Paganini and One String

• March 20, 2017

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A story is told (I first heard it from Chuck Swindoll) about the great violinist
Niccolo Paganini, who was performing one evening before a packed concert hall,
surrounded by a full orchestra.

As he began the final piece one of the strings on his violin snapped. In his genius,
Paganini was able to continue playing the piece on the remaining three strings.

A moment later, a second string snapped. Still, Paganini continued, playing the
concerto on the remaining two strings.

And then, a third string snapped, but still Paganini continued. He finished the
piece, note for note, with one string on his violin.

When the performance was over, the crowd rose in thunderous applause.

Paganini, ever the humble musician, raised his violin and boldly proclaimed,
“Paganini and one string!” He cued the conductor, the orchestra began to play,
and he performed his encore, note for note, with one string on his violin.

The time may come when you feel like you’re down to one-string — when your
marriage is down to one string, or your financial future is down to one string, or
your hope is down to one string … and you know you’re no Paganini.

Here’s the good news.

One string is enough. God’s grace is that amazing. His power is that invincible.
His love, that unstoppable.
If you feel like one string is all you have left — and maybe it’s about to snap —
it’s time to stop trying to be one-man show. Let God do in your life what only he
can do.

As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. (Psalm 55:16)
Many people see marketing as a form of manipulation, particularly around
Christmas and the other retail bonanzas: Easter, Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ Day
and Fathers’ Day. But rather than simply trying to trick people, the masters of
marketing know it’s much easier to understand and work with innate human
flaws.

By drawing on a plethora of psychological and sociological research, marketers

subtly give us permission to buy and not to think too much, or too deeply, about
why we’re buying. Not thinking all the time is a very efficient way for us to get
by. It conserves energy, and allows us to live relatively easily by responding to
our psychological predispositions, social norms, and general cognitive
imperfections.

Here are some of our flaws marketers use to nudge us towards consumption.

Read more – Ready, steady, shop: shopping as sport

The scarcity effect

Scarcity theory tells us that if we think something is scarce or only available for
a short time, our mind will give it more weight. Christmas is a hard deadline, so
we are limited in our freedom to delay the purchase decision.

Scarcity influences our ability to think clearly when making decisions, and
accelerates our perceived perishability of an offer. We feel that if we don’t
participate in the Christmas ritual, we will miss out on a significant social
experience.

In 2017? Not quite.

Melbourne City, for example, has its annual “Shop the City” promotion in the
first week of December, where major retailers offer discounts available only on
the day. Similarly, many shops are offering Christmas-only bundles or gift sets,
often at a “discount” (which “doubles” the scarcity effect). All of these tap into
our willingness to respond to the scarcity effect and feel the need to buy things
we would normally ignore.

Remember Christmas won’t be your only opportunity to show others how much
you love them, or to spend time with your family. It seems obvious, but you can
buy people gifts at any time of the year! All marketers are doing is tapping into
your predisposition to value experiential scarcity during socially validated
moments to encourage you to behave in particular ways.

Read more: Sustainable Shopping: the eco-friendly guide to online

Christmas shopping
Overwhelming stimuli
By surrounding us with stimuli designed to overwhelm our cognitive processing,
we are less likely to think through our decisions in any complete way. When we
walk into a shopping mall filled with Christmas tinsel, Christmas music, lights
and sounds, we are going to experience some form of ego depletion.

Ego depletion doesn’t mean you instantly become a humble, thoughtful person.
In psychology, we use this term to describe how people don’t always think
through their decision-making in a rational and linear way when placed under
situations of stress.

Marketers don’t want you to think; just to feel the Christmas magic.

So, all that noise, colour and movement, isn’t just the shopping centre or strip
getting into the festive season. It’s also a technique to get you to think a little
less completely, and respond to emotional cues, such as social norms, FOMO
(fear of missing out), and rituals.

Our inability to forecast

Psychological research tells us humans aren’t very good at predicting the future.
Or perhaps we just have an over-inflated sense of our accuracy in predicting the
future – we rely on how we feel right now to predict how we might feel about
something later. Psychologists call this affective forecasting.

So, in the moment, and just in that moment, we buy things we think we will
need. But we discount all the other things that we have bought, and also
discount how having all that stuff didn’t necessarily make things great last time.

We all just want to have a good Christmas.

If we think about Christmas lunch or dinner, few of us can plan how much food
we will actually need and we aren’t very good at knowing how much we will end
up eating (or need to eat). We pile our plate high, because we don’t really know
how much we need, but do know how much we want. Lots and lots. Just in case
we miss out on something great.

It’s the same with gifts. We often don’t plan, and so we are more susceptible to
the gentle nudges of the marketers when we are stressed, in a hurry, and trying
to do ten things at once.

How to resist the temptation

Despite our belief that we are all individuals, making independent decisions and
choosing what we want and when we want it, humans are social, conforming
and compliant creatures. If we see “our people” are doing something, we tend to
assume this is something we should also do.

If we’re looking around and our environment is signalling this is what we do at

Christmas time, then it’s easier to comply than to resist.
 It’s hard to resist the festive pull.

Christmas is a tough time to commit to reducing consumption, but it is possible.

Resisting any natural response requires a commitment to the idea of resistance,
a willingness to practise that resistance at all times (we know the more we do
something, the easier it becomes) and, importantly, surrounding ourselves with
people who will help us to resist, or at least won’t sabotage that resistance.

Read more – I think, therefore I buy: how buying nothing at

Christmas time is harder than it appears

This doesn’t mean cutting yourself off from society. But it does mean coming to
terms with the idea you are open to manipulation, framing, priming and
persuasion, and coming up with ways to avoid it.

Focus on the idea of Christmas – time with family and friends, treating
ourselves to novel food, eating all the great fruit that’s available this time of year
– rather than succumbing to the commercial nudges that seem to have become
imperative to Christmas.

Give gifts if you wish, but think about what is moving you toward buying those
gifts. With this knowledge, you might make a few better choices.

Natural selection may favour younger

mothers and higher BMI in men
New study suggests evolution is still acting on contemporary humans,
although over many generations and very weakly

Evolution appears to favour women having children at a younger age.

Photograph: JGI/Tom Grill/Getty Images/Blend Images
Nicola Davis

@NicolaKSDavis

Mon 18 Dec ‘17 23.15 GMTLast modified on Tue 19 Dec

‘17 08.30 GMT

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As humans continue to evolve, natural selection appears to be

favouring higher body mass index (BMI) in men and an earlier age for
starting a family in women, research has revealed.

Researchers used data from the UK Biobank, a large genetic and health
database of half a million British people aged 45 and over, to look at
how numerous traits from body mass index to height and birth weight,
as well as particular genetic variations associated with such traits, are
linked to the number of children individuals had during their lifespan.

But scientists note that the effects are weak and that it will take many
generations before significant changes are seen in humans. In addition,
they stress it is not clear if natural selection is acting directly or
indirectly on the traits.

“We wanted to try to understand what types, and [to] quantify, the
evolutionary forces that are affecting contemporary human traits,
including height and BMI,” said Jaleal Sanjak, a co-author of the
research from the University of California, Irvine.

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“And also characterise whether selection was pushing the population in

one direction or another, or favouring intermediate values or extreme
values,” he added.

The results of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences, reveal that for many traits, including height and
waist circumference, natural selection appears to be disfavouring
extremes.

It also found that while studies have shown natural selection has
disfavoured both very heavy and very light babies, that selection is now
extremely weak, and only seen in females.

“The strength of natural selection is a fraction of what it was, and this

birth weight thing is a beautiful example of that because now neonatal
care is so good that you can be very underweight or very overweight
and it makes no difference,” said Steve Jones, emeritus professor of
human genetics at University College London, who was not involved in
the study.

“The interesting thing is not that there are bits of natural selection
around – which without question there are. But what is called the
opportunity for natural selection has almost disappeared.”

In men, the team found that natural selection appears to favour a

higher body mass index. But with obesity linked to problems with
fertility, said Jones, “higher BMI suggests that big muscly hunks are
the ones who do better”.

However Sanjak said there might be more to the findings, pointing out
that it is difficult to unpick cause and effect.

“The problem here is that the genetic variants that predispose an

individual to have a higher BMI also seem to predispose an individual
to have more children, that is true. But it could be the case that having
more kids has an effect on your BMI.”

He added that it could be that BMI was genetically linked to other

traits that were under natural selection.

The study, he added, also suggested that natural selection is favouring

reduced educational attainment in women.

But, it seems, that is not a straightforward link, with further analysis

revealing that the result is most likely linked to selection on the age of
starting a family, with younger mothers less likely to have reached
higher levels of education, or less able to reach them once having had
children.

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The team also showed that starting a family earlier in life appears to be
favoured by natural selection in women.

“We understand that having kids earlier should mean you have more of
them, but the surprising part was just to observe it on the genetic
level,” Sanjak said.
 Overall, he said, the results paint an interesting picture. “Natural
selection is still happening in modern humans – it is observable, we
can detect it.

“But they are fairly weak effects and secular trends, things due to
modern medicine and social change, are likely to be bigger drivers of
changes in these traits.”

For example, while natural selection was favouring reduced

educational attainment, educational attainment overall was increasing
over time. “That is an example of a secular force that is going to swamp
the effect of natural selection,” he said.

Dr Chris Tyler-Smith from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

welcomed the study.

“People sometimes ask, ‘Are humans still evolving?’ because advances

in society and healthcare now allow people who might in previous
centuries have died young to survive and have children,” he said.

“But, in my view, unless everyone has exactly the same chance of

having children, we will inevitably continue to evolve.”

Humans are STILL evolving: Study finds natural selection favors larger
'hunky' men with a high BMI and younger mothers
 Researchers examined data on people aged 45 and up from the UK Biobank
 They found that natural selection still has 'observable' effects on humans today
 It found larger men are favoured, along with women who start families younger
 Researchers say effects are weak, and may be outweighed by modern factors
By Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 00:33 GMT, 19 December 2017 | UPDATED: 00:50 GMT, 19 December 2017
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 Humans aren’t quite done evolving, a dramatic new study has found.

Researchers analyzing genetic and health data on hundreds of thousands of

people, uncovered evidence to suggest natural selection has an ongoing, albeit
small, effect on modern humans.

The new study appears to be favour larger, ‘hunkier’ men with a greater body
mass index, and younger mothers.

+2


A new study found that natural selection appears to favour women who get a
young start on having a family. Researchers examined data from the UK
Biobank, looking at genetic variants and their correlation to the number of
children people had. A stock image is pictured

TODAY'S EFFECTS OF NATURAL SELECTION

In the new study, researchers analyzed data from the UK Biobank, looking at a
number of factors among people aged 45 and older.
While the effects may be weak, the researchers say it does appear natural
selection continues to be shaping human evolution.

In men, the research found that having a high BMI appears to be favoured.

This is likely linked to higher muscle bulk rather than obesity, given the fertility
problems associated with the latter, the Guardian reports.

And, the study found that natural selection appears to favour women who get a
young start on having a family.

The researchers say this shows natural selection, while weak, is 'observable' in
humans - though modern medicine and other factors may have a bigger influence.

Researchers examined data from the UK Biobank, looking at genetic variants

and their correlation to the number of children people had during their lifetime.

Of the people included in the study, all were aged 45 and older.

The team analyzed several traits, including height, body mass index, and age at
first birth (for women), to reveal how evolutionary processes may be at play in
today’s society.

‘Combining high-throughput molecular genetic data with extensive phenotyping

enables the direct study of natural selection in humans,’ the authors explain in
the new paper, published to the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
‘We see firsthand how and at what rates contemporary human populations are
evolving.’

While the effects may be weak, the researchers say it does appear natural
selection continues to be shaping human evolution.

From height to waist circumference, the study found natural selection tends to
disfavour extremes.

'Here we demonstrate that the genetic variants associated with several traits,
including age at first birth in females and body-mass index in males, are also
associated with reproductive success,' they wrote

For babies, however, this may not necessarily be the case.

While previous studies have shown that extreme weights are not favoured in
babies, the study found this effect is now very weak, and only existed among
females.
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 In men, the research found that having a high BMI appears to be favoured. This
is likely linked to higher muscle bulk rather than obesity, given the fertility
problems associated with the latter. Stock image

The shift, experts say, may boil down to modern advancements in neonatal
care, which allow both underweight and overweight babies to eventually thrive,
according to the Guardian.
In men, the research found that having a high BMI appears to be favoured.

This is likely linked to higher muscle bulk rather than obesity, given the fertility
problems associated with the latter.

NATURAL SELECTION IS
'WEEDING OUT' DISEASES IN
HUMANS
A massive study analyzing the genomes of 210,000 people in the United States
and Britain has found a range of diseases including are being 'weeded out' of
the human gene pool by natural selection.

Researchers found the genetic variants linked to Alzheimer's disease and heavy
smoking are less frequent in people with longer lifespans, suggesting that
natural selection is weeding out these unfavorable variants in both populations.

 New favorable traits evolve when genetic mutations arise that offer a survival edge.
Though it may take millions of years for complex traits to evolve, say allowing
humans to walk on two legs, evolution itself happens with each generation as
adaptive mutations become more frequent in the population.

Researchers also found sets of genetic mutations that predispose people to

heart disease, high cholesterol, obesity, and asthma, also appear less often in
people who lived longer and whose genes are therefore more likely to be
passed down and spread through the population.

In women over 70, researchers saw a drop in the frequency of the ApoE4 gene
linked to Alzheimer's, consistent with earlier research showing that women with
one or two copies of the gene tend to die well before those without it.

Researchers saw a similar drop, starting in middle age, in the frequency of a

mutation in the CHRNA3 gene associated with heavy smoking in men.

And, the study found that natural selection appears to favour women who get a
young start on having a family.

‘Natural selection is still happening in modern humans – it is observable, we can

detect it,’ co-author Janeal Sanjak, from the University of California, Irvine, told
the Guardian.

‘But they are fairly weak effects and secular trends, things due to modern
medicine and social change, are likely to be bigger drivers of changes in these
traits.’

The study also suggested that natural selection is favouring reduced

educational attainment in women.

But, it seems, that is not a straightforward link, with further analysis revealing
that the result is likely linked to selection on the age of starting a family, with
younger mothers less likely to have reached higher levels of education, or less
able to reach them once having had children.

THE GENOME REVOLUTION

The study may be the first to take a direct look at how the human genome is
evolving in a period as short as one or two generations.

Earliest Homo sapiens fossils discovered in Morocco

 Advertisement 0:01

As more people agree to have their genomes sequenced and studied,

researchers hope that information about how long they lived, and the number of
kids and grandkids they had, can reveal further clues about how the human
species is currently evolving.

Dozens of firms already offer the service, and it is expected to get easier and
cheaper in the future.

Read more:
 Evidence of directional and stabilizing selection in
contemporary humans
 www.theguardian....
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