Can you guess what this model is for?

omnibrain — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:13:01 +0000

Here's a snippet of some of the relevant text from the article describing the model below:

show attribute/state-oriented functions.
Type7. [Useful Attribute/State]: 2.3) Change of structure or object
directly make a useful "attribute" including "ability".
Type8. [Attribute/State]Ã InteractionÃ [Useful State]: 2.4) Change of
structure or object makes interaction between its "attribute/state" and the
other "attribute/state" which makes up a useful "state".
show

And now for the actual model:

Any guesses? Head past the break for the big reveal. Trust me - you'll be surprised.

Got it yet?

No?

I actually teach about this in my Human Factors class. Here's the description of the phenomenon from NPR:

The presence of a fly in a urinal literally changes human behavior, he thinks -- or at least the behavior of human males.

Men Like To Aim.

"Apparently," Berenbaum says, in males, "there is a deep-seated instinct to aim at targets," and having a fly to aim at reduces what she politely calls "human spillage."

When flies were introduced at Schiphol Airport, spillage rates dropped 80 percent, says manager Aad Keiboom. A change like that, of course, translates into major savings in maintenance costs.

Thaler has tried to imagine how the airport made its calculations. "I'm guessing somebody went to the urinals without flies and repeatedly soaked up the ordinary spillage with a paper towel," which he then figures was carefully weighed on a scale. Then the same experiment was done at fly-emblazoned urinals, and presumably the scales reported a dramatically measurable difference in soakage.

Couldn't figure it out from the model? Here's the entire exciting paper more fully explaining it.

omnibrain Thu, 03/04/2010 - 01:13

foul

Can you guess what this model is for?