Stress Training, Training Development Time, Social Media, Imitation, & Consciousness

August 18, 2009

Mental Stress Training Is Planned for U.S. Soldiers - New York Times

The Army wants to train 1,500 sergeants by next summer to teach the techniques.

In an interview, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army's chief of staff, said the $117 million program was an effort to transform a military culture that has generally considered talk of emotions to be so much hand-holding, a sign of weakness.

"I'm still not sure that our culture is ready to accept this," General Casey said. "That's what I worry about most."

How Long Does It Take to Develop One Hour of E-Learning-Updated for 2009 - Kapp Notes

Perhaps the most interesting part of "Time to Develop One Hour of Training" is the comparison of 2003 and 2009 numbers.

For example: in 2003, the low estimate for developing One Hour of Instructor-led, Web-based training delivery (using software such as Centra, Adobe Connect, or WebEx-two-way live audio with PowerPoint)was 30 hours and the high estimate was 80 hours. In 2009, the low estimate is 49 and 89...both higher. Is it taking us longer to develop e-learning than it did six years ago??

Twitter tweets are 40% 'babble' - BBC

Choose the people you want to follow carefully:

• 40.5% could be classified as pointless babble
• 37.5% as conversational
• 8.7% as having pass-along value.
• Self promotion and spam stood at 5.85% and 3.75% respectively.

Social media poses huge opportunity and risk for corporate world - Finance & Commerce

Last week, executives from companies as varied as Wal-Mart, McDonalds, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Mayo Clinic gathered at General Mills' headquarters in Minnetonka to discuss the opportunities and concerns presented by social media. And one thing became clear: For now, companies seem more fearful of being left behind than they do of losing control.

73 percent said they would increase the use of social media over the next 12 months.

Human See, Human Do--And That Goes for Monkeys, Too - Scientific American

But, so far, evidence suggests that an evolutionary adaptation to subtly imitate may promote the formation of social groups-building cooperation, reducing conflict, and aiding the survival of each individual.

These results may open up a new field of research, Paukner says. "In the past, we looked at imitation as 'What did [the imitator] learn?' But the role of the model has been largely ignored," she says. "Turns out, imitation is not just good for learning something new. It's also beneficial for the whole group-or whole species."

A "Complex" Theory of Consciousness - Scientific American

Conscious states are highly differentiated; they are informationally very rich.

Although consciousness is the only way we know about the world within and around us-shades of the famous Cartesian deduction cogito, ergo sum-there is no agreement about what it is, how it relates to highly organized matter or what its role in life is. This situation is scandalous! We have a detailed and very successful framework for matter and for energy but not for the mind-body problem. This dismal state of affairs might be about to change, however.