Scientists have identified a primitive area of the brain that makes us adventurous -- a finding which may help explain why people routinely fall for "new" products when shopping.
Using brain scans to measure blood flow, British researchers discovered that a brain region known as the ventral striatum was more active when subjects chose unusual objects in controlled tests.
The ventral striatum is involved in processing rewards in the brain through the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine.
Scientists believe the existence of this age-old reward mechanism indicates there is an evolutionary advantage in sampling the unknown.
"Seeking new and unfamiliar experiences is a fundamental behavioral tendency in humans and animals. It makes sense to try new options as they may prove advantageous in the long run," said Bianca Wittmann of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London.
Being daring, however, also carries risks. Some choices could be dangerous and, in the modern world, selecting the new may, for instance, make consumers susceptible to marketing hype.
The positive feedback system in the brain could also contribute to some common vices.
"In humans, increased novelty-seeking may play a role in gambling and drug addiction, both of which are mediated by malfunctions in dopamine release," said Nathaniel Daw, now at New York University, who also worked on the study.
The findings were published online in the journal Neuron.
2008年10月18日 星期六
Why do people always buy flashy things?
why do people think they have to buy a new car that costs three times as much as they have to pay? (they could easily buy a cheaper one) why do people buy designer clothes to look good, when they can buy nice clothes that don't have names on it for 1/3rd the price?
consumerist mythology
They believe that "things" denote your quality as a person. And they believe that the more possessions you have, the happier you will be. It's all about superficiality over substance. Since we are bombarded with these myths on a regular basis, it's hard not to buy into it.
According to Daryl Cowie, we can break the reasons why people buy things down into 6 categories: basic needs, convenience (saves time or effort), peace of mind, image or ego, fun, and increasing personal wealth. Understanding which category (or categories) a problem falls into is critical to providing an appropriate solution.
Why people buy things:
1. basic needs
2.convenience
3. peace of mind
4. image or ego
5. entertainment
6.increase wealth
Understanding the reasons people buy, is just as important as understanding what they buy.
The better we understand people’s reasons for wanting something, the better equipped we are to help them with a great solution.
consumerist mythology
They believe that "things" denote your quality as a person. And they believe that the more possessions you have, the happier you will be. It's all about superficiality over substance. Since we are bombarded with these myths on a regular basis, it's hard not to buy into it.
According to Daryl Cowie, we can break the reasons why people buy things down into 6 categories: basic needs, convenience (saves time or effort), peace of mind, image or ego, fun, and increasing personal wealth. Understanding which category (or categories) a problem falls into is critical to providing an appropriate solution.
Why people buy things:
1. basic needs
2.convenience
3. peace of mind
4. image or ego
5. entertainment
6.increase wealth
Understanding the reasons people buy, is just as important as understanding what they buy.
The better we understand people’s reasons for wanting something, the better equipped we are to help them with a great solution.
2008年10月13日 星期一
How Do Japanese Dump Trash?
Let Us Count the Myriad Ways
YOKOHAMA, Japan - When this city recently doubled the number of garbage categories to 10, it handed residents a 27-page booklet on how to sort their trash. Highlights included detailed instructions on 518 items.
Lipstick goes into burnables; lipstick tubes, "after the contents have been used up," into "small metals" or plastics. Take out your tape measure before tossing a kettle: under 12 inches, it goes into small metals, but over that it goes into bulky refuse.
Socks? If only one, it is burnable; a pair goes into used cloth, though only if the socks "are not torn, and the left and right sock match." Throw neckties into used cloth, but only after they have been "washed and dried."
"It was so hard at first," said Sumie Uchiki, 65, whose ward began wrestling with the 10 categories last October as part of an early trial. "We were just not used to it. I even needed to wear my reading glasses to sort out things correctly."
To Americans struggling with sorting trash into a few categories, Japan may provide a foretaste of daily life to come. In a national drive to reduce waste and increase recycling, neighborhoods, office buildings, towns and megalopolises are raising the number of trash categories - sometimes to dizzying heights.
Indeed, Yokohama, with 3.5 million people, appears slack compared with Kamikatsu, a town of 2,200 in the mountains of Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. Not content with the 34 trash categories it defined four years ago as part of a major push to reduce waste, Kamikatsu has gradually raised the number to 44.
In Japan, the long-term push to sort and recycle aims to reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in incinerators. In land-scarce Japan, up to 80 percent of garbage is incinerated, while a similar percentage ends up in landfills in the United States.
The environmentally friendlier process of sorting and recycling may be more expensive than dumping, experts say, but it is comparable in cost to incineration.
"Sorting trash is not necessarily more expensive than incineration," said Hideki Kidohshi, a garbage researcher at the Center for the Strategy of Emergence at the Japan Research Institute. "In Japan, sorting and recycling will make further progress."
YOKOHAMA, Japan - When this city recently doubled the number of garbage categories to 10, it handed residents a 27-page booklet on how to sort their trash. Highlights included detailed instructions on 518 items.
Lipstick goes into burnables; lipstick tubes, "after the contents have been used up," into "small metals" or plastics. Take out your tape measure before tossing a kettle: under 12 inches, it goes into small metals, but over that it goes into bulky refuse.
Socks? If only one, it is burnable; a pair goes into used cloth, though only if the socks "are not torn, and the left and right sock match." Throw neckties into used cloth, but only after they have been "washed and dried."
"It was so hard at first," said Sumie Uchiki, 65, whose ward began wrestling with the 10 categories last October as part of an early trial. "We were just not used to it. I even needed to wear my reading glasses to sort out things correctly."
To Americans struggling with sorting trash into a few categories, Japan may provide a foretaste of daily life to come. In a national drive to reduce waste and increase recycling, neighborhoods, office buildings, towns and megalopolises are raising the number of trash categories - sometimes to dizzying heights.
Indeed, Yokohama, with 3.5 million people, appears slack compared with Kamikatsu, a town of 2,200 in the mountains of Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. Not content with the 34 trash categories it defined four years ago as part of a major push to reduce waste, Kamikatsu has gradually raised the number to 44.
In Japan, the long-term push to sort and recycle aims to reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in incinerators. In land-scarce Japan, up to 80 percent of garbage is incinerated, while a similar percentage ends up in landfills in the United States.
The environmentally friendlier process of sorting and recycling may be more expensive than dumping, experts say, but it is comparable in cost to incineration.
"Sorting trash is not necessarily more expensive than incineration," said Hideki Kidohshi, a garbage researcher at the Center for the Strategy of Emergence at the Japan Research Institute. "In Japan, sorting and recycling will make further progress."
2008年10月12日 星期日
Reuse x Design
Using recycled materials to be more friendly to our earth is a good idea. However the manufacturing process it takes of recycling products are still using energy. The question is how can we be more creative in the design process while creating reusable-wise products?
Re Glow
The ReGlow lamp from Shelley Spicuzza likes to recycle, but skips a lot of steps in between. By screwing in empty, unlabeled plastic drink bottles into the center sphere’s threaded holes, the lamp creates a burst of light and refraction. The fixture also lets you affect the color of light through the type of bottle used, so click through if you want to see the Coca Cola version.
The German artist works with recycled bits like twist ties, birdfood bags, dishcloths and, as pictured here, old shirts. Be sure to click every ring; behind each is a mini slide show of more whimsical pieces.
Designer: Dunja Karabaic
The very first step of Reuse design : Recycle!!!
How do we acquire usable materials? visit a Recycling tour.
Check it out how did Japaness doing recycle.
Re Glow
The ReGlow lamp from Shelley Spicuzza likes to recycle, but skips a lot of steps in between. By screwing in empty, unlabeled plastic drink bottles into the center sphere’s threaded holes, the lamp creates a burst of light and refraction. The fixture also lets you affect the color of light through the type of bottle used, so click through if you want to see the Coca Cola version. Designer: Shelley Spicuzza
Rcyclia
The German artist works with recycled bits like twist ties, birdfood bags, dishcloths and, as pictured here, old shirts. Be sure to click every ring; behind each is a mini slide show of more whimsical pieces.Designer: Dunja Karabaic
The very first step of Reuse design : Recycle!!!
How do we acquire usable materials? visit a Recycling tour.
Check it out how did Japaness doing recycle.
2008年10月6日 星期一
Top 10 blogs
1. Boing Boing
A herald from the expanding fringe of Net culture: nerdy and fun.
2. Engadget
The Net’s premier tech blog and the flagship of the Weblogs, Inc., blog network. Pete Rojas, the brains behind the blog, specializes in product reviews and breaking news in gadget-land.
3. PostSecret
An online “art project” that allows people to read your deepest secrets on scanned anonymous postcards.
4. DesignBoom
A primer on modern design, interviews with masters like Vladimir Kagan, plus snapshots from industry events.
5. Michelle Malkin
Dubbed the Filipino Ann Coulter, Malkin writes about America-haters, illegal immigrants, and Democratic windbags.
6. Dooce
The public suffering of a postpartum depressive. Mommies everywhere seem to relate.
7. Etsey
A place to buy and sell stuffs all by handmade.
8. The Sartorialist
A man who took photos of people that he saw on the streets of New York that he thought looked great.
9. JustJared
The trend-spotting source for pop culture gossip, celeb photo galleries and breaking entertainment news.
10. Jezebel
Celebrity, sex, fashion without airbrushing.
A blog is a Web site, usually maintained by individuals, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.
The ability for readers to leave comments as an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.
As of April 2008, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs and given rankings based on the number of incoming links. It rated Boing Boing to be the most-read group-written blog, which incorporated kinds of opinions toward daily issue.
During the last week I’ve surfed all kinds of most-linked blogs and websites. Some are revealing gossip of celebrities, some are introducing the latest technology, and some are just sharing their thoughts about politics and news. To visit the top-linked blogs is not only allows you to receive interesting information, but also displays what people concerned most today.
I figured there are numerous valuable sources of knowledge and inspiration. Especially the Etsey.com and the DesignBoom. Etsey is basically a site where you can buy or sell handmade stuffs. It’s kinda reminds me a topic I’d always bear in mind. The responsibly of being a designer. Most of the time, we create things people don’t really need or pack things in a sumptuous way in order to make money. Etsey is a network of people who love green and handmade things. However the production of each product is quiet a few. If we can develop a process or standard for designers. To suggest designers think about the recycle and the reusability of each project, either in prints or industrial design. And execute this project in mass production instead of customized way i.e. Etsey.
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