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Research Continues On The Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Research Continues On The Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

Dr. Hal Arkes in the department of psychology at Ohio State University has done extensive studies on the sunk-cost fallacy after he became interested for his personal involvement in politics twenty years ago. His most recent studies look at finding new ways to minimize the fallacy through interventions.

With the help of undergrads and some others at OSU Arkes gives volunteers a scenario having to do with an airplane company and the construction of a $10 million Radar Blank Plane. If the plane has been 90 percent completed, meaning millions of dollars already having been spent, but another company came up with a better version making the almost finished product “grossly inferior,” should the last 10 percent of the budget be spent anyways? Most of the testers said “yes.”

Recent Studies On The Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Recent Studies On The Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

President Bush is quoted in 2005 as saying “we owe them something…We will finish the task that they gave their lives for,” about the soldiers who have died since the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, exemplifying a mode of thinking that appeals to everyone in some way. Most people know this notion as an expenditure made in the past that cannot be modified, or the sunk-cost fallacy.

A recent study in the July issue of Psychological Science tested the relationship between older and younger adults through an individuals’ commitment relating to the “sunk-cost fallacy,” in matters of money.

Physicians Practice And Nevada Cancer Institute Partner To Improve Patient Care

Physicians Practice And Nevada Cancer Institute Partner To Improve Patient Care

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

BALTIMORE, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Partnership will help Nevada Cancer Institute Funnel Cancer Research to Physicians

Physicians and patients of community-based medical practices in Nevada and SW Utah will benefit from a new partnership between Physicians Practice(R), America's Leading Practice Management Journal and Nevada Cancer Institute (NVCI). The new partnership will provide resources to help local physicians manage their practices more efficiently, thereby improving patient care.

1908 Tunguska Catastrophe - New Evidence Supports Meteorite Theory

1908 Tunguska Catastrophe - New Evidence Supports Meteorite Theory

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

The Tunguska event is regarded as one of the biggest natural disasters of modern times. On 30 June 1908 one or more explosions took place in the area close to the Tunguska River north of Lake Baikal. The explosion(s) flattened around 80 million trees over an area of more than 2000 square kilometres.

The strength of the explosion is estimated to have been equivalent to between five and 30 megatons of TNT. That is more than a thousand times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb.

This almost unpopulated region of Siberia was first studied in 1927 by Professor Leonid A. Kulik. There are a number of different theories about what caused the catastrophe. However, the majority of scientists assume that it was caused by a cosmic event, such as the impact of a meteorite, asteroid or comet. If it had exploded in the atmosphere just under five hours later, St. Petersburg, which was the capital of Russia at that time, would have been completely destroyed because of the Earth's rotation.

Homo Liujiang Cranium Gets 3-D Brain Image Treatment

Homo Liujiang Cranium Gets 3-D Brain Image Treatment

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

hominin fossils are the most important materials for exploring human origins and evolution. Since most hominin fossils are incomplete, or filled with a heavy calcified matrix, it is difficult or often impossible to reconstruct the endocast in a real fossil without destroying it.

Accordingly, traditional methods limited the study of human brain evolution. CT can explore fossils in a noninvasive way by transforming a real fossil into a virtual object, and make it possible for paleoanthropologists to extend the study of fossil specimens from the exterior to the interior.

Garmin Strengthens Its Position In The Automotive Industry With Latest Ford Announcement

Garmin Strengthens Its Position In The Automotive Industry With Latest Ford Announcement

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

SOUTHAMPTON, England, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photos

Garmin, the global leader in portable satellite navigation, today announced it has strengthened its relationship with Ford Europe by developing a unique mounting solution that allows seamless integration of the award winning Garmin nüvi 760 to the vehicles electronics. Available on the Focus, C-Max, Kuga, new Fiesta, Transit and Transit Connect, this is Ford's first genuine portable navigation system available at select dealerships across mainland Europe.

ICE Clear Europe Finalizes Clearing Transition Date

ICE Clear Europe Finalizes Clearing Transition Date

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

LONDON, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

ICE Clear Europe(TM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE), today announced that it has reached agreement with LCH. Clearnet (LCH) and Members on the transition date for the movement of all ICE Futures Europe(TM) and ICE over-the-counter (OTC) trading positions from LCH to ICE Clear Europe. The transition will occur over the weekend of September 13-14, 2008. Existing futures and OTC clearing arrangements between ICE and LCH remain unchanged until the transfer is complete. ICE Clear Europe had previously announced that the transition date was expected to occur in the month of August, but was subject to further consultation with LCH and clearing members.

Dual booting Novell 4.91 SP4 and Ubuntu

Dual booting Novell 4.91 SP4 and Ubuntu

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

Yes, not much of a post, but after many hours of trials and errors it appeared that Novell insisted corrupting the grub boot loader in an Ubuntu installaation, I had to switch to Lilo, not entirely trivial, and install grub away from the MBR to keep its functionality and chainload it, instead of trying to replicate all its contents in lilo. In unrelated news, the moviedb C language local interface to imdb.com keeps giving me grief on Linux with loads of segfaults, miraculously it compiled on OSX with the increased constants like MAXTITLES recommended in some BSD list. At least one of the trivial problems was that the Makefile will only ftp to get the data if a line looks like "-auto -user lala@blabla.com", which is stated ambiguously in the docs
NitroSecurity Acquires RippleTech Adding Database Monitoring And Log Management To Network Security Product Suite

NitroSecurity Acquires RippleTech Adding Database Monitoring And Log Management To Network Security Product Suite

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Companies' Joint Technologies Further Unify Information Security From Edge-to-Core Battling Data Breaches; Meets Stringent Compliance Requirements

NitroSecurity, Inc. (http://www.nitrosecurity.com), a provider of high performance, unified information security solutions, today announced that it has acquired RippleTech. The combination of NitroSecurity's award winning Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) and Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) solutions with RippleTech's Database Activity Monitoring and Log Management solutions, allows companies to better protect their critical data and infrastructure with one integrated solution.

Kenya Ministry Of Education To Use EPals To Connect Kenyan Schools Worldwide

Kenya Ministry Of Education To Use EPals To Connect Kenyan Schools Worldwide

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

BOSTON, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- ePals to provide Kenyan classrooms with the largest social network for meaningful learning

The Kenyan Ministry of Education will provide the opportunity for their students and educators to safely connect with schools around the world through ePals (http://www.epals.com), the largest and fastest growing global network for meaningful learning. Leveraging the safe, protected and collaborative learning and e-mentoring tools available through ePals, Kenyan students and educators can connect with classrooms in 200 countries and territories, conducting cross-cultural exchanges, language learning practice, and project-based collaboration to build the 21st century skills necessary to succeed in a global economy.

Jerini Receives European Commission Approval For FIRAZYR(R) (Icatibant) In The Treatment Of HAE

Jerini Receives European Commission Approval For FIRAZYR(R) (Icatibant) In The Treatment Of HAE

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

BASINGSTOKE, England and CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, July 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Shire Limited (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY), the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, notes that Jerini AG (FSE:JI4) has announced today that the European Commission has granted the company marketing authorization for its lead compound FIRAZYR(R) (Icatibant) in the treatment of acute attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE). HAE is a debilitating and potentially life-threatening genetic disease characterized by spontaneous and recurring attacks of edema.

HP And Sony Collaborate To Improve Capacity And Performance Of Digital Audio Tape Drives

HP And Sony Collaborate To Improve Capacity And Performance Of Digital Audio Tape Drives

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

PALO ALTO, California and TOKYO, July 15 /PRNewswire/ -- HP and Sony Corporation today announced an agreement to create the next generation Digital Audio Tape (http://www.datmgm.com/) format - the DAT 320 - providing improved performance and capacity over existing DAT drives.

HP and Sony are jointly developing the DAT or Digital Data Storage (DDS) standard, but will separately offer their own DAT 320 tape drives and cartridges. Similar to previous generations of DAT/DDS, the DAT 320 will be an open standard, which ensures partners can continue to obtain license rights.

Petronas: Financial Overview 2008

Petronas: Financial Overview 2008

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

The financial year ended 31 March 2008 was yet another highly challenging year for the PETRONAS Group as it continues to strive to generate value amidst an increasingly volatile and uncertain global oil and gas industry environment beleaguered with escalating cost and an acute shortage of experienced personnel as well as equipment.

EyeGate Pharma Initiates Landmark Clinical Study Employing The EyeGate(R) II Non-Invasive Ocular Delivery System In Acute Anteri

EyeGate Pharma Initiates Landmark Clinical Study Employing The EyeGate(R) II Non-Invasive Ocular Delivery System In Acute Anteri

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

WALTHAM, Massachusetts, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- First Patient has been Enrolled for this Phase II clinical study of EyeGate's Lead Product EGP-437 Delivered by its Iontophoresis Technology that Non-Invasively Delivers Drug to the Eye

Retraining Fishermen Now Cheaper Than Subsidizing Fuel For Fishing Fleets

Retraining Fishermen Now Cheaper Than Subsidizing Fuel For Fishing Fleets

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

Just this once, anti-fishing organizations can fall back on capitalistic economics to make their case - with huge increases in fuel costs, it may be time to have government-run fisheries rather than spend more money on fuel subsidies currently given to fishing fleets.

In addition, it would actually save money to invest in re-training fishers, says University of British Columbia fisheries economist Rashid Sumaila, a 2008 Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation.

Dramatic fuel price increases over the past weeks have sparked large-scale protests by fishers around the world. In France, fishers set up blockades at several ports while Japanese squid fishing boats halted operations for two days. Similar events have taken place in Australia, Nigeria and the Philippines.

Micrel Takes Low Power To New Heights With New Ultra-Low Voltage CML Product Family Featuring Unique Fail Safe I/O Protection An

Micrel Takes Low Power To New Heights With New Ultra-Low Voltage CML Product Family Featuring Unique Fail Safe I/O Protection An

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

SAN JOSE, California, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

Bulgarian Telecommunications Company Selects Alcatel-Lucent For Euro 32 Million Contract To Deploy GSM/EDGE Network Infrastructu

Bulgarian Telecommunications Company Selects Alcatel-Lucent For Euro 32 Million Contract To Deploy GSM/EDGE Network Infrastructu

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

PARIS, July 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that it has been awarded a Euro 32 million euro contract by Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), the main telecommunication services operator in Bulgaria - to provide GSM/EDGE solutions to Vivatel, BTC's GSM mobile subsidiary.

Alcatel-Lucent will replace half of Vivatel's current GSM Base Station Subsystem network equipment and will also provide a full range of services in conjunction with this contract including project management, network design, integration, testing, installation, and multi-vendor radio network planning and optimization. The contract runs through 2011.

Predicting Lightning Strikes - Closing In On The Source Of X-rays In Lightning

Predicting Lightning Strikes - Closing In On The Source Of X-rays In Lightning

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

University of Florida and Florida Institute of Technology engineering researchers have narrowed the search for the source of X-rays emitted by lightning, a feat that could one day help predict where lightning will strike.

"From a practical point of view, if we are going to ever be able to predict when and where lightning will strike, we need to first understand how lightning moves from one place to the other," said Joseph Dwyer, a professor in the department of physics and space sciences at FIT. "At present, we do not have a good handle on this. X-rays are giving us a close-up view of what is happening inside the lightning as it moves."

Ingenuity Systems And CHDI Announce Multi-Year Deal For Disease-Specific Knowledge Platform

Ingenuity Systems And CHDI Announce Multi-Year Deal For Disease-Specific Knowledge Platform

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

REDWOOD CITY, California, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Ingenuity provides state-of-the-art solution for Huntington's disease research by integrating internal knowledge and curated disease content through IPA

Ingenuity Systems, the leading provider of information solutions for life science researchers, and CHDI Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat Huntington's disease, today announced a multi-year agreement for CHDI to use IPA as a platform to integrate Ingenuity-curated information relevant to Huntington's disease. CHDI researchers will be able to leverage this knowledge using the complete set of analysis tools and structured knowledge already available in IPA.

Expedia, Inc. Enters Into Agreement To Acquire Europe-Based Venere.com

Expedia, Inc. Enters Into Agreement To Acquire Europe-Based Venere.com

Jul 15 2008 | comment(s)

SEATTLE and ROME, July 15 /PRNewswire/ --

Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE) today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Italy-based Venere Net ApA (http://www.venere.com) from Advent International and the founding partners. Venere.com has established relationships with approximately 29,000 hotels and bed and breakfast properties throughout Europe and the U.S. The transaction will result in the addition of more than 10,000 incremental hotel properties in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to Expedia, Inc.'s global hotel offering. Terms of the pending acquisition were not disclosed. Closing of the transaction is subject to competition approval in Germany.