Now that Valentine’s day is rapidly approaching, have you considered presenting a romantic partner with some jewellery made from your spit? A research project at Aalto University, Finland suggests that you could. Oron Catts and Marika Hellman of the university’s Biofilia Lab explain: “First, some water is held in the mouth for a moment and […]
Tag: Valentine
A love-ly code: The Cupid Stamp Lovers’ Code
The Tower Project Blog explores, a bit, a love-ly code: This pamphlet Cupid’s code for the transmission of secret messages by means of the language of postage stamps by Bury George: The code uses the position and orientation of the stamp – with eight positions and eight orientations there are 64 basic messages – or 128 if […]
Liverpudlian Valentine’s Day Disco Debacle
Liverpool’s great Valentine Disco Debacle happened in 2008, and is commemorated in a medical journal report: “The University Rollerdisco: An unusual cause of a major incident,” A.J. Highcock, K. Rourke and D. Brown, Injury Extra, volume 39, issue 12, December 2008, Pages 386–388. “Rollerdisco’s are associated with a high incidence of injury, as is binge […]
Psychologists’ verdict (and so on) on online dating
The American Psychological Association has lots to say about the online dating industry, and is rushing to say it just as Valentine’s Day approaches: 1. A press release: PRESS RELEASE February 6, 2012 — For Immediate Release Grading The Online Dating Industry New Scientific Report Finds Some Positives, Many Areas for Improvement The report card […]
Possible Influence of Halloween on Childbirth
One reason that people see relatively few brand-newborns trick-or-treating on Halloween is that fewer are born on Halloween than on an average day. That’s one of the possible implications certain people could draw if they wish to after reading the following study: “Influence of Valentine’s Day and Halloween on Birth Timing,” Becca R. Levy [pictured […]
Kissing and the Common Cold?
Valentine’s Day always brings the question “Can you catch a cold by kissing?” A 1984 experiment gave this answer: “Casual social encounters or kisses between infected and susceptible individuals are probably unlikely to result in the transmission of rhinoviruses.” Here’s kissing data from the experiment. The citation and further quotations appear below it.
A Kiss and the Common Concern of Mankind
This year’s Valentine’s Day recommended reading is: “The Common Concern of Mankind,” A. Kiss, Environmental Policy and Law, vol. 27, no. 4, 1997, pp. 244-6. The photo at right shows A Kiss. (Thanks to investigator Dany Adams for suggesting this.)