There was a man who wanted to stop time. So deep was his love for the idea that he actually did it. We refer to Dr. Harold Edgerton, the inventor of the strobe flash. Through his photography, he stopped time in its tracks and for the first time we were able to see the wonderful details that escape human eyes. There is no one better then, than Gus Kayafas, Edgerton’s longtime assistant and editor, to provide an article about him. For those who are in London, I suggest you to visit the exhibition at Michael Hoppen Gallery about his work. Our second topic is going to challenge the way that we think about height. We have always been told that taller people have many social advantages. Maybe this is true, but Thomas T. Samaras, author of The Truth About Your Height, shows us that taller height can have a dangerous trend… I have an important question to put to you before continuing with the summary of this issue. Do you care about first impressions?

1. THE HALO EFFECT
Shorter Human Height
has its Merits and Demerits
Recording history accurately
during a time of technological
innovation
ISPECTRUMMAGAZINE
Issue 08/July - August 2014
The man who stopped time
D r . H a r o l d E d g e rt o n

2. 1
Features
03
Dr. Harold Edgerton
The man who stopped
time
04 The invention of the strobe and
electronic flash
05 Thoughts from Gus Kayafas on
key works by Dr. Harold Edgerton
13
Shorter Human Height
has its Merits and
Demerits
15 Environmental impact
16 Performance
17 Health and lifespan
21 Famous Short People
25
THE HALO EFFECT:
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE
FIRST IMPRESSION
26 Experimenting with the halo
effect
29 The halo effect in our day-to-
day lives
33
Recording history
accurately during a time
of technological
innovation: editorial on
the importance of
preservation
36 Digital archaeology
39 Conservation and preservation
42 Preservation techniques
13
33 25
17
CONTENTS
3

3. 2
Mado Martinez
Editorial Director
Editorial Director
Mado Martinez,
madomartinez@ispectrummagazine.com
Art Director
Rayna Petrova
raynapetrova@ispectrummagazine.com
Contributing Editors
Matt Loveday
mattloveday@ispectrummagazine.com
Jennifer James
Charlotte Shelton
Contributing Writers
Gus Kayafas
Thomas T. Samaras
Rob Hutchinson
Mark Miller
Images
www.commons.wikimeadia.org ,
www.morguefile.com ,
www.freeimages.com
editorial
Ispectrum
magazine
There was a man who wanted to stop
time. So deep was his love for the idea
that he actually did it. We refer to Dr.
Harold Edgerton, the inventor of the
strobe flash. Through his photography, he
stopped time in its tracks and for the first
time we were able to see the wonderful
details that escape human eyes. There
is no one better then, than Gus Kayafas,
Edgerton’s longtime assistant and editor,
to provide an article about him. For those
who are in London, I suggest you to visit
the exhibition at Michael Hoppen Gallery
about his work.
Our second topic is going to challenge
the way that we think about height. We
have always been told that taller people
have many social advantages. Maybe this
is true, but Thomas T. Samaras, author
of The Truth About Your Height, shows us
that taller height can have a dangerous
trend…
I have an important question to put to
you before continuing with the summary
of this issue. Do you care about first
impressions? Do you know how much
a first impression can influence you as
an individual, or even an entire society?
With Rob Hutchinson, our expert in psy-
chology, you are going to learn what the
halo effect is and how it works.
Finally, there is a matter of discussion
that we should be worried about:Will the
websites and the electronic documents
that we use today last forever? Mark
Miller challenges publishers to create
digital media that will stand the test of
time.
As always, thank you for reading. Please
share your comments with us. We look
forward to your feedback.
www.ispectrummagazine.com
Follow Us
admin@ispectrummagazine.com
+44 7938 707 164 (UK)
Published Bimonthly ISSN 2053-1869

4. by
GUS KAYAFAS
abstractions
3
Dr. Harold Edgerton
The man who stopped time
hotography has illumi-
nated so many areas
of the 20th century, but
none more so than the remark-
able work by one of photog-
raphy’s true pioneers. As an
Institute Professor at MIT, and
theinventorofthe‘strobe’flash
in the early 1930s, ‘Doc’, as
he was affectionately known,
stopped time in its tracks. For
the first time we were able to
see the wonderful arc of the
tennis racket or a bullet break-
ing a sheet of glass and, of
course, a milk drop splash at
the moment of impact.
P

5. 4
Harold Eugene Edgerton, the first
of Frank and Mary Edgerton’s three
children, was born in Fremont,
Nebraska, on April 6, 1903. As a
child Edgerton constantly sought
to uncover how things worked.
He was fascinated by motors and
machines of all kinds and enjoyed
taking them apart, fixing them and
putting them back together. During
high school, Edgerton worked sum-
mers at the Nebraska Power and
Light Company where he went
from sweeping floors to repairing
downed lines. After he received his
Bachelor of Science in Electrical
Engineeringin1925attheUniversity
of Nebraska, Edgerton accepted
a one-year research position at
General Electric in Schenectady,
New York – where he worked with
generators and large motors.
Edgerton’s long-standing affiliation
with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology began with his enroll-
ment as a graduate student in
electrical engineering in 1926. At
MIT Edgerton was studying the
properties of synchronous motors,
in which the speed of the motor is
integrally related to the frequency
of the electric current running it.
Edgerton was interested in the
effect of sudden changes on the
motor, and, while conducting an
experiment, the mercury thyristor
switch overheated and began flash-
ing.
This normally would require wait-
ing for the unit to cool down but
Edgerton noticed that the flash
of the light synchronized with the
motor’s rotating parts and made
them appear stationary – this flash
of inspiration turned a setback
into a powerful tool for analysis.
His natural curiosity had includ-
ed learning photography from an
uncle when he was a teenager
and this, coupled with the evolu-
tion of his observation, changed
the photographic world. From 1931
onwards, Edgerton advanced and
improved strobes and used them
to freeze objects in motion so that
they could be captured on film by
still and movie cameras.

6. 5
Edgerton never
thought to reserve the
strobe for purely tech-
nical subjects. By the
mid- 1930s, he was
photographing every-
day phenomena; ten-
nis players hitting a
serve, golfers swing-
ing at a ball, water
running from a fau-
cet, milk drops hitting
a plate and guns fir-
ing. Many journalists,
photographers, scien-
tists, inventors, indus-
trialists and naturalists
have paid tribute to
him for altering the way
we look at the world.
Although he always
saw himself primarily
as a scientist his legacy
survives not only in the
scientific advances he
made - Edgerton died
with nearly 70 patents
to his name - but also
in the extraordinary
aesthetic and abstract
qualities of the images
he produced. For sixty
years he combined
practical and funda-
mental engineering tal-
ents and aesthetic sen-
sibility, making “frozen
movement” part of our
modern visual culture.
Art institutions such as
the Museum of Modern
Art in New York and
the Royal Photographic
Society in London,
have been exhibit-
ing Edgerton’s photo-
graphs since the late
1930s and his prints
are now in countless
museum collections
worldwide.
Many journalists, pho-
tographers, scientists,
inventors, industri-
alists and naturalists
have paid tribute to
him for altering the way
we look at the world
and for controlling and
explaining its unseen
happenings.
In 1940, the French
diver, Pete Desjardin,
visitedEdgertonatMIT’s
new Bauhaus influ-
enced pool. Four years
previously, Desjardin,
a French Jew had won
a gold medal at the
Berlin Olympics. This
multiflash image was
taken in total darkness,
so Desjardin had to
perform his dive from
the high board with no
visibility.
The total darkness
was necessary as the
flash strobes were not
Thoughts from Gus Kayafas
on key works by Dr. Harold
Edgerton:

7. 6
photo: Pete Desjardin Diving, 1940, Silver gelatin print - 1980
© Harold Edgerton Archive, MIT. Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery

8. 7
powerful enough to overcome even
the dimmest lighting. The strobe
fired at regular intervals so the sep-
aration between images increased
as Desjardin’s speed increased –
overlapping body images at the
beginning and a separated and
defined “Superman” graceful entry
into the water. Edgerton constantly
refined the elements of the prob-
lem, always looking for faster films,
better lenses, more efficient flash
tubes and reflectors (initially hand
made). He involved students and
other interested people to aim the
flash reflectors, help set up the
equipment, and tender their insight
and ideas. The total experience was
often greater than the simple sum.
Moran was an American born ten-
nis player, who played at Wimbledon
in 1949. Famously well known for
wearing short skirts (whereas the
other female players would all wear
long ones) and scandalously lacy
knickers, Moran was accordingly
renowned on the tennis circuit.
Edgerton’s wife (Esther May Garrett)
created a black velvet kimono outfit
for his subjects – in particular the
athletes – to wear whilst they were
being shot. The multi flash process
could fire around 50 times in half
a second, and hence a white outfit
would be totally overwhelmed and
all the details lost. However head-
strong Moran felt that her image
dictated that she should wear her
short white skirt (and lacy knick-
ers!) and therefore in this image
there is almost a look of ‘white
blast’ where the figure should be.
Gus and his fellow students often
noted Edgerton’s luck – given that
this shot in particular was once
again made in total darkness, the
ball can be seen at the center of
the racket – and yet the flash was
started ahead of time.
Edgerton counted the photogra-
phers Etienne Jules Marey and
Eadweard Muybridge as inspira-
tions for his work, but saw that
their exposure times were not short
enough – and only gave an indica-
tion of the flow of the action – rath-
er than the specific details as well
as the flow as seen in this print.

9. 8
photo:Gussie Moran, 1949, Silver gelatin print – 1975
© Harold Edgerton Archive, MIT. Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery

10. 9
When Gus was a
freshman in 1965, at
MIT, he noticed a Xerox
black and white post-
er all over MIT bul-
letin boards of this
image, stating ‘Lecture
by Harold Edgerton –
Doc – How to Make
Applesauce at MIT!’ .
Featuring a 30” cali-
ber bullet (faster than
the speed of sound)
perched on a long shell
from a military rifle,
Edgerton, always seek-
ing the most effective
way to communicate,
selected the blue back-
ground and the unique
support – hence dra-
photo:Bullet through the Apple, 1964, Dye Transfer print – 1984
© Harold Edgerton Archive, MIT. Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery

11. 10
matizing the shot.
Edgerton’s work has
been shown at MoMA
since the 1930s and is
included in most major
art museum collections
worldwide with hun-
dreds of exhibitions.
He was uncomfortable
with the description as
artist, but strove for
clarity, a sense of won-
der, and surprise, and
understood the formal
beauty that influenced
his editing and presen-
tation.
Edgerton was a true
resource for all at MIT.
For decades his dark-
rooms, lab, and stu-
dios were available to
all who completed his
course and exhibited a
sense of responsibili-
ty. Many theses, cross-
departmental projects,
and impressive date-
nights saw fruition in
the Strobe Lab. There
were no face cards left
in the decks of cards
at the Lab; fruits, light
bulbs, and balloons
had a very short life,
and the lesson of how
much work it entailed
to design, test, rede-
sign, set-up, and clean
up to discover a few
micro-seconds of clar-
ity was as fundamen-
tal a life-lesson as any
undergrad or seasoned
PhD was to garner at
MIT. Until 1965, one
could even use the
high power rifle that
made this picture; at
that time a group of
students, attempting
to “applesauce” other
fruits, worked into the
midnight hours cali-
brating, dealing with
sensitive and unstable
sound triggers, setting
up the heavy stand for
the gun, finally fired
and realized they had
not properly lined up
the “bullet catcher”
– the .30 cal. projec-
tile pierced 2 (empty)
classroom walls and
the use of more pow-
erful guns was relegat-
ed to the “Destructive
Testing Chambers” at
MIT.
All of Edgerton lab
classes were based on
series of Experiences;
he never referred to
these situations as
experiments, with
one right answer. The
results were there to
ponder, wonder about,
be frustrated by, even
to celebrate. Insights
gained by what actu-
ally occurs instead of
simple confirmation of
what is thought to be
known are fundamen-
tal to learning and dis-
covery. It is no surprise
that Doc referred to his
exhibitions as “Seeing
the Unseen”.

12. 11
A scientist first and foremost,
Edgerton was pivotal in develop-
ing early aerial and oceanic recon-
naissance. Edgerton’s research for
the military began in 1939 when
he was asked by the US Army Air
Force to design a strobe lamp strong
enough to allow nighttime aerial
photography of enemy activities on
the ground. Gus explains ‘Doc was
contacted at the beginning of WWII
by Major George Goddard at Wright
photo:Aerial views of the Stonehenge Ruins, 1944, Vintage silver gelatin print
© Harold Edgerton Archive, MIT. Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery

13. 12
Field in Dayton, Ohio. He was asked
if he could make an electronic flash
that could take night pictures from
a low-flying plane of the ocean
surface along the shore line of the
northeast US - the purpose was to
reveal German U boats surfacing at
night to recharge their batteries.’
A more powerful version could illu-
minate a square mile from 1,500
feet. ‘The technique was simply a
very powerful xenon flash tube in
a highly reflective and efficiently
designed reflector, with a capacitor
of 1/2 Farad (the size and weight
of a very large coffin). It generat-
ed one million beam candle power
seconds! By the time the flash
recharged the plane had flown a
mile and was ready to fire again.
Development and testing of this
equipment, including the D-5 flash
unit and other devices, continued
until 1944 and included trips by
Edgerton to Ohio, Italy, England,
and France. Looking for a remote
site to do the final tests, just
weeks before D-Day, Doc discov-
ered Stonehenge; it remained a
lifelong interest. His photographs
revealed an absence of German
forces at key strategic points just
prior to the Allied attack on June 6,
1944. For this work he was award-
ed the National Medal Of Freedom
in 1946.
Harold Edgerton was a mas-
ter educator, an innovator, a sci-
entist and inventor, an Academy
Award winner, a collaborator with
thousands of thesis students, and
with such luminaries as Jacques
Cousteau, Brad Washburn, and the
National Geographic Society. His
images, seen in the popular media
as well as art museums, changed
how everyone saw and understood
the world. A few months before he
died he was asked to speak with a
group of major donors to MIT by the
Chairman of the Corporation of MIT
(the former President of MIT and
before that, a student and teaching
assistant of Doc’s). He was asked
what had he learned in more than
60 years at MIT. His reply was
“Tell everyone everything you know,
close deals with a handshake, work
like hell, and have fun!”
Good advice….

14. Shorter Human
Height has its Merits
and Demerits
by
Thomas T. Samaras
13
ince we were born, our minds
have been imprinted with
certain concepts related to
human height. Unfortunately,
not all these concepts are correct. In
fact, our idolization of greater human
height is based on much misinfor-
mation, and many researchers view
rapid growth and taller height as a
dangerous trend, including the world-
renowned anthropologist, Ashley
Montagu. In addition, our height bias
has caused billions of people to suf-
fer abuse as children and prejudice
as adults. To challenge this bias, I
wrote a book called, The Truth About
Your Height. The following summa-
rizes my findings.
S

15. Almost forty years ago, my focus
was longevity and not height. My
thesis was based on the Second
Law of Thermodynamics. This law
says that all systems become dis-
ordered with time, and the level
of disorder is related to increased
mass and energy. I applied this
thesis to humans and predicted
that as our body got larger and
used more energy, it would become
disordered faster and this in turn
would accelerate our aging. I also
decided to assess the impact of
increasing the body size of billions
of people on our resources, envi-
ronment, economy, food and water
needs, and energy demands. My
findings are summarized next.
The value of small or large body
size depends on our how it helps
individuals and the human race to
survive and develop in our environ-
ment. Thus, in our earlier history,
strength and tall height were useful
in warfare and hunting large ani-
mals. However, in an environment
of scarcity, smaller bodies need
14

16. 15
less food, water and
other resources and
thus promote survival.
For example, in today’s
world, a population of
smaller people would
ameliorate many of our
problems. We would
need less food, water,
farmland, and energy
to support billions of
smaller people. While
some experts may
argue that taller peo-
ple are more produc-
tive, Edmundson and
Sukhatme found small-
er size rarely reduces
productivity.
It is well known that
taller people get high-
er-level jobs and make
more money than short-
er people. This is cer-
tainly an advan-
tage. However,
this does not
prove that small-
er people are less
capable. After
all, the Ancient
Egyptians, Greeks
and Romans were
short but very
productive. In
addition, mod-
ern Chinese,
Japanese, Indians
andSouthKoreans
have also shown
great achieve-
ments in spite of
being substan-
tially shorter than
Europeans.
On an individu-
al basis, shorter
people have fast-
er reaction times,
greater endur-
ance and higher maxi-
mum oxygen uptake
per kilogram of body
mass. They are also
more agile because

17. 16
they can rotate faster
and are stronger in pro-
portion to their weight.
Shorter people excel in
long-distance running,
diving, certain skiing
events, horse racing,
racecar driving, gym-
nastics, weight lifting,
boxing, wrestling, mar-
tial arts, figure skating,
and ballet. Under simi-
lar conditions and train-
ing, shorter people are
less likely to damage
their backs and joints
because of reduced
stress on these struc-
tures. A large study
of car accidents found
smaller bodies were
less likely to suffer from
injuries and deaths. In
contrast, taller people
excel in basketball, foot-
ball, swimming, rowing
and field events.
Taller people in devel-
oped countries have
higher life expectancies
than shorter people in
developing countries.
For this reason, many
expertsassumethattall-
er height is a reflection
of better health and lon-
gevity. Unfortunately,
our greater life expec-
tancy in the developed
world does not mean we
are healthier. Instead,
many experts associate
our life expectancy with
reduced infant mortal-
ity, improved sanitation
and immunization pro-
grams, and better med-
ical care. Our medical
practitioners are cer-
tainly extremely profi-
cient in keeping older
people with various ail-
ments alive but this is
not a sign of better
health. A Gallup poll
found that 86% of the
US work force had at
least one chronic health
problem or was obese.
In contrast, Dr. Harold
Elrick ,MD and his team
studied short popula-
tions in Hunzaland,
Vilcabamba, and
Abkhazia, and found
people over 75 years
of age to be exception-
ally vigorous in mind
and body in spite of
low calorie and protein
intake and lack of med-
ical facilities.
In the West, most
studies find taller peo-
ple have lower coro-
nary heart disease
(CHD) than shorter
people. Recent stud-
ies indicate that people

18. of a lower economic
class have high rates
of CHD, independent of
other risk factors. We
also know that people
with a lower income
are shorter, and have
higher rates of obe-
sity, smoking and sub-
stance abuse. When
I did a study based
on worldwide data, I
found shorter popula-
tions not only had lower
heart disease than tall-
er Western people but
in many cases were
entirely free of CHD
and stroke. My findings
were published in the
Indian Heart Journal
about a year ago. I chal-
lenged Western studies
because early in the
1900s, CHD was rare
in Europe and the US;
yet people were shorter
than today. If being tall
reduces CHD, then why
isn’t it lower today than
in the early 1900s? In
addition, a twentieth
century study found
Northern Europeans
had much higher heart
disease compared
to shorter Southern
Europeans, and based
on 2 million World War
I recruits, Davenport
and Love reported that
tall recruits had more
heart problems than
shorter ones.
Extensive research
shows shorter people
tend to live longer. For
example, a US gov-
ernment report found
Asians had the lowest
17

19. overall death rate and
were shorter than other
ethnic groups. Latinos
and Native Americans
were taller and had
higher mortality rates.
The Blacks and Whites
were the tallest and
had the highest mortal-
ities. Everyone knows
that women live longer
than men. Many experts
attribute this to female
hormones. However,
smaller size seems to
be the explanation as
Stindl reported years
ago. For example, US
men average 9% taller
than women and have a
9% lower life expectan-
cy at birth. The same
inverse relationship
applies to men and
women in Japan
and Poland.
Salaris, Poulain
and I published
a paper on
male longevity
in an isolated
Sardinian vil-
lage. The men
in this village
were shorter
than the rest
of Sardinia and
had the highest
percentage of
centenarians.
We found that
shorter men
lived about two
years longer than tall-
er men. The heights of
the men were obtained
from military records
and the population was
genetically homoge-
neous since they inter-
married due to their
isolation. Their life-
style and diet was also
very similar. Thus, the
many variables in life-
style and diet that con-
found Western studies
were minimized in this
study. These findings
were consistent with a
Spanish study of one
million deceased men
that found shorter men
lived longer.
I would like to note
that tall people can live
a long time and many
can reach 100 years of
age. The famous econ-
omist, John Kenneth
Galbraith, was 203 cm
tall and lived for 98
years. If tall people
experienced slow and
protracted growth, they
18

20. 19
should have better longevity com-
pared to early maturers. However,
tall people need to keep their weight
low, eat a healthful diet and exer-
cise regularly.
Most people are unaware that
as the body gets taller and main-
tains the same proportions, weight
increases as the cube of the height
increase. For example, a 10%
increase in height increases weight
by 33%. Surface area does not
increase as fast as weight e.g. sur-
face area would increase by 21%.
The reason for the disproportion-
ately larger increase in body weight
with height is due to the fact that
when we get taller, we also get
wider and thicker. As a result, a
population averaging 10% taller,
increases demands on our annual
food, water and energy needs by
33%. For example, if a population
of 300 million Americans increased
by 10%, we would require 50 mil-
lion more tons of food, 30 trillion
gallons of water, and 16 quadril-
lion BTUs (BTU-the amount of heat
energy needed to raise the temper-
ature of one pound of water by one
degree F) of energy. Obviously, this
would add large amounts of gar-
bage, carbon dioxide and other pol-
lutants to our landfills, atmosphere
and water supplies. If we assume
housing, furniture, and transporta-
tion vehicles are made proportion-
ately larger to accommodate big-
ger people, the demand for wood,
metals, minerals and plastics would
increase by several hundred million
tons.

21. 20
An increase in economic costs
is also related to a population of
larger people. For our 10% taller
US model, the costs of additional
food, water, energy and natural
resources are substantial. Other
costs related to increasing human
size are related to garbage disposal
and clean water production. We will
need to invest much of our income
in providing drinkable water to our
population, which is already a prob-
lem in much of the world. Health
care costs would also increase due
to sicker people. Our diet and life
style have already created huge
expenses in this area and increased
height will increase them further.
When all these factors are com-
bined they would require an annual
US expenditure of about $1 trillion
US dollars.
As can be seen, increasing body
size is not free. If taller, heavier
people were much more creative
or productive, bigger size might
be justified. Yes, many tall peo-
ple are successful and productive
but are these due to their taller
height? I doubt it. It is more like-
ly that success is due to motiva-

22. 21
tion, opportunity and family and
social support—the business and
academic achievements of smaller
US Asians prove the point. Some
of the world’s greatest achievers
have been shorter than average
as illustrated next.
When famous shorter people
meet their admirers in person,
they often hear: “I thought you
would be taller.” This assumption
is unwarranted because the world’s
history is full of famous shorter
people. Let’s take a look at some of
them who range from less than 152
to 170 centimeters.
When famous shorter
people meet their
admirers in person, they
often hear:
“I thought you would be
taller.”
In the case of business success, Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New
York City is on the short side. Others include Andrew Carnegie, Aristotle
Onassis, Armand Hammer, Ross Perot, Herbert Haft, and David Murdock.
Famous short leaders include Churchill, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, President
Madison, Alexander the Great, Ben-Gurion, Joan of Arc, Vietnamese General
Giap, Admiral Nelson, Prince Eugene of Austria, and General Krulak.

23. 22
In music, Mozart, Mahler, Beethoven and Stravinsky were on the short side.
If we look at artists, we find Picasso, Juan Miro, Thomas Benton (US),
Salvador Dali, and Michelangelo.
In the movies, Tom Cruise, Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman, and
Richard Dreyfus are well-known shorter actors.
Famousscientistsinclude:Millikan,Michelson,McClintock,Einstein,Steinmetz,
and Buckminster Fuller.
Great athletes include Tara Lipinski, Maradona, Pele, Jorge Campos, Scott
Hamilton, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Olga Korbut, and Suleymanoglu.
Great writers include John Keats, Alexander Pope, Voltaire, Jean Paul Sartre,
Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, and Upton Sinclair.

24. 23
A natural question in
response to this paper
is: Can we do anything
about increasing body
size? Many research-
ers, such as Stini,
Walker, Kaplan, and
Farb, have attributed
our increased height
and lean body weight
to over nutrition, not
healthier nutrition. We
also know that a nutri-
tious but low calorie diet
produces smaller ani-
mals that are healthy
and live longer than
those that eat all they
want. However, there is
another factor to con-
sider. We are not far
from allowing parents
to have their children
made taller through
genetic engineering. If
we do this, what will
stop us from producing
taller children for each
subsequent genera-
tion? We could produce
a world of giants. To my
knowledge, virtually all
scientists and govern-
Robert Wadlow (1918–1940) is the tallest per-
son in medical history for whom there is irrefut-
able evidence. Wadlow reached 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72
m)in height and weighed 439 lb (199 kg) at his
death at age 22. His great size and his continued
growth in adulthood were due to hyperplasia of
his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally
high level of human growth hormone. He showed
no indication of an end to his growth even at the
time of his death.
Source:Wikipеdia.org

25. 24
weight and chronic
disease. Today we eat
twice as much protein
as we need. However,
many sources, such as
Tufts University, have
reported that red meat
and processed meats
promote cancer, heart
disease, and diabetes.
Considerable research
has shown high protein
diets during infancy
and childhood promote
faster growth and later
obesity.
In conclusion, it is
obvious from the obe-
sity epidemic that over
nutrition is a worldwide
problem. A healthful but
moderate calorie diet
starting before preg-
nancy and continuing
through life would avoid
excessive growth and
the harmful ramifica-
tions discussed in this
article. Our health and
productivity would also
improve through bet-
ter nutrition. However,
these improvements
won’t happen unless we
de-emphasize our ado-
ration of rapid growth
and tall height.
ments ignore this sce-
nario. They don’t see
that continued increas-
es in body size would
only multiply the harm-
ful aspects of greater
numbers of people.
When we were hunt-
er gathers and agricul-
turalists we ate sim-
ply and did not have
access to high sugar,
fat and salt diets. Meat
was not hormone and
fat laden. During the
industrial revolution,
we saw a progres-
sive increase in animal
protein intake along
with increased height,
Post Note:
This May 2014, a large, 50-year study found shorter men lived longer.
Citation: He Q, Morris BJ, Grove JS, Petrovitch H, Ross W, et al. (2014)
Shorter Men Live Longer: Association of Height with Longevity and FOXO3
Genotype in American Men of Japanese Ancestry. PLoS ONE 9(5): e94385.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0094385

26. THE IMPORTANCE Of THE FIRST
IMPRESSION
he halo effect is a cognitive bias
that results in the judgement of the
character of another person being
unduly influenced by the overall
first impression. This bias is widespread
throughout society and can heavily influ-
ence feelings of attraction. An example of
the halo effect at work would be when we
form a favourable opinion about someone
despite knowing little about them. Just
because someone is good at doing A and
B does not necessarily mean they are
good at C and D, but we assume they are.
This also works in a negative way too - if
someone is a thief we may assume they
are a bad person, although it is possible
that there are good aspects to their char-
acter too. Edward Thorndike coined the
phrase originally and research has shown
how it is especially relevant in not just
attraction but the judicial process and
education systems.
THE HALO EFFECT:
by
Rob Hutchinson
website
www.ispectrummagazine.com
T
25

27. 26
Thorndike was
the first research-
er to support the
halo effect with
any empirical evi-
dence. In his article ‘The Constant
Error in Psychological Ratings’ in
1920 he created the name the halo
effect, due to noticing in a past
study that estimates of character
traits in a person were very posi-
tive and highly correlated. Was it
possible that this person could
have so many good characteristics
across the board? In hope of find-
ing a cognitive bias Thorndike car-
ried out his own experiment. He
asked two commanding officers to
evaluate their men in physicality,
leadership, personal qualities and
intelligence. Thorndike wanted to
see if the rating of one characteris-
tic corresponded to another. In fact
there was a huge correlation, with
soldiers rated all highly or almost
all negatively in all categories.
Nisbett and Wilson (1977) aimed
to try and discover how aware
people were of the halo effect. For
something that is such a key influ-
ence in how we judge people and
make inferences, surely we would
have an inkling of the process?
Nisbett and Wilson didn’t think so,
and designed a clever experiment
to test out their hypothesis. College
students were asked to evaluate
a psychology professor as they
watched a videotape of him being
interviewed. The students were
divided into two groups, with each
group shown a different interview
of the same instructor. The profes-
sor was a French speaking Belgian
who spoke English with a noticeable
accent. In one tape he appeared as
almost the perfect professor - kind,
respectful and likeable. However,
in the other he came across as a
cold and distrustful person with a
rigid teaching style. After the video
students in both groups were asked
to evaluate the professor based on
physical appearance, mannerisms
Experimenting with
the halo effect

28. 27
and his accent. They
were also asked how
much they thought they
liked the teacher on an
8 point scale. As a final
part of the study some
of the students were
told that the research-
er was interested to
know if how much they
thought they would like
the professor had any
bearing on their ratings
of him, whilst others
were asked the opposite
- how much the charac-
teristics they just rated
influenced their liking of
the teacher. Amazingly,
the students had no
idea why they gave
the responses they did.
They could not draw a
link between their lik-
ing of the teacher and
the ratings of the char-
acteristics. This clearly
shows that the students
were totally unaware of
the halo effect in action.
In fact, they were con-
vinced that their rat-
ings had absolutely no
bearing at all on if they
thought they would like
the professor or not.
Without realising it, we
make inferences and
judgements, all the
time thinking they are
our own and not influ-
enced by anything else.
Attractiveness com-
monly produces the
halo effect. How each
of us views attractive-
ness in a person differs
drastically, but it is like-
ly that if we find some-
one physically attractive
we will also see them
as having other good
qualities such as intelli-
gence and a good sense
of humour. Numerous
studies have shown
how the production of
a halo effect is tied
into our attraction to a
person - it is very rare
that if we find a person
attractive we also think
they are mean or uncar-
ing. An experiment that
demonstrates the halo
effect well was carried
out by Dion & Berscheid
in 1972. They wanted
to investigate the rela-
tionship between the
halo effect and attrac-
tion. Sixty participants
were given three pho-
tos to look at, one of
an attractive individu-
al, one of an average

29. 28
looking individual and
the last of an unattract-
ive individual (how did
they make sure that
each individual fell into
the category of attrac-
tive, average and unat-
tractive to each partici-
pant? Good question…).
Participants were asked
to judge the photos
along with the charac-
ter traits they thought
that each individual in
the photos had. The
results showed that
overwhelmingly the
more attractive indi-
vidual was judged to
have the most desir-
able personality traits,
demonstrating that just
because someone is
good at A (being phys-
ically attractive) they
are good at B (warm),
C (friendly) and so on.
Essentially, first impres-
sionscount.Whenmeet-
ing someone we usually
assess them first physi-
cally, as we are able to
construct an impression
of if we like someone or
not before we even talk
to them. Interestingly,
once this first impres-
sion is made it is very
difficult to change it.
This is not just applica-
ble to attractiveness, as
the halo effect can be
produced in the world
of business and media.
At a job interview we

30. 29
all know how important a
first impression is, and
the likelihood is that if
you make a good one
then the interviewer
will assume you are
not just good at what
you do, but are in
fact a good person. In
the media many of us
have people we look
up to, be it actors
or athletes. They
are good in their
chosen sport or
career, and if
they advertise
a new product,
for example,
shampoo, we may
even go out and buy it
based only upon their
endorsement. Are they
experts in shampoo?
Doubtful, but if we
view them as a
good and trust-
worthy person,
we assume they
know what they are talking about
and the shampoo really is going to
give you the smoothest hair in the
office.
The halo effect is particu-
larly prominent in the world
of business. One example
can be found in how man-
agement go about making
redundancies. Do people lose
their jobs because they were
the worst at what they did or
the most expendable? You
would assume that the ones
who would go are those
with the least experi-
ence, shortest time at
the company or on the
biggest wage. However,
it is not as cut and dry
as that. Often those who
dodge the bullet are being pro-
tected by the halo effect, which
is a common bias in performance
appraisals. If a supervisor is bas-
ing an evaluation on purely one
The halo effect
in our day-to-
day lives

31. 30
characteristic, such as dedication
to the job, the halo effect comes
in to play. If an employee turns
up ten minutes early every morn-
ing then he or she would surely be
assumed to be highly dedicated to
the company. However, if they turn
up early because their train arrives
at a certain time and and not out
of a desire to get cracking on a
Monday morning, then the supervi-
sor has been conned into giving a
high score for nothing. Especially if
that employee did virtually nothing
all day when the supervisor cannot
see them. If the supervisor draws
a general impression based on
one characteristic then this person
might well keep their job - even if
they are the least productive in the
whole office! It is not necessary that
the one characteristic they evalu-
ate and generalise from be a mis-
taken view - someone can be very
intelligent and rightly appraised as
being so, but if they generalise this
intelligence into meaning they are
an all round good employee this is
not necessarily true. How can the
halo effect be avoided? By mak-
ing informed decisions and looking
at staff as a whole and not basing
evaluations on individual character-
istics. This may well be easier said
than done, as Nisbett and Wilson
previously showed, people are very
unwilling to accept that their views
have been influenced by anything
other than their own judgement.

32. 31
Have you ever noticed
how you can view oth-
ers in your life as all
good or all bad? Doesn’t
it seem strange that if
someone we know, and
view as generally a good
person, does something
wrong we are surprised
and say how out of
character it was and
that they should be for-
given? After all, every-
one makes mistakes.
But if someone we don’t
like and view as a bad
apple makes a mistake
we come down on them
like a ton of bricks and
remark how it’s just so
typical of them. Our
perceptions have been
influenced by general-
ising one characteristic
to the whole person.
There is one period in
time that this becomes
even more pronounced
- at the time of death.
When people die our
perception of them can
undergo a huge change.
How many people speak
badly of someone after
they have died? Even if
in life the person was
truly awful with hardly
a grain of goodness in
them, after death we
tend to latch onto some
pinprick of light or one
good deed, and remem-
ber them for this. Not
only is this active with
our friends and family,
it also extends to those
in the public eye. Of
course, this isn’t true
for everyone.
The stop-and-search
policies of the police
have been brought into
question over the last
few years in England
and the United States.
Claims of racial profil-
ing have been strong-
ly made as evidence
shows that the major-
ity of stop-and-search
suspects are black peo-
ple, even though they
are the minority in
their respective coun-
tries. Could the halo
effect be influencing the
police when they stop
a suspect? If this sus-
pect acts aggressively
towards them, swears
or does any other action
that gives a negative
first impression, then
the police may well
decide that this per-
son warrants searching.
For example, if a sus-
pect is stopped and is
seen smoking in the

33. 32
car next to his or her
child, blowing smoke
in their direction, this
one negative action
would make most of us
assume that the per-
son has an unfavour-
able personality. From
this we extrapolate one
bad aspect to cover
the characteristics of
the person as a whole,
which is essentially how
the halo effect works. Of
course, this still doesn’t
explain why more black
people are stopped and
searched than whites,
but it is likely that the
police’s first impression
of a suspect, or the sus-
pect’s initial behaviour
is a contributing factor.
In the United States,
where in some minority
communities the police
are viewed with sus-
picion and aggression,
the suspect’s response
to the police is more
confrontational, mak-
ing it more likely that a
halo effect is produced.
The halo effect is very
powerful in helping or
hindering us when we
form opinions. In the
classroom a teacher
may see a child act-
ing naughty on the first
day and generalize from
that one situation that
the child is always badly
behaved and treat him
as such for the rest
of the school year. In
court a jury may judge
based on first impres-
sion rather than the
facts. The question is,
now that you are aware
of the halo effect, will
it stop you judging by
first impression alone?
The research suggests
that you won’t.

34. 33
ecording the story of human-
kind is an important, sometimes
arcane job assigned to scribes,
printers, publishers and librari-
ans. Scribes in ancient times received
training to record and duplicate error
free books, laws and stories. The
scribes took care in their use of the
ink, paper, format, corrections, stor-
age and destruction of documents.
The printing press, heralded as one
of the most significant inventions
of humankind, employed many of
the same standards used by the
scribes. The scribes and printers of
their time were critical of how they
recorded history. They ensured
today’s generations the ability to
R

35. by
Mark Miller
Iowa, USA
Recording History Accurately
During A Time Of Technological
Innovation:
34
enjoy copies of books hundreds of
years old as well as books thousands
of years old. Classic books, fables and
poems passed down from generation
to generation – from story tellers,
to clay tablets and to paper. Today
we see a new format for books and
literature. Similar to the past, con-
temporary scholars seek to preserve
text by digitizing it into bits and
bytes; as technologies evolve we
need to secure history and record it
accurately. One new challenge for
publishers is to create digital media
that will stand the test of time.
editorial on the importance of
preservation

36. A group from London,
Internet Week Europe
2010, has renewed
interest in how we
have archived digital
media since the birth
of the web by creating
an exhibition organized
by Jim Boulton. They
sought to uncover and
restore some of the first
websites to appear on
the World Wide Web.
The sites they restored
were only 20 years old,
yet the software and
hardware had become
fragmented. In some
casesthesiteshadcom-
pletely disappeared.
The exhibit archived
the formative years of
digital culture. Curator
Jim Boulton said of the
importance of the event
“Today, when almost a
quarter of the earth’s
35
The first look at the World Wide Web. 1993

37. 36
population is online,
this artistic, commer-
cial and social history
is being wiped from the
face of the earth. Unless
we act now to archive
our recent digital past,
we are in real danger
of losing the building
blocks of the web that
have so shaped mod-
ern culture.”1
In 100 years the inter-
net will look vastly
different from today.
Technology will change;
HTML 5 will not be the
standard internet lan-
guage. Media compa-
nies of today buy and
sell technologies rap-
idly - formats evolve
with each sale. 200
years from now it’s
possible that the inter-
net could be replaced
with something entirely
new: today we see the
development of the first
quantum networks. We
can not predict, with
certainty, what text will
survive the next 1,000
years, but we can use
techniques to make
preservation more like-
ly.
Librarians and publish-
ing professionals study
the past to anticipate
the future. By looking
at what we have saved
from the past, they can
see what we need to
preserve for the future.
Take the Dead Sea
Scrolls for example.
Archaeologists have
Choosing formats. Library of Congress Digital Preservation

38. 37
recovered an amazing amount from
the fragmented text. Almost
every book from the Hebrew
Bible was part of the origi-
nal manuscripts found in
1947. It’s incredible to
see scientists identify
the circumstances that
allowed sometimes
fragmented scrolls to
survive more than 2,000 years
– the type of ink, the arid condi-
tions, the lack of tanning materi-
als, the type of parchment, stor-
age techniques and they way the
text was reproduced over
time. Archaeologists who
restored the Dead Sea Scrolls
worked in a basic mindset similar
to the digital archaeologists from
London in 2010 by uncovering,
searching through and restoring
files.
Increasingly media is transferred
or originates in a digital format,
and much of the information is now
considered digital-born. The text
Dead Sea
Scrolls Before
Unraveled
(Habermann,
Abraham Meir,
1901)

39. 38
of digital-born media
does not exist outside
of bits and bytes. It is
fragile. This fragility will
pose new problems for
future generations of
digital archaeologists.
Professional archivists
of today make an effort
to ensure success for
future treasure hunt-
ers. They study the
digital equivalent to the
conditions that allowed
the Dead Sea Scrolls
to survive. Some of
today’s professionals
delve into the type of
computer code, file for-
mats, electronic stor-
age devices, meta data
and duplicate records
used for communica-
tion. The goal for con-
temporary digital pres-
ervationists: make sure
digital media is inter-
pretable in the indefi-
nite future. The value
of rare books, news-
papers, magazines,

40. 39
research, photographs,
art and music are part
of what is regarded as
important. The mes-
sage of the value of
these works seems to
be getting out to the
general public. In pop-
ular culture today we
witness examples from
the recent past that
may prove instructive
to us about our future.
In the 2014 movie
Monuments Men, the
character Frank Stokes
states, “You can wipe
out an entire genera-
tion, you can burn their
homes to the ground
and somehow they’ll
still find their way back.
But if you destroy their
history, you destroy
their achievements and
it’s as if they never
existed.” This dialog
echoes the future value
in digital-born media.
As valuable as digital-
born media can be, we
need to remember it is
also inherently fragile
with a short shelf life.
This became evident
when my editor and
I began research on
George Lambert, a two
time Olympic medal-
ist and WWII veteran.
Born in a small, Iowa
town in the United
States he passed away
in Wisconsin, US in
2012. Few people with
whom we discussed
Lambert knew of his
accomplishments. In
fact, the Preservation
Society for his home
county had no records
of his achievements.
We conducted our orig-
inal research by look-
ing at his online obitu-
ary. On the first visit
to the obit, everything
seemed fine and nei-
ther of us had thought

41. to print or save the
website for future read-
ing. Weeks later, when
we went back to reread
the obit, we received
a 404 error: the page
was already missing.
Just six months after
this Olympic medal-
ist died, his obit went
missing! Lambert’s obit
had the typical lifes-
pan of a webpage: 10
months.1
Factors that
may contribute to rela-
tively short lifespans of
websites are dynamic
URLs, companies which
stop supporting a blog
or publishing platform
and fragmentation of
hardware/software.
The speed in which
websites appear or dis-
appear is so dynam-
ic that the Modern
Language Association
has changed their cri-
teria for a bibliogra-
phy. Much of their rea-
soning stems from the
short life-span of web-
pages. MLA no longer
requires a URL for text
cited from a webpage.
Author, the company
publishing the mate-
rial, the format for the
publication, date pub-
lished along with the
volume and issue num-
bers are the recom-
mended way to cite a
digital material.
Athletes like George
Lambert can’t guaran-
tee themselves a leg-
acy because of their
greatness. Sports pub-
lishers and media boss-
es will have to make
sure a story of a life
is truthfully preserved
through the years. On
the other hand, a fun
example of an ath-
lete who built a last-
ing legacy was Johnny
Weissmuller, one of
the best competitive
swimmers of the 20th
century. Weissmuller’s
name is recognized by
many swimmers, but
for the majority of the
public it’s the char-
acter from the movie
Tarzan of the Apes
for which he is most
well known. Tarzan
has been described
as one of the best-
known literary charac-
ters in the world.2
Even
though the copyright
for the movie expired
40

42. 41
in the United States,
the character name is
still trademarked by
Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Inc. Those interested
in the movie should
download the trail-
er at https://archive.
org/details/Tarzan_
the_Ape_Man_trailer.
The movie served in
large part to preserve
the Weissmuller lega-
cy. While his athlet-
ic awards may be the
grander of achieve-
ments, his legend sur-
vives on the back of
the movie. There are
greater athletes whose
fame is less well pre-
served; a total of
about 17,500 Olympic
medals have been
won by thousands of
athletes, many great-
er than Weissmuller.
Weissmuller may or
may not have known
it at the time, but his
acting has permanent-
ly placed his swim-
ming accomplishments
on the podium of his-
tory. As long as the
movie remains avail-
able in formats people
can collect, his swim-
ming legacy will live
longer than so many
other athlete’s accom-
plishments.
Johnny Weissmuller
(1904 – 1984)
5 time Olympic
swimming champion

43. 42
Two other events, from
my work in newspaper,
sparked my interest in
the subject of preser-
vation. In 2000, one of
my jobs was to assist in
publishing legal notic-
es. It interests me to
see the newspaper’s
legal requirements to
make notices archive-
able, assessable, verifi-
able and reproducible. I
have inferred that these
criteria were developed
to ensure the legals’
have proper reference
in the future. The other
event occurred during
a conversation with the
director of the histori-
cal room at our local
library. We discussed
the way in which the
library archives PDFs
of newly published
papers. I mentioned to
him that while I worked
in the online depart-
ment, I saw numerous
articles published to the
newspaper’s blog that
were not reproduced in
the print edition. When
I asked him if those
stories were preserved
at the library, he said,
“No.” Since then I’ve
begun my journey to
learn more. I’ve joined
the Library of Congress
Digital Preservation
Outreach and Education
Program and partici-
pated in the email con-
versations. Readers
in Europe can lookup
Digital Preservation
Europe.
Many of the preser-
vation techniques sug-
gested by these pro-
grams are rather
advanced; but we may
do simple things that
can make sure e-books,
digital magazines and
papers survive longer.

44. • Software and hardware that intro-
duces incompatible technologies
during updates causes fragmen-
tation. Publishing in standard for-
mats reduces the process of frag-
mentation.
• Programming languages them-
selves change rapidly. Developers
build the first websites with HTML
1.0; Current developers use HTML
5. Many outdated technologies
from HTML 1.0 do not work with
browsers supporting HTML 5.
• Relying on the survival of a sin-
gle copy of a work dramatically
reduces the chance of it’s avail-
ability in the future. Duplication
increases the likelihood that a
text will survive.
• Too much low quality informa-
tion reduces the overall worth
of all work. Placing real value on
important works can help con-
sumers prioritize the information
they save.
• Publishers who get locked into
selling on a single storefront
reduced total circulation. Making
the text accessible on multiple
distribution channels increases
the chances that it will be saved
in multiple languages and geo-
graphic areas.
• Online websites that can be edit-
ed by the general public can con-
tain errors. Verifying sources can
43

45. 44
make the text more reliable for
the future.
• Too much data creates informa-
tion overload. Using metadata
will make the searching of large
volumes of documents in the
future more efficient.
• The design of many file formats
allows readers to open, edit and
change content. Fix formats, like
PDF, can make tampering with
text difficult.
• We can not guarantee interop-
erability of files in the future,
and technology changes quick-
ly. Teaching new generations of
students the value of media will
improve the chances that files
will survive new challenges.

46. 45
1. Weiss, Rick. “On the Web, Research
Work Proves Ephemeral” The Washington
Post, November 24, 2003, p. A08, Print.
2. John Clute and Peter Nicholls, The
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, St. Martin’s
Press, 1993, ISBN 0-312-09618-6, p. 178,
“Tarzan is a remarkable creation, and possi-
bly the best-known fictional character of the
century.”
REFERENCES
When we look back at history,
we can see that man-made and
environmental catastrophes have
caused destruction of countless
texts and artifacts: the fire that
destroyed the Library of Alexandria,
the Nazi book burning and destruc-
tion of what was regarded as degen-
erate art. Destruction of librar-
ies also occurred in the American
Revolutionary War and the American
Civil War. It’s troubling to see some-
thing so important in our history
becoming so overlooked in modern
times. We see local communities
slowly deconstructing their physi-
cal libraries. Blog companies drop-
ping support or changing technolo-
gies. Publishers writing APPs that
become outdated with upgrades
just months later. Proprietary file
formats that are unreadable to
many. It’s my hope that publish-
ers and librarians will be wise to
preserve digital-born materials as
innovation of the World Wide Web
speeds along. Communities in 20,
100 or 1,000 years deserve to and
should be able to observe their own
history. Librarians and archivists
can be useful in this field by using
the techniques outlined by the
preservation groups and by study-
ing the experiences of people like
Jim Boulton and his digital archae-
ology exhibit.

47. 46
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