6949 - It came from the skies...
Oct. 20th, 2004 07:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottobearThe rain did, and does. 
drip, drip, drip.
BEF Office Bricolage Contest Result - The Bolas are pretty inspired, as is the Micro-Claymore.
Hmm... Dave's been off in the distance quite a bit in recent months. Life as a father of 2, I guess!
"TV-B-Gone [is] a new universal remote that turns off almost any television. The device, which looks like an automobile remote, has just one button. When activated, it spends over a minute flashing out 209 different codes to turn off televisions, the most popular brands first."
The flash multi-user magnetic refrigerator letters app is fascinating. I've noticed that I can set off a wave of behaviors, just by grouping certain letters or colors together. people will flock to assist in the grouping, as well as "spoilers" who try to mess up patterns. (not to mention the dueling curse words, name spellers, at times, too.) it can be fun just to watch the flock behavior and not even fool with it. An oracle might even see words of the future unfold, if there was a lot of "LOL" and "FAP" in it. and who could ask for more than that?
Saw Episode 3 of Lost... (The boar hunt... or the first one after the pilot.) It looks pretty dang good so far. I'm looking forward to tonights episode, and seeing the downloaded pilot and episode four, as well.
You're Jet. People see you kinda like a father.
You respect, honor, and cherish lots of things.
You are one who knows right from wrong and you
try and keep things in order.
!-Which Cowboy Bebop Character are you?-!
brought to you by Quizilla
Official: Coke takes over parts of the brain that Pepsi can't reach
The mind-altering power of advertising has been demonstrated in a remarkable study of the way in which brand recognition affects the workings of the human brain.
A well-known label is so influential, say researchers, that it can alter consumers' perception of the product's taste. They believe the findings are particularly important given the role that sugared soft drinks have on the epidemic of childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The experiment, a laboratory-controlled version of the famous Pepsi Challenge, revealed that flavor seems to be the last thing that consumers rely on in their preference for Pepsi or Coca-Cola.
When asked to taste blind, they showed no preference. However, when the participants were shown company logos before they drank, the Coke label, the more famous of the two, had a dramatic impact: three-quarters of the tasters declared they preferred Coke.
At the same time the researchers found that the Coke label stimulated a huge increase in activity in parts of the brain associated with cultural knowledge, memory and self-image - so much that the scientists could use brain scans to predict which soft drink an individual was likely to prefer. The Pepsi label produced no such increase.
It is believed to be the first time that brand marketing has been shown to have a direct effect on the brain's capacity to make a choice.
Although the finding seems calculated to delight the marketing industry, it suggests that a handful of iconic brands have a particular hold on the public mind. Coca-Cola is so firmly established that it changed our perception of Christmas by persuading us that Santa Claus wears red. This "tradition" is believed to be largely the result of decades of December advertising in which Santa sported the company's corporate color.
The findings suggest there is no scientific basis for claims made during the Pepsi ad campaign in which testers purportedly chose Pepsi over Coke when they were not told what they were drinking. "We initially measured these behavioral preferences by administering double-blind taste tests," the researchers say in their study, published in the current issue of the journal Neuron. "We found that subjects split equally in their preference for Coke and Pepsi in the absence of brand information."
The scientists chose Pepsi and Coke because the two drinks are almost indistinguishable in color and taste yet many people express a definite preference for one or the other soft drink. "Everybody's heard of Coke and Pepsi. They have messages and, in the case of Coke, those message have insinuated themselves in our nervous system," Dr P Read Montague, director of the Brown Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at Baylor College in Houston, Texas, said. "There's a huge effect of the Coke label on brain activity related to the control of actions, the dredging up of memories and self-image. There is a response in the brain which leads to a behavioral effect."
Simply looking at a person's brain scan, the scientists were able to predict which soft drink the individual concerned was likely to prefer. "We were stunned by how easy this was," Dr Montague said. The ventral putamen, which is involved in reward-related learning, was active when people drink Coke or Pepsi. This is expected as the brain treats the pleasant taste of sugared water as a reward.
However, the scans also showed that the hippocampus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, areas of the brain involved in recalling emotions and cultural memories, were involved when the volunteers were exposed to the Coke brand. The Pepsi brand, meanwhile, had virtually no effect.
Dr Montague said that the work can help to understand why people form eating or drinking habits that may not be good for their health.
"We are not trying to figure out how to market something better. We want to be able to better understand how brains work so that we can cure more neurological disorders."
Pretty keen... but what does it mean if I prefer Pepsi?
Current Mood - I could go for Fried Beef and Green peppers... (just without the beef)
Current Music - Kenya (Sung to myself)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 01:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 03:24 pm (UTC)You're Spike Spiegel. Laid back and moody at
times. You think a lot about the past and wish
for closure. When there is work to be done,
you do it. You run strickly on instincts and
impulse.
(http://quizilla.com/users/ZacIsConfused/quizzes/!-Which%20Cowboy%20Bebop%20Character%20are%20you%3F-!/)
woo. And yeah, that article on how branding has affected society is very interesting. Reminds me of the days of studying design theory. I suppose it would take a researcher to find how brands affect us, when in most cases we ourselves don't realize it.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 04:47 pm (UTC)I have an urge to drink an RC cola, now.
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Date: 2004-10-20 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 06:39 pm (UTC)sadly, this also means the show is good, and therefore will be canceled.\
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 06:46 pm (UTC)I don't think it stands a chance of being cancelled for awhile... it's held onto #8-9 in the overall ratings since it's debut. YAY!
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Date: 2004-10-20 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 09:13 pm (UTC)As for Coke, I really like that color red that they use for their brand. It could be why I prefer Coke, or it could be that I used to work for Pepsi. The brain is a dangerous place.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-21 03:00 am (UTC)http://www.livejournal.com/users/pennyarcaderss/59950.html
no subject
Date: 2004-10-21 11:17 am (UTC)