Letters Remain

Month: December 2009

  • Language Map of Europe

    As Neatorama says of this language map of Europe: Languages correspond only imprecisely with political borders, which are designated by the superimposed red lines. The English version of this map was created by Postmann Michael in 2007 [ā€¦] and there are continuing doubts regarding the accuracy of some of the language borders. I am reminded…

  • Flags as Language Symbols in Web Design: Wrong

    With Brazil (Portuguese),Ā FinlandĀ (Swedish) and my home-country (the United Kingdom) as perfect examples, Jukka Korpela tells us why the use of flags to represent language options on the web is “plain wrong”. In a perfect world, there would be no need for explicit links to versions of a document in different languages. Even in this imperfect…

  • The Humble, Essential and Safe Elevator

    Stuck in an express elevator around the 13th floor of the McGraw-Hill office in New York for 41 hours, Nicholas White’s story should be somewhat fear-provoking. Intersperse with information on the importance of elevators in modern cities, a profile of elevator consultant James Fortune and a discussion on the psychology of elevators, the article somehow…

  • We Project Our Beliefs Onto God

    Those with a belief in God subconsciously bestow him with their own opinions in order to “validate and justify” them.Ā This is a theory that has recently been strengthened by two surprisingly simple yet effective experiments conducted to find what the theist think about the beliefs of God, other people and themselves when it comes to…

  • Religion and Societal Dysfunction

    Dysfunctional societies and those under extreme stress rely on religion as a coping mechanism; it is “a natural invention of human minds in response to a defective habitat”. This is one conclusion from Gregory Paul who has released the findings from his research on the incidence of religious belief and how it affects the overall…

  • The Societal Value of Various Jobs

    The New Economics Foundation has released a report comparing various jobs in terms of the societal value they destroy or generate (pdf). The report was produced to start “a fundamental rethink of how the value of work is recognised and rewarded”ā€”specifically by creating a relationship between jobs that create a benefit for society and the…

  • Penny/Dollar Auction Psychology (The Workings of Swoopo)

    I first heard of the bidding fee scheme/online auction site Swoopo in a Coding Horror post that takes a look at the company’s business plan, calling it “pure, distilled evil”. It’s also a pretty simple (or, as the post said, “brilliantly evil”) plan: It’s almost an exploit of human nature itself. Once you’ve bid on…

  • Optimum Starting Prices for Negotiations and Auctions (and Why)

    A high initial offer in negotiations is more likely to lead to a high final price, yet in auctions a low start price is more likely to lead to a high final price. These are the findings of a recent study that attempted to find the optimal starting prices for negotiations and auctions. In negotiations…

  • Dieter Rams Interview: Design as Art and the Need for Better Products

    Sustainable design and the need for more self-explanatory products are two topics discussed inĀ thisĀ brief interview with the iconic industrial designer, Dieter Rams. In addition to not being a fan of celebrity designers–or ‘pop’ design–he also has a dislike for design being seen as a form of art: Design has nothing to do with art. Design…

  • Statistics on Social Mobility and Belief Systems

    Careers in law, medicine and the media are become more exclusive, while citizens from deprived areas continue to be failed by education. New Statesman provides a summary of (some) social mobility issues in the U.K., including these somewhat startling statistics: Privately educated candidates account forĀ 7 per cent of the population, but occupy more than half…