Our dreams are getting more colorful

Question: Are dreams in color or black and white? One man reported dreaming in vivid colors like the movies, another said black and white, a third likened his dreams to paintings or tapestries. When did the three live?

Answer: Black and white was a common idea of the 1950s, the golden age of black and white movies and early TV, says John Whitfield of Nature.Com. Surveys of the era had people saying they rarely if ever dreamed in color. But before and since, most people have reported colorful dreams, says University of California-Riverside professor of philosophy Eric Schwitzgebel. It's not that dreams were any different then, but our knowledge of our stream of experience is very poor, so people of the '50s naturally likened dream imagery to the "artificial dreams" surrounding them in black and white. Before the 20th century, dreams were often compared to colorful paintings or tapestries.

Although few people mention touch in dreams — the reason we pinch ourselves to be sure we're awake — in the future this may change as virtual realities surround us more and more, touchy-feely as well as visual. "We might start thinking our dreams are really great."

Question: She's 40-something though ageless, still a teenager after all these years, first conceived in the U.S. yet sprung to life in Japan after World War II, today reborn at the rate of two a second, 60 million a year, her bodystuff from Saudi Arabia, nylon hair from Japan, cotton dresses from China, brought together in places like Indonesia and Malaysia, making her truly a "global citizen" found in 140 countries around the world. Who is she?

Answer: She's Barbie, the most profitable toy in history, reaping her creator California-based Mattel Corporation well over a billion dollars in annual revenues though Barbie was never made in the U.S., say Anthony Giddens et al. in "Introduction to Sociology." Only her cardboard packaging and some of her paints have been U.S.-made.

Question: World War II statistician Abraham Wald had an assignment: Figure out where to put extra armor on planes to keep them from being shot down. He studied hundreds of returning aircraft and graphed the location of any bullet holes. As data accumulated, most of the composite plane outline filled up. So where to recommend armor placement? Near the hole clusters?

Answer: Not at all, reasoned Wald. Put the armor in the few spots WITH NO BULLET HOLES. That's where bullets hit the planes that didn't make it back, says David S. Moore in "Statistics: Concepts and Controversies."

General statistical rule: "After you plot your data, think!"