Month: June 2009

Women with a professed interest in a man send no more non-verbal signals than do non-interested women.

“In other words,” they explained, “it is hard for a man to determine whether or not a woman is interested in the first few minutes of an interaction.

“With this in mind, since men are not aware of how well they are doing in terms of getting a date, both sexes may feel a direct approach would be most effective.”

Wait there’s more…

Male and female participants agreed that [opening] lines demonstrating the men’s helpfulness, generosity, athleticism, ‘culture’ and wealth were likely to be effective, whereas jokes, empty compliments and sexual references were given the thumbs down.

If all the cars on the planet were completely eliminated, less than 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions would be affected, and far less of other pollutants.

There are about 90,000 huge container ships worldwide that typically run on high sulfur bunker fuel oil.

New research indicates that each of the biggest ships emit as much as 50 million cars.

That means the 15 largest ships may be emitting more than all the world’s cars.

Dana Blankenhorn in China:

I don’t see China getting into a land war on any foreign continent. But there is an obvious generation gap building.

There are all kinds of social revolutions hiding just below the surface but no one with influence, neither public officials nor ordinary members of the middle class, seems willing to see the reality.

One other thing. We keep worrying that China is about to overtake us economically. Forget it.

China is a young country today but thanks to the one-child policy, it is aging rapidly.

I could build a separate spa just off the bath to soak in a tub of my stem cells.

University of New South Wales medical team used stem cells on a contact lens to restore sight.

Sight was significantly improved within weeks of the procedure, which is simple, inexpensive and requires a minimal hospital stay.

Yes.

More at Next Big Future

Via MindBlog:

Psychologists have developed a “disgust scale” based on how queasy people would be in 27 situations, such as stepping barefoot on an earthworm or smelling urine in a tunnel. Conservatives systematically register more disgust than liberals.

For liberals, morality derives mostly from fairness and prevention of harm.

For conservatives, morality places relatively more emphasis on upholding authority and loyalty — and revulsion…

“The easiest way to lead people by the nose is through their morality.” – Nietzsche

It is nearly 2010; we should not need to seek out adjectives like “heirloom”, “organic”, “artisanal” in front of fruits and vegetables in order for them to have some kind of identifiable flavor.