Did you find Heath Ledger as The Joker scary? Then perhaps you suffer from coulrophobia, the abnormal fear of clowns. Join a self-confessed coulrophobic for a look at these guys and see if you are too. Like you don’t already know!
Duracell? Energizer? The cheapie packages of AAs at the dollar store? Tired of dumping money blindly on batteries for Wii remote controllers, flashlights, Nerf guns, and the like, a physicist decides it’s time to investigate which batteries truly give the most bang for the buck.
Rhett Allain, an associate professor of physics at Southeastern Louisiana University, had gotten into the habit of buying batteries based strictly on price. Mostly, this meant skipping the Duracells and Energizers of the world and purchasing cheapie off-brands at dollar stores instead.
PROBLEM: Why do we often plan to take risks like skydiving and singing onstage but back out when the moment of truth arrives?
METHODOLOGY: Scientists led by University of Colorado Boulder psychology and neuroscience professor Leaf Van Boven hypothesized that this illusion of courage is the result of an empathy gap, or our inability to forecast how we will behave in emotional situations. In two of the experiments, they asked college students if they would be willing to engage in a future embarrassing situation, such as telling a funny story or dancing to James Brown’s “Sex Machine” in front of their class, in exchange for a few dollars. Some of the students were asked outright, while others were first exposed to short films that aroused feelings of fear and anger.
RESULTS: The students who were primed with negative emotions were much more accurate in predicting their true willingness to perform in public. The undergraduates who did not view movie clips were less empathetic to their future selves and significantly overestimated their interest.
CONCLUSION: People overestimate their ability to engage in embarrassing situations. They may be able to persevere, however, if they call to mind instances that could put them in better touch with the fear they would likely experience.
According to this article, Android users are more likely to have sex on the first date. So, if you are trying to hook up this weekend, you might ditch the ol’ “what’s your sign” line for something like “is that an Android phone?” Hey, don’t look at me, I’m not the one that conducted this study.
The Toronto Star says the survey was conducted by online polling and survey site Zoomerang, and used 1,068 single Canadians as its pool. They found that 62% of Android users said they’ve had sex on the first date, whereas 57% of iPhone users said the same, and only 48% of those with a BlackBerry.
As of today employees at Disneyland in California and Florida are permitted to grow beards or goatees for the first time in 60 years. The no facial hair policy has been in place since the first park in California opened its doors in 1955.
Employees, called ‘Cast Members’, have always had to adhere to some of the most strict appearance guidelines in the corporate world, including limitations on dress, hairstyle, makeup, eyewear, and personal hygiene.
Well, get ready for Facebook ubiquity to seep into the real world. A clever hardware-hacking project called LikeBelt uses near-field communication technology (NFC) to register Facebook likes as you walk down the street. Just approach a person or thing that deserves liking, and thrust your hips in its — or his, or her — direction.
“There used to be simple ways of saying you like things, like thumbs up, high fives, or humping,” Nathan Martin, CEO of Deeplocal, told Wired.
Yes, you read that correctly: humping. Deeplocal has taken the primitive gesture — arguably, one of nature’s earliest forms of “liking” — and combined it with a wearable piece of technology in the creation of the LikeBelt.
