Ideomotor Effect

Summary
The ideomotor effect is a phenomenon in which people make unconscious movements.

Most Ouija boards don't move by themselves.
(Photo: scriptingnews at Flickr)

Commentary
The ideomotor effect is the result of unconscious processing of external stimuli. While much of the brain's functioning is unconscious, these reactions manifest themselves physically (typically in movement).

This is how Ouija boards work. Participants touch a planchette and their brain, expecting a response (from the dead, aliens, or Parker Brothers), forces small (unconscious!) movements until the piece moves.

More on this later.

See Also

• Ideomotor at Wikipedia for more information.
• The ideomotor effect at Digital Bits Skeptic for a longer discussion.
  

Take The Metaist 2010 Survey! [Closed]

Note: This post contains an embedded survey which may not appear in your RSS reader. Click here to view the full post.

Request(Updated 2010-06-11)
In the past The Metaist had Feedback Friday as a routine way to get feedback from you (dear reader). Over time (7 months), this became less of way to solicit for ideas and more of a way to fill space without providing content, so it was abandoned.

Nonetheless, getting feedback from the readership is important and following a suggestion by reader Jeff Klein, I'm providing a small (4 question) survey to assess our status. It should take less than 3 minutes to complete and will be open until June 4th, 2010.

Please take this anonymous survey at your earliest convenience.

Thanks,
The Metaist

Update 2010-06-11:
The survey is now closed. Thank you for your participation.

Reader Story: Circular Learning Management System

This post is based on a submission by reader Jeff Klein. Please submit suggestions for posts to metaist.blog@gmail.com.

Summary
A learning management system is a system for organizing electronic delivery of courses. Some are so complicated you need a special course to learn how to use them.

It's about 750 pages of dense single-spaced 12pt text. Reading is so easy!
(Image: Created using txt2pic)

Story
Imagine you are told you have to use a new internal learning management system to complete your workplace training. Sounds simple enough. Yet, what if the system was so complicated and hard to use that you needed to take a course to learn how to use the system? Moreover, what happens when the course that teaches you how to use the system is managed by the very same system? A logical implosion.

Meta
Circular reasoning works because circular reasoning works. What experiences have you had with trying to explain the issues with circular reasoning?

Story text written by The Metaist with permission and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Reader Question: How is yogurt made?

This post is a response to a reader question. Please submit suggestions for posts to metaist.blog@gmail.com. Not all questions will be answered.

Question
An anonymous six-year-old child of a reader asks: How is yogurt made?

If you look carefully, you can see an ear, nose, and beard in the Rorschach ink blot.
(Photo: Wikimedia)

Summary (for an average six-year-old)
(Based on: Peanut Butter and Jelly)
First you take the milk and you heat it. (You heat it.)
Then you take the milk and you cool it. (You cool it.)
Then you take the bacteria and you add it. (You add it.)
Then it gets fermented. (Fermented.)
For your yogurt... white yogurt... and berries.

Explanation (for a smarter six-year-old)
Yogurt is based on the Turkish words for knead and thick although in some regions (e.g., Bulgaria) it is more like sour milk (which ambiguously refers to both milk that has soured and buttermilk).

The bacteria used in the fermentation process are Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus which convert the lactose into lactic acid (which is what builds up on your muscles when you exercise, but doesn't degrade performance as previously thought).

Aside from the that the first summary captures the essence of the process.

See Also

• Yogurt at Wikipedia for more information.
• On Yogurt and Jiu-Jitsu at Hulu for a discussion of the relationship between yogurt and spying.

Cold War Continues in North Korea

Note: This post contains embedded video which may not appear in your RSS reader. Click here to view the full post.

Summary
North Korea is an interesting country that is largely (socially) isolated from the rest of the world. VBS Co-Founder Shane Smith managed to get into the country during their increased allowance for tourists to watch the Mass Games (the latest one was called "Arirang").

The videos are long, but fascinating.
Enjoy.

Part 1

(Video: VBS)

Part 2

(Video: VBS)

Part 3

(Video: VBS)