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There is no doubt that video games and television have an impact on cognition. Whether this impact is positive or negative depends on the content and the individual. Strategic video games have been found to improve cognitive skills in older adults (so has searching the internet); video games have been found to improve mental rotation skills, visual and spatial memory, and multitasking skills. Playing the game Dance Revolution was found in one study to affect emotional arousal, and through that, creativity. More negatively, violent video games also can affect emotional arousal and attention.
But amount is also important, particularly for television, which is a far more passive activity. Active mental stimulation supports cognition, especially in older adults, and too many hours spent watching TV means less time available to engage in activities which truly stimulate your mind. You don't have to do crosswords -- even talking to other people is a far more stimulating activity than watching television.
This brain training program cuts dementia risk
Spatial skills can be improved through training
Video gamers don't become expert multitaskers
Computer use and exercise combo reduce odds of MCI
How action videogames change some people's brains
Video games and impaired attention: a vicious circle
Video game training benefits cognition in some older adults
The right sort of video game can increase your intelligence
Having a male twin improves mental rotation performance in females
Gender gap in spatial ability can be reduced through training
Brain fitness program produces working memory improvement in older adults
Children with home computers likely to have lower test scores
Video games threaten kids' attention span
Video games help stroke victims recover motor function
Findings from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) Study, which followed 2,802 healthy older adults for 10 years, has found that those who participated in computer training designed to improve processing speed and visual attention had a 29% lower risk of developing dementia compared to controls, with more training producing lower risk. Those who received instruction in memory or reasoning strategies showed no change in dementia risk.
Participants were randomly placed into a control group or one of three different cognitive training groups. One was instructed in memory strategies, another in reasoning strategies, and one was given individualized, computerized speed of processing training.
There were 10 initial sessions of training, each 60 to 75 minutes, over six weeks. Participants were assessed at the beginning of the study, after the first six weeks, and at one, two, three, five, and 10 years. Some of each group received four additional "booster" training sessions in months 11 and 35.
Among those who completed the most sessions (5 or more booster sessions), indicators of dementia were evident in 5.9% of the computerized speed training group; 9.7% of the memory strategy group; 10.1% of the reasoning strategy group. The control group had a dementia incidence rate of 10.8%.
14% of those who received no training developed dementia in the next 10 years, compared with 12.1% of those who received the initial processing speed training, and 8.2% of those who also received the additional booster training.
A decade after training began, the scientists found that 22.7% of people in the speed training group had dementia, compared with 24.2% in both memory and reasoning groups. In a control group of people who had no training, the dementia rate was 28.8%. This effect is greater than the protection offered by antihypertensive medications against major cardiovascular events.
It's suggested that some of the reason for this effect may be that the training builds up brain reserve, perhaps by improving brain efficiency, or in some way improving the health of brain tissue.
Some of the participants told researchers that the training encouraged them to enroll in classes at a local college or keep driving, and it's possible that the motivational boost for continued social and intellectual engagement might also help explain the benefits.
Other research has found that processing speed training is associated with a lower risk of depression and improved physical function, as well as better everyday functioning.
The processing speed training was designed to improve the speed and accuracy of visual attention, with both divided and selective attention exercises. To perform the divided attention training task, participants identified a central object—such as a truck—while simultaneously locating a target in the periphery—the car. The speed of these objects became increasingly faster as participants mastered each set. In the more difficult training tasks, adding distracting objects made the task even more challenging, thus engaging selective attention.
The training program is available as the "Double Decision" exercise in the BrainHQ.com commercial product.
Of the 1220 who completed the 10-year follow-up, 260 developed dementia during the period.
http://www.futurity.org/speed-of-processing-training-dementia-1613322/
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/uosf-ibf111417.php
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/16/can-brain-training-reduce-dementia-risk-despite-new-research-the-jury-is-still-out
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-training-cuts-dementia-risk-a-decade-later/
[4490] Edwards, J. D., Xu H., Clark D. O., Guey L. T., Ross L. A., & Unverzagt F. W.
(2017). Speed of processing training results in lower risk of dementia.
Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions. 3(4), 603 - 611.
Full text available at https://www.trci.alzdem.com/article/S2352-8737(17)30059-8/fulltext
Spatial abilities have been shown to be important for achievement in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, math), but many people have felt that spatial skills are something you're either born with or not.
In a comprehensive review of 217 research studies on educational interventions to improve spatial thinking, researchers concluded that you can indeed improve spatial skills, and that such training can transfer to new tasks. Moreover, not only can the right sort of training improve spatial skill in general, and across age and gender, but the effect of training appears to be stable and long-lasting.
One interesting finding (the researchers themselves considered it perhaps the most important finding) was the diversity in effective training — several different forms of training can be effective in improving spatial abilities. This may have something to do with the breadth covered by the label 'spatial ability', which include such skills as:
Perceiving objects, paths, or spatial configurations against a background of distracting information;
Piecing together objects into more complex configurations, visualizing and mentally transforming objects;
Understanding abstract principles, such as horizontal invariance;
Visualizing an environment in its entirety from a different position.
The review compared three types of training. Those that used:
Video games (24 studies)
Semester-long instructional courses on spatial reasoning (42 studies)
Practical training, often in a lab, that involved practicing spatial tasks, strategic instruction, or computerized lessons (138 studies).
The first two are examples of indirect training, while the last involves direct training.
On average, taken across the board, training improved performance by well over half a standard deviation when considered on its own, and still almost one half of a standard deviation when compared to a control group. This is a moderately large effect, and it extended to transfer tasks.
It also conceals a wide range, most of which is due to different treatment of control groups. Because the retesting effect is so strong in this domain (if you give any group a spatial test twice, regardless of whether they've been training in between the two tests, they're going to do better on the second test), repeated testing can have a potent effect on the control group. Some 'filler' tasks can also inadvertently improve the control group's performance. All of this will reduce the apparent effect of training. (Not having a control group is even worse, because you don't know how much of the improvement is due to training and how much to the retesting effect.)
This caution is, of course, more support for the value of practice in developing spatial skills. This is further reinforced by studies that were omitted from the analysis because they would skew the data. Twelve studies found very high effect sizes — more than three times the average size of the remaining studies. All these studies took place in poorly developed countries (those with a Human Development Index above 30 at the time of the study) — Malaysia, Turkey, China, India, and Nigeria. HDI rating was even associated with the benefits of training in a dose-dependent manner — that is, the lower the standard of living, the greater the benefit.
This finding is consistent with other research indicating that lower socioeconomic status is associated with larger responses to training or intervention.
In similar vein, when the review compared 19 studies that specifically selected participants who scored poorly on spatial tests against the other studies, they found that the effects of training were significantly bigger among the selected studies.
In other words, those with poorer spatial skills will benefit most from training. It may be, indeed, that they are poor performers precisely because they have had little practice at these tasks — a question that has been much debated (particularly in the context of gender differences).
It's worth noting that there was little difference in performance on tests carried out immediately after training ended, within a week, or within a month, indicating promising stability.
A comparison of different types of training did find that some skills were more resistant to training than others, but all types of spatial skill improved. The differences may be because some sorts of skill are harder to teach, and/or because some skills are already more practiced than others.
Given the demonstrated difficulty in increasing working memory capacity through training, it is intriguing to notice one example the researchers cite: experienced video game players have been shown to perform markedly better on some tasks that rely on spatial working memory, such as a task requiring you to estimate the number of dots shown in a brief presentation. Most of us can instantly recognize ('subitize') up to five dots without needing to count them, but video game players can typically subitize some 7 or 8. The extent to which this generalizes to a capacity to hold more elements in working memory is one that needs to be explored. Video game players also apparently have a smaller attentional blink, meaning that they can take in more information.
A more specific practical example of training they give is that of a study in which high school physics students were given training in using two- and three-dimensional representations over two class periods. This training significantly improved students' ability to read a topographical map.
The researchers suggest that the size of training effect could produce a doubling of the number of people with spatial abilities equal to or greater than that of engineers, and that such training might lower the dropout rate among those majoring in STEM subjects.
Apart from that, I would argue many of us who are 'spatially-challenged' could benefit from a little training!
[3078] Uttal, D. H., Meadow N. G., Tipton E., Hand L. L., Alden A. R., Warren C., et al.
(2012). The Malleability of Spatial Skills: A Meta-Analysis of Training Studies..
Psychological Bulletin.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-spatial-skills.html
The research is pretty clear by this point: humans are not (with a few rare exceptions) designed to multitask. However, it has been suggested that the modern generation, with all the multitasking they do, may have been 're-wired' to be more capable of this. A new study throws cold water on this idea.
The study involved 60 undergraduate students, of whom 34 were skilled action video game players (all male) and 26 did not play such games (19 men and 7 women). The students were given three visual tasks, each of which they did on its own and then again while answering Trivial Pursuit questions over a speakerphone (designed to mimic talking on a cellphone).
The tasks included a video driving game ("TrackMania"), a multiple-object tracking test (similar to a video version of a shell game), and a visual search task (hidden pictures puzzles from Highlights magazine).
While the gamers were (unsurprisingly) significantly better at the video driving game, the non-gamers were just as good as them at the other two tasks. In the dual-tasking scenarios, performance declined on all the tasks, with the driving task most affected. While the gamers were affected less by multitasking during the driving task compared to the non-gamers, there was no difference in the amount of decline between gamers and non-gamers on the other two tasks.
Clearly, the smaller effect of dual-tasking on the driving game for gamers is a product of their greater expertise at the driving game, rather than their ability to multitask better. It is well established that the more skilled you are at a task, the more automatic it becomes, and thus the less working memory capacity it will need. Working memory capacity / attention is the bottleneck that prevents us from being true multitaskers.
In other words, the oft-repeated (and somewhat depressing) conclusion remains: you can't learn to multitask in general, you can only improve specific skills, enabling you to multitask reasonably well while doing those specific tasks.
[3001] Donohue, S., James B., Eslick A., & Mitroff S.
(2012). Cognitive pitfall! Videogame players are not immune to dual-task costs.
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. 74(5), 803 - 809.
http://www.futurity.org/science-technology/gamers-still-fail-at-talking-...
More findings from the long-running Mayo Clinic Study of Aging reveal that using a computer plus taking moderate exercise reduces your risk of mild cognitive impairment significantly more than you would expect from simply adding together these two beneficial activities.
The study involved 926 older adults (70-93), of whom 109 (12%) were diagnosed with MCI. Participants completed questionnaires on physical exercise and mental stimulation within the previous year. Computer use was targeted in this analysis because of its popularity as a cognitive activity, and because it was particularly associated with reduced odds of having MCI.
Among the cognitively healthy, only 20.1% neither exercised moderately nor used a computer, compared to 37.6% of those with MCI. On the other hand, 36% of the cognitively healthy both exercised and used a computer, compared to only 18.3% of those with MCI. There was little difference between the two groups as regards exercise but no computer use, or computer use but no exercise.
The analysis took into account calorie intake, as well as education, depression, and other health factors. Daily calorie intake was significantly higher in those with MCI compared to those without (respective group medians of 2100 calories vs 1802) — note that the median BMI was the same for the two groups.
Moderate physical exercise was defined as brisk walking, hiking, aerobics, strength training, golfing without a golf cart, swimming, doubles tennis, yoga, martial arts, using exercise machines and weightlifting. Light exercise included activities such as bowling, leisurely walking, stretching, slow dancing, and golfing with a cart. Mentally stimulating activities included reading, crafts, computer use, playing games, playing music, group and social and artistic activities and watching less television.
It should be noted that the assessment of computer activities was very basic. The researchers suggest that in future studies, both duration and frequency should be assessed. I would add type of activity, although that would be a little more difficult to assess.
Overall, the findings add yet more weight to the evidence for the value of physical exercise and mental stimulation in staving off cognitive impairment in old age, and add the twist that doing both is much better than doing either one alone.
[2957] Geda, Y. E., Silber T. C., Roberts R. O., Knopman D. S., Christianson T. J. H., Pankratz S. V., et al.
(2012). Computer Activities, Physical Exercise, Aging, and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Population-Based Study.
Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 87(5), 437 - 442.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/mc-cua042612.php
Following on from research finding that people who regularly play action video games show visual attention related differences in brain activity compared to non-players, a new study has investigated whether such changes could be elicited in 25 volunteers who hadn't played video games in at least four years. Sixteen of the participants played a first-person shooter game (Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault), while nine played a three-dimensional puzzle game (Ballance). They played the games for a total of 10 hours spread over one- to two-hour sessions.
Selective attention was assessed through an attentional visual field task, carried out prior to and after the training program. Individual learning differences were marked, and because of visible differences in brain activity after training, the action gamers were divided into two groups for analysis — those who performed above the group mean on the second attentional visual field test (7 participants), and those who performed below the mean (9). These latter individuals showed similar brain activity patterns as those in the control (puzzle) group.
In all groups, early-onset brainwaves were little affected by video game playing. This suggests that game-playing has little impact on bottom–up attentional processes, and is in keeping with earlier research showing that players and non-players don't differ in the extent to which their attention is captured by outside stimuli.
However, later brainwaves — those thought to reflect top–down control of selective attention via increased inhibition of distracters — increased significantly in the group who played the action game and showed above-average improvement on the field test. Another increased wave suggests that the total amount of attention allocated to the task was also greater in that group (i.e., they were concentrating more on the game than the below-average group, and the control group).
The improved ability to select the right targets and ignore other stimuli suggests, too, that these players are also improving their ability to make perceptual decisions.
The next question, of course, is what personal variables underlie the difference between those who benefit more quickly from the games, and those who don't. And how much more training is necessary for this latter group, and are there some people who won't achieve these benefits at all, no matter how long they play? Hopefully, future research will be directed to these questions.
[2920] Wu, S., Cheng C K., Feng J., D'Angelo L., Alain C., & Spence I.
(2012). Playing a First-person Shooter Video Game Induces Neuroplastic Change.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 24(6), 1286 - 1293.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-04/uot-avc042612.php
A three-year study involving 3,034 Singaporean children and adolescents (aged 8-17) has found that those who spent more time playing video games subsequently had more attention problems, even when earlier attention problems, sex, age, race, and socioeconomic status were statistically controlled. Those who were more impulsive or had more attention problems subsequently spent more time playing video games, even when initial video game playing was statistically controlled. These findings suggest that the cause-effect relationship between video game playing and attention problems/impulsiveness goes both ways.
While the particular content may have an effect on attention problems and impulsiveness (violent games appeared to be an additional, independent, factor in attention problems), it was the total time spent that was more important.
Participants completed questionnaires about their video game playing habits annually for three years running. They also completed questionnaires aimed to measure attention and impulsiveness (the Current ADHD Symptoms Scale Self-Report, and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11, respectively). Regarding attention, the children answered questions such as how often they "fail to give close attention to details or make careless mistakes" in their work or "blurt out answers before questions have been completed." For the impulsivity test, they selected points they felt described themselves, such as "I often make things worse because I act without thinking" or "I concentrate easily."
How does this finding relate to other evidence showing that playing video games can improve visual attention for rapid and accurate recognition of information from the environment? The answer lies in the different nature of attention — the attention needed for visual search differs in important ways from the attention necessary for sustained concentration in contexts that are often effortful and/or boring.
The example of many attention-challenged individuals makes this more understandable. Many parents of children with ADHD find that the only thing their child can concentrate on for a lengthy period is video games. The answer to that riddle is the rapidly changing nature of video games, and the way they are designed to grab the attention, with flashing lights and loud noises and moving images etc. The young person is not, therefore, improving their ability to focus in a way that is helpful for the school environment, or indeed for everyday life.
Unfortunately, this study suggests that it is precisely those people who are most in need of such 'external supports' for attention ('grabbing' stimuli such as lights and sounds and movement) — that is, those individuals who are least able to control their own attention — who are most likely to spend a lot of time playing such games. The games then weaken their attentional control even more, and so the cycle continues.
So this research answers the question ADHD parents tend to have: should I encourage my child to play video games a lot (given that it's the only thing that holds their attention) or not? The answer, unfortunately, would seem to be: not. However, all is not lost. There are computer 'games' that are designed to help those with ADHD learn to concentrate in a way that is more useful (see the Topic collection on ADHD for more on this).
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends one hour per day of total media screen time (including TV, DVDs, video games, Internet, iPad, etc.) for children in elementary school, and two hours for children in secondary school.
Gentile, D.A., Swing, E.L., Lim, C.G. & Khoo, A. 2012. Video game playing, attention problems, and impulsiveness: Evidence of bidirectional causality. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Vol 1(1), Jan 2012, 62-70. doi: 10.1037/a0026969
Full text available at http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/ppm-1-1-62.pdf
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-impulsive-kids-video-games.html http://www.futurity.org/society-culture/more-video-games-more-attention-...
A number of studies have found evidence that older adults can benefit from cognitive training. However, neural plasticity is thought to decline with age, and because of this, it's thought that the younger-old, and/or the higher-functioning, may benefit more than the older-old, or the lower-functioning. On the other hand, because their performance may already be as good as it can be, higher-functioning seniors may be less likely to benefit. You can find evidence for both of these views.
In a new study, 19 of 39 older adults (aged 60-77) were given training in a multiplayer online video game called World of Warcraft (the other 20 formed a control group). This game was chosen because it involves multitasking and switching between various cognitive abilities. It was theorized that the demands of the game would improve both spatial orientation and attentional control, and that the multiple tasks might produce more improvement in those with lower initial ability compared to those with higher ability.
WoW participants were given a 2-hour training session, involving a 1-hour lecture and demonstration, and one hour of practice. They were then expected to play the game at home for around 14 hours over the next two weeks. There was no intervention for the control group. All participants were given several cognitive tests at the beginning and end of the two week period: Mental Rotation Test; Stroop Test; Object Perspective Test; Progressive Matrices; Shipley Vocabulary Test; Everyday Cognition Battery; Digit Symbol Substitution Test.
As a group, the WoW group improved significantly more on the Stroop test (a measure of attentional control) compared to the control group. There was no change in the other tests. However, those in the WoW group who had performed more poorly on the Object Perspective Test (measuring spatial orientation) improved significantly. Similarly, on the Mental Rotation Test, ECB, and Progressive Matrices, those who performed more poorly at the beginning tended to improve after two weeks of training. There was no change on the Digit Symbol test.
The finding that only those whose performance was initially poor benefited from cognitive training is consistent with other studies suggesting that training only benefits those who are operating below par. This is not really surprising, but there are a few points that should be made.
First of all, it should be noted that this was a group of relatively high-functioning young-old adults — poorer performance in this case could be (relatively) better performance in another context. What it comes down to is whether you are operating at a level below which you are capable of — and this applies broadly, for example, experiments show that spatial training benefits females but not males (because males tend to already have practiced enough).
Given that, in expertise research, training has an on-going, apparently limitless, effect on performance, it seems likely that the limited benefits shown in this and other studies is because of the extremely limited scope of the training. Fourteen hours is not enough to improve people who are already performing adequately — but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't improve with more hours. I have yet to see any interventions with older adults that give them the amount of cognitive training you would expect them to need to achieve some level of mastery.
My third and final point is the specific nature of the improvements. This has also been shown in other studies, and sometimes appears quite arbitrary — for example, one 3-D puzzle game apparently improved mental rotation, while a different 3-D puzzle game had no effect. The point being that we still don't understand the precise attributes needed to improve different skills (although the researchers advocate the use of a tool called cognitive task analysis for revealing the underlying qualities of an activity) — but we do understand that it is a matter of precise attributes, which is definitely a step in the right direction.
The main thing, then, that you should take away from this is the idea that different activities involve specific cognitive tasks, and these, and only these, will be the ones that benefit from practicing the activities. You therefore need to think about what tasks you want to improve before deciding on the activities to practice.
[2807] Whitlock, L. A., McLaughlin A C., & Allaire J. C.
(Submitted). Individual differences in response to cognitive training: Using a multi-modal, attentionally demanding game-based intervention for older adults.
Computers in Human Behavior.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-02/ncsu-wow022212.php
It has been difficult to train individuals in such a way that they improve in general skills rather than the specific ones used in training. However, recently some success has been achieved using what is called an "n-back" task, a task that involves presenting a series of visual and/or auditory cues to a subject and asking the subject to respond if that cue has occurred, to start with, one time back. If the subject scores well, the number of times back is increased each round.
In the latest study, 62 elementary and middle school children completed a month of training on a computer program, five times a week, for 15 minutes at a time. While the active control group trained on a knowledge and vocabulary-based task, the experimental group was given a demanding spatial task in which they were presented with a sequence of images at one of six locations, one at a time, at a rate of 3s. The child had to press one key whenever the current image was at the same location as the one n items back in the series, and another key if it wasn't. Both tasks employed themed graphics to make the task more appealing and game-like.
How far back the child needed to remember depended on their performance — if they were struggling, n would be decreased; if they were meeting the challenge, n would be increased.
Although the experimental and active control groups showed little difference on abstract reasoning tasks (reflecting fluid intelligence) at the end of the training, when the experimental group was divided into two subgroups on the basis of training gain, the story was different. Those who showed substantial improvement on the training task over the month were significantly better than the others, on the abstract reasoning task. Moreover, this improvement was maintained at follow-up testing three months later.
The key to success seems to be whether or not the games hit the "sweet spot" for the individual — fun and challenging, but not so challenging as to be frustrating. Those who showed the least improvement rated the game as more difficult, while those who improved the most found it challenging but not overwhelming.
You can try this task yourself at http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/.
Jaeggi, Susanne M, Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides, and Priti Shah. "Short- and long-term benefits of cognitive training." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2011 (June 13, 2011): 2-7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21670271.
[1183] Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl M., Jonides J., & Perrig W. J.
(2008). From the Cover: Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105(19), 6829 - 6833.
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-iq-boost-20110614-1,0,2455553.story http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=653856 http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/ar... http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-brain_1.html
Because male superiority in mental rotation appears to be evident at a very young age, it has been suggested that testosterone may be a factor. To assess whether females exposed to higher levels of prenatal testosterone perform better on mental rotation tasks than females with lower levels of testosterone, researchers compared mental rotation task scores between twins from same-sex and opposite-sex pairs.
It was found that females with a male co-twin scored higher than did females with a female co-twin (there was no difference in scores between males from opposite-sex and same-sex pairs). Of course, this doesn't prove that that the differences are produced in the womb; it may be that girls with a male twin engage in more male-typical activities. However, the association remained after allowing for computer game playing experience.
The study involved 804 twins, average age 22, of whom 351 females were from same-sex pairs and 120 from opposite-sex pairs. There was no significant difference between females from identical same-sex pairs compared to fraternal same-sex pairs.
* Please do note that 'innate male superiority' does NOT mean that all men are inevitably better than all women at this very specific task! My words simply reflect the evidence that the tendency of males to be better at mental rotation is found in infants as young as 3 months.
[1872] Vuoksimaa, E., Kaprio J., Kremen W. S., Hokkanen L., Viken R. J., Tuulio-Henriksson A., et al.
(2010). Having a Male Co-Twin Masculinizes Mental Rotation Performance in Females.
Psychological Science. 21(8), 1069 - 1071.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/afps-ham090710.php
Following a monkey study that found training in spatial memory could raise females to the level of males, and human studies suggesting the video games might help reduce gender differences in spatial processing (see below for these), a new study shows that training in spatial skills can eliminate the gender difference in young children. Spatial ability, along with verbal skills, is one of the two most-cited cognitive differences between the sexes, for the reason that these two appear to be the most robust.
This latest study involved 116 first graders, half of whom were put in a training program that focused on expanding working memory, perceiving spatial information as a whole rather than concentrating on details, and thinking about spatial geometric pictures from different points of view. The other children took part in a substitute training program, as a control group. Initial gender differences in spatial ability disappeared for those who had been in the spatial training group after only eight weekly sessions.
A study of 90 adult rhesus monkeys found young-adult males had better spatial memory than females, but peaked early. By old age, male and female monkeys had about the same performance. This finding is consistent with reports suggesting that men show greater age-related cognitive decline relative to women. A second study of 22 rhesus monkeys showed that in young adulthood, simple spatial-memory training did not help males but dramatically helped females, raising their performance to the level of young-adult males and wiping out the gender gap.
Another study showing that expert video gamers have improved mental rotation skills, visual and spatial memory, and multitasking skills has led researchers to conclude that training with video games may serve to reduce gender differences in visual and spatial processing, and some of the cognitive declines that come with aging.
[1870] Tzuriel, D., & Egozi G.
(2010). Gender Differences in Spatial Ability of Young Children: The Effects of Training and Processing Strategies.
Child Development. 81(5), 1417 - 1430.
[1193] Lacreuse, A., Kim C. B., Rosene D. L., Killiany R. J., Moss M. B., Moore T. L., et al.
(2005). Sex, Age, and Training Modulate Spatial Memory in the Rhesus Monkey (Macaca mulatta)..
Behavioral Neuroscience. 119(1), 118 - 126.
[366] Dye, M. W. G., Green S. C., & Bavelier D.
(2009). Increasing Speed of Processing With Action Video Games.
Current Directions in Psychological Science. 18(6), 321 - 326.
Current study: www.physorg.com/news203744243.html Monkey study: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/apa-ima022205.php http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/euhs-npm020905.php http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000560D5-7252-12B9-9A2C83414B... Video game study: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/afps-rsa121709.php
While brain training programs can certainly improve your ability to do the task you're practicing, there has been little evidence that this transfers to other tasks. In particular, the holy grail has been very broad transfer, through improvement in working memory. While there has been some evidence of this in pilot programs for children with ADHD, a new study is the first to show such improvement in older adults using a commercial brain training program.
A study involving 30 healthy adults aged 60 to 89 has demonstrated that ten hours of training on a computer game designed to boost visual perception improved perceptual abilities significantly, and also increased the accuracy of their visual working memory to the level of younger adults. There was a direct link between improved performance and changes in brain activity in the visual association cortex.
The computer game was one of those developed by Posit Science. Memory improvement was measured about one week after the end of training. The improvement did not, however, withstand multi-tasking, which is a particular problem for older adults. The participants, half of whom underwent the training, were college educated. The training challenged players to discriminate between two different shapes of sine waves (S-shaped patterns) moving across the screen. The memory test (which was performed before and after training) involved watching dots move across the screen, followed by a short delay and then re-testing for the memory of the exact direction the dots had moved.
[1669] Berry, A. S., Zanto T. P., Clapp W. C., Hardy J. L., Delahunt P. B., Mahncke H. W., et al.
(2010). The Influence of Perceptual Training on Working Memory in Older Adults.
PLoS ONE. 5(7), e11537 - e11537.
Full text available at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011537
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/uoc--bfp071210.php
Data from North Carolina's mandated End-of-Grade tests (2000-2005), which includes student reports on how frequently they use a home computer for schoolwork, watch TV or read for pleasure, reveals that students in grades five through eight (c.10-13), particularly those from disadvantaged families, tended to have lower reading and math scores after they got a home computer. The researchers suggest that the greater negative effect in disadvantaged households may reflect less parental monitoring.
[1635] Vigdor, J. L., & Ladd H. F.
(2010). Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement.
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series. No. 16078,
www.physorg.com/news196090453.html
A study following 1,323 children in Grades 3 to 5 and 210 college students has found that children who exceeded two hours per day of screen time (TV and video games) were 1.5 to two times more likely to be considered above average in attention problems by their teachers compared to children who met the guideline. A similar association between screen media time and attention problems (self-reported) was found for the college students. A study earlier this year found U.S. children aged eight to 18 devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes per day to entertainment media (http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia012010nr.cfm ).
[1634] Swing, E. L., Gentile D. A., Anderson C. A., & Walsh D. A.
(2010). Television and Video Game Exposure and the Development of Attention Problems.
Pediatrics. peds.2009-1508 - peds.2009-1508.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2010/07/05/health-video-games-tv-screen-att...
A pilot study suggests that video games for the Nintendo Wii could help stroke victims recover fine motor function (such as finger dexterity) and gross motor function (such as arm movements) two months after a stroke. The ten patients randomly assigned to playing these games for about six hours over the course of two weeks showed significantly better recovery, and none of the adverse effects (like nausea or dizziness) that were reported in the other group assigned to recreational games such as cards or the block-stacking game Jenga. A clinical trial is now underway.
The research was presented February 25 at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=stroke-victims-aided-...
Older news items (pre-2010) brought over from the old website
Video games may help visuospatial processing and multitasking
Another study has come out showing that expert video gamers have improved mental rotation skills, visual and spatial memory, and multitasking skills. The researchers conclude that training with video games may serve to reduce gender differences in visual and spatial processing, and some of the cognitive declines that come with aging.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/afps-rsa121709.php
Strategic video game improves critical cognitive skills in older adults
In the first study into the effects of playing video games for adults in their 60s and 70s, it's been found that playing a strategic video game that rewards nation-building and territorial expansion can have pronounced effects on cognitive skills not directly related to the skills learned in the video game. The finding is also exciting as a rare demonstration of a training program that improves more than simply the task being practiced. The game "Rise of Nations" was selected because of its emphasis on resource management and planning. The researchers hoped it would benefit executive function, which is one of the cognitive functions particularly impacted by age and includes things like scheduling, planning, working memory, multitasking and dealing with ambiguity. Half of the 40 older adults in the study received 23.5 hours of training in the game. As a group, the gamers became significantly better and faster at switching between tasks as compared to the comparison group. Their working memory and their reasoning ability was also significantly improved. To a lesser extent, their short-term memory of visual cues and their ability to identify rotated objects was also improved. Training had no effect on ability to recall a list of words in order, enumeration ability or ability to inhibit certain responses. The amount of improvement was linked to performance on the game.
[813] Basak, C., Boot W. R., Voss M. W., & Kramer A. F.
(2008). Can training in a real-time strategy video game attenuate cognitive decline in older adults?.
Psychology and Aging. 23(4), 765 - 777.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-12/uoia-svg120808.php
Frequent TV viewing during adolescence linked with risk of attention and learning difficulties
A long-running study of 678 families in upstate New York, surveyed children at 14, 16 and 22 years old (averages), and again when the children in the study had reached an average age of 33. At age 14, 225 (33.2%) of the teens reported that they watched three or more hours of television per day. Those who watched 1 or more hours of television per day at mean age 14 years were at higher risk of poor homework completion, negative attitudes toward school, poor grades, and long-term academic failure. Those who watched 3 or more hours of television per day were most likely to experience these outcomes, and moreover were at higher risk of subsequent attention problems and were the least likely to receive postsecondary education. Analysis of the data also indicated that television watching contributes to learning difficulties and not vice versa.
Johnson, J.G., Cohen, P., Kasen, S. & Brook, J.S. 2007. Extensive Television Viewing and the Development of Attention and Learning Difficulties During Adolescence. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 161 (5), 480-486.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/jaaj-ftv050307.php
TV has negative impact on very young children's learning abilities
Analysis of data involving some 1800 children from The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY-Child) compared scores in mathematics, reading recognition and reading comprehension with the level of television watching before age three and from ages three to five. The analysis revealed a consistent pattern of negative associations between television viewing before age three years and adverse cognitive outcomes at ages six and seven years. Television viewing at ages three to five years, on the other hand, had a more beneficial effect, for reading recognition and short-term memory, although not mathematics or reading comprehension.
Another study in the same issue reported on a New Zealand study that compared television viewing in some 1000 people born in 1972-73 with their educational achievements at 26 years of age. The study found mean time spent watching television during childhood and adolescence was significantly associated with leaving school without qualifications and negatively associated with attaining a university degree. Television viewing during childhood (ages 5-11 years) and adolescence (ages 13 and 15 years) had adverse associations with later educational achievement. However, adolescent viewing was a stronger predictor of leaving school without qualifications, whereas childhood viewing was a stronger predictor of nonattainment of a university degree.
Zimmerman, F.J. & Christakis, D.A. 2005. Children's Television Viewing and Cognitive Outcomes: A Longitudinal Analysis of National Data. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 159, 619-625.
Hancox, R.J., Milne, B.J. & Poulton, R. 2005. Association of Television Viewing During Childhood With Poor Educational Achievement. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 159, 614-618.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-07/jaaj-thn062905.php
The reports below are taken from my previous blog, and lack references
Effect on the brain
Emotional effect of video games can help creativity
As part of the search for ways to use video games educationally, a study of around 100 students has found that those who scored highly on a creativity test after playing the game Dance Dance Revolution fell into two groups: those who had a high degree of emotional arousal (measured by skin conductance) after playing and a positive mood, and (this is the weird part), those in the completely opposite camp — low arousal and negative mood.
The explanation for these somewhat paradoxical findings rests on there being two aspects to creativity — diffused attention (presumably where the happy people score), and a certain analytical ability (which is where the sad people are presumed to score).
It still seems weird, but the take-home point I guess is that being angry (high arousal, negative mood) is not conducive to creativity, and neither is medium arousal. On the other hand, I'm wondering about individual differences. I think some people probably are creative when angry, and I'd like to know about personality characteristics that might have distinguished the students who were creative when happy from those who were creative when sad. Still, interesting study.
Watching violence begets violence?
There's lots of argument about whether watching violence on TV and in movies makes people more violent. Some studies have found a correlation, but correlational studies can always be attacked. But now a brain imaging study has found that watching violent movie clips (but not ones with scenes of horror or physical activity) can cause the parts of your brain that suppress behaviors like inappropriate or unwarranted aggression (such as the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex, and the amygdala) to become less active. Less activation in this network is characteristic of people reporting an above average tendency to behave aggressively.
Violent video games leave teenagers emotionally aroused
An imaging study of 44 adolescents playing either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 30 minutes has found that the group that played the violent video game demonstrated less activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain, which are involved in inhibition, concentration and self-control, and more activation in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/rson-vvg112206.php
Violent games desensitize players to violence
In a study in which 257 college students played one of eight randomly assigned violent or non-violent video games for 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute videotape of actual violent episodes taken from TV programs and movies, has found that the real violence produced significantly lower physiological arousal (measured by galvanic skin response and heart rate) in those who had played a violent video game. There was no difference in arousal between the two groups after playing the games, and before seeing the videotape, showing that the effect was to desensitize individuals to real-life violence.
Effect on children
Most Middle-school Boys And Many Girls Play Violent Video Games
A survey of over 1200 American middle-school kids (12-14 years) has found that almost all of them, boys and girls both, play video games, and most of them regularly play violent ones. Even girls rated the notorious Grand Theft Auto as the second most popular series (it was the top pick for boys). Boys do play more than girls — a third of the boys played almost every day, compared to only 10% of girls. But on the bright side, the games aren't as anti-social as commonly portrayed — the kids often play in groups, either in the same room or over the internet, and boys' friendships often center around games (I have to concur with this — a lot of the bonding between my sons occurs through the playing together and endlessly conversing about, games). The study also found that many children were playing video games to manage their feelings (although it seems to me as an observer that games are great for creating intense frustration in susceptible people!).
Effect Of Removing TV, Games Consoles And Computers On Young Children
The BBC filmed 23 7 and 8-year-old children in school, and in some cases at home, over a five-week period, which included two weeks when half of them had their TV sets, PCs and portable game consoles removed or disabled. Even after just two weeks, families found they began to interact more, even to `rediscover' their pleasure in each other's company. Some parents admitted the experiment had shown up how they had allowed themselves to rely too much on on-screen entertainment to keep children amused while they got on with their own business. They also found children tired from an active evening were more liable to go to bed early and wake up refreshed and alert the next day. Although there was no conclusive evidence that the temporary absence of TV and game consoles resulted in changed behaviour in school (it was after all only for 2 weeks), but many of the children showed more enthusiasm for doing homework.
I have to say, my family do a lot of talking, and sometimes go through bursts of card-playing, even though we have a TV, computers, and Playstation — but we only got the TV and Playstation a couple of years ago, when the boys were in their mid-teens (similarly, before that time, computer games were all of the 'educational' variety, and time limits imposed). I think the important thing is to keep strict control during the earlier years.
Watching TV reduces pain, anxiety
Here's an interesting, and for a mother somewhat worrying, study: 69 7-12 year-old children in hospital were asked to rate their pain when they were stuck with needle to take a blood sample. Those watching TV cartoons reported half the pain as those who were being soothed by their mother, and a third the pain of those who just sat in a hospital room with mothers who didn't try to soothe them. Does this point to the power of TV, or just the limitations of a mother? Other studies have found that the mothers and fathers attempts at comforting often backfire because it makes the children feel that "something must really be bad".
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/548718
Adolescence reports
Innate talent
Working Memory and Intelligence
Academic motivation
Gesture & embodied cognition
Bioclock
Fats & Carbs
Fish & omega oils
Sleep loss and temporal memory


In light of tonight's town hall meeting with Mayor Kevin Johnson, the North Area Neighborhood Leaders Meeting has been moved to next Thursday evening from 7pm-8:30pm.
The Leader's meeting would have taking place during Johnson's, which also starts at 7pm.
Considering all the recent developments in Natomas, hopefully Johnson will have enough time to find a dry pair of shoes for tonight's meeting.
October 22, 2009 in Kevin Johnson, Meetings.


text:
Department of Management Toggle navigation
Working with Organisations
Faculty Research Groups
Faculty Research Group
We focus on pursuing fundamental research questions that have a bearing on critical marketing issues.
The Marketing Faculty Research Group produces high quality and high impact research that is published in the premier academic journals in marketing, management, and psychology (e.g. Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research, and Psychological Science). The faculty group's research is also internationally recognised for its potential to impact practice in the field (e.g. Marketing Science Institute's Young Scholar Award, Google-WPP Marketing Research Award, AMA-SIG Awards, AMA-SRT Forum Award, and Society for Judgment and Decision Making Awards).
Members in this area have diverse academic backgrounds (physics, economics, psychology, marketing, and management), interdisciplinary research interests, and a variety of methodological approaches (econometrics, lab experiments, field experiments, and surveys). Accordingly, the research strategy of the faculty is to focus on pursuing fundamental research questions that have a bearing on critical marketing issues like consumer decision making, managing new products and innovations, pricing strategy, advertising, and channels of distribution.
In keeping with LSE's tradition of social engagement, faculty in the marketing area actively research questions with a significant public policy component. Faculty recently led two large scale projects, with award monies totalling €550,000, that were conducted for the EC (European Commission) on the use of graphic warnings on cigarette packages and the impact of different labeling formats on usage of eco-friendly, hybrid cars. Faculty are currently engaged in conducting field interventions with micro-entrepreneurs in Egypt, Ghana, and India, with a view to understanding the constraints that prevent the vast majority of such entrepreneurs from scaling up. This work has received funding from reputed agencies such as USAID (United States Agency for International Development), PEDL (Private Enterprise Development in Low Income Countries, which is a CEPR/DFID initiative), and IPA (Innovations for Poverty Action, at Yale University).
Published Papers Read our latest publications
Find Marketing Faculty Research Group members
PhD in Marketing Visit the programme page to find out more

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Imagine the following request: leave your home, your family, everything that you know and cherish and go - completely walk away from the world of your ancestors. And if that was not difficult enough, then imagine being asked to separate yourself from your future, from the world of your children.
Such was the life of Abraham our forefather.
Martin Buber, the great philosopher, notes that the phrase - "lekh l'kha" - "Go forth, leave" occurs only on two occasions in the entire Bible. Both times this divine command is addressed to Abraham, and Buber suggests that the two times this phrase appears serves as important book ends for Abraham's life.
The first time God speaks to Abraham, God calls out - "lekh l'kha" - "Go out and leave your past." God's demand comes before any relationship is established between God and Abraham. These are the very words that begin their relationship. God says to Abraham in essence, "Pick up and leave your country, the community that you have known all your life, your family and 'Go.' Leave everything that has been in your past and that has made you who you are - your friends, your community, your family and go to a land that I will show you! What I offer you in return is a promise," God says. "A promise that I will give you children and make you into a great nation that will surpass in number even the stars! Abraham," God promises, "I will make your name great and the world shall experience blessings through you and your children."
The second time God sends Abraham out with the command, "lekh l'kha," occurs at the end of Abraham's life. God demands that Abraham let go of his dreams and the hopes for the future that God had promised! The second time Abraham hears the words "lekh l'kha" "Go out," God tells Abraham to take his beloved son Isaac - the son through whom God has promised Abraham such a glorious nation and future - and kill him. This demand constitutes the cancellation of the promise. With the second "lekh l'kha" Abraham is asked to let go of his hopes for a future that has kept him going all these long, hard years.
Abraham has been asked to walk away from his past and let go of his dreams for his future.
What happens when we are asked to put aside our personal histories and all the narratives from our past that, perhaps, keep us imprisoned? What happens when we are simultaneously asked to give up the scripts that we have written about our futures? "I thought I would be a partner at this point in my life. I thought my children would be... I thought I would be ready for retirement. I thought I would be married." We all have scripts from our pasts and for our futures.
God asks Abraham to put down these scripts and just be. Just be present in the moment. Don't think about your past or your future - just appreciate the blessings of this moment that may never occur again.
And it is at this moment, Buber suggests, when Abraham learns how to be present in his own life - not encumbered by future hopes or his personal past - he then can most deeply feel God's presence.
I submit that this is one of the challenges that Abraham's life offers us. Can we put down our scripts for ourselves, our families, and children and be present, really present for our lives and the people we love?
Abraham's life suggests that this is the key to our ability to most acutely see and appreciate all the great blessings God has given each one of us.
Shuttle Parking from Prince of Peace.
10 a.m., Youth Room for ages 12 and under.
This Shabbat we will celebrate the bar mitzvah of Sammy Saperstein, son of Susan Knoppow and David Saperstein, and brother of Miriam and Josh. Sammy is also the grandson of Sharon and Jerry Knoppow and Lynda and Dr. Stanley Saperstein. Mazel Tov!
Kiddush Lunch is sponsored by Sharon and Jerry Knoppow in honor of their grandson Sammy becoming a bar mitzvah.
Kiddush Lunch is available through the generosity of weekly sponsors. Please e-mail or call the synagogue office if you would like to sponsor a kiddush lunch. You may also make a donation to the synagogue specifically for the Kiddush Lunch Fund by clicking here.
SHABBAT DINNER AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMING FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY MORNING. All are welcome. Click here for event flyer.
Click here for dinner reservation form.
We will continue planning events and elect officers.
BOOK CLUB NIGHT at the Book Fair.
Monday, November 11th, 7:30 p.m.
B'nai Israel Sisterhood plans to attend this event, when author Elizabeth L. Silver will discuss her book: The Execution of Noa P. Singleton.
Click here for registration form or contact the Book Fair office for more information: 248-432-5442.
Ilana Glazier to join the B'nai Israel Families Facebook Group.
4-6 p.m. Space is limited. Please pre-register: 248-432-5680 (Lindsey Rosenberg) or e-mail lrosenberg@bbyo.org.
Sponsored by Hebrew Memorial Chapel and BBYO.
2013-14 Grades 9-12 are eligible.
USY Summer Programs Registration is now open. 9-12 Graders eligible.
Programs include USY on Wheels, Mitzvah Missions, Israel Adventures, Italy/Israel Pilgrimage, Israel/Poland Seminar, Eastern Europe/Israel Pilgrimage.
Visit www.usy.org/escape/apply for more information and to download an application.
Meet in the TKA/BI Library.
Shabbat Afternoons, last Saturday of the month following lunch and prior to minha. Shiur (class) will meet in the chapel. All our welcome.
Future Dates: November 30, December 28, January 25th, February 22nd.


Raymond Tallia spent more than twenty-five years in government service, conducting major investigations, working with international organizations like NATO and Interpol, and collaborating with the Central Intelligence Agency. He was stationed at the American Embassy in Paris and in nearly a dozen countries in Africa and Europe. Mr. Tallia carried out special details for the White House and built close ties with officials in North Africa and Arab nations.After retiring, Raymond Tallia used many of his contacts when he started a boutique consultancy, RJT Associates, Inc. The Washington, DC, firm performs due diligence and research for companies inside and outside of the United States. Many companies come to Raymond Tallia seeking background information on individuals, customers, and businesses. Notably, while consulting for a Fortune 50 corporation, he identified fraudulent activities in a potential business partner, ending an impending alliance and preventing negative publicity. For a Swiss company, he conducted due diligence work that smoothed the way for its acquisition of a US company. His work also proved instrumental in helping a French corporation to land a $100 million contract. Raymond Tallia's government career has been recounted by former contacts and coworkers. Most recently, some of his operations were detailed in a chapter in Monaco Special Police, a book written by a former head of the police in the Principality of Monaco. Tallia's work also was chronicled in Body Mike, by former mafia informant Joe Cantaloupo, and Brick Agent, by top undercover agent Tony Villano. Outside of work, Raymond Tallia donates his professional skills to the Consortium of Child Welfare, federal courts, and various charitable foundations.


"I want a small and powerful government and small cabinets, so that everyone is a bit too busy", Rutte said previously after complaints that the Ministers and State Secretaries in his current government have too much to do and therefore make mistakes. "The whole problem is that with more officials, you see that they go looking for work to justify their salary." The Rutte II government has 13 Ministers and 7 State Secretaries.
According to the newspaper, sources around the government formation table are wondering whether there is in fact enough work for a cabinet of 25. "The weird thing is that we are now first determining that there must be nine State Secretaries to give all parties sufficient influence, and then think about which departments they should end up in", one involved person said to AD. This is a legitimate problem, Rutte's previous two cabinets consisted of two parties, the Rutte III government will have four.
In the current plan, the VVD will have six Ministers and four State Secretaries, the CDA and D66 each four and two and the ChristenUnie two and one. The extra three Ministers will handle Climate, Immigration and Agriculture.
Over the past days party leaders Rutte, Sybrand Buma (CDA), Alexander Pechtold (D66) and Gert-Jan Segers (CU) discussed how to divide the Minister posts. They did so without their seconds, because they are likely to fill a role as Minister or State Secretary in the next government. According to AD, the D66 has its heart set on heading the Ministry of Climate and Energy, while the CDA would like to head the Ministry of Agriculture.


Williamson County Schools' new Successory program gives students a chance to say thank you to the school employees who help them become a success.
Participating is easy! Just download and print off a Successory Nomination Form, (PDF, opens in a new window) fill it out with the name of a school employee (teacher, bus driver, cafeteria worker, etc.) who is making a difference in your life and drop it off in the box marked Successory forms in your school's front office.
So Be Nice and nominate someone!


text:
Q: C++ unique_ptr and polymorphism Maybe there is the same question but I haven't found it.
I have following code:
class MBase {
    public:
        ~MBase() { cout << "Base destructor\n" << endl; }
};

class MF: public MBase {
    public:
        ~MF() { cout << "MF Destructor" << endl; }
};

class MS: public MBase {
    public:
        ~MS() { cout << "MS Destructor" << endl;}
};

int main() {

    unique_ptr<MBase> ptr1 = unique_ptr<MF>(new MF());
    unique_ptr<MBase> ptr2 = unique_ptr<MS>(new MS());

    return 0;
}

And there is output
Base destructor

Base destructor

Isn't it right? Why derived destructors weren't called? What I have to do to fix that?

A: when using polymorphism and inheritance in C++, you should have a virtual destructor

A: Polymorphism in C++ requires virtual destructor, so that it would be possible to delete an instance
of derived class via a pointer to the base class object.
Long story short - allways declare destructors virtual if class is supposed to be derived from.
When to use virtual destructors?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Project Catalyst reveals Apple's struggle with the future of the Mac
iOS developers must look within themselves to build great Mac apps.
More Color
By Jason Snell, Macworld	 Jun 25, 2019 9:00 pm PDT
There's a old joke about a bad writer blaming his tools—a sad excuse that it was the typewriter and not poor writing skill that was to blame. When macOS Mojave was announced last year, featuring four apps that originated on iOS and had been moved to the Mac by something we now call Catalyst, many of us were quick to blame Catalyst for the strange design quirks of those apps, which seemed simplified in ways that were jarring.
Recent statements by Apple software head Craig Federighi, including his interview with John Gruber during WWDC and a subsequent interview with Jason Hiner of Cnet, make it worth revisiting that assumption.
"When I read some of the initial reviews of those apps, people were saying, 'Obviously this technology is causing them to do things that don't feel Mac-like,'" Federighi told Cnet. "Honestly, 90 percent of those were just decisions that designers made … People took that as 'this feels iOS-y' and therefore they thought it was a technology thing. Actually, it was a designer preference."
"The apps were bad because we made bad design choices" is a bit of a weird defense. Is Federighi just defending Catalyst and his engineers (at, I might point out, the expense of his designers), or is there more to this? I suspect it's a little of both, as Apple tries to create a bridge between two very different platforms at the same time that it's tinkering with a wholesale redesign of what it means to be a well-designed Mac app.
Searching for the exemplary apps
There was a time when Apple set the standard for the apps on the Mac. To see an Apple-built app was to see what apps on the Mac should look like. Especially in the early days of Mac OS X, we would pore over included apps like Safari and Mail and Address Book and bundled apps like those found in the iWork and iLife collections.
These apps would suggest to Mac app developers what Apple thought the state of the art of Mac app design was. A few months later you'd see that all the major Mac app updates would be taking hints from Apple—a tab display here, a drawer there, a floating palette over there.
The News app was one of four apps in macOS Mojave that was imported from iOS.
Mojave's four iOS import apps inspired nobody. It's possible that by the time macOS Catalina ships, they'll be improved—and the additions of Podcasts and Find My might also change the narrative. But based on the initial public beta release, these apps are still either very simple utilities or are still missing menu items and keyboard shortcuts and the other niceties that Apple spent all of WWDC week pushing to an audience of potential Catalyst developers.
This is not to say that there won't be great examples of Catalyst apps, exemplars for other developers to follow. I'm optimistic that some of the developers of iOS apps I use a lot will go the extra mile to make sure that their apps are good Mac apps when they appear on the platform. I was encouraged by a Twitter thread from the developer of Ferrite Recording Studio, one of my favorite iOS apps. In the thread, he says he is committed to making a "Proper Mac App" and that it will take time to do so. While listening to the Accidental Tech Podcast and Under the Radar podcasts, it's clear that Overcast developer Marco Arment is similarly not willing to dump a lousy version of his app on the platform.
iOS app developers are Mac users—it's the only platform available for iOS app development. They know what the Mac feels like. I think many of them will choose to do the right thing—but it's a shame they won't have exemplary Apple apps to inspire them.
Changing the definition
Which brings me to why I think Apple's in this strange in-between state with Catalyst app development. I don't think it's that Apple is uninterested in building good Mac apps—as Federighi himself said to Cnet, "we've got to co-evolve with our user base around the aesthetics of the Mac experience." The implication is that Apple knows these Catalyst apps need to be better, and that they will be.
When Federighi says that Apple and the user base must "co-evolve", that strikes to the heart of it. Apple is changing the definition of what makes a good Mac app, and a lot of that will be influenced by the design decisions it makes for iOS, because it wants to unify its platforms as much as it possibly can for efficiency reasons.
This is messy. A one-size-fits-all app design approach won't work, and I don't believe Apple really wants that. But in macOS Catalina, it does seem to be re-evaluating a lot of interface conventions. Apple's own apps—not just the ones made using Catalyst—are trying all sorts of different interface approaches in somewhat inconsistent ways.
Let me give you one example: Apple's using an interface convention where there's a circular icon with three dots on it in several of its apps. Tap on the icon and you get a sub-menu with additional features: in Podcasts, for example, you can delete an episode from your libary. In Photos, you can play a movie.
This is the sort of feature that, in the past, was something you'd just hide behind a contextual menu—that's a right-click or control-click or (if you use a trackpad) a two-finger click. And in some (but not all) of the apps in Catalina, a control-click will reveal the same options as what you'll find by tapping that circular icon.
I can see the argument that many users do not think to two-finger-click on things, and therefore are missing important features that maybe they'll be more likely to find if they see a circle with three dots inside it and click on it to see what it has to offer. The counter argument is that not all features need to be front and center because most users won't use them, and hiding them behind a secondary menu is not much better than hiding them behind an alternate click.
But is Apple really pushing for more discoverability for extra features? One big change in iPadOS 13 is a tap-and-hold gesture that pops up a content preview window with a bunch of contextual sharing options. There's also a two-finger-tap multiple selection gesture. How do you square adding these new gestures with moving away from control-clicks?
I don't think even Apple knows the answers to these questions. But I do think it's exploring them, and the prospect of apps being brought over from iOS to macOS (as well as the advent of new apps being built using SwiftUI) has opened a gigantic can of worms in terms of how these interfaces should look and work.
As the platform owner, Apple does get to drive that process and make those calls. Unfortunately, right now it doesn't seem to know what it wants. In the meantime, it will be up to third-party app developers to do the best they can to make great Mac apps—and to not blame their tools if they fall short of that standard.
Jason was lead editor at Macworld for more than a decade and now writes about Apple at Six Colors and podcasts at Relay FM and The Incomparable.


text:
Last edited by Mazull
Tuesday, April 21, 2020 | History
2 edition of Seventeenth-century painting found in the catalog.
Seventeenth-century painting
Raymond Cogniat
Published by Weidenfeld in London .
Statement translated by Frances Partridge..
Series Contact history of art series
Contributions Partridge, Frances.
Pagination 37p. :
painting for profit: the economic lives of seventeenth‐century italian painters by richard e spear and philip sohm et : Larry Silver.
Plain Speaking
The Americans with Disabilities Act
When to sell stocks: portfolio liquidation
Best 168 medical schools
sports medicine handbook
Living Justice
Securities, forward and commodity contracts and repurchase and swap agreements under the Bankruptcy Code, the Federal Deposit Insurance Act and State Insurance Insolvency laws, and netting under FDICIA (including Regulation EE)
The Bosss Daughter
Gustavo Cisneros
E.E.C and the migration of workers
Be Your Own Brand
Quality-assurance data for routine water analysis in the laboratories of the U.S. Geological Survey for water-year 1982
Improving agricultural extension
coordination of state institutions for higher education through supplementary curricular boards
Talksense to yourself
European glass
search for an exploitation of crude oil and natural gas in the European area of the O.E.C.D
Teaching Adults (A guide for Transformational Teaching)
memorial to Henry Cabot Lodge.
Seventeenth-century painting by Raymond Cogniat Download PDF EPUB FB2
Hailed as a landmark book when it was first published inThe Golden Age by Bob Haak remains the seminal book on the subject of Dutch painting in the seventeenth century.
Justifiably know as the Golden Age, this Seventeenth-century painting book one of the most intensely creative periods of artistic activity the world has ever by: 3.
Seventeenth Century Painting on *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Seventeenth Century PaintingManufacturer: Viking Press.
17th century dutch painting Download 17th century dutch painting or read online books in PDF, EPUB, Tuebl, and Mobi Format. Click Download or Read Online button to get 17th century dutch painting book now.
This site is like a library, Use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want. Dutch Classicism In Seventeenth Century Painting. A lavishly illustrated study of the charming genre paintings of Vermeer and his contemporaries The appealing genre paintings of great seventeenth-century Dutch artistsVermeer, Steen, de Hooch, Dou, and othershave long enjoyed tremendous popularity.
this comprehensive book explores the evolution of genre painting throughout the Dutch Golden /5. This book is both an introduction to fifteenth-century Italian painting, and a primer in how to read social history out of the style of pictures.
It examines the commercial practice of the early Renaissance picture, trade in contracts, letters, and accounts; and it explains how the visual skills and habits evolved in the daily life of any. The Netherlandish painters of the seventeenth century; (v.
1) by Walther Bernt and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at Genre/Form: History: Additional Physical Format: Online version: Cogniat, Raymond, Seventeenth-century painting.
New York, Viking Press []. Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published. Seventeenth century painting in Europe by N.
Martin Bell,Medici Society edition, in EnglishPages: "[A] scholarly book [that] provides a good idea of the richness seventeenth century French painting A beautifully produced erudite and sensible volume."—Byron Ireland, Day by Day "Mérot deftly ties together some of the latest scholarship on this gilded age of French art."—Stephen Wallis, Art & Antiques.
Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century The emergence of the Dutch school of painting in the early seventeenth century is one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of the visual arts. The Netherlands had only recently become a political entity and was still suffering from the effects of a long and arduous war against Spain.
Seventeenth-century painting. London: Weidenfeld & nicolson, c (OCoLC) Document Type: Book: All Authors / Contributors: Raymond Cogniat. Find more information about: OCLC Number: Description: 37 pages. The appealing genre paintings of great seventeenth-century Dutch artists - Vermeer, Steen, de Hooch, Dou and others - have long enjoyed tremendous popularity.
This comprehensive book explores the evolution of genre painting throughout the Dutch Golden Age, beginning in the early s and continuing through the opening years of the next century.
Book Description: Caterpillage is a study of seventeenth-century Dutch still life painting. It develops an interpretive approach based on the author's previous studies of portraiture, and its goal is to offer its readers a new way to think and talk about the genre of still book begins with a critique of iconographic discourse and particularly of iconography's treatment of vanitas.
Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution represents a publishing event: a new survey devoted solely to the eponymous phenomenon, "from its first manifestations in the seventeenth century to the early eighteenth century." Although treating a much-studied area of art history, this book has no exact parallel.
This catalogue provides both an invaluable reference for studying seventeenth-century French painting and a closer look at some of the most beautiful paintings in the Gallery's collection. Humphrey Wine is curator of French seventeenth- and eighteenth-century paintings at the National Gallery.
developed, and then I go on to analyze how there are different types of genre painting that mean to posit their messages in certain ways. An important text that helped me develop this chapter was Wayne Franits' book titled.
Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic EvolutionAuthor: Valory Hight. Examines the creative process and technical means by which the great Dutch seventeenth-century painter achieved his remarkable pictorial effects.
Arthur Wheelock begins by placing Vermeer's art in historical perspective, with emphasis on the artistic environment in his home city of Delft and the importance of history painting in the mids. This ground-breaking book offers the first sustained examination of Dutch seventeenth-century genre painting from a theoretically informed feminist perspective.
Other recent works that deal with images of women in this field maintain the paradoxical combination of seeing the images as positivist reflections of life as it was and as emblems of virtue and vice.
Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World is a book by the Canadian historian Professor Timothy Brook, in which he explores the roots of world trade in the 17th century through six paintings by the Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer.
It focuses especially on growing ties between Europe and the rest of the world and the impact of China Author: Timothy Brook.
- French Painting in the Seventeenth Century by Mérot, Alain. You Searched For: ISBN: Edit Your Search. Results (1 - 30) of Sort By. John Walsh specializes in the study of seventeenth-century Dutch painting. He is the former director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Ad van der Woude researches issues in Dutch economic history.
He is a professor in the Department of Rural History at. Eddy de Jongh's long-awaited Questions of Meaning; Theme and Motif in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting (originally published in Dutch in ) presents for the first time in English a collection of many of his most memorable studies.
The book consists of an introduction, nine reprinted essays (whose endnotes have been slightly updated), and a hitherto unpublished. 2 Bomford Rough Manners: Reflections on Courbet and Seventeenth-Century Painting Papers from the Symposium Looking at the Landscapes: Courbet and Modernism Held at the J.
Paul Getty Museum on Ma Spanish Painting in the Seventeenth CenturyA Century of most of the sixteenth century Spain was the dominant power in Europe, and its colonial empire insured that in the seventeenth the country retained an enormous importance on the European scene.
At the same time Spain's wealth always rested on uncertain grounds. Despite huge influxes of capital from. Tobacco, social deviance and Dutch art in the seventeenth century Ivan Gaskell Didactic and disguised meanings.
Several seventeenth-century texts on painting and the iconographical approach to Dutch paintings of this period Eric Jan Sluijter Dutch seventeenth-century genre painting: a reassessment of some current hypotheses Peter. Jennifer M. Sakai The current state of research on Dutch Golden Age painting 2 the relationship between Dutch artists and Italy,2 Junko Aono's discussion of late seventeenth-century painting,3 Claartje Rasterhoff on economics and Dutch art,4 John Loughman on the validity of city schools (the concept of distinct styles ofFile Size: KB.
An Old Woman Dozing over a Book Portrait of a Lady Metsu, Gabriel The Intruder Miereveld, Michiel van Portrait of a Lady with a Ruff Mignon, Abraham A Hanging Bouquet of Flowers National Gallery of Art NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART ONLINE EDITIONS Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century Contents.
In Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution, Wayne Franits provides the most comprehensive overview of such images to date. In addition to his well-written and fascinating text, the book boasts numerous stunning color illustrations and. Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution.
Wayne E. Franits. Format Book Published New Haven: Yale University Press, Edition 1st ed Language English ISBN (cl: alk. paper) Related Resources Table of contents Description p.: ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures: The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Painting by James Cahill (, Paperback) at the best online prices at.
Details about Paperback Book "Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth Century Paintings, Sutton" Paperback Book "Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth Century Paintings, Sutton" OLD DUTCH AND FLEMISH MASTERS By Timothy Cole,Painting Engravings.
$ $ Shipping: + $ Shipping. Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse Edited by H. C Seller Rating: % positive. The Golden Age by Bob Haak remains the seminal book on the subject of Dutch painting in the seventeenth century.
Justifiably known as the Golden Age, this was one of the most intensely creative periods of artistic activity the world has ever known.5/5. The Dutch Golden Age (Dutch: Gouden Eeuw Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɣɑudə(n) ˈeːu]) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from (birth of the Dutch republic) to (disaster year), in which Dutch trade, science, military, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world.
The first section is characterized by the Eighty Years' War, which. Perspective determines how we, as viewers, perceive painting.
We can convince ourselves that a painting of a bowl of fruit or a man in a room appears to be real by the way these objects are rendered.
Likewise, the trick of perspective can prevent us from being absorbed in a scene. Connecting contemporary critical theory with close readings of seventeenth-century Dutch. Dutch painting of the Golden Age Introduction. In this free course, Dutch painting of the Golden Age, you shall be exploring issues of meaning and interpretation with specific reference to Dutch seventeenth-century by artists such as Johannes Vermeer (Figure 1), Pieter de Hooch (Figure 2), Gabriel Metsu (Figure 3), Jacob van Ruisdael (Figure.
Similar Items. The child in seventeenth-century Dutch painting / by: Durantini, Mary Frances. Published: () Looking at seventeenth-century Dutch art: realism reconsidered / by: Franits, Wayne E. Published: () Dutch painting / by: Slive, Seymour.
The appealing genre paintings of great seventeenth-century Dutch artists—Vermeer, Steen, de Hooch, Dou, and others—have long enjoyed tremendous popularity.
this comprehensive book explores the evolution of genre painting throughout the Dutch Golden Age, beginning in the early 's and continuing through the opening years of the next : $ Lairesse's Groot schilderboek and seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting 89 2 Gerard de Lairesse, The death ofCleopatra, i Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario painting a classical form.
His suggestions are interesting in two respects: not only do they appear to reflect certain tendencies already manifest in Dutch genre painting of. The Compelling Image will delight the art-lover who does not yet realize that Chinese painting can be as original and moving as El Greco or Cézanne.
With a graceful authority, James Cahill explores the radiant painting of that tumultuous era when the collapse of the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu conquest of China dramatically changed the lives and thinking of artists and /5(10).
Félibien, de Piles and Dutch seventeenth-century paintings in France all still be traced in the inventories of the Orléans col- lection from and 69 That, though, must be a. But the seventeenth century also saw its own version of Classicism, a more moving and dramatic variant of Renaissance ideals and principles featuring idealization based on: observation of the material world - balanced (though often asymmetrical) composition -diagonal movement in space - rich, harmonious colors.The Sublime and Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Art.
Rembrandt & Ruysdael zijn subliem en voor ons evenzeer als voor hun tijdgenooten. –– Vincent van Gogh, letter to Theo van Gogh, J 1 Fig. 1 Willem van de Velde (II), A Ship on the High Seas Caught by a Squall, known as 'The Gust', ca.oil on canvas, 77 x 63,5 cm. Rijksmuseum (artwork in the public Cited by: 2.Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents. Use Notes v Starter Kit vi Introduction xii; FOURTEENTH-CENTURY ART IN EUROPE EUROPEIN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY ITALY Florentine Architecture and Sculpture Florentine Painting Sienese Painting FRANCE Manuscript Illumination Sculpture .
dixsept.club - Seventeenth-century painting book © 2020


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Cruise Baltic becomes the first paper-free cruise network
February 21, 2020 kevinmcgwin Announcements, Business & Investment Leave a comment
Press release from Cruise Baltic
Cruise Baltic is the first cruise network to become completely paperless. The initiative is in line with the ambition of the Baltic Sea to be the most sustainable cruise destination in the world.
Printed material is history at Cruise Baltic. The action to become paper-free is in line with the cruise network's ambition for the Baltic Sea to become the most sustainable cruise destination in the world. The paperless initiative means that from now on, Cruise Baltic does not print any brochures or leaflets at all to any markets. Thereby, the network becomes the first completely paper-free cruise network.
"To be the first paper-free cruise network was important to us and a natural step on our sustainable journey. We think sustainability into everything we do, and it is crucial if we want to be leading the green agenda that we are sustainable throughout our organization and at the same time, we hope to inspire our partners," explains Claus Bødker, Director of Cruise Baltic.
The only printed materials the network has left are business cards, which are made of 100% recycled t-shirt offcuts that would otherwise normally get thrown away.
Sustainability in all actions
Sustainable choices are nothing new to the network. Cruise Baltic always considers giveaways very carefully and handpick everything through thorough research into the material, packaging, production methods, etc. and the network support suppliers and organisations with a sustainable profile. All actions are done to stay as sustainable as possible. The same goes for roll-ups and all other materials at conferences and trade shows, even down to the smallest details like pens and cups, are made from sustainable materials.
Cruise Baltic also tries to convey and inspire sustainability through the production of booths at trade shows. The booth at Seatrade Europe last year was a prime example of thinking sustainability into all parts of the work, as it was made from recycled and re-usable materials complemented by sustainable furniture.
"We take all these steps in a sustainable direction because we find it important to contribute to a better environment. Actions speak louder than words," says Claus Bødker.
The paperless initiative is just a small part of the many sustainable actions taken by Cruise Baltic. In 2019, 29 partners signed 'The Cruise Baltic Sustainability Manifesto' at the Baltic Sustainable Cruise Conference in Copenhagen. The manifesto was created together with all partners of Cruise Baltic as a joint vision towards a more sustainable region.
Cruise Baltic was founded in 2004 and today it includes 30 ports and destinations in the Baltic Sea Region. The network offers easy access, great service, high standards, and full integration between ports and cities throughout the region. Please read more at http://www.cruisebaltic.com.
Photo caption: On Seatrade Europe in 2019, the Cruise Baltic booth was made from recycled and usable materials complemented by sustainable furniture.
For further information please contact the Director of Cruise Baltic, Claus Bødker, at clb@woco.dk and telephone +45 61 20 96 74.
For press related questions, pictures, etc. please contact Kathrine Faurholt at Cruise Baltic's PR agency EHRENBERG SØRENSEN Kommunikation at e-mail kf@ehrenbergsoerensen.com and telephone +45 31 41 87 85.
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text:
/**
 * This module should be refactored to extend react-redux-spark instead of being standalone
 */

import {fromJS} from 'immutable';

import {fetchFreeGuest, setAsBusy} from './guest';

export const GET_GUEST = `guest/GET_GUEST`;
export const GET_GUEST_BEGIN = `guest/GET_GUEST_BEGIN`;
export const UPDATE_GUEST = `guest/UPDATE_GUEST`;

export const initialState = fromJS({
  guest: null,
  status: {
    isFetchingGuest: false
  }
});

export default function reducer(state = initialState, action) {
  switch (action.type) {

  case GET_GUEST_BEGIN:
    return state.setIn([`status`, `isFetchingGuest`], action.payload.isFetchingGuest);
  case GET_GUEST:
    return state.mergeDeep({
      status: {
        isFetchingGuest: action.payload.isFetchingGuest
      },
      guest: action.payload.guest
    });
  case UPDATE_GUEST:
    return state.setIn([`guest`, `interaction`], action.payload.patch.interaction);
  default:
    return state;
  }
}

function getGuest(guest) {
  return {
    type: GET_GUEST,
    payload: {
      isFetching: false,
      guest
    }
  };
}

function getGuestBegin() {
  return {
    type: GET_GUEST_BEGIN,
    payload: {
      isFetching: true
    }
  };
}

function updateGuest(patch) {
  return {
    type: UPDATE_GUEST,
    payload: {
      patch
    }
  };
}

export function fetchGuest(account) {
  return (dispatch) => {
    dispatch(getGuestBegin());
    fetchFreeGuest(account).then((guest) => {
      dispatch(getGuest(guest));
    });
  };
}

export function updateGuestInteraction(account, sparkId, interaction) {
  return (dispatch) => {
    setAsBusy(account, sparkId, interaction).then(() => {
      dispatch(updateGuest({interaction}));
    });
  };
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
China, EU send strong signal for finishing investment deal talks by year's end
China EU Photo:VCG
China and the EU on Friday sent another strong signal that they are pushing to wrap up negotiations for a sweeping bilateral investment treaty (BIT) before year's end as planned and before US President-elect Joe Biden is set to take office in January, as senior officials held a "constructive" phone call on the negotiations.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke with Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy Valdis Dombrovskis, and the two sides had "constructive communication" over the negotiations for the BIT, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
While the briefing statement did not offer details on the progress of the talks, it reaffirms that both sides remain committed to completing the negotiations before the end of the year as agreed by leaders, particularly given the crucial timing and certain complications, Chinese analysts noted.
"This is no doubt a very positive signal that negotiations remain on track and there will definitely be some positive result soon, though in a different form," Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Friday.
Cui said that it is "completely possible" that both sides can finish the negotiations by December 31. Even if there will be some delay, both sides will likely offer a "specific time frame" for the negotiations, he said, adding that the negotiations should be focusing on the wording.
Chinese and EU officials have repeatedly stated that they would reach a deal by the end of the year. The two sides have conducted a total of 35 rounds of negotiations, with the latest taking place between December 7 and 11. This year alone, the two sides conducted nine rounds of talks, underscoring the accelerated pace.
Given the confirmation from top leaders, "it's highly likely that both sides will complete talks before the end of the year," Pang Chaoran, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Friday.
However, there remain some sticky points, including the EU's insistence of greater market access and sustainable development requirements, according to European businessmen and experts.
Also complicating the talks is the power transition in the US, where former vice president Biden, who has vowed to repair alliances to get "tough" on China. The EU may have been considering waiting until Biden is sworn in to build leverage in talks with China, experts noted.
However, that might not give the EU any extra leverage, given the massive trade and investment ties between the two sides, particularly European companies' interest in the Chinese market, analysts said.
During the first nine months, China replaced the US as its top trading partner, with total trade of 425.5 billion euros ($517.3 billion) compared to 412.5 billion euros between the EU and the US, according EU official data.
For China, however, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, has become the biggest trading partner, overtaking the EU, due to disruptions to trade posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. China-ASEAN trade is also expected to further strengthen, as China, ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific economies signed the biggest trade pact in the world, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
"Although the EU shows fresh goodwill to the US ostensibly and politically, the bloc - to which its own interests come first - can't afford to weaken cooperation with China in the foreseeable future out of economic benefits," Cui said.
At a regular press briefing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that China hopes the two sides can meet each other halfway in a bid to reach an agreement by the end of 2020, and promote China-EU economic and trade cooperation to a new level.
Chinese, EU officials make 'constructive' call over bilateral investment deal
China replaces US to become largest trade partner of EU
Posted in: ECONOMY


Well. This post was prompted by a 'conversation' with Brushback on One Base On An Overthrow initially regarding one-time Nazz guitarist and tunesmith, Todd Rundgren, and on the back of that his role as producer for the New York Dolls, and much later down the road, Cheap Trick.
While agreeing about Cheap Trick, I made the point that I was surprised on listening to "In Color"† for the first time again in years to find the production far ropier than I nostalgically recalled. In comparison, I had just heard the A&M 1999 remaster of 1976's "Frampton Comes Alive" and I was amazed at the great sound.
Now, this is the point where I fully expect you to leave this post in disgust. I know. Even in its day the 'biggest selling live album of all time', it's fairly hard to imagine a more nauseating snapshot of 1976. This was the LP I hated most during that time. The mere glimpse of those sun-kissed curls, the spectacle of a gormless Frampton staring out beatifically from its jacket like an air-brushed Christ, was all that was required to reduce me to a trembling state of incapacitated horror. That record was apparently inescapable throughout 1976 and beyond: it dominated countless house parties you might sooner wish to forget; it lurked odiously in your best friend's sister's bedroom, or leered at you from coffee tables everywhere. The only thing which might induce you to stay on encountering it unexpectedly were the Rizla papers reclining on its sleeve. If you were lucky.
It may have been recorded at Winterland, San Francisco but even during the heatwave of 1976 in the usually rain stricken UK, it sucked. Big time.
Tell them Mascis sent you.
† For those of you resilient enough to have persevered thus far, it appears that Steve Albini has re-recorded "In Color" with Cheap Trick in a bid to iron out those muddier creases.
About that re-recorded "In Color": you like?