Ranking States’ Citizen Embarrassment Levels
Ideological hijinks, bipartisan incompetence and outright corruption have infected state capitals — and mortified citizens — across the U.S. Is there a cure? We’re supplying a dose of satire; if you...
View ArticleGet Plenty of Sleep Before Imitating Rock Gods
Well, the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies has come and gone, and we’re assuming San Antonio proved an ideal choice to host. But it wasn’t all napping and rapid-eye...
View ArticleWorld Press Photos in Focus
The nature of the profession means that even the best images photojournalists produce are generally confined to a small box in a field of newspaper text or, at best, a magazine or Web page. We’re used...
View ArticleUse the Phone While Driving, Get Dumped
We’ve all heard the warnings about using cell phones behind the wheel; several recent studies have shown that even hands-free mobiles are more distracting to motorists than driving drunk. Now a paper...
View ArticleStudy: Canadian Parents Enforce Fewer Rules
As if year-round ice fishing and being weaned on Molson weren’t enough, a new study has pinpointed an additional benefit to being a Canadian kid: Your parents are probably awesome. A paper in the...
View ArticleResearchers Tackle the ‘Hipster’ Phenomenon
At long last, science has tackled the phenomenon of the hipster, the contradictory symbol of coolness that strives for nothing other than complete “hipsterness” while firmly rejecting any association...
View ArticleDebunking Theories of a Terrorist Power Grab
You know all those doom-and-gloomers who get up before Congress and testify about how terrorists are going to attack America’s electric grid, sending blackouts toppling across the country like...
View ArticleNext They’ll Tell Us Germs Can Dance
Anyone who’s ever visited a male collegiate dorm room can testify to the amazing properties of bacteria, but not even the guys in Animal House could have seen this one coming: Bacteria can stand up —...
View ArticleCollege Guys Will Remember the Pretty Ones
From the “Studies That Should Surprise No One” file: A new study in Applied Cognitive Psychology found that college-aged men were more likely to remember whether a woman showed sexual interest in them...
View ArticleStanding in Alcohol Won’t Get You Drunk
Sorry, folks. It turns out you can’t get drunk by submerging your feet in alcohol. The belief is widespread in Denmark, where, apparently, there’s not much to do during those long winter nights but...
View ArticleTime for Robin Hood to Make a Comeback
What do you think of when you think of Nottingham? We know, we know — the shopping, the nightlife district, the … um … er … oh, who are we kidding? We all think of Robin Hood, of course. But try...
View ArticleNew Dinosaur Gets a Rather Large Name
A new dinosaur discovered in Utah has been named Brontomerus mcintoshi. Now, we have no quarrel at all with the species name, mcintoshi, because it was chosen in honor of John “Jack” McIntosh, who is...
View ArticleThe Exploitation of Muggles in Harry Potter’s World
Every so often, we find a study that makes us question our place in the cosmos. Zakir Husain’s paper in the Journal of Creative Communications, “Wizards, Muggles and Economic Exploitation Dependency...
View ArticleAs if Commercials Weren’t Bad Enough Already
After a two-year experiment, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, in conjunction with Samsung, have written a concept paper in the journal Angewandte Chemie explaining that they...
View ArticleDoes This Make My Antenna Look Big?
“Imagine a vest or shirt, or even a fancy ball gown made with this technology. The antennas would be inconspicuous, and even attractive. People would want to wear them.” That’s John Volakis, a...
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