Ferrari's Mistake - Overdependence on technology

The F1 race in Singapore was a very interesting race in which Ferrari's Felipe Massa was almost devasting to him. Was it his pit crew's fault? Or was it Massa's fault?

"Those watching the F1 last weekend would gasp in horror as Ferrari’s Felipe Massa stepped on the accelerator after his schedule pitstop and to everyone’s horror, the fuel nozzle still attached to his F2008 F1 car.

It seems that there was some error in the Ferrari pitstop, when a crewman pressed the go button of the electronic sign wrongly, which gave the green lights for Massa to leave the pit, but not known to Massa, the re-fuelling mechanic have yet to remove the fuel nozzle.

Team Ferrari is the only team that uses electronic sign to indicate to their F1 drivers if its fine to move off. Other F1 teams uses a ‘lollipop stick’ where the chief mechanic would hold the stick in front of the driver and would only remove it once the other mechanics have completed their pit-jobs.

If Massa who is currently in second place (77 points) in the F1 drivers title loses the championship to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton (84 points), the incident at Singapore GP will be regarded as the turning point for Ferrari’s failure to defend the drivers title under Ferrari flag. Kimi Raikkonen was last year champion."

Taken from http://www.singaporegp.org/constructors/what-caused-felipe-massa-pit-error-at-singapore-gp

This shows that although technology can be good at times, it does not always prove to be the best. Sticking to the old fashion use of the 'lollipop stick' did prove to be much better in this case. Aside from the technology part, miscommunication may have occured here.

"What I don’t understand is why those crew moved off from the front quickly even when the hose is still in the nozzel. This i believe played a part in the decision of the signal controller who had obviously concentrated at but front and ignored what happened at the back."


Above is a comment posted by one of the people who watched the F1 race and in it shows miscommunication between the pit crew members themselves. The organisation and arrangement between the fron pit crew members and those at the back was not in sync thus causing this great loss to Ferrari.
Miscommunication can occur in many ways, through non verbal or verbal cues. Non verbal cues in this case includes the use of body language. Maybe the pit crew members in the front, seeing that those at the back seemed to have finished signaled the cue for Massa to go. Body language can be misinterpreted as seen in this case. Massa, on the other hand, not knowing if the pit crew had finished, but assuming that they were done, followed the cue to go off. There was no verbal communication involved between that of the pit crew members and Massa. Even if there were little communication, it would not have been heard clearly because of the loud noises in the surrounding environment.
With all this in check, Felipe Massa, starting of at first place fell to one of the bottom few, thus causing Ferrari to lose the F1 race. Therefore, who should be responsible for the fall of Ferrari in the Singapore F1 grand prix?
Is it Felipe Massa? Or is it the Ferrari pit crew members?

Dog Communicating?? You must be kidding!!

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080916/twl-dog-dials911-1be00ca.html

By AMANDA LEE MYERS,Associated Press Writer AP - Tuesday, September 16

PHOENIX - "Man's best friend" doesn't go far enough for Buddy _ a German shepherd who remembered his training and saved his owner's life by calling 911 when the man had a seizure. And it's not the first time Buddy has been there for owner Joe Stalnaker, a police officer said Sunday. On a recording of the 911 call Wednesday, Buddy is heard whimpering and barking after the dispatcher answers and repeatedly asks if the caller needs help.

"Hello, this is 911. Hello ... Can you hear me? Is there somebody there you can give the phone to," says the dispatcher, Chris Trott.

Police were sent to Stalnaker's home, and after about three minutes Buddy is heard barking loudly when the officers arrived.

Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said Stalnaker spent two days in a hospital and recovered from the seizure.

"It's pretty incredible," Clark said. "Even the veteran dispatchers _ they haven't heard of anything like this."

Clark said police are dispatched whenever 911 is called, but that Stalnaker's address was flagged in Scottsdale's system with a notification that a trained assistance dog could call 911 when the owner was incapacitated.

Clark said Stalnaker adopted Buddy at the age of 8 weeks from Michigan-based Paws with a Cause, which trains assistance dogs, and trained him to get the phone if he began to have seizure symptoms. Buddy, now 18 months old, is able press programmed buttons until a 911 operator is on the line, Clark said.

Clark said Buddy has made two other 911 calls when Stalnaker was having seizures.
He said Stalnaker's seizures are the result of a head injury he suffered about 10 years ago during a military training exercise.

Stalnaker was not listed in the phone book, and he did not immediately respond to a request through police for an interview.

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When I came across this article, I was really amazed. This 18 months old dog was able to save his owner's life by making a phone call to 911. Isnt there really alot of communication going on here? Personally, i feel that there really is alot of communication going on.

To be able to communicate with an animal is something that alot of people find ridiculous. "Why would you want to talk to a dog? It would not understand you at all." This is something that many people have said to dog owners. Well, if this dog was unable to communicate with humans, the owner would have died already. This demonstrates to us that dogs are able to communicate with humans through the use of their barking, whimpering or even crying. If animals are able to communicate through their own means, why not humans?

Perception is the process by which we make sense of the world around us. It is physiological and cognitive in nature. It is influenced by psychological as well as social factors. Knowing this, how do we perceive this situation to be? Dogs are intelligent and they are aware of their surroundings more than humans. Therefore, can dogs perceive the information that their owner is having a seizure? I think so.. Humans develop a mental framework over time and it will affect our perception in the future, does this also apply to dogs as well?

881's Non Verbal Communication!!

Just a couple of days ago, as I was travelling on the way to malaysia, i watched the show 881 on the bus ride there. I sat there and thought about the different ways the actors were portraying their communication with each other.

As the psychological perspective of communication states that communication takes place when 2 minds connect, the show really portrays that in which the actor, Qi Yu Wu, who is deaf and mute, is able to communicate with the other actors and actresses and they are able to understand each other without having the use of words. Communication can take place in various forms, through eye contact and feelings and actions towards someone. This perspective of sommunication also says that individuals are the one that creates communication. I believe this is so true because communication is 2 way and without the other person, it is difficult to communicate.

In the movie, wide use of singing throughout the show was used as another form of communication, besides just talking. The main actresses in the show felt that through singing, they could express themselves better than through talking or other forms. Royston Tan, the famous Singapore director who directed this show graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with a Visual Communications certificate. Visual communication, as the names suggests is communication with the use of visual aids. This is clearly shown in the movie, 881 where he uses alot of visual aid to show the audience what he means by communicating, not through talking alone.

The pragmatic perspective of communication states that it is impossible not to communicate; silence is also a part of communication. Royston Tan managed to show that through the actor being deaf and mute in the show but was still able to understand and be understood by others. This movie has alot of ways in which communication has taken place and I personally feel that it is a very good movie to consider watching and learn the various ways comminication can take place.