The rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can. So says Rotterdam-based Muggezifter. (Thanks to investigator Enid Palme for bringing this to our attention.)
Month: March 2007
Behavior in laundromats
In a laundry, how do people behave? Scholars mostly avoided the question until the early 1980s, when Regina Kenen became the first sociologist to camp out in a middle-class laundry and take detailed notes. Kenen, an assistant professor of sociology at Trenton State College in New Jersey, published a study called Soapsuds, Space, and Sociability: […]
Better hair through chemistry
“Better Hair Through Chemistry” is a philosophy. It is also (perhaps unrelatedly) a project conducted by the Exploratorium in San Francisco. (Thanks to investigator Julia Lunetta and her hair for bringing this to our attention.)
Katrin’s roundabout journey
After the leak tests the tank was ready to be shipped. There is a slight problem of transportability from Deggendorf to Karlsruhe: The tank is too big for motorways, and the canal between the rivers Rhine and Danube has to be ruled out, too. Thus, instead of a journey of about 400 km, the spectrometer […]
Scientists now know: The secret of happiness
Married people with high incomes are much happier than unmarried people with low incomes. So finds a Gallup poll of 1010 Americans, released on January 3, 2007. (Thanks to investigator Kristine Danowski for bringing this to our attention.)
Information about information
Follow street signs because they have important information on them. So says The Boston Pedestrian Protection Program web site.
“Plutoed” survives 2006, gains honor
In its 17th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted “plutoed” as the word of the year, in a run-off against climate canary. To pluto is to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto […]
Scientists now know: Near-accidents may lead to accidents
In the first known scientific study into the important question of near-miss sleepy accidents and their association with actual accidents, a study published in the March 1st issue of the journal SLEEP finds that sleepy near-misses may be dangerous precursors to an actual accident. So says a proud press release from the American Academy of […]
Benchly Decrepitude
Legal research, by tradition dreary and droning, is epitomised by the study Mental Decrepitude on the US Supreme Court. It is 93 pages of dreary, depressing documentation. David Garrow did the research, wrote the pages, and published them in the University of Chicago Law Review. At the time, seven years ago, Garrow was presidential distinguished […]