Sunday, August 14, 2011

Debunking the Chattiness Stereotype Yet Again

Nope. Nope. Nope. Double nope. Any time you see a book or article repeat the claim that women talk three times as much as men, or 20k words to men's 7k, throw out the book or article. The author likely pulled lots of information out of... ahem... the air rather than out of solid research. Numerous experiments have debunked this popular myth of the self-help movement.

"Thus, the data fail to reveal a reliable sex difference in daily word use. Women and men both use on average about 16,000 words per day, with very large individual differences around this mean."

Source: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/are-women-really-more-talkative-than-men

Cartoon: Perpetual Sweeping

Great animated gif. So many appropriate captions come to mind...

Source: http://www.likecool.com/Gifsweeping--Pic--Gear.html

Monday, August 8, 2011

Are You Really?

This is a great quote from Steven Pressfield's the "War of Art." How true that the blowhards are usually the ones with the least to brag about.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sortacrunchy/5595578886/

Correlates in Long-Term Love

Must be the mood I'm in today, but "Wanting to know where the partner is at all times correlated significantly with intense love for men but not women." gives me the creeps. The other correlates, however - thinking positively about the other, being affectionate, etc. All sound lovely.

Source: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/is-long-term-love-more-than-a-rare-phenomenon

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Wanna Eat Carrots? Put Doritos in Your iPod

This is a fascinating bit of research about how we determine crunchiness by sound, rather than by feel. I'm trying to figure out how to hack my crunch addiction. If I play the crunch of chips through my headphones, will I like veggies more?

Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/08/07/the-sound-of-taste/

Art Illuminates Math

We read about artists using various mathematical ratios to make their work pleasing to the eye (math into art). Annelisa Crandall is putting art into math.

Her book, "Viewpoints: Mathematical Perspective and Fractal Geometry in Art," with coauthor Marc Frantz has just moved to the top of my Amazon wishlist.

Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/07/18/essay_on_using_art_to_teach_mathematics

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

In Case You Thought You Were Hiding Something...

Since humans are creatures of habit, it doesn't surprise me that this study finds that other people can predict our daily behavior. After all, they witness it all the time. I'd be curious to know how accurate friends are when it comes to the things we keep to ourselves.

Source: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/how-well-do-your-friends-know-you