Erik Peper, co-author of an Ig Nobel Prize-winning book about how to cure ill people by holding one’s hand near them but not touching those ill people, has a new research study of students who did mathematics whilst slumping in their chairs. The new study is: “Do Better in Math: How your Body Posture May […]
Tag: sitting
Subway Benches (postphenomenological viewpoints)
Subway benches, mundane though they might seem, can sometimes become ‘multistable’ – thereby attracting the attention of Robert Rosenberger (who is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology). The professor, a specialist in postphenomenology, has recently examined the multistability and agency of mundane artifacts (from speed bumps […]
A converter “which appeals to people’s habits for using the toilet”
Habit and hygeine are targeted together in this invention, which converts almost any standard sitting-type toilet to become a squatting-type toilet: “Novel type externally arranged foldable squatting chair,” Chinese patent #201675851 U, published December 22, 2010. The patent document explains: “The utility model discloses a novel type externally arranged foldable squatting chair modified from a […]
The sitting-on-a-bed problem
Doctors are not allowed to sit on patients’ beds — at least in many British hospitals they’re not. Dr. Iona Heath explains in the BMJ: Still trying to come to terms with the widespread banning of flowers from hospital wards (BMJ 2009;339:b5406, doi:10.1136/bmj.b5406), I learnt recently from senior nursing colleagues that sitting on a patient’s […]