā ā the source of this praise apparently being āauthor Malcolm Bradbury[citation needed]ā.
Whatever its provenance, Poppleton Uni is clearly in the early stages of engagement with academia.edu. The only faculty member mentioned on the site at the time of writing is our old friend Jo De Selby, in the Department of Experimental Epistemology, who lists as research interests āquantitative inspirationā and ānominative determinismā (18 August). How on earth did he/she get there?
The universityās Department for Corporate Affairs is better represented, by Phillina Spredshete and Jamie Targett. Strangely, there are two people of the same name in Taylorās column. There too they are in the Department for Corporate Affairs, where they are the founts of ghastly āinspirationalā management speak.
We are sure that De Selby, Spredshete and Targett will join us in looking forward to networking socially ā perhaps helped by Feedback readers ā with more of the Poppleton faculty at .
Bankers on Ā£80 million a year
WHEN you talk about money, using the letter ākā to mean one thousand can sound streetwise ā so long as you get it right. Adam Young copies us an : āFirst Steps is the gateway to home ownership for Londonās first-time buyers earning up to Ā£77,200k a year.ā
That, Adam points out, is just short of Ā£80 million. Not even the City of London financial district has many potential house buyers on that kind of salary.
A COMMON symptom displayed by people with obsessive-compulsive disorder is an uncontrollable devotion to personal hygiene. Ā鶹“«Ć½ writer Laura Spinney tells of a recent conference on neuropsychiatric disorders, at which an American OCD specialist described a conflict with the authorities at the US university psychiatric hospital where he works.
Managers had placed signs saying āPlease wash your handsā in the restrooms at the OCD clinic. On the grounds that their presence did not provide an āideal therapeutic environment for those afflicted with severe OCDā, he wanted to remove the signs, but was forbidden from doing so because of health and safety regulations.
FINALLY, Peter Buckās Indesit PWE 91272 W washing machine has a button to control its temperature. The explains: āTemperature button: press to reduce or completely exclude the temperatureā. Peter says he has not yet tried a wash cycle with the temperature completely excluded, as he fears it may damage his clothes.
