2010年7月28日 星期三
2010年7月13日 星期二
Paul the octopus retires
World Cup | 13.07.2010
Paul the octopus retires, but a future in Spain beckons
For weeks during the World Cup, long lines formed in front of the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen despite the summer heat, with people waiting patiently to enter the park.
An uninformed observer might think, 'Why don't they just head to the nearest swimming pool in this weather?' The answer: This is where Paul lives. And Paul is an attraction.
Paul is a two-and-a-half-year-old octopus. He has eight arms, nine brains and three hearts. An animal with such 'interior values' might after all really have soothsaying qualities. Two years ago, during the European Football Championship, Paul gave the first samples of his abilities as an oracle.
How does he do it?
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Paul correctly picked the winner of all of Germany's matches
Paul loves mussels. During the 2008 tournament, someone came up with the idea to take two glass containers, drape each with the flag of one of the competing teams, and place a mussel inside.
Enter Paul the octopus, who would hover over the boxes, choose one of the mussels and fish it out - thus predicting which team would win that particular match. Sounds easy, but it isn't.
The aquarium followed the same procedure this year during the World Cup, and Paul was right every time. People wondered how he did it, and turned to scientists. As it turns out, there are plenty of answers, not all of them scientific.
Favorite color or sense of smell?
One explanation: the color combination. Maybe Paul the oracle likes red-yellow. Both the Spanish and the German flag sport these colors. Maybe that's why he made the wrong choice back in the 2008 finals, when he predicted Germany would win. He never made that mistake again.
Are his other correct predictions due to the fact that neither England (red-white) nor Argentina and Uruguay (blue-white) have the right color combination in their flags? But why then did Paul choose the Serbian box (blue-red-white) over the German one in the second group stage match?
A second explanation might help solve that dilemma: the octopus has an excellent sense of smell. Sea Life is adamant that both mussels came from the same source and were of identical quality, and that may very well be true from a human perspective.
But it's possible that the octopus with the sensitive nose went for the better mussel. But even in this case, the prediction's concurrence with the actual outcome of the match leaves too much room for coincidence.
Bildunterschrift: Many a German wished this fate on Paul
Bodyguards for an octopus
Be that as it may, Paul has gained worldwide fame. And like every other star, he doesn't only have fans.
Threats from disappointed German and Dutch soccer fans can be found on the Internet under "Octopus Paul, we know where your tank is." The Internet was swamped by octopus recipes and pictures of octopuses hung out to dry. A video on YouTube showed brutal scenes from Chinese restaurants, where live octopuses were tossed into a boiling liquid.
But none of that really matters to cuddly Paul in his Oberhausen aquarium. Sea Life arranged for 24 hour 'security' for the animal, successfully fending off any cowardly attacks.
Retired octopus
Now that the World Cup is over, the hoopla has died down somewhat. Which is a good thing. After all, Paul is two-and-a-half years old, a respectable age for an octopus. He needs his rest.
As a matter of fact, Paul might not be around much longer. While Sea Life wants to make sure he is content until he dies, Paul's fans don't want him to retire. The aquarium receives hundreds of emails every day with oracle questions for the mollusk.
Questions like: "How long will Merkel's coalition last?" or "Am I going to get a D in math this year?" are fun, but Paul, according to scientific expertise, can't answer them. So, in the end, the soothsaying octopus can peacefully swim through his tank toward that eternal resting place under water.
Spain misses out
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Paella is not to be the famous oracle's fate after all
A generous offer from Spain is not likely to change his fate. A village in the northwestern part of the country has collected money and would like to buy Paul for 30,000 euros ($37,720). They want him to perform, though not as an oracle but as a mascot for a food festival with plenty of octopus specialties on the menu. Evil be to him who evil thinks...
But Sea Life in Oberhausen won't be swayed by the tempting offer. Oberhausen is where Paul will stay, where it's clear this octopus is not going to end up in a paella.
Author: Silke Wuensch/db
Editor: Martin Kuebler
2010年7月3日 星期六
Mary Parker Follett
| Mary P. Follett : Creating Democracy, Transforming Management Tonn, Joan C. Pages: 639 Publisher: Yale University Press Released: 2003 Language: en LC Call Number: HN57 -- .T695 2003eb ISBN: 9780300096217 Dewey Decimal Number: 303.48/4/092 B Subjects: Follett, Mary Parker, -- 1868-1933. Women social reformers -- United States -- Biography. Social reformers -- United States -- Biography. Social structure. Democracy. Management. Psychology, Industrial. Mary Parker FollettFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Parker Follett (3 September 1868 – 18 December 1933) was an American social worker, management consultant and pioneer in the fields of organizational theory and organizational behavior. She also authored a number of books and numerous essays, articles and speeches on democracy, human relations, political philosophy, psychology, organizational behavior and conflict resolution. Along with Lillian Gilbreth, Mary Parker Follett was one of two great women management gurus in the early days of classical management theory.She admonished overmanaging employees, a process now known as micromanaging, as “bossism” and she is regarded by some writers as the “mother” of Scientific Management. As such she was one of the first women ever invited to address the London School of Economics, where she spoke on cutting-edge management issues. She also distinguished herself in the field of management by being sought out by President Theodore Roosevelt as his personal consultant on managing not-for-profit, non-governmental, and voluntary organizations. In her capacity as a management theorist, Mary Parker Follett pioneered the understanding of lateral processes within hierarchical organizations (which recognition led directly to the formation of matrix-style organizations, the first of which was DuPont, in the 1920s), the importance of informal processes within organizations, and the idea of the "authority of expertise"--which really served to modify the typology of authority developed by her German contemporary, Max Weber, who broke authority down into three separate categories: legitimate, traditional and charismatic.[1] Follett was born in Massachusetts and spent much of her early life there. In September 1885 she enrolled in Anna Ticknor's Society to Encourage Studies at Home[2]. In 1898 she graduated from Radcliffe College, but was denied a doctorate at Harvard on the grounds that she was a woman. Over the next three decades, however, she published many works, including:
There is correction in the publishing year of book "Dynamic Administration" it is actually 1st published in 1942 by harper& brothers publisher its a collection of papers of follett which was edited by C.Metcalf and L. Urwick. She recognized the holistic nature of community and advanced the idea of "reciprocal relationships" in understanding the dynamic aspects of the individual in relationship to others. Follett advocated the principle of what she termed "integration," or noncoercive power-sharing based on the use of her concept of "power with" rather than "power over." Her ideas on negotiation, power, and employee participation were highly influential in the development of the fields of organizational studies, alternative dispute resolution, and the Human Relations Movement.[citation needed] She was also a pioneer in the establishment of community centers. Even though most of Mary Parker Follett's writings remained known in very limited circles until republished at the beginning of this decade (beginning with Pauline C. Graham's first-rate work), her ideas gained great influence after Chester Barnard, a New Jersey Bell exec and advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, published his seminal treatment of executive management, The Functions of the Executive[3]. Barnard's work, which stressed the critical role of "soft" factors such as "communication" and "informal processes" in organizations, owed a telling yet undisclosed debt to Follett's thought and writings. In addition, her emphasis on such soft factors paralleled the work of Elton Mayo at Western Electric's Hawthorne Plant, and presaged the rise of the Human Relations Movement, as developed through the work of such figures as Abraham Maslow, Kurt Lewin, Douglas McGregor, Chris Argyris, Dick Beckhard and other breakthrough contributors to the field of Organizational Development or "OD".[4] Her influence can also be seen indirectly perhaps in the work of Ron Lippitt, Ken Benne, Lee Bradford, Edie Seashore and others at the National Training Laboratories in Bethel, New Hampshire, where T-Group methodology was first theorized and developed.[5] Thus, Mary Follett's work set the stage for a generation of effective, progressive changes in management philosophy, style and practice, revolutionizing and humanizing the American workplace, and allowing the fulfillment of Douglas McGregor's management vision--quantum leaps in productivity effected through the humanization of the workplace.[6] [edit] References
"Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett: Early Sociology of Management and Organizations", Vol. 3, by Mary Follett, L. Urwick (Editor); Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc. November 2003. ISBN 9780415279857 "Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management", by Pauline Graham (Editor); Beard Books, Incorporated: December 2003. ISBN 9781587982132
[edit] External links
Mary Parker Follett | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) was a visionary and pioneering individual in the field of human relations, democratic organization, and management. Born in Massachusetts, in 1892 she entered what would become Radcliffe College, the women's branch of Harvard. She graduated from Radcliffe summa cum laude in 1898. Follett's intensive research into government while at Radcliffe was later published in her first book, The Speaker of the House of Representatives (1909), which was lauded (by, among others, Theodore Roosevelt) as the best study of this office of government ever done. From 1900 to 1908, Follett devoted herself to social work in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. In 1908 she became chairperson of the Women's Municipal League's Committee on Extended Use of School Buildings, and in 1911 she helped open the East Boston High School Social Center. She was instrumental in the formation of many other social centers throughout Boston. Her experience in this area helped to transform her view of democracy. Follett later served as a member of the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Board, and in 1917 she became vice-president of the National Community Center Association. By this time, however, she had turned most of her attention to writing for a wider public regarding what the social centers had taught her about democracy. In 1918 she published her second book, The New State, which is concerned with the human nature of government, democracy, and the role of local community. In 1924, Follett published her third book, Creative Experience. This work addresses more directly the creative interaction of people through an on-going process of circular response. From this point until her death in 1933, Follett found her most enthusiastic audience in the world of business. Admiration and respect for her work grew on both sides of the Atlantic, and she became a leading management consultant. (Peter Drucker, who discovered Follett's work in the 1950's, is said to have referred to Follett as his "guru.") Her various papers and speeches in this context were published in 1942 by Henry Metcalf and Lionel Urwick in a book called Dynamic Administration. Another celebration of her work in this context is Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management, which was edited by Pauline Graham and published in 1995. In 1998, The New State was re-issued by Penn State Press, with a preface by Benjamin Barber. A biography of Follett, written by Joan Tonn, a professor at the College of Management, University of Massachusetts, Boston, is expected to be published next year. Follett is increasingly recognized today as the originator, at least in the 20th century, of ideas that are today commonly accepted as "cutting edge" in organizational theory and public administration. These include the idea of seeking "win-win" solutions, community-based solutions, strength in human diversity, situational leadership, and a focus on process. However, just as her ideas were advanced for her own time, and advanced when people wrote about them decades after her death, they remain too often unrealized. We recognize them as an inspirational and guiding ideal for us today, at the beginning of the 21st century. It is the intention and the design of the Foundation's programs to continue the effort to bridge ideal and practice in a continuous process that gives rise to true freedom. | |||||||||||||||||||
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