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Title image.
Stainless steel wreckage from a P-51 Mustang. Found by Shauney Strick. Further details in his monograph: History of World War 2 Penwith Cornwall (forthcoming)

Contents
Introduction 3 Attraction to sparkles in creatures before man 4 Our primate ancestors 4 Palaeolithic 5 Neolithic 5 Heaven and Hell: Aldous Huxley 7 Richard Coss explains 8 Internet Discussions 9 All that glisters: Wendy Shutler 14 The mistakes made by animals 14 The failing brain 15 Young brains 15 Other brains 16 The running man theory 18 The development of stone tools 19 Metal is still fascinating 22 Paint as a practical protection 23 The car[crash] 24 Angles of windscreens on different vehicles 24 Car paint 25 Airline travel 26 Television 27 Manned space flight 29 Robot Explorers 29 Interactive screens 29 Advice to the young when crossing the road 29 Challenger 29 Chernobyl 30 9/11 30 Space Shuttle 2 30 Concorde 30 International Space Station 30 Fukushima 30 Towers of Glass 30 The future 31 Redruth Railway Station 31 Disclaimer 32 References 32

The Shiny Path: A Journey of Attraction To Sparkles from the Beginning of Evolution to the end of World Civilization
Graham Hill

Introduction
On February 4th 2011 one of my wifes pair of aquatic frogs died. At least we think it was dead. Over 3 or 4 months it had swelled up and Amanda had hoped that it was full of eggs, but now it lay motionless in the tank. Handling the flaccid creature seemed to confirm our suspicions but before committing it to a hole in the ground next to the memorial to Reddy; the Japanese fighting fish, we had to be certain. Looking into its eyes there was a milky glaze, no longer sparkling. This creature had gone. Shiny is the modern surface. It is ubiquitous. Sitting in a Subway sandwich restaurant and writing this, catching the glister on the packet of crisps left over from my meal deal; the lustrous coated metal chairs, the brushed steel bin, the glowing Coca-Cola machine, the glints on my gel pen and plastic A-4 protective sleeve. Our shiny world seems too self evident to reach consciousness; let alone require comment. Somewhere between banal observations and the deepest and possibly contradictory physiological theories this witness hopes to build an argument to narrate the thread of life with emphasis on how human development technologically and socially has been critically determined by attraction to sparkles; and while this has been a remarkably successful course, it has been followed without constraint and has conditioned us too inflexible to change. Perhaps an awareness of this tendency will be a critical step in saving world civilization from the same complex of problems that have felled ancient civilizations in a then still unbounded environment, but as the situation becomes more desperate; the shiny avatar lives more vividly for us beneath the glistening surface of the screen. How did we get to the point of disappearing from our own story?

Imagine a world in which cars are not shiny. (A die-cast metal scale model on the foreshore of The Thames near Greenwhich).

Hello
Shiny chitinous beast; already injured by the feisty maid, before my parents could take this picture on holiday in The Algarve, Portugal.

Creationists!
The attraction to sparkles in creatures before man.
For a more complete guide to Life on Earth; search the work of David Attenborough. Watch a Blu-ray DVD in High Definition on your flat screen TV. For thousands of millions of years the cellular machinery of single cells became more capable. Light was used for converting simple inorganic chemicals into complex structures and fuel stores. Sensitivity to light and warmth were matched to methods of locomotion to optimise conditions for the cell metabolism. In the Precambrian. cells co-operated to form multi-cellular forms. Cells could specialise. The simplest eyes were formed. In Amandas fish tank the Cyclops clustered in the meniscus to feed on the algal bloom and when she switched the light off they swam down to escape the guppies. In the Cambrian period several types of eye evolved beyond detecting shadow and movement as a struggle developed between hunter and hunted. In the Devonian shoals of fish dazzled predators. Invertebrates conquered the land and air and some detected the water surface with compound eyes to deposit their eggs as dragonflies do to this day. Land vertebrates selected their mates with shiny teeth and eyes. Birds decorated their nests and built bowers. The dull and flaky were lucky to make fossils.

Our Primate Ancestors

Shiny fruits are ripe and fresh.

Last day in Turkey: Cucumber, onion, tomato and mayonnaise after emptying the fridge into fresh bread.

Shiny eyed scavenged meat is safer to eat. Shiny eyes in the dark could be a hunter The glint of sun on water is stimulating with thirst always on the mind in the dry savannah. There will be edible roots and likely fruits. There may be game but also dangerous predators and social contact with others of your kind. Are you ready?

This pencil sketch on a fragment of paper was found on the floor of a sports shop in Penzance, UK. The artist has modelled the eye and given it a spark of life with the glints indicated by the absence of shading.

Palaeolithic
Breaking dull stones we find the magic shine on shell-like facets. Yes they cut skin and fibres, but the great hand-axe is as much a great faceted sparkling jewel as a cutting tool. We are just showing off. The shiny flints and cherts when struck on red rocks shed sparks, especially exciting at night. We made fire and sat in its flicker; now almost like gods ;comforted and strengthened by the pre-digested cooked food, the cowered night-life and the dancing light in the eyes of our clan. Carrying lightning and volcanoes in our hands and minds we struggled to find our place in nature and invent spirit religions to express by guttering flame in secret places. Our mystery we express in our collections of shiny pebbles and crystals, gold and copper, made portable as beads and displayed on our loved ones and chiefs.

Neolithic
The flints in our sickles and the edges of our flaked axes and the grinding stones for our food took a shine from the working. For utility we ground shiny flat blades but could not resist extending the polish over the whole of the celt to make an object of desire beyond its function.

Contemporary greenstone celts; made from beach cobbles and ground and polished using granite, flint and dolerite as was likely the case from this Neolithic axe making region of West Cornwall, UK .

We beat precious gold to thinnest sheets to carry the most sun. We made copper into axes and daggers to protect the carrier from the jealous. In the Bronze Age a currency commodity bought armies and bound producers of surplus food to powerful Bronze-hoarding elites. Corruption as today resulted in debasement of the bronze currency axes and swords with lead and natural disasters and climatic change further weakened the belief in the connection between the bearers of Bronze and the gods. Iron brought a new order with different and more plentiful sources without the need for long distance influence. The rust-prone but superior metal brought a more utilitarian approach to tool-making, but the desire for shiny goods was unquenchable with new burnished pottery, glass beads and new gold and silver currency. Iron swords and steel armour glittered from careful, disciplined maintenance and legion became machine. Tyranny promised the tranquillity of the original Idyll with tinkling water on polished marble splashing from a lead piped re-creation of the spring in every town. Against the hardship and squalor of every day life was set the shiny vision of the after-life with gilded and lapis encrusted and stained glass adorned buildings designed to sustain this vision. Beautiful language was read by gold threaded priests from books too rare for you to read with gold leaf illuminated pages too dazzling to see. Jealous tyrants stripped the palaces of heaven to put a silver coin and a steel sword in every hand and wear the Worlds gems on their head. Gunpowder and guns win the ground and all that dwell on it and the earth below. We burnt down the trees and then dug the ground to burn coal more brightly to tap the blast furnace in a shower of sparks and a river of white hot metal. At first candle light picks the gold paint on the edge of our best china, then gas and electricity fill our homes with light. At night the steam engines are alive like dragons. The Crystal Palace. Plate glass fronted department stores beckon the shoppers and great metal ships challenge the sea. Gaudy trinkets and electroplated silver cutlery, marbles and Blackpool illuminations and fireworks by the sea dazzle the minds of the toilers in the dark. Futurist progress dies in the mud but crushed and burnt in their spruce and fabric biplanes; the aviators rise like The Phoenix with new confidence in shiny duralumin monoplanes. Glints again on guns and brass parade buttons. The dazzling shock diamond exhaust of rockets rise toward the stars but crash back on trembling troglodytes. Over the hop vines the pulsing flash of robot bombs. My future mum falls off the sofa and is sick. The negative burns through at its centre and the desert fuses to glass. The watch face cracks at 8.15. A balance of terror as old as the barbed flint 6

arrowhead. Again it catches the light but a silver Boeing trailing ice crystals. All our hopes and fears of a holiday in the sun and the sun falling to earth. A fireman stares into the face of God and is pierced by a billion shiny needles. Oil wells and forests burn. Seagulls launch indifferently from the glass cliffs of our cities reflecting the sky as we disappear into the tiny glowing screen we hold in our hand. The sea no longer sparkles and it happened while we were distracted. Not great prose. Some important themes are missing and what is there is incoherent and sketchy. I shall cover some of the deficiencies that I am aware of. [I sit too close to the screen.] Paragraphs will follow about human sweat glands and water requirements. And evidence for human attraction to shiny surfaces And the curious over development of stone tools. And the unusual design of copper daggers And the retreat from manned space flight And the debilitating fascination of glowing screens Amanda has just walked in through the front door with a Blu-ray DVD player; apparently a great deal at 30 quid as Currys store chain goes bankrupt . It used to be three hundred and somethink. For a more literate account of human attraction to shiny surfaces my friend John Neff reminds me of Aldous Huxley's essay; 'Heaven and Hell'. Well remembered, John! I had largely forgotten it but must concede its subliminal basis for my ideas. Huxley comments upon the attraction of glazed ceramics to the collector: 'The commonplace ugliness of the surroundings in which fine ceramics are so often displayed is proof enough that what the owners crave is not beauty in all its manifestations but only a special kind of beauty- the beauty of curved reflections, of softly lustrous glazes, of sleek and smooth surfaces. In a word, the beauty that transports the beholder, because it reminds him, obscurely or explicitly, of the praeternatural lights and colours of the Other World.' This commentator suggests that the thrust of Huxley's argument, especially when taken with his companion essay; 'The Doors of Perception' is that the brain rewards the individual with pleasurable sensation (perhaps chemically produced) when the perception is of this class of beautiful shiny objects. Hence there is a direct connection between shiny objects and ecstatic experience. Huxley explores this with the drug mescaline and speculates about how humans have produced shining visions through fasting and other regimens. Translucent rocket motors in flight and on the thrust stand in the 1990s and still dreamt about!

Huxleys insights are acknowledged. Later Richard Coss and others attempt to explain why we are attracted to shiny surfaces in evolutionary terms whilst like Huxley we do not tire of trying to explain in words our ecstatic experience. Huxley shows how culture changes and sometimes society becomes weary of shiny surfaces and a counter current expresses utilitarian style or even a tired or rough surface. In recent times the punk and grunge popular music and clothing have relieved the oppression of corporate and mass produced teenage consumer products and shabby chic has brought a lived-in and fake back-story to sterile modern interior spaces. Huxley states: Plato and, during a later flowering of religious art, Thomas Aquinas maintained that pure bright colours were the very essence of artistic beauty. A Matisse, in that case, could be intrinsically superior to a Goya or a Rembrandt. One has only to translate the philosophers abstractions into concrete terms to see that this equation with bright, pure colours is absurd. But though untenable as it stands, the venerable doctrine is not altogether devoid of truth. To resolve the question of the absurdity of a comparison between a bright painting and a dark one is I think to miss the essential shiny-ness inherent to any successful painting. A painting invites the mind's eye to investigate a world behind the canvas and the surface therefore functions as if to the unconscious mind as the surface of a mirror or indeed the surface of water. A counter culture to this painting tradition will find ways to draw attention to the surface and gain a niche notoriety for their efforts!

Richard Coss next explains why we are attracted to mirrored surfaces.

Reproduced from University of California-Science Today/C. Studying Human Attraction to Shiny Surfaces from an Evolutionary Perspective 2005-01-18 Narrator: This is Science Today. There's a large industry involved in making reflective paints and even computer graphics with very reflective surfaces, in part because people seem to respond to shiny surfaces. Richard Coss, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis decided to look into this phenomenon. Coss: Some of the oldest artwork involves polishing stone tools and so this is something that led to thinking there might be something very basic- perhaps a natural property of our species. Narrator: Coss studied infants and toddlers' responses to shiny surfaces after observing them placing their heads on mirrors and other shiny surfaces and making sucking motions with their mouths as if drinking water. Coss: The source for this attraction looks like it is involving detecting glistening surfaces at a distance- probably sparkling effects of water. You know ancestral humans and even going back further, once there were conditions where we were living in environments that were drier- we required a drink every day. So that was sort of the fundamental point about looking at it from an evolutionary perspective. Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin. Copyright: The regents of the University of California 1995-2007. 8

Reflections: a clich image. It happens to be of a small reservoir near Heamoor, Penzance. It has been reproduced upside down with a little of the bank at the top.

Commentary A search of questions on internet forums about human attraction to shiny surfaces shows that it is a popular discussion in the early 21st century. Many evolutionary reasons have been offered but in this observer's opinion Prof. Coss has found the essential one. We are aware that water is a key requirement and that it dominates all others. In a drying climate humans or their primate ancestors would have been vulnerable. Our bodies share the sweat glands of other mammals but humans have more than most and apparently developed a unique hunting strategy, covering great distances at moderate speed. This enabled us to keep pace with prey species in hot and dry conditions, hunting them down when they were exhausted by heat. Sweat glands are the most powerful method of cooling the body but at the expense of transpiring litres of water a day. To exploit this method of cooling in hot and dry conditions we need to have a good idea of where water resources are and quite likely this will also be operating at an instinctive level. Whilst suggesting that the reflections seen on possibly drinkable water are the dominant reason for our reputed attraction to shiny surfaces, it is worth considering the more well reasoned answers posted on the internet. It may be that a convergence of different reasons has brought us to this state. Note that some come from deep in our evolutionary past and others may be a cultural development within the last 10 thousand years or so.

Internet Discussions
On BT Yahoo answers Todd asks: Why are human beings attracted to shiny objects? We like jewels, precious metals and many everyday products we buy are deliberately made to be shiny. Risky B replies: Perhaps its because shiny objects reflect light. It can look as though they are in fact a source of light like the sun, which has always been one of the biggest influences on humans, both really and symbolically. It may also be to do with the fact that people can see their reflections in shiny objects, and this may have been thought to give such objects magic powers. Wilde_spwrites: 9

Very interesting question! Im sure the experts on human evolution can give a more solid answer, but I think we evolved to like shiny things because shiny means new, clean, untarnished. Perhaps, in the early days of human existence, shiny meant safer and more pleasant things to have, eat from, play with, etc. than old and tarnished things. Snodom adds: Gold is prefered as a method of wealth storage because it never rusts or tarnishes, i.e., it remains shiny. Therefore, by psychological association we come to prefer shiny things. Jewel of Medina observes: Very interesting question, I worked in the tool store of a refinery at one time and it was always the shiny tools which got stolen. Comments As with other threads on the subject; the content moves on to comment on the feelings engendered by the sight of shiny things. Ses continues: Hi. I think its due to just being attracted to anything pretty like the shiny object makes us go ahh that is beautiful. Even if we do not have we like to look in the store window. Ando-FFF says: because all we care about is how valuable something looks, and shiny things are generally more valuable. Duke bawk disagrees: Who says? Its only people who are trying to look bigger than what they are who go for these things. Meyouand distils this idea: It catches the eye of the greedy. Justin v-engine meditates: Because it gives us a twinkle in our eyes. Comments. We can discern some circular arguments that things are valuable because they are shiny without being aware of what makes that property of value. Further it appears that at least some people are in the habit of being greedy for cultural products carrying this property to indulge their senses or bring social advantage. Justin v-engine connects us to a deeper perhaps pre-human neural reward in the presence of sparkles. It might appear repetitive to sample other threads on the subject but this observer wishes to represent the range and quality of recent human thought. On fluther.com simone 54 asks: Do humans have phsyological(sic) attraction to shiny things? Think of the shiny paint on a brand new car or silver jewelry. Is there a reason for this attraction in the evolution of humans that they needed for their survival? Chyna muses: All that glitters is gold and she is buying the stairway to heaven (Led Zeppelin). From early childhood shiny things are portrayed as good. A gold star, glitter, fireworks. Lilycoyote jokes: I dont know. I always figured my simple-minded attraction to shiny objects was the result of my being a bird brain. Cruiser gets down to basics: I love shiny brown eyes and shiny hinys! 10

Seek Kolinahr digs deep: If I were to guess, I would say it cries back to the days that fire was the most prized possession, and humans were just starting to develop the capacity to anthropomorphize inanimate objects and create deities. Fire is precious. This thing shines like fire. It must have the power of the fire gods. It is precious. The fact that its continued to this day is just a side effect of our desire to attach wealth to something. Shadling 21 self analyses: I noticed, after watching one of the thousands of dance performances I see every year, that the dance numbers with shiny costumes drew my attention more easily. Like, if I sat through a bunch of numbers with plain costumes, and a girl entered the stage wearing sequins, my eye was drawn to her immediately. In that case Id say that it has to do with how concentrated the light was, yet not blindingly so. I felt it gave the costumes a certain luminescence, so they stood out from a flat background. Triflin Triscuit refines the question: Did you mean psychological or physiological? Many say the shiny stimulus produces a certain reaction in the brain in humans. It triggers your pleasure center(s) and neurotransmitters are released. Basically it makes you physically as well as psychologically happy. Simone 54 returns: Yes EXACTLY! I just need to know why? Triflin Triscuit continues: That is still a matter of psychological debate. There ARE studies specific to shiny stimuli in animals, but the conclusions are not scientifically valid (yet). Heres an interesting article on aesthetics and tastes/personal preferences: http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Hogan_aesth.html Chamelopotamus suggests: Generally, shiny things stand out from their surroundings. We are wired to notice when something is significantly different. Shiny things also tend to have some intrinsic value to them: the shine is usually a result of the object having been crafted in some respect. Jleslie challenges the consensus: My husband hates chrome on a car. He likes brushed metal. I would say people like things that appear new and clean, but I would not agree with the shiny statement. I think it depends on the person. For that matter some people like a worn look, so who knows. There was that whole grunge trend and people spend time distressing furniture. Shabby chic and all that sort of thing. Mattbrowne concludes: Shiny eyes are one important signal that people are healthy and able to reproduce.

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Paper image from a photograph of a TV show of Amy Winehouse.

Comments Lilycoyotes light-hearted allusion to the attraction of certain birds to shiny objects will be covered later with the effects on other creatures as will that on humans with abnormal brains including dementia and the experience of differently brained people who can describe their experience of Autism. This eclectic collection may give clues to global effects of sparkles and reflections unmediated by the huge human cultural superstructure. Jleslie can find counter-cultural phenomenon which express anticapitalist impulses but would be meaningless without prevailing varnished and wipe clean surfaces and plastic corporate pop videos. Let us continue with another thread. Experience project.com asks: Why do people like shiny things? Yacsaw answers: Hard to believe it could be inherited from fishes. But I recall that our eyes are drawn toward light, so perhaps this is just a manifestation of that? Maybe there are two separate questions: why do people like seeing shiny things, and why do people like owning them? Pukirahe states: Spiritually: Light is the source of life. Pure souls are like shiny mirrors, reflect divine qualities. Physically: Most people like gold; so we like anything [that] glitters like gold! RRK1 inspires us: They make me feel happy when I look at them. Perhaps the shine depends upon the sunshine, so is ephemeral. It is like catching a sunbeam and holding it. Karumbey suggests: Probably the same reason raccoons like shiny things: It impresses the ladies and encourages mating. :P Koyptakh adds: I think it is because they keep changing so hard to form an image of them. Endlessly interesting because never constant. I like shiny new coins! I have also sold jewelry and women love it! :) Clayantony suggests:

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I guess shiny things attract peoples attention just because of their shiny-ness, bright things just draw the eye towards them, they are hard to ignore, perhaps it is like an animal instinct that we still have. AIUI observes: Its basically true. When most people print their photos they usually pick gloss over matte 2 out of 3 times. People love shiny things Comments We struggle to disentangle our primal from our cultural responses to shiny objects. The list of animals attracted to shiny objects is large. Brigit asks allexperts.com: What animals are attracted to shiny objects? Expert Dana Krempels, Ph.D. replies: Dear Brigit, Many different types of animals are attracted to shiny objects. Primates(including humans!) love shiny things, as do raccoons and some related animals. Birds of the Family Corvidae (e.g. blue jays, crows, ravens, etc.) tend to have a strong attraction to shiny, colorful objects too. Thats not a complete list, but its some of the most common critters that like shiny things. Dana. Comments We discover the attraction of creatures to shiny surfaces when man-made ones bring about unforeseen interactions; often to the disadvantage of the creature and sometimes at economic cost to humans. In developing this theme there will be the implication that humans are also often unknowing victims of this behaviour. Newscientist.com, Last Word answers a by now familiar question with 2 selected and edited answers, finishing with a great summary by actor and poet Wendy V Shutler. Jonah Lawton asks: Magpies: Why do we like shiny things? Jon Richfield replies: Arguments on this point are necessarily speculative, but its worth noting that we associate shininess, cleanliness and crisp outlines with objectively favourable attributes. In assessing a mate, a companion or a rival, we spontaneously see bright eyes and teeth, glowing skin and glossy hair as signs of health and quality. As children, we like things that stimulate our nervous systems with clear, vivid colours, contrasts and light. Art may be seen as a form of play behaviour in that it relies on elements that matter to our mental and physical development. As adults, our senses and creativity put a premium on media and themes that stimulate our innate mental systems in important ways. Shiny things present intense, characteristic stimuli, and are used in social signals and communication, even in creatures that do not see art in our terms. Such dramatic signals may be based on anatomy or physiology, such as peacock tails or the belling of a stag, or may be collected and arranged as adornments, like bowerbird displays and human medals or finery. Much as we enjoy speech, we enjoy communication by vivid stimuli in a broader range of contexts. Wendy Shutler has clearly already given this subject much thought and writes:

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We like shiny things for evolutionary reasons. The shiniest thing our primitive ancestors saw was probably sunlit water. Those who were attracted to it must surely have increased their survival chances, described as follows in my poem:

All that glisters

Why should we prize a shining thing. A sapphire, or a diamond ring? Diamonds of light and water glint Through leafy trees. Just here! They hint For a picnic spot beside a stream To dream a retrospective dream. If we stay here we will survive Our children and descendants thrive. The rushing stream is crystal clear Well be OK if we stay here. Sparkles signal, stay alive! With light and water, all life thrives. Here food and sheltering trees too grow, Even if we do not know Thats why we prize a shining thing, A sapphire or a diamond ring. Wendy Shutler Thank you Wendy. This poem can be found in her collection, titled; Here We Go Round The Multiverse. This next section is a collection of anecdotes and pointers to research papers. It might be titled:

The mistakes made by animals when encountering artificial lights and reflective surfaces, with pointers to human physiological response .
Science Daily; Jan 7, 2009: Polarized light leads animals astray. Ecological traps cause animal behaviours that can lead to death. Dark shiny surfaces mimic water. Asphalt and buildings attract insects. Fire Ants- a story of how introduced insects can wreak havoc in our world. How did they spread so fast? Reason. Natural attraction to shiny surfaces (e.g. cars). Sources suggest that dragonflies try to deposit eggs on shiny surfaces (buildings) as if it is water. Australian beetles mate with dumpy glass bottles. Moths, flies and wasps are attracted to lights. Fish are lured by lights in commercial fisheries as are squid. Turtles emerge from the sea to lay eggs and are attracted to the lights of shoreline developments.

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A mobile in a cherry tree. Unfortunately birds stopped visiting the garden!

The failing brain

The Alzheimers Society website alzheimers.org.uk includes a paper: visuoperceptual difficulties in dementia and from its extensive list are some problems pertaining to shiny things; namely: .resisting walking on shiny flooring because it looks wet or slippery. .misinterpreting reflections in mirrors, windows or shiny surfaces (refusal to go into a toilet because reflections make them appear to be occupied; fear of an unknown person who keeps disappearing being present.) .mistaking TV images for real people (little people) because they are brighter and more visible than a TV console located against a dark background. .restlessness from visually over-stimulating environments (e.g. too many shiny Christmas decorations in some care settings that can mask important orientation cues).

Young brains
Richard Coss has made a link between infants responses to mirrors; producing sucking behaviour which he directly links to an instinctive response to the sight of water, evolved before Homo sapiens spread out from Africa. There is the implication that the young brain holds evolutionary clues and that studying the infant will explain to us some of our underlying motivations. Coss suggests that insights such as that of drinking behaviour in the presence of reflective surfaces should be helpful in the redesign of objects and environments to which young children are exposed so improving safety and utility. To quote All that Glistens from Ecological Psychology 15: A number of infants and toddlers have been observed to mouth and to lick the horizontal metal mirrors of toys on their hands and knees in a manner not unlike the way older children drink from rain pools in developing countries. Such mouthing of glistening surfaces by nursing age children might characterize the precocious ability to recognize the glossy and sparkling features of water long before this information is useful in later development. Coss and co-workers then conducted experiments; giving non shiny and shiny plates to infants, observing their play and finding a statistically significant increase in this response.

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For want of understandable studies this observer falls back on fragments. Dr. C. George Boeree writes on the subject of Personality Theories: If my two year old flushes my watch down the toilet, I can assume that there were no evil intentions. It was just a matter of a shiny object going round and round and down and down.

Other brains
Many people on The Autistic Spectrum have insight into their own perception and their documents may guide the reader to better understand us all. First here is a little about its manifestation relating to shiny objects. Encyclopedia of Special Education A-D defines Characteristics of Autism: For example, a child with autism may sit for hours rocking back and forth, staring intently at his or her fingers or at shiny objects, SingSOS in the article Busy in the Shiny House writes regarding self stimulatory behaviour: It can also involve more subtle, passive behaviour- staring at a fan, or seeking out reflections. With our son, it wasnt until a teacher pointed it out that we realized how much his attention was absorbed by stimming off shiny surfaces, even those that caught the faintest of reflections, like a banister or the screen of a TV that had been turned off. Such behaviours can serve as a coping mechanism, drowning out or reducing sensory input that is being experienced as overwhelming. But it can also drown out the inputs needed for healthy cognitive development, in particular, the typical childs focus on the face and eyes. Now answering the question: Can autism increase over time?; Madman Murray writes: I used to lick windows a fair bit when I was a kid but I grew out of it as I got older, but over the past few months I keep getting urges to lick windows. Not just windows, any smooth shiny glass or ceramics. I was in the mineral gallery in the museum a few weeks ago and I was nearly drooling looking at this big shiny diamond. I had a deep urge to lick it. I even had the urge to lick the glass case it was in. I was diagnosed with high functioning autism last year. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Is licking glass a symptom of autism? Madman Murray continues: Ive never been stressed in my life and I definitely arent now. These flat surfaces are just so smooth Im in awe just looking at them but its hard to just look I always feel like rubbing them or just licking them. You know those crystals you see with smooth planar sides. Yeah of course its an enjoyable sensation its so smooth. Smooth things fascinate me. Especially smooth shiny translucent things. I wouldnt wanna lick ceramics Id just rub it with my thumb but seeing pictures of those glass/crystal gems with flat sides nearly makes me drool . As for autistic people liking geology I wouldnt say thats much of a mystery. I personally love studying different types of stones and I love looking at shiny stones like crystals. Geologys a brilliant field to get into. WrongPlanet.net The online resource and community for Autism and Aspergers The discussion is about stim toys?(lava lamps, UV lights, anything shiny?) . Here is a selection of the comments: 23enigma writes: I was just wondering, because my room is surrounded by lava lamps, UV lights and umm shiny things its kind of embarrassing because im always in a trance around 16

them I often spend all my time just sitting in my room, listening to music and watching my lava lamps LFO adds: Synth. Fractal poster, Blacklight, And laaarge bassy headphones. Then im on another planet! Sea Monkey agrees: Yeah I know what you mean going into a trance looking at these kinda things. Especially when the rooms dark. Plasma balls are pretty cool too and they get cheaper all the time. Im gonna get myself a UV light one of these days and put a layer of transparent flourescent paint on the walls. I think staring at coloured lights releases endorphins in my brain. Take a look at this http://wwwyoutube.com/watch?v=icKB9EFURhQ comb jellyfish Richie adds: Three things I can stare at for hoursFish in an aquarium, a calm lake, and a lava lamp. Alphabetania writes: I had a consultation (along with my colleagues) with a psychologist who specialises in sensory processing issues, and she said I should get goldfish and a lava lamp. I didnt want the stress of worrying about them, but I did get the lava lamp, and I love it. Richie continues: In addition to the three things I mentioned before: a fire in a fireplace. I could watch it for hours. LFO adds: The blue ball thing is awesome. I also love messing around with glowsticks and various whirrish things. Maybe even ummm if im bored, a strobe light. Sometimes when I get bored I stick some trance music on, grab my glowsticks, put on my strobe and have a rave in my bedroom Math Girl agrees: My room is full of these things. I have a lava lamp, a spinning lamp that projects floating images (fish), a double disco ball lamp, and speakers that light up in sync with the music. I often turn all of them on, or sometimes just the lights without the music and look at them. I want to go to a club and get a real lights and music experience. I know I cant stop talking about it, but Im really obsessed with the idea! (and I will actually go). Comments The objects making up the ensemble to produce the desired experience for these young people with Autism are consumer products designed for the wider population to enjoy in an apparently similar way. Young people often give themselves permission for such enjoyment and cultural phenomenon occur. Math Girl hopes to find this at a club. This narrators collection of anecdotal evidence adds little to The experimental evidence of Richard Coss regarding the human attraction to reflective surfaces. However the next trick is to try to attach it logically to a growing paradigm of theory and observation that the human body is exquisitely adapted to long distance running in hot and dry conditions. If this is so then part of that equipment is in the brain. A heightened facility for finding water and an orientation in the environment to find it in time!

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The Running man theory.

Popularised by Chris McDougall in his book; Born to run the theory suggests that our primate ancestors evolved a hunting strategy called Persistence Hunting. Exponents of this idea include Dr. Alice Roberts who makes her case in BBC TV programme The incredible Human Journey. The development of the ideas and experiments including comparing the running of quadrupeds to humans is also covered by David Fleming in his article; For millions of years, mans success as a species has hinged on our ability to run. The film; The Great Dance: A Hunters Story, co-directed by Craig Foster follows Karoha from the !Xo San tribe hunting down a Kudu antelope in The Kalahari desert until it collapses from heat exhaustion at his feet. Today ultramarathon runners are exploring the limits of human endurance running and groups of cultural ultra-runners like the Tarahumara people are our champions rather than anthropological curiosities. The anatomical arguments for The Running Man are legion and apparently more convincing to peer review than those of the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis, popularised by Elaine Morgan, which had humans adapted to swimming and gathering shellfish to grow their big brains. A commercial website for selling running shoes (trtreads) lists necessary adaptions for high endurance running: An efficient perspiration. A respiration system separate from movement muscles. Upright posture. An achilles tendon An arched foot. Anatomist: Dr. Roberts could point out many others including the nuchal tendon which keeps the head steady when running. The fossil primate evidence is slight but drying climate appears to have driven the adaptions. Our ancestors evolved to run or at least walk before major increases in brain size. The opposite case was put by the Piltdown hoax. The early upright hominids from 2 million years to 200 000 years ago had no stone projectile points discovered with them and this lack of evidence has been used in support of the theory that there was no technological or cultural solution needed to acquire the meat deemed necessary to grow large brains. This narrator suggests that that is the weakest part of the story. However the effectiveness of human sweat glands with evaporation directly off hairless skin and the living evidence of people we would describe as athletes going about their daily lives is compelling. Theories of human evolution stress the adaptability of the species to rapid and fluctuating climate change and ability to live in a mosaic of habitats. The carrying of food and tools and ability to climb trees as well as to travel across ground.(Smithsonian, 2012) Dennis M Bramble & Daniel Lieberman in : Endurance running and the evolution of Homo list 26 unique morphological markers for running in humans and are careful to distinguish between those required for walking; an area much explored in earlier theories of hominid development. They are not certain that the adaption is for persistence hunting; also suggesting competitive scavenging and getting closer to animals to bring weapons to bear. This narrator adds that travelling at high average speed to a water resource at extreme range before the hottest hours might be of critical importance and a powerful evolutionary driver in a drying climate. We have developed the ability to carry water supplies. The bushman uses skin containers or ostrich eggs in a bag for water storage, and many hunters use the stomachs of 18

animals.(Waechter, 1976). Caches of filled ostrich eggs may be buried on extended hunting trips(Severin, 1973).Women carry water in pottery and metal containers for their family today in Africa and Asia; with treks of ten miles in a day and carrying up to 20kg on their head being recorded. (Water aid, 2012).The extended weaning recorded in hunter-gatherer societies(Konner, 2004) may also carry this function.

The development of stone tools.

The sediments of Oldovai contain the first stone tools attributed to our ancestors or their cousins. Tool use is not confined to Hominids. Chimpanzees will throw stones and use sticks to extract termites from their nests. The tools from 2.6 million years ago are likely the surviving remnant of a range of other more perishable utilised objects.(Schick, 1993). Homo habilis began with broken pebbles, giving a chopping tool to release marrow from thick bones. Battered stones broke the shells of nuts on a stone anvil. Flakes removed could cut thick hide to access meat. Consecutive removal of cutting flakes produced polyhedral stones or cores which could be carried several miles from their stream bed source. At first almost all the material used was dull grey lava with quartz being used for a small minority of tools in proportion to its frequency in the stream bed. In the earliest period (bed I) at Olduvai at about 1.8 million years ago, lava was the most common rock type for stone artefacts, but by bed II about 1.5 million years ago quartz was becoming the prominent material. How much of this was due to hominid selectivity, and how much to hominid land-use patterns is not clear.(Schick, 1993). Schick later says; and along with this the incidence of spheroids as a tool type increases dramatically. This appears to be the result of repeated use of quartz as hammers for making tools. The case is made for stone selection and repeated use of a chosen stone and experiments with a quartz hammer stone indeed produce a nearly spherical ball after 4 hours of use. An entirely utilitarian argument might be made for a choice of quartz hammer stones over lava examples and it might apply to the produced quartz flakes and other tools. Quartz is sharper than lava, but once this had survival value it may have become evolved behaviour to source shinier(quartz, flint etc.) material to achieve this quality! Homo ergaster produced hand axes. Again at first these tools were largely of dull lava in Kenya. They show the intent to be symmetrical and planned in stages with flakes removed across both faces after striking a large blank off a boulder. Faisal and co-workers(2010) demonstrated with computer analysed and brain scanned experimental tool making that the differences in brain function noticed might be of the kind leading to the development of language. As hominids spread North and South, more easily flaked stones of smoother texture were chosen and the hand axe realised its aesthetic potential. It was functional in that it cut flesh, and broke bones but in its choice of lustrous material worked into a standardised form, it may have carried additional meanings. Marel Kohn and Steven Mithen independently interpreted hand axes as tokens of fitness in sexual selection.(Kohn, 1999). Not only are the mental and dextrous attributes necessary to fashion the axe displayed, but also the ability to fight infection from the cuts likely from manufacture and use, as well as the ability to procure the material; perhaps from long distance.

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Found on a gravel deposit in the Medway Estuary , Kent , UK in August 2012(my first); this hand axe is about a quarter of a million years old and was made of shiny flint; now mellowed by iron salts.

The hand axe continued to be made for over a million years in finer form in flint and chert where available until it was replaced by hafted implements; especially spearpoints. These were struck from prepared levallois cores, based upon hand-axe technology. Contemporary with hand axes and all later iconic tools were utilised sharp flakes, scrapers and notched and retouched fragments, which were likely important to survival but perhaps not to status. Today this majority of worked material remains largely unseen in museum stores whilst the hand axes are chosen for display! During the last 50 000 years modern humans made dramatic journeys of territorial expansion and cultural achievement. Flint work expressed this and may have stimulated it if Marel Kohns ideas are accepted. Spear points became exquisite in The Solutrean in Europe; exotic cherts and semi precious stones were sought out for working and the Clovis culture in America followed a similar pattern, leading some researches to the view that there was a Trans-Atlantic migration preceding the wellknown Bering Strait crossing small tool culture from Eurasia.(Stanford and Bradley, 2012) Arrowheads have been used to identify cultures by archaeologists. It appears that these objects held cultural meaning for the makers too. Again it is possible to make a utilitarian argument for the quality of the arrow making. After-all it is only the tip of a hunting system that has to be functional in every part and likely to strike true in the first or second shot. Poorly made projectile tips are a waste of time and hunting opportunity and once a person has reached competence they will make an efficient point quicker than an incompetent one can be made. However the quality of arrowheads made of fine flint does seem to exceed even this. The attention to consistent form and edge finish makes them some of the best examples of flint work. The British post last glacial sequence begins with Mesolithic arrowheads. They consist of a modified pointed blade on the tip of the shaft and one or more blade 20

segments glued into the shaft just behind it. It has been suggested that this composite arrangement allows someone on the move with limited flint resources to reuse a damaged tip that retains some utility. The Neolithic complex introduced the leaf shaped arrowhead. This was a single piece of flint, larger than the composite types yet little thicker with enough attention to detail to leave it symmetrical in profile as well as plan. Many of these arrowheads were flaked over both sides and exceed these simple requirements. They are both larger and more extensively worked than the simpler kinds of leaf arrowhead and much more so than their Mesolithic forebears. There is considerable evidence from Britain that there is a very close spatial relationship between Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic people. It is as if they were the descendants who changed their culture rather than an incoming replacement of people. This narrator suggests that the Neolithic leaf arrowhead was designed as much to impress people as it was to hunt game. In the context of increasing sedentation i.e. crops and boundaries, more permanent dwellings and accumulation of possessions, the leaf arrowhead might be an expression of the fitness of the archer; warning of their ability to prevail against someone who challenged them. Archery practice is suggested at Clodgy Moor in Cornwall. A broken leaf arrowhead has both faces extensively sickle glossed as though it has been repeatedly fired and retrieved from a straw target. At Carn Brea; a prominent hill ridge there appears to have been a battle with 800 leaf arrowheads fired. Whilst the leaf arrowhead persisted in Britain a variety of other arrowhead styles developed in the Later Neolithic. This narrator suggests that copper and later Bronze goods and disputes over their accumulation were beginning to require more offensive arrows. A return to the free cutting edge of Mesolithic micro-tranchet types but on a larger scale and large chisel types; perhaps as spearheads reappeared. Large feasts were associated with pig bones, decorated Grooved-ware pottery and single barbed arrowheads; some of extreme elaboration, bearing ripple flaking. Copper appears in Britain in quantities sufficient to be buried in graves and with barbed and tanged arrowheads. These were often thicker than the earlier leaf arrowheads and less sharp than some of the free blade types but their deadliness to humans was explicit in their form. An arrowhead that embedded would be difficult to remove and likely fatal if left in.

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A barbed and tanged arrow head from the Early Bronze Age; found at Clodgy Moor, Cornwall, UK. It is complete but for the tip. It is lightly dusted in dirt but the translucence and shiny surface of the fine flint is still apparent.The association between Barbed and tanged arrow heads/stone bracers/copper daggers and how it shows the development of societal relations is discussed in Beaker vambrace,scribd.com

Groups bearing these weapons might protect their precious copper. The fashioning of this stock into shiny thin daggers completed a cultural package that ended the fascination with flint forever. The cultural change can be seen in Britain with the end of the primacy of the circle in monumental architecture and indeed in the tentative manufacture of non-circular perforated battle-axes. Mans relationship with the world had changed with the extraction of shiny metal from rock and its expression as currency.

Metal is still fascinating.

When it was scarce in the first metal bearing cultures it was displayed prominently as jewellery and beaten into thin sheets to extend its reflective surface. The exemplar of its qualities are to be found in the Beaker dagger, cast thin and yet unlike contemporary stone knives, tough enough to survive being dropped and its desirability balanced by the ability to deter theft by its invention as a new deadly weapon, protecting both its own mass as a commodity and the person who is carrying it. The T-1000 liquid metal Terminator(1991) that morphs its finger into a giant copy of a Swiss Army knife to skewer an inconvenient human through the head and the milk carton that they are holding, recreates the surreal horror of first contact with metal. A mixed media assemblage with plastic frog rattle toy, fragment of baked bean tin wrapper, baked beans and smeared sauce, stainless steel scissors and snap blade craft knife. It attempts to evoke the horror of evisceration by steel cutting tools in a botched kitchen table tableau. We have overcome our fascination and horror of shiny metal and in stainless steel we have a fitting memorial to World Civilisation, likely to remain for a thousand years as 22

Sheffield cutlery, crushed and exploded chemical process equipment and even teapots and childrens play-ground slides.(Weisman, 2007)

Paint as a Practical Protection

Neil Young points out that rust never sleeps. The endurance of iron structures is often increased by paint. The enhancement of appearance is also important for the sake of prestige and commercial exploitation and may contradict the requirements of safety inspection by hiding internal flaws and decay. Reverse of an exfoliated flake of paint from an iron structure outside Poldark Mine, Cornwall; showing accumulated layers andbelow; painted detail from an iron plate on a bolted footbridge at Higham railway station, Kent.

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The car[crash]
We put on our shiny metal skins and project our vision with glowing eyes. We play ourselves as heroes on television and are surprised when we touch the sides. The windscreen slopes like that of the supersonic visor on Concorde and heading west on a North Cornwall country lane on a sunny late Winter afternoon I am suddenly blinded. The vision fogs at any time but a wise person keeps the air conditioning running. Such is the triumph of appearance over function. A modern airliner, designed to travel at over 500 miles per hour has a windscreen angled for visibility as much as for low drag and its rake angle is nearer to that of cars designed as late as the nineteen eighties. A visitor from another place; Australia, remarked that[ the modern European car] looked like it came from Dan-Dare(Michael Webb, 2012). The large curved structural glass element blends into the soap-dish form and is complemented by the exceptional shine of the bodywork, which leaves the show-room as The Ideal and immediately fades and chips and scuffs to the anxiety of the owner. The shiny metal skin that we don becomes a vulnerability that we defend against others with paranoid glances, gestures, threats, violent words, combat; with fists, feet and if available concealed and improvised weapons, the insurance company, the grudge, opportunism and deceit. So different to the tolerance of the accidental elbow or thigh met in close crowds. That which was the commonplace and comforting touch of flesh becomes the unprovoked first strike of a metal war.

Angles of windscreens on different vehicles and what it tells us

Modern(2012) public service vehicles and lorries have windscreens of between 90 and 70 degrees to the vertical. Little concession is made to aerodynamics; all to visibility and volumetric efficiency inside the vehicle and when several are parked together. Modern vans have windscreens at 50 degrees rake angle and the smaller ones based on cars share their forward superstructure. Family cars pre 1950 began with 60-80 degree windshields in the vintage era. Innovative cars like the Citroen 2CV and Volkswagen Beetle had a 50 degree slope. In the great American era of car styling and conspicuous affluence, cars became consciously styled upon jet planes and rockets. The Cadillac Eldorado Convertible 1957 had tail fins and an extraordinary windshield. The steel framed wraparound windscreen recalls the styling of a fighter jet(Tambini, 1996) The windscreen angle was 30 degrees. A survey of supersonic-capable jet fighters reveals that with few exceptions (Mig 21 at 20 degrees) they indeed have a windscreen angle of 30 degrees. For a car this may have been acceptable on a dry day in California. This fashion is continued with such cars as the Chevrolet Impala of 1960 which Tambini notes has a sloped ariel so that it looks like it is moving even when it is stationary. The compact car was a reaction to these excesses and oil price concerns. The Ford Mustang of 1964 introduced a classic style that with reducing tailfins continued through the 1960s and beyond the 70s. The industry standard windscreen angle was 40 degrees. It is notable that jet airliners cruising at between 500 and 600 miles per hour have a less sloped windscreen angle of between 40 and 50 degrees. The Renault Espace of 1984 reintroduced a 30 degree angled glass canopy and during the 1990s and beyond this angle became the standard. It no doubt benefits from low opacity composite design and needs to as it is effectively 2.2 times the thickness of a similar glass seen through vertically. This also 24

applies to exterior grime and rain and the same for interior marks and misting. Hence modern cars to maintain their jet-fighter looks need carefully designed windscreen wipers, well stocked sprayer reservoirs and an efficient and powerful car airconditioning system. The new Ford Fiesta Titanium has a forward windscreen angle of about 25 degrees and to aid the demisting of the vulnerable windscreen, has embedded metal wire heating elements in the forward vision. For comparison Concorde( the Mach 2.2 cruising airliner) had a visor raised to an angle of 15 degrees but was very little relied on for vision, flying above other aircraft. The comparable Tu-144 dispensed with forward vision altogether in its supersonic visor. Shiny shiny. The Ford Fiesta Titanium in squeeze metallic green paint.

Dont
Scratch

IT!
Car Paint
Having dealt with the absurdity of the modern family car windscreen; the paint coating is of even greater economic and (anti)social importance to modern people. Fierce pride has been expressed in the exterior shells of humans on the move since ancient times.(Isaiah 21:5 Oil the shields!) Ghodoussi and Praschan(2004) state: Ever since the first automotives were made in the late 1800s, there have been many changes in paint technologies to protect and beautify these man made transportation devices, from natural products to high tech polymers. Apparently lacquered black was too utilitarian and little more than a protection against rust and great efforts have been made to bring varied and brighter colours with high gloss finishes, resistant to fading from sun and chemicals. Ghodoussi and Praschan continue: To provide further improvements in appearance and durability, a new type of finish, called Basecoat/Clearcoat, was developed and introduced in the late 70sit increased the gloss of paint considerably, which was unsurpassed by any other paint system 25

Cars got much shinier and attractive, but the perfection of the finish had severe life costs for the owner of the object: The clearcoat has a greater tendency to show marring when rubbed by foreign materialsFurthermore, the high reflectivity of clearcoat makes any imperfection highly visible. The maintenance of the shiny yet vulnerable exterior of these objects may be a signalling system in a big social game. In a sense it appears to be like the ornate tail feathers of the peacock. He displays the tail and according to evolutionary theory wishes to show that his genes are good for breeding as he is still able to carry the big handicap of a bulky tail and yet it is obviously in a good tidy and shiny condition. Unlike the pea hen; the human female is still trapped in the handicap system; partly by complex and evolving human status relations and overtly by the inability of an unkempt appearing car to make its book resale value. According to the Handicap Principle(Wikipedia); a hypothesis from biologist, Amotz Zahavi; The central idea is that sexually selected traits function like conspicuous consumption, signalling the ability to afford to squander resource supply simply by squandering it. The signal indicates quality because inferior quality signallers cannot afford wastefully extravagant signalsAn example in humans [of the handicap principle] was suggested by Geoffrey Miller who expressed that Veblen goods[that become more desirable as their cost increases] such as luxury cars and other forms of conspicuous consumption are manifestations of the handicap principle. As a thought experiment we might ask for the estimated difference in market value of a new car if it has a small cosmetic scratch or dent on every panel; even without it affecting the functionality of the vehicle. A counter-cultural backlash to the shiny car is exhibited occasionally. Artificial grass covered cars have been seen(www.artificialgrasscompany.co.uk etc.) and the author also saw an all-over rusty vehicle, but with nicely detailed decals and trim line. Hothatches presumably driven by boy racers sometimes have black felt covered bonnets. These amusing examples are a blessed relief and the owners are wished every success with their mating strategies! Finally the desire of manufacturers to load their cars with goodies as well as the desire to make it safe for the occupants; if not for pedestrians and cyclists, has meant that the mass increase has largely negated fuel economy improvements. The environmental costs of manufacture and life fossil fuel needs are contributing to the melting polar ice-caps and exposing new opportunities to drill for oil. The Reliant Robin; an innovative glass-fibre reinforced plastic vehicle of 40 years ago, not only could have body repairs done at home but had a fuel economy better than most modern diesels and hybrids(3 wheelers.com). Todays cars are fancy status baubles. Kids cant play in the street for fear of being run over by them and for fear of being criminalised if the paint gets scratched.

Airline travel.
No matter what sacrifice we have to make on earth, we still worship our sky gods. At the gates of purgatory we wait and our worth is weighed and our possessions are taken from us. We are purged and our identity is taken from us. We are taken up in rapture and fart above the gilded clouds. The silver plane traces pure crystal lines to heaven.

26

I would argue that whilst aircraft began as largely made of organic materials, the introduction of the metal skin which in a practical sense carried some of the structural loads, but also gave an enhanced quality to the appearance of the craft which helped to make it a desirable experience of luxury or status, beyond that of the dare-devil or thrill seeker of former times. This as much as the conventional story of engineering progress and post-Great War opportunities marks the transition from Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying machines to elite salon class air travel and later business and mass transportation.

Television
When the adverts interrupt what I was watching I notice that I am watching and have forgotten what I was watching.

The day we got SKY.*

3.8 billion years ago The Earth was quite literally Bombarded from the sky With rocks the size of television sets. Now that process is repeating itself And thanks to our special introductory offer: You too can take part. With pictures more real than reality itself. At a price you cannot afford to miss. You can almost smell The End of the World As you fry in front of your super-sized screen. Surrounded by the sounds Of your final exclamation. Of customer satisfaction. 27

*Sky is a media empire which offers the consumer an attractive multi-channel television package. One of the millions of likely working cathode ray tube TVs discarded in favour of a flat screen.

Television is the most important leisure activity in terms of time spent for adults in the industrialised world. This is true for adults and increasingly so for children. If it did not have some effect on our opinions or how we think, that would be surprising. The chosen evidence and assertions presented here, from Marshall McLuhan and others, suggest that we are influenced subconsciously by the nature of the viewing experience and are vulnerable to hidden messages and to accept visual information which we would question if presented in a spoken or printed form. A classic example is the Nixon/ Kennedy presidential election campaign, during which a poll of radio listeners said that Nixon won the broadcast debate and the television viewers said it was won by Kennedy. Nixons emaciated, unhealthy and awkward appearance(Wikipedia) were cited as some of the reasons. This was not an entirely fair verdict as he was recovering from a knee operation and unlike Kennedy had refused make-up for television. Politicians have learnt the lesson and as with other advertised brands have worked all the harder on visual presentation to the detriment of their product claims. The more insidious effect of television is retold by L. Wolfe at Rense.com Part of his testimony reads thus; Another Tavistock brainwasher, Fred Emery who studied television for 25 years, confirms this. The television signal itself, he found puts the viewer in this state of drugged-like oblivion. Emery writes: Television as a media consists of a constant visual signal of 50 half frames per second. Our hypotheses regarding this essential nature of the medium itself are: 1. The constant visual stimulus fixates the viewer and causes the habituation of response. The prefrontal and and association area of the cortex are effectively dominated by the signal, the screen. 2. The left cortical hemispherethe center of visual and analytical calculating processesis effectively reduced in its functioning to tracking changing images on the screen. 3. Therefore, provided, the viewer keeps looking, he is unlikely to reflect on what he is doing and what he is viewing. That is, he will be aware, but unaware of his awareness 28

In other words, television can be seen partly as the technological analogue of the hypnotist. UK Prime Minister; Gordon Brown in the process of Saving the World in October 2008. Image photographed from the TV.

Manned space flight

The most beautiful jewel we found in space was the earth so we went back and watched television.

Robot explorers
Camera 01 01 digital data. Paintbox a scene to treat the eye. Fly into a valley miles under the sea; on Mars; tunnelling with an electron microscope. We are with you in program and synthetic aperture. Reflecting on places that arent. From universetoday.com: New Shiny Objects Found by Curiosity Rover Are Likely Indigenous [by Nancy Atkinson on October 18, 2012]This speck and others like it in the pit is different than the previous object that looked like plastic and may have come from the rover itself. After some analysis, the MSL science team thinks the shiny particle is just part of the soil on Mars.

Interactive Screens
On the glowing screen we made lights move and this was better than the world of decaying objects. Perfected images of ourselves dance with others and we leave the awkward company of flesh.

Advice to the young when crossing the road.

Use the camera on your phone. Our fallen gods, an occasional series:

Challenger
Blue shock cones grow out of bell nozzles. The explosive clamps burst. Burning aluminium fuses our eyes 29

Ice falls from the rusty tower Birds ascend from the blue lagoon. Eyes glisten, faces turned upwards Go with throttle up Then faces bury in hands and shoulders Sparks fall and quench

Chernobyl
It sparked against the night sky The fireman looked into it and died. Around it the land is empty but nature returns.

9/11
In the shops the new flat screen TVs show repeats of their greatest disaster movie. How could I have missed that? We stare agape as our shiny avatars fly straight and true through towers of glass and Boeings become bombers at home.

Space shuttle 2. One less museum exhibit

Spray on polyurethane foam like a cheap fix for something you throw away. A suit case sized chunk bursts into a cone of yellow dust. Should we tell them and fly up like Dan Dare? Shrug of shoulders.

Concorde
kitsch for the rich and thin inside. Ours outside if we claim the snow bird with rending cry. Slain by titanium, more exotic than its own skin but fashioned into a scab that fell from an unloved DC-10. [Continental Airlines was found to have civil responsibility for the accident in a French appeals court in November 2012, but it was implied that the supersonic airliners design was unusually vulnerable to damage.]

International Space Station

The Chosen from the United Nations watch the earth dying.

Fukushima
Popping candy power stations safely failing in a clear blue day; the telephotos pick the shimmering haze and a refracted bubble shock-wave.

Towers of Glass
Email to The Shard [The tallest building in Europe]website 13/6/12 Please describe the type of event you would like to hold in The Shard Lecture to explain the evolutionary human attraction to shiny surfaces and how it has influenced the trajectory of human cultural and technological development. Approximate number of people attending the event Limited by building regulations. When are you hoping to hold the event/ 30

Early 2013 Any additional information? I hope that by the time the thesis is ready to present that you will be excited to have me at your prestigious venue. I am an open resource. I have several works in preparation which may help us to understand our human condition. Google Beaker Vambrace. Gherkin Building, London as a reflection and its image on a greenstone celt with the Heron Building under construction.

The future
There is enough here and now to distract us. We remain babies sucking the mirror.

18.55 9th February 2011. Redruth Railway Station waiting room.

The natural light is a crescent moon making a halo in the broken clouds. In here the 8 fluorescent tubes give complete light inside, with contributions from countless platform under-canopy fluorescents, exterior station lights and the sodium street lights as car head and tail-lights pass. The display monitor glows even in its background with yellow, white and green alpha-numerics on blue strips. All inside is reflections, from brushed alloy poster frames, the plastic transparent protection, the window glass, the polymer painted seats, the station signs, the door handles, the local attraction magazine paper leaflets, the sparkles in the non-slip floor, the mat tread edging, the nuts and seat rivets, the door hinges, the acrylic timetable leaflet holders, my artificial fibred coat, this pen, this A4 plastic sleeve. Behind my glasses I am comfortable against the night in this shiny world. 31

Disclaimer
If you have read this far I thank you. You have surely found points on which to disagree, as have many of the contributors; whose narratives may sit uneasily with my assertions. If you are not convinced that we have been so influenced by our attraction to shiny objects that we are about to destroy our civilisation and so condemn the very children that may be in your household to The Unthinkable then I agree. The case for the enchantment of shiny things has not been well made. I doubt my ability to satisfy my own standards of argument, let alone convince you. I am tired. I thought that smarter people than me would not be just showing off their flashy gear. If smarter people than me only have time to get better jobs to increase the rate of exploitation of people and planetary resources, even if they talk a good vegetarian/ hybrid car/ bicycle photo opportunity; then I despair. But that despair does not last long. I have prepared a project for the distant time; long after I am a morsel at the Cannibal Feast that will close the End of World Civilisation. It is called Fossilism Goodbye Dear Reader Graham Hill January 2013. Tree Museum Installation in a Park and Ride bus to Truro. Paper bus ticket, brushed aluminium, painted steel, glass and sunlight.

References
Bibliography
BRAMBLE, D. M., LIEBERMAN. D. 2004. Endurance Running and the Evolution of Homo. Nature BURGESS, C. 1980. The Age of Stonehenge. Phoenix Press. pp.190, fig. 4.8, 'The gold cape from Mold, Flintshire'. pp. 191, fig 4.9 'copper or bronze basket shaped earing'. pp. 181, fig 4.3 [gold leaf finished copper rivets on stone bracer with thin 2-3 mm thick cuprous dagger drawn from Kellythorpe, Driffield burial].

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COSS, R. C., SIMMS, T., RUFF, S. 2003. All that Glisters: II The effects of Reflective surface finishes on the Mouthing Activity of Infants and Toddlers. Evolutionary Psychology vol. 15, pp. 197-213. HAYDEN, B. 1993. Archaeology: The Science of Once and Future Things. W. H. Freeman and Company. New York. pp. 344-8 'The Advantages of Metals'. HUXLEY, A. 1956. Heaven and Hell. Chatto & Windlus LONGWORTH, I. H. 1985. Prehistoric Britain. British Museum. pp.25, 30 left 'decorated sheet gold disc found at Kilmuckridge. Co. Wrexford. pp. 26, 31 'A pair of gold basket-shaped earrings from Bolt by Scar, N. Yorkshire. The earrings are made of sheet gold. pp. 28, The gold concentric neck ornaments known as lunulaeMade of gold beaten out into sheet and cut to shape.pp. 31; Near the daggers lay a similar decorated plate for a belt attachment and a smaller lozenge in sheet gold. pp. 61, fig 80; The Battersea Shield[Iron Age]. pp. 61, fig 81; The Witham Shield [Iron Age]. McLUHAN, M. 1964. Understanding Media. The Medium is the Message McLUHAN, M., FIORE, Q. 1967. The Medium is the Massage: An inventory of Effects MORGAN, E. 1982. The Aquatic Ape. Stein & Day. REYNOLDS, C. R., FLETCHER JANZEN, E.----Encyclopedia of Special Education: A-D 'Characteristics of Autism' SCHICK, K.D.,TOTH, N. 1993. Making Silent Stones Speak. Weidenfield and Nicholson, London. pp. 127, 13. SEVERIN, T. 1973. Vanishing Primitive Man. Thames and Hudson. pp. 174. SHUTLER, W. 2002. Here We Go Round The Multiverse, Hamilton Brown and Skelding. STANFORD, D. J. and BRADLEY, B. A. 2012. Across Atlantic Ice: the Origin of Americas Clovis Culture. University of California press pp. 122, 170 WAECHTER, J. 1976. Man before History. Elsevier. pp. 123. WEISMAN, A. 2007. The World Without Us. Virgin Books Ltd. pp. 20 WOODWARD, A. Et al. 2011. An examination of Prehistoric stone Bracers from Britain. Oxbow [gold foil caps to rivets]; Barnack, I. D. 8, pp. 135, Kellythorpe, I. D. 13, pp. 138, Culduthel Mains I. D.79, pp. 148.

Radio, Films and Television

BROOKER, C. How TV ruined your life! Episode 2 Progress broadcast 1st March 2011. and bbc.co.uk see bookdrum clip. CAMERON, J. (Director)1991. Terminator 2: Judgement Day.Terminator T-800; Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sarah Conner; Linda Hamilton, Terminator T-1000, Robert Patrick mimetic poly-alloy. FRASER, G. Rev. Dr, Canon of St. Pauls Cathedral. Thought for the day, BBC radio 4, broadcast on 16th March 2011 at 0747. A couple of months ago the celebrated author; A. S. Byatt gave a remarkable interview to The Guardian about her views on new social media FOSTER, C., FOSTER, D. co directors. 2000. The Great Dance: a Hunter's Story HUGHES, P. Mirrors. Properties of mirrors .Broadcast 20.30 31/1/11 BBC4 OLIVER, N. A History of Ancient Britain. Neolithic; broadcast 23/2/11. Bronze Age; broadcast 2/3/11. BBC.co/History ROBERTS, A. The Incredible Human Journey. Chapter 1; Out of Africa. Broadcast 10th May 2009, BBC 2.

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Internet resources
06/02/11 able?know 13th Jun 2005. Who is attracted by bright shiny objects-Men or Women?Which is more materialistic? Shallow? 16/06/12 about.com Lack of sleep and ADHD. 4 or more electronic devices in a teens bedroom (such as TV, internet, cell-phone etc.) was associated with insufficient sleep and resulting poor school performance. Dr. Helene Emsellem. 06/02/11 allexperts.com 12/31/2008 Wild Animals/Animals & Shiny Objects. 31/01/11 alzheimers.org.uk Visuoperceptial difficulties in dementia. Alzheimer's Society. 03/03/11 answerbag. Why are human beings attracted to and value gold and jewels, despite the fact they have little practical use? 31/01/11 Armchair Prehistory. Edward Pegler. 18th March, 2010. Some Thoughts on human nature, past and present, Neolithic or the Missing Copper Age. 23/09/12 www.artificialgrasscompany.co.uk/easibug.asp easigrass artificial grass covered car 06/02/11 BT Yahoo Answers. Why are human beings attracted to shiny objects? 06/02/11 courses.cit.cornell.edu/ent 201.pdf: Fire Ants- a story of how Introduced Insects can wreak havoc in our world. 08/02/11Experienceproject.com 1 year ago. Why do people like shiny things? 06/02/11fluther.com June 8th 2010. Do humans have phsyological attraction to shiny objects? 09/06/12go.com/ESPN The Magazine. For millions of years, mans success as a species has hinged on our ability to run. David Fleming. 08/02/11 newscientist.com The Last Word. Wednesday, 11th July 2007 Magpies: Why do we like shiny things? 23/09/12 optimumcarcare.com Evolution of Automotive Paint and Protectant Technology. This article was first published in the October 2004 issue of Modern Car Care magazine. Authors: Dr. David Ghodoussi, Gene Praschan. 09/06/12 rense.com How Television Controls and Programs Minds: Turn off your Television. L. Wolfe. 06/02/11 Science Daily January 7th 2009. Science News. Polarized Light leads Animals Astray: 'Ecological traps' cause Animal Behaviours That can lead to Death. 18/06/12 si,edu Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Climatic Effects on human Evolution. 16/06/12 ssrc.org The Immanent frame; A. S. Byatt on literature, religion and social media. Interviewed by Charlotte Higginsfacebookyou need a mirror to tell you who you are.[Byatt] twitter and facebook is the new god?[Higgins]. You only exist if you tell people youre there.[Byatt]. 09/06/12 time.com The myth of the Lonely Long-Distance Runner. Claire Suddath [interviews Chris McDougall; author of Born to Run] 06/12 tr.treads.org The World is Flat...if you are a foot. Chapter 2- Man was built to run. 17/1/13 universetoday.com, New Shiny Objects 06/02/11 University of California-Science Today/C. Studying Human Attraction to Shiny Surfaces from an Evolutionary Perspective 2005-01-18 18/06/12 wateraid.org 23/02/11 Wikipedia.org Faience: relationship with Egyptian copper industry. 18/06/12 Wikipedia.org Hand axe 23/09/12 Wikipedia.org Handicap principle 34

03/07/12 Wikipedia.org Kennedy Nixon 1st debate 1960 23/09/12 3 Wheelers.com, Reliant Robin: It was said to give a fuel consumption of 60-100 mpg. 08/02/11 Wrong Planet.net The online resource and community for Autism and Aspergers 18/06/12 wsu.edu Konner, M. J. 2004. Hunter-Gatherer Infancy and Childhood. Traditionally the modal weaning age was during the fourth year(M. J. Konner, 1977). Weaning was gradual and generally took place some time during the mothers next pregnancy, usually being completed well before the birth. If there was no next sibling, nursing could continue until after age five

Emails
17th February 2011 to:support@experienceproject.com Permission to use thread: 'Why do people like shiny things?' 17th February 2011 to: lastword@newscientist.com Permission to use lastword answer in essay? 17th February 2011 to: larissa.branin@ucop.edu Permission to use transcript of interview with Richard Coss from 2005-01-18? 17th February 2011 from larissa. Permission given to use interview 2005-01-18 --th March 2011 to: alex@wrongplanet.net Permission to use thread 'Stim toys?' 11th June 2012 to castingcall pro.com to Wendy Shutler asking for permission to use her poem; 'All that Glisters'. 12th June 2012 from castingcall pro.com. Wendy Shutler contact and details.

Letters
14th June 2012 from Wendy Shutler re: All that Glisters.

Conversations
3rd June 2012 Michael Webb describes The Ford Fiesta Titanium.

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