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December 20, 2002 Away to spend a few days in Germany and Switzerland — happy christmas and a merry new year to all of you! [Iff you're using IE here are some fireworks (other browsers are too smart for the erroneous JavaScript...)] Instead of yet another unrequested 'year in review' feature, I've added a few neglected pictures to the WWWales, Southerndown and image of the day pages. But for the next couple of weeks and months, I much prefer focusing on the future: Let's simply hope that the next year will hold as many pleasant surprises as the last one.
December 16, 2002 Not many news to report these days, I'm happy to say — too busy living a life. Nevertheless, here are some G-rated snippets: The good news are that I've moved up in the world: from the tenth to the twelfth floor of our building, which means I cannot move any higher in this department. And, for the first time in about eleven years, I'm actually not a student any more, which was a bit scary at first. However, as my present interim job as a Research Assistant means that I'm now getting payed for doing what I'm used to do (and like to do) anyways I believe that I'm coping relatively well. And the 'task time allocation' project for which I'm currently carrying out experiments really is quite fascinating. A simple hypothesis states that when people are to solve two competing tasks under time pressure, they should devote the majority of their time to the easier task. While my experimental data seems to mock this cute intuition so far, it certainly applies to my personal time allocation at the moment. [Watch me doing a typical dual-task experiment.] Consequently, the old news is that I still have to write up my PhD thesis — so don't mention the 'd'-word! Which is why I'm determined to continue carefully neglecting this site, except for occasional picture updates, like these or these. Many exciting things require my full attention at the moment. And as I'm forced to set priorities this site, sadly, is not one of them. So please excuse me for a few weeks. August 13, 2002 Back from an inspiring summer school, an interesting workshop and an exciting conference. As my primary objective now is to overcome jet-lag and then apply some of my new skills & ideas the harvesting and presentation of my photographs might take some time. Meanwhile, you can find some group pictures of the 2002 ACT-R summer school here, and some snapshots of a reception at the CogSci conference (including one showing my supervisor and me having a jolly good time) are available here.
July 23, 2002 Off to the US for about three weeks to attend the ACT-R summer school and workshop at CMU, Pittsburgh, PA, and this year's CogSci Conference at GMU, Fairfax, VA (near Washington, DC). (My conference paper can be downloaded here). As I'm very much looking forward to meeting some new ideas and many old friends, the journey promises a great mixture of work, rest, and play. July 8, 2002 Some new pictures of Cardiff, Caerphilly, the Brecon Beacons, and the South-Wales coastline are now available. All images depict locations which are less than an hour's drive away from Cardiff. Allegedly, this is the ugliest part of Wales... July 1, 2002 Don't mention the W-word! No, not those historic hostilities that are invoked whenever there's an England-German football match is on, nor a certain US citizen who's best liked for his amusing slips & lapses. But the present weather, ie. the total absence of anything vaguely resembling a summer, is beginning to pi** me off (and pi**ing on me). When I mentioned below that I had developed a 'remarkable resistance to rain' I didn't mean to imply that I've developed webs and gills — at least not yet. Too bad that empirical hypotheses cannot be proven right by supporting evidence, for otherwise the present flood would confirm my theory that Cardiff is actually a submarine city, and what we periodically mistake for rain is but the rising tide. Fortunately, I'm too occupied for prolonged suffering, or for enjoying the sun, if it still exists. As for the World Cup, I can but say that the better team won in the end — and that's ok. What I actually wanted to mention: Whoever knows my mother will now find some images of her visit here. June 18, 2002
June 2, 2002 — A random rant about football madness A spectre is haunting me in Europe — the spectre of the FIFA world cup. Thank goodness that this wretched tournament has finally been kicked-off! Don't get me wrong: Although I don't care much about who wins or loses, I enjoy watching the occasional game, do know the offside rule and have once been a passionate player (when me was young and life was fun...). But sadly, most of what I hear and see today is not about football any more. Take the ridiculous media hype during the last weeks, which has become almost as bizarre as unbearable. The sheer absurdity of this year's world cup build-up (at least here in the UK, but I'm sure that it was just as bad elsewhere) was most vividly illustrated by the allocation of time slots in the daily news: A 5-minute report on Pakistan vs. India (on the brink of a nuclear war) was usually followed by a 10-min pre-match report on England vs. Sweden (no threat of nuclear war here, but a detailed discussion of the delicate intricacies of the metatarsal bone). After several weeks of the same routine and countless hours of TV coverage, the English team displayed about 45 minutes of decent football in today's match — what an anti-climax! Yet this result again calls for a detailed analysis and will be subjected to endless discussions, of course... Apart from the news, the entire advertising industry has been infected by football-frenzy and desperately conjured up obscure links between football and almost anything. While I can see the connection for sporting brands, personal hygiene products and beverages (although I doubt that the majority of those 'refreshing' soft drinks and beers will be transformed into sweat on a football pitch) I seriously wonder who would actually choose an internet portal, buy a particular car, apply for a certain credit card, or even decide on a specific mortgage because of its sponsorship of a football tournament? To me, the fact that any "official sponsor" paid a minimum fee of 30 million US-$ (~£20m) to FIFA seems would seem to be a pretty good reason to not support that company. My favourite World Cup advertisement this year is by EA Sports and attempts to sell a video game by the memorable slogan "Stop the Germans".
More generally, this campaign highlights an interesting aspect of English-German relations: Due to some leathery object crossing (or not crossing?) some line more than 30 years ago and a few subsequent penalty shootouts, many English football fans display a peculiar preoccupation with the fate of Germany's football team. Why else would the last (and not very good) game played at Wembley and the fact that the stadium is now rebuild with the support of a German bank be perceived as national humiliations? And why else would any English fan have a remotely positive memory of the Euro 2000 tournament, in which both England and Germany deservedly crashed out in the first round? It tells a lot about the perception of international relations in this country that Germany's defeat to England at Munich on September 1, 2001, is probably remembered as one of the most important events of last year — perhaps second only to the events of September 11. That game had its own advertisement highlights: Why not get a smashing desktop wallpaper, a DVD showing "a new breed of heroes" or this big banner to "lay on your bed as a bedspread — fully washable"? After several weeks of build-up at the peak of which some tabloids even invoked pictures of Nazi-Germany I actually was grateful for the result — naively hoping that it might soothe some old wounds. Unfortunately, the effect seems to have been but a temporary one. It really is a strange phenomenon that despite all the evidence to the contrary (e.g. not having won a trophy since 1966) many English fans still behave as if their team rightfully ought to win. When questioned for their reasons, many answers boil down to little more than "We invented the game" or "We won the war". Again, please don't misunderstand me: I believe that the present German team is equally mediocre and does not deserve to win a major title. In the unlikely event that England and Germany should meet each other in this year's tournament ('unlikely' as for this to happen, both teams would need to reach and survive the second round) I will be grateful to live in Wales, where many display such an enthusiastic nationalism that they would neither cheer for England nor for Germany. (Since Wales beat Germany here in Cardiff about two weeks ago, they would probably favour Germany, thus beating the English by transitive inference...) As for myself, I wouldn't really know whom to support. Instead, I would just try to enjoy the game (at home, as a pub would probably not be safe) and take an opportunistic stance by hoping that the better team wins. Unfortunately, football games are often not won by the better team. While some people claim that this makes the game more interesting, I see in the disproportional influence of sheer luck another reason to become discouraged. But the worst thing is the ever-increasing amount of noise around each encounter. Despite some empirical evidence to the contrary (e.g. by Peter Ayton, whose studies undermine the notion of a 'hot' goalscorer, question the common belief that scoring just before half-time has any special importance and exposes the idea that a team is more "vulnerable" immediately after a goal as a fallacy), much of the so-called "game analysis" by "experts" is merely perpetuating old superstitions and well-worn clichés. While I sincerely admire the achievements of athletes, respect the coordinated effort of a team and acknowledge the important emotional functions of any sporting event, I find it very disturbing when the practice and support of a sport takes on the shape of a religion: by affording membership to an exclusive community, which has its own rituals and shares a system of beliefs which are rendered impenetrable to rational discourse. Ironically, the football version of modern superstition is masked by a compulsive obsession with facts and numbers. As much as I admire the dedication of those poor people who collect all that data — without a demonstration of clear causal links, e.g. between past and present results, most of that is nothing but a load of pseudo-scientifc rubbish. Not only do statements like "the chances for team A are good as it has won 4 of the last 6 encounters" lack any statistical significance, but claims like "there's a good chance for nation A to beat nation B since in their last X meetings A has only scored Y times in the second half" are utterly arbitrary and usually don't imply anything at all. Rather then demonstrating some deep insight into the hidden mechanisms of the game, they just make us sit in front of the telly for longer, so we can watch all those commercials and ruin our health (and wealth) by buying all those snacks and drinks advertised... But enough said. If you are sick of all the noise, but enjoy a simple game of skill, thrill and strategy try out these Arcade games instead. Alternatively, see the last page. [June 10: Michi kindly posted a comment on this rant in the guestbook. Btw: I quite enjoyed the games I've seen so far and congratulate both England and Germany for still being in contention. Nonetheless, the impacts of nationality on visual perception (or the subsequent judgements?) can be bewildering and are often nothing short of shocking (e.g., seeing someone 'dominating' a game, 'faking' an injury, or 'deserving' a penalty...). As watching a match in a foreign country really is a very enlightening (painful, but also cathartic) experience I believe that it would be a great exercise in cultural relativity if all fans of a team A had to watch a match of A and B in country B, and vice versa. But I realize that this would probably miss the point: a big part of the fun seems to derive from partisanship, rather than impartiality.] 
Happy birthday to — me! According to the mysterious computations
of the Decimal
Birthday Calculator April 2002 Back, but busy — no updates this month. March 29, 2002 After
a few hectic weeks I believe that I've truly deserved this year's
Easter holiday. I'm off to good-old Germany for about two weeks.
And as I haven't been at home for more than a year I'm really looking
forward to it. But
a German vacation without any occupational challenge wouldn't really
be 'efficient', of course! Fortunately, a glance at a 'Studium
Generale' announcement March 2, 2002 Too much work, too little time — and none at all for updates of this site. But since I'm running out of webspace anyway, I'd have to restructure and delete some stuff before I could possibly add any new contents. But at present I'm simply too preoccupied with research and other commitments. Please excuse me for a while...
January 20, 2002 As I'm working towards a PhD and a few other things this year I won't have time for regular updates, I'm afraid. But I've just made one of my experimental programs available here, so if you're bored you can download it and then spend many exciting days trying to solve 10-disk Towers of Hanoi problems, or diagnosing your potential frontal lobe damage by the Tower of London task. (Don't bother practizing, though, if you happen to be a potential participant of mine — I'll come up with something else...) January 2, 2002 A most happy new year to everyone! Still severely jet-lagged, but back from New York where I had a wonderful time (which isn't very difficult, of course. But the better I get to know the city the more I like it). Some first pictures and animations are available, but I haven't had the time yet to sort out the rest. Newer news: 2003 | 2002 | 2001: older news > |
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hanz@neth.de;
12|2002
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