Elephants on Acid and Other Bizzare Experiments is a collection of interesting, entertaining, and sometimes disturbing experiments collected by Alex Boese. It looks to have a lot of overlap with Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives, Richard Wiseman (author of 59 Seconds), so I’m going to skip Quirkology — I seem to be getting stuck recently reading several books of the same genre or style and finding a lot of overlaps.

From attempts to bring dead animals and people back to life (using electricity), to measuring the weight of a soul (by carefully weighing a terminal patient as they expire), and inviting road rage (by waiting in a stopped car for an extended period after the lights turn green), Alex has amassed a collection of these weird and wonderful experiments, carefully catalogued into themed sections.

True to the promise of the title, there is also coverage of LSD administered to elephants, with rather unexpected and somewhat devastating results, in one case.

An interesting and light read.

11:15, restate my assumptions:

1. Mathematics is the language of nature.
2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers.
3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge.

Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature.

Portrait of a Young Forger is, as the subtitle says, A true story of adventure and survival in wartime Europe. I remember reading this book in school and for some reason I felt the need to read it again. I tracked down and bought a second-hand copy (it seems to be a pretty rare title), but according to the invoice, which I've been using as a bookmark, this was in late 2007. It wasn't until 2010 that I actually got around to reading it again.

Marian Pretzel was a young Jewish art student living in Lvov, Poland. He talks about being fond of sports, the 'Dror' sports club he was involved with, and his decision to go to art school. But when the Nazi occupation came it quickly destroyed his family and landed him in the Janowska concentration camp.

It was painfully clear to Marian that he would not survive long at Janowska, and he soon made a miraculous escape from the camp. Previously, he and a friend were given the challenge of forging some stamps on an official-looking document; now Marian had to rapidly develop his forging skills to help his survival.

The book chronicles his journeys during the war years with various friends, around Poland, the USSR, Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Each trip was backed by a well thought-out and rehearsed cover story, and suitable forged documents bearing all the right stamps.

His escape from Janowska was only one of his many brushes with death. Along the way he lost countless family members and friends who were not so lucky as he was. And although his survival was largely based on resourcefulness, ingenuity, and boldness, on many occasions it came down to pure luck. For instance, on one occasion he and a friend missed their train because they had to collect a boarding pass before embarking; the train became full while they were in the queue so they had to wait until the next day. Meanwhile, the place they were going to was bombed, and most of the inhabitants killed — had they caught the train they intended, they would likely be amongst those dead.

This book really puts things into perspective for someone who lives in London, goes to work every day, and has responsibilities including ironing work shirts and feeding the cat. The thought of not having anything to eat and dodging the Gestapo at every corner is quite a startling one.

Amazingly, through all this Marian manages to keep a clear head and a positive attitude at a time when many around him are paralysed, mesmerised, and stupefied, by fear:

I had lost everything but my life... I made a slow and careful inventory of the qualities I possessed and how they could be instrumental in my survival.

Jesse Schell gives a brief walkthrough of what the world would be like if everything was somehow interconnected as part of one giant game, where you get points for waking up on time and for brushing your teeth, and changeable e-ink tattoos that earn you points through the “Tatoogle AdSense” programme, and a new high-score on your daughter’s piano practice earns her points for her Arts Council funded music scholarship...

It’s only 10 minutes long; hang around for the finale, it’s good.

“Anyway, I’m not sure about all that, but I do know this stuff is coming. Man, it’s got to come; what’s going to stop it?”

[Via TED: Best of the Web]

As the subtitle says, Made To Stick is a book about Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck. Chip and Dan Heath explore the naturally “sticky” ideas which penetrate your mind and stick around, without your knowledge or intention.

The book comes to life with constant examples; they cover false stories like the kidney heist, where a businessman wakes up in a bath tub full of ice to discover his kidney has been harvested by organ thieves, and true stories, like the guy who lost 200 pounds by eating Subway sandwiches every day.

There are also a number of case studies that explore how to turn an abstract idea, such as a CEO telling employees to “maximise shareholder value”, into something more concrete and sticky, which relates to actual day-to-day work of the employees and is therefore much more likely to be understood and applied!

Chip and Dan set forth the six aspects of generating a sticky idea as SUCCESs:

1. Simple
   Find the core of what you are trying to communicate. Strip back the detail and make it a simple message, but without dumbing down. (Think proverbs.) Relate it to things that your audience knows about already, to help it take hold.
   
2. Unexpected
   Capture attention with a surprise. Avoid gimmickry. Break people’s “guessing machines” by making them guess something counterintuitive about the core issue. Make it “postdictable” — it’s not predictable, but once you know the answer it all falls in to place and makes sense.
   
3. Concrete
   Make ideas easy to understand and remember. Strip down the abstractions to something concrete. Use specific and vivid examples; make it real. Involve the audience. Talk about people, not data. The more specific you are, the more sense it makes.
   
4. Credible
   Make your message easy for people to believe and agree with. Use external credibility from an authority (expert, celebrity) or anti-authority (regular Joe), or internal credibility derived from things like providing specific details.
   
5. Emotional
   Make people care by tapping in to the emotions that appeal to them, be it empathy or rebellion. Don't assume that others care at the same level that you do — make them care! Appeal to self-interest.
   
6. Stories
   Use stories as a simulation, to tell people how to act, or as an inspiration, to give people energy to act. Stories can be like a flight simulator to engage people an have them imagine themselves in a situation, play by play.

If these summary notes don't make a lot of sense to you, that's because you should go and read the book in its entirety. Then you'll know how to turn a phrase like "maximising shareholder value" into something a little more... 'sticky'.

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth."
  — John F. Kennedy, 1961

Last week I posed an obscure plumbing problem where the bathroom basin was behaving in a rather peculiar manner. When you wash your hands with warm water then switch to maximum cold, the water coming out of the faucet is hot for some time.

After significant head scratching I managed to establish the root cause of the problem: The “faucet aerator” was to blame.

The faucet aerator is a thing screwed on to the end of the spout; it mixes some air into the stream of water in order to make it all soft and fluffy. The particular faucet aerator fitted had a “water saving” feature, which intentionally limited the flow of water passing through. (Blue mesh in the picture)

This combined with the pressure differential between the hot water and the cold water, meant that when using the mixer to create warm water what was actually happening was this:

1. Hot and cold water rush in to the mixing chamber together.
2. The warm water can’t exit fast enough because the spout is blocked by the “water saver”.
3. The hot water pressure is significantly higher, which overpowers the cold water.
4. Hot water dominates and begins to flow directly into the cold water pipe!
5. As the pipes between the boiler and the basin warm up, the hot water becomes progressively hotter.

Then you desperately attempt to rinse the soap from your hands before they catch fire, but you can’t do it quick enough, at which point you desperately swing the mixer over to maximum cold only to have the scalding hot water that has just backed up into the cold pipe dump out on you, followed by some warm water for a time, and eventually cold water (by which time your hands are already burnt).

Needless to say I quickly did away with the extra “water saving” part of the faucet aerator, and that faucet has been fine ever since!

Here is a slight hint for the “Plumbing Puzzle”:

As ‘DIY’ correctly noted in this comment, the root cause of the observed effect is that the hot water is at a higher pressure than the cold. The reason for this is that the cold water is fed from a water tank in the loft, whilst the hot water comes from the combi-boiler (which is fed directly from the water mains).

Aside:

If the mains water pressure is higher than that of the water coming from the water tank then what’s the point of having a tank? I’m not sure; I’ve yet to consult a plumber for the answer to this.

It could be a historic artefact. Maybe once upon a time the mains water pressure was not that great. Or maybe the water mains pressure is good with only one or two faucets on, but would be unable to supply all four flats in the property if everyone happened to turn on their faucets and flush the toilet at the same time? Or maybe it’s for isolation, so that someone in another flat flushing the toilet won’t make your shower go hot. (But that doesn’t really work out, because it would make your shower go cold instead, since the hot water from the combi-boiler is still fed from the cold water mains!) I don’t know.

What I do know, however, is that this isn’t the full solution to the puzzle. Even with a pressure differential, why would the hot water push back into the cold pipe rather than coming out of the faucet? Surely it's easier to come out from the faucet than to push back against the cold water?

So the question remains: How does the hot water end up in the cold water pipe?

Give up? Click here for the solution.

Here’s a puzzle based on the true story of a slight plumbing problem we had when we first moved in to our current home.

Consider the following observations regarding the behaviour of the mixer tap in the bathroom basin:

• The cold water flow rate is fairly paltry.
• The hot water flow rate is more reasonable.
• After washing hands with warm water, turning the mixer to maximum cold yields warm water for a time.
• When trying to investigate this phenomenon, feeling the water pipes under the basin shows they are both warm.

From this information it should be possible to conclude where the problem lies. However, it is probably not immediately obvious what is going on. (It certainly wasn’t to me, at the time!)

Can you work out where the problem lies?

Click here for a hint.

59 Seconds is a book wherein Richard Wiseman tackles some common myths  and then debunks them by citing scientific studies with differing results.

Myths:

1. Visualising success will help you achieve it.
2. “Retail Therapy”: Buying things for yourself makes you happier.
3. Punching a punch bag can help you relieve stress.

What makes this book unique is that after debunking, Richard then continues to talk about techniques that, according to other scientific studies, actually work.

Truths: (well, hypotheses supported by the cited studies, at least)

1. Visualising the path to success, including specific actions that you will take, will help you achieve it.
2. Buying experiences makes you happier than buying things. 
3. Getting a pet can help you relieve stress more than a punch bag.

These findings are neatly summarised in little sections throughout the book which specify actions you can take (allegedly in 59 seconds) to derive the relevant benefits.

Another thing that makes this book unique is Richard’s casual writing style, with regular bursts of deadpan satire and exaggerations slipped in to make sure you’re paying attention. (And like The Undercover Economist, this book also features an amusing study involving students and an open bar — or so they think.)

See also: Richard Wiseman interview on the Freakonomics blog (includes amusing anecdotes about the practical complexities of “accidentally” dropping your wallet in the street... 200 times... for a study)

This trusty Dawes Horizon has been serving my commuting and training needs since 2003.
 

As you ride more and more, things start to wear out, crack or break, and need replacement. First come the obvious ‘consumables’, things like brake pads, which rub against the rim of the wheels to make you stop; the chain which propels you forward with every stroke of the pedal; the teeth on the chain rings which are attached to the pedals, and the the cassette of sprockets through which the chain drives the rear wheel; and eventually the tyres too begin to wear through.

Here is a selection of tyres; old and new. The new ones still have orange labels on. The old ones look entirely black from hundreds of miles of road grit.

In the chain, each link is held together by rivets spaced ½ inch apart. As the chain bends around each of the cogs in the drive train the links rotate about these rivets and, over time, begin to wear them out. The resultant effect is that the chain appears to grow longer as each of these rivets wear. Left long enough, this will cause the teeth on chain rings and sprockets to wear prematurely, and eventually the chain will begin to jump up and over the teeth when you apply more pressure to the pedals. You want to replace your chain long before that stage.

Here are some old chains that had piled up before I cleared them out (you wouldn’t tell it without measuring them, but they are too worn to be any good) and the chain rings from my earlier Eddy Merckx bike (the teeth are in perfectly good shape, but the cranks had to be replaced for other reasons).

As the brakes rub on those wheel rims more and more, through the warm summer and the cold, gritty winter, the rims start to wear out too. Left long enough you’ll wear right through the sidewall of the rim and before you know it you’ll go over a bump and the rim cracks and begins to collapse. You really want to replace your rims before you reach that stage.

Here is a collection of old wheels, front and rear, stocked up for occasional use in spare parts.

Next the pedals begin to show signs of wear, from bumps and scrapes and the occasional wipe-out. The cosmetics don’t matter so much, but eventually the bearings begin to wear and grow loose, and make odd clicks and other noises.

If this pedal looks rather odd to you, it is because it is designed for use with special cycling shoes which feature a small metal cleat on the sole. The cleat clips in to the pedal and keeps your foot in position; to release you twist out, sort of like a ski binding.
 

These cleats on the shoes tend to wear out too, especially if you walk around a lot as I do.

Spot the difference: An old worn cleat on the left; a new one just fitted on the right.

The repetitive movement of all those pedal strokes takes its toll on the interior of the shoes too. These are the shoes I bought with the bike, and the original insoles; it may soon be time to replace them.

The bottom-bracket is the bearing that the pedals are attached to. I’ve only had to replace that once — the one that came with the bike originally was not very good quality and wore out quickly.
 

The rack on the back lets you clip on a suitably equipped ‘pannier bag’ for transportation. The rubbing caused by vibrations has led to notable wearing in the aluminium arms of the rack.
 

Occasionally you get more spectacular results from wear, like when your handlebar snaps off.

I’ve actually had this happen to me twice on this bike (and miraculously managed to stay upright on both occasions). For future reference, creaking and crackling noises from aluminium handlebars means that there is a crack, and you’ll really want to replace them before they snap off on you.

Another time my front fork snapped off; unfortunately I couldn’t really avoid crashing that time.

If you do your own bike maintenance you soon begin to collect various tools, some more exotic than others — the ‘chain whip’ on the right is used to hold the gear cassette on the back wheel still when you want to unscrew the bolt that holds it in place.

Through all the rides you get to take in some truly amazing countryside and unique sights.

And if you push the pedals hard enough, you may even get a little something to show for it.