Human Behavior – Page 8

Driverless vehicles, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Human drivers bullying self-driving cars: Unlawful or fair game?

July 7, 2019

The official California DMV Driver Handbook provides prescribed driving practices that everyone is supposed to comply with while driving on our state roadways, including topics such as safe driving methods when the roads are wet from rain (admittedly, we don’t get much rain, but when we do, California drivers are known to freak-out and drive crazily), and driving when there is a tough curve or when on a steep hill, plus what to do when driving nearby animal-drawn vehicles or coming up to railroad tracks.

There are over 130 pages of crucial material in our DMV Driver Handbook, which licensed California drivers get tested on and presumably need to understand and are expected to obey (alright, I acknowledge that many don’t, but without those explicitly “you are on notice” regs, I think we’d agree that there might be chaos or at least even worse driving exploits than we already experience).

Continue reading… “Human drivers bullying self-driving cars: Unlawful or fair game?”

Analysis, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

Researchers ‘Lost’ 17,000 Wallets in Hundreds of Cities to See What People Would Actually Do with Them

July 4, 2019

Researchers ‘Lost’ 17,000 Wallets in Hundreds of Cities to See What People Would Actually Return

Plenty of people around the world, it turns out, are willing to return a stranger’s lost wallet—especially if it’s filled with cash, according to a counterintuitive study.

The study, published in the journal Science on Thursday, was a meticulous social experiment that took three years and over half a million dollars to complete.

A group of 13 research assistants (11 men and 2 women) were recruited for a trip around the world. They traveled to 355 major cities across 40 countries. In each city, they visited banks, theaters, hotels, police stations, and other public spaces and turned in a “lost wallet,” which they claimed to have found on the street, to a nearby employee.

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Analysis, Housing, Human Behavior, Parenting, Science & Technology News

Most Americans agree that this is the age that living at home becomes embarrassing

June 25, 2019

A survey conducted on more than 3,000 Americans, by TD Ameritrade, examines how every generation views boomeranging back to the nest after college.

According to a new survey conducted by Zillow, 14.4 million Millennials (people between the ages of 23 and 38) currently live at home with their parents. This is a staggering 21% of all American Millennials.

Although this figure has continued to rise over the years, the stigma that accompanies it has actually experienced a decline. A survey conducted on more than 3,000 Americans, by TD Ameritrade, examines how every generation views boomeranging back to the nest after college. And according to the study, you shouldn’t feel too bad until your nearing your thirties.

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DNA, Human Behavior, Law Enforcement, Legal Issues, Science & Technology News

His DNA solved a century-old jailhouse rape. The victim: His Grandmother

June 19, 2019

Commercial DNA tests showed that Hiram and Bruce were related. But their link proved to be much deeper — and darker — than either could have imagined.

As a black teenager in Compton, California, in the 1970s, Hiram Johnson began to wonder about his father’s fine curly hair, and the light-brown skin that strangers sometimes thought was white.

Hiram knew only a few things about his father’s childhood. Fred Johnson was raised in Jackson, Mississippi, by his mother, Bernice. Fred said that Bernice was a “beautiful black woman,” but he never said a word about his father. All Hiram knew was that his grandfather probably wasn’t black.

Continue reading… “His DNA solved a century-old jailhouse rape. The victim: His Grandmother”

Electric Automobile, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News, Transportation

EU will force electric cars to emit a noise below 20 km/h on July 1

June 19, 2019

Starting July 1, all electric vehicles with four or more wheels in the EU will be required to emit noise of at least 56 decibels if the car is going 20 km/h or slower, the New Atlas reports.

This makes a ton of sense as electric cars don’t make any of the engine noises we’ve grown accustomed to from standard Earth-killing gasoline cars. Making sure pedestrians can hear cars coming could increase the safety of visually impaired individuals, as well those of us who have the bad habit of walking into traffic while looking at their phones.

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Analysis, Human Behavior, Internet, Science & Technology News

Average US time spent with mobile in 2019 has increased

June 16, 2019

US Adults Spend More Time on Mobile than They Do Watching TV

For the first time ever, US consumers will spend more time using their mobile devices than watching TV, with smartphone use dominating that time spent.

Consumers’ use of smartphones will continue to make up the majority of their media consumption, but we predict that use will plateau by 2020, as consumers become increasingly uneasy about overuse of mobile devices.

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Employment, Human Behavior, Intelligence, Life Skills, Science & Technology News

Why the generalist has a bright future in an increasingly automated world

June 13, 2019

The age of the specialist is giving way to the age of the Renaissance person.

It was only a matter of time before a precocious set of tweens came along and broke the damn spelling bee. And lo, after a 14-hour contest, the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee was forced to crown eight co-winners after running out of hard words.

“We’ll soon run out of words that will challenge you,” Jacques Bailly told the contestants, according to the New York Times account. “We’re throwing the dictionary at you. And so far, you are showing this dictionary who is boss.”

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Analysis, brains, Employment, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

Why the 8-hour workday doesn’t work

June 12, 2019

The eight-hour workday is an outdated and ineffective approach to work. If you want to be as productive as possible, you need to let go of this relic and find a new approach.

The eight-hour workday was created during the industrial revolution as an effort to cut down on the number of hours of manual labor that workers were forced to endure on the factory floor. This breakthrough was a more humane approach to work 200 years ago, yet it possesses little relevance for us today.

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Analysis, Human Behavior, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X outvoted older generations in 2018 midterms

June 10, 2019

Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X outvoted older generations in 2018 midterms

Voters in Missouri take part in November’s elections. Turnout reached a record high for the 2018 midterms. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Midterm voter turnout reached a modern high in 2018, and Generation Z, Millennials and Generation X accounted for a narrow majority of those voters, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available Census Bureau data.

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Employment, Human Behavior, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

These are the top reasons why people quit their jobs

June 5, 2019

Compensation software company Payscale presented new research in a white paper about the top reasons employees leave and you may be surprised.

That coworker of yours who just handed in his resignation and is striding towards the exit with his belongings in an old printer-paper box could be leaving the building for any number of reasons. Especially in this economic climate – a tight labor market makes people bolder, and more willing to take risks to get the job they really want. Compensation software company Payscale presented new research in a white paper about the top reasons employees leave.

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Housing, Human Behavior, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

The future of housing looks nothing like today’s

May 17, 2019

After a century, Americans are choosing to live together–transforming not just the buildings we live in, but the way we live in them.

What does a living room have to do with living?

When Lisa Cini and her husband, kids, and rescue dog moved in with her parents and grandmother a few years ago, the Ohio-based architect pored over the design of her 94-year-old grandma’s bedroom “apartment.” An Alzheimer’s diagnosis made security and mobility important, but her ideas went beyond extra locks and grab-bars; she felt it was crucial that she have her own living room within the family home.

“It’s interesting, when we’re younger and full of life, when we’re just doing life so hard, we have to find time to sleep. But when we get old, when we’re slowing down so much, we have to work to find ways to do more life and less sleep,” Cini recalls in her book about living with four generations under one roof. Designing a separate living room gave her grandma a space to hang out, engage, and entertain visitors outside of her bedroom, a subtle but important distinction. “Her living room really helps her keep living life,” Cini observes.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Human Behavior, Law Enforcement, Science & Technology News

How Tech Empowers Dangerous Lone Wolves

May 9, 2019

Technology is democratizing the power of who gets to live and who does not. Are we ready for the consequences?

This is the second installment of “Privatizing the Apocalypse,” a four-part essay being published throughout October. Read Part 1: “The 50/50 Murder” here.

In 2015, a depressive young German named Andreas Lubitz killed himself, five co-workers, and quite a few strangers. He was one of perhaps 1,000 suicidal mass murderers to strike that year worldwide. But an unusual combination of two factors put Lubitz in a ghoulish class of his own.

First, he hatched and executed his plans without anyone’s help — which was not remarkable in itself. But the second factor was scale — in that he really killed a lot of strangers. As in 144 of them. Lubitz’s victims hailed from 18 countries and included infants, retirees, and all ages between. He killed dozens of times more people than most rampage murderers and almost three times as many as 2017’s Las Vegas shooter, who is (for now) history’s most prolific lone suicidal gunman.

Continue reading… “How Tech Empowers Dangerous Lone Wolves”