Comments on: Ronco Facts Shunned

By: truth machine

truth machine — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:46:06 +0000

The conclusion is stupid. If the students had only been offered the pen/laser, they would have used it. That they preferred the pen-only doesn't demonstrate shunning anything.

By: Dunc

Dunc — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:22:22 +0000

The classic microlithic technology post dates the period I’m talking about…

Thanks – I have terrible trouble keeping my timeline of stone-age technology right.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:44:35 +0000

RM: Brilliant.

By: RM

RM — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:34:43 +0000

I think that it should be noted that there is a potential difference between use and acquisitional value. Note that they just used the pens to write and, I presume, left them on the table. I wonder how things would change if they were allowed to take one of the pens home. That is, people may prefer a single-function object to perform that function, but if they have to choose between two objects for long-term use (say buying something from a Ronco infomercial), will they still prefer a single-use item, or will they take the multi-use item in preference?

By: Simple Country Physicist

Simple Country Physicist — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 09:28:22 +0000

It is not clear from the article that they have been able to distinguish between a single tool that is used to perform multiple functions and a single object that embodies multiple tools. The classic examples of these in our culture are knives, which hearkens back to the proposed differences between neandertals and sapiens. I am unaware of any multiple tools in a single object predating the Bronze Age, but several social anthropological studies have identified multi-function single tool uses in pre-metal societies.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 08:42:01 +0000

The classic microlithic technology post dates the period I’m talking about, which was the Middle Stone Age or Middle Paleolithic, where archaeologists have had the opportunity to compare likely Neanderthal sites with likely Modern Human sites that occur in the same area, alternately, over several tens of thousands of years, alternating.Yes, that’s a great technique for opening the beer bottle! Just don’t use Grandma’s heirloom flatware…

By: Dunc

Dunc — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 07:32:50 +0000

When was the last time you needed a bottle opener to open your beer, and looked around a while before you actually found one? OK, think of that time, and now think: Did it happen to be the case that as you looked around you located one or more items that could have had a bottle opener, but didn’t?

I usually end up using things other than bottle openers… I learned a very useful trick that lets you open a beer bottle with just about any rigid object of roughly appropriate dimensions – kitchen knives, cigarette lighters, spoons, etc. It involves wrapping one hand around the neck of the bottle and using the knuckles as a fulcrum to lever the top off. Very effective it is too.As for a Neanderthal / modern human difference – isn’t the classic Mesolithic microlith pretty much the ultimate Roncofact?

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:37:06 +0000

I wonder if this is why so many of my colleagues carry a personal MP3 player AND a smartphone, when I use my smartphone as my music player, thereby having one less item I can lose at the pub after work?

By: Wolfe

Wolfe — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:14:34 +0000

Personally, I barely go anywhere without my pseudo leatherman tool on my hip. About the only time I don’t have it on belt or in a pocket is during fancy dress events, and even then it can be found in the glove box. The pointer/pen sounds like something I might like to have, assuming it is reasonably decent at both functions. It certainly would make one less thing for me to tuck into my work bag. I believe if the investigation required the use of both a pointer and a pen, then it would have gotten far different results about the chosen tool. I don’t think it is a shunning of dual purpose mechanisms this study proves, so much as a shunning of pointless multiple functional tools. The bottle opener is a good example of that, with the popularity of pull tabs and twist tops, the bottle opener declined in usefulness and modern kitchen implement designs reflect that. (And I have used a flat head to work my way into a beer bottle.. but that was before I got my swiss army knife on steroids.)

By: Jeb, FCD

Jeb, FCD — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:58:24 +0000

I guess those Swiss Amry knives just sit, unused, in drawers around the world.