Weird Science - I Sing The Body Eccentric

President Obama’s recent fall in approval rating may have an unusual cause, he may possibly be too thin. In a recent study by Elizabeth Miller of the University of Missouri, voters prefer their male politicians to be portly, while women representatives should be more wasp-waisted. In an experiment involving 120 volunteers, people were asked to assess fictitious male and female candidates from a brief bio and a picture, crucially two pictures of each candidate were used, a natural one and one manipulated to portray the person as overweight. People shown the heavier male scored him an average 10% higher for reliability, honesty, dependability and inspiration than his thinner doppelganger, but this relationship was reversed in the woman candidate. In the journal Obesity, Miller puts this down to societal expectation and stereotyping (Telegraph).

Social pressure also crops up in explaining another finding this week, this one by Meridith Young of McMaster University in Ontario, that what single women eat depends a lot on whom they are eating with. After covertly monitoring the canteen behaviour of 470 undergraduates, Young found that women significantly lowered their calorie intake when sat with men compared with all women groups. Moreover, the more men a woman sat with, the less on average she consumed. In the journal Appetite, she puts the discrepancy down to women unconsciously advertising themselves to men, adding "the salad leaves are meant to say, I'm pretty, I'm attractive, I take care of myself" (Guardian).

Of course, we all know what men really like in a woman; that she not appear too powerful. Or so says a study by Brian Meier and Sarah Dionne of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. In the study, eighty 19 year-olds were asked to rate the attractiveness of a number of images presented in random order, some of which would be repeated. In fact the subjects saw each image twice, once near the top of the screen and once low down. The researchers found that men rated women 1.8% more attractive when observed near the bottom, and women found men 1.5% better looking when higher up. They suggest that their findings might explain why men are taller than their women partners more frequently than would be expected by chance (Times of India).

As to what women really like in men, perhaps not being British should be somewhere on the list. After champagne controversially lost out to an English wine earlier this week, French scientists have hit back at British research that concluded that the mythical “G-spot” did not exist. “Of course it exists,” say French gynaecologists, “you just can’t find it!” The original study by King’s College in London looked at over 900 pairs of identical or non-identical twins in the expectation that the identical siblings should both report having a G-spot more frequently than the others, they did not. The French however claim their cross-channel colleagues have got the wrong end of the speculum, “It is not a question of genetics but of use," said one (Telegraph).



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Posted By: Dumbfounded - Wed Feb 03, 2010 - Comments (6)
Category: Babies, Cosmetics, Exercise and Fitness, Politics, Science, Anthropology, Experiments, Psychology, Sexuality, Divorce, Obesity

Sarah and the Demons

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 12, 2010 - Comments (7)
Category: Politics, Strange Candidates, Religion, Fictional Monsters

Weird Florida: Inglis

The Town of Inglis is famous for 2 things: It was the filming location for the Elvis movie Follow That Dream, and in 2001 the Mayor officially banned Satan.(Chuck may have covered this already, I haven't had time to look through his archives)

Posted By: fyshstyxx - Sat Jul 04, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Armageddon and Apocalypses, Government, Law, Movies, Politics

A Third Helping of Food Related Weirdness

A UK school has banned students from including bananas in their lunchboxes, because one teacher has a severe allergy to them. The teacher from the Plymouth school is said to have a "potentially fatal" reaction to bananas (so is presumably also unable to visit supermarkets or parks), causing her council employers to recommend the fruit be excluded from her work environment (Mirror)

Somewhere that teacher may want to cross off her list of holiday destinations is Wilmington, Ohio as the town has just held its 15th annual Banana Split Festival in honour of the supposed invention of the dish, in Wilmington, in 1907. The festival also features the "Banana Split Master’s Competition", now in it's 5th year, won this year by Pete Kramme for his "Sweet and Salty Banana Split", which adds cream cheese and pretzels to the traditional recipe (Wilmington News Journal).

Speaking of odd flavours, here's a two-fer. First up, the Double-Down Saloon is offering two-for-the-price-of-one on it's 'eye watering' bacon-vodka martini on Jun 19th, in celebration of National Martini Day (Examiner). Also, a UK barman hopes to beat the credit-crisis this summer by selling beer flavoured ice-cream. The barman, David Wardleworth, is keeping the exact recipe a secret beyond saying that is does include "Thwaites Original" British cask ale. Despite a historic reputation for liking their beer warm, the ice-cream is apparently proving popular with the British public (Burnley Express).

And it turns out weird flavours are not the only way the recession is impacting the world of ice-cream. The poor economy, combined with lower gas prices, has apparently fuelled a boom in ice-cream trucks, whose drivers stand to make from $100 to $200 a day. And it's not just the money and the lure of being your own boss that drivers find rewarding, according to driver John Jones "You get to see a lot of happy people, you get a lot of smiles." (Wichita Eagle).

And the ice-cream business certainly looks about to boom in Linden, NJ, where police are preparing to hand out tickets for free ice-cream to any kids they see wearing a helmet when cycling; the tickets will also include information about a recent law change, that makes helmets compulsory for under-17s. Even better, no child will be left out as the Brain Injury Association of New Jersey is supplying free cycling helmets for children, also available from those friendly boys in blue (My Central Jersey).



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Posted By: Dumbfounded - Tue Jun 16, 2009 - Comments (7)
Category: Food, Health, Jobs and Occupations, Politics, Robots

Woody Hockaday

Woody Hockaday (1884-1947) made significant contributions to American history, but he's almost entirely forgotten today. According to the Kansas State Historical Society, he was "the first person to recognize the need for highway marking in the United States." So, on his own initiative, beginning in 1915, he started posting mileage markers on highways. Eventually "Hockaday signs" appeared on 60,000 miles of roads from Washington DC to Los Angeles.

But around 1935 he decided he needed to do something different with his life. So he started calling himself "Big Chief Pow Wow" and launched a "feathers instead of bullets" campaign. Dressed in red shorts, a feather war bonnet, sneakers, a painted sunflower on his chest, and carrying a huge bag of feathers, he would pop up at political rallies and pelt politicians with feathers (or sometimes live chickens). He explained that "to attract attention to peace a man must use sensational methods."

In 1936 he broke into the office of Assistant Secretary of War Harry Woodring and scattered feathers everywhere before being hauled away. And soon after that he launched a feather attack on radio priest Charles Coughlin.

In 1940, he combined a Santa Claus costume with his headdress and showed up in Rockefeller Plaza with a wagonload of 600 chickens. He screamed at the crowd, "I'm Santa Claus from Santa Fe. Peace! The whole world will have peace. Here, my friend, have a chicken."

Soon after that he was committed to an insane asylum. He died in 1947.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 09, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, Politics, 1930s

All Apologies

The Mgt. of WU--Alex, Chuck and Paul-- would like to apologize to our readers for foisting an overly political and jejune and tendentious post on you, even by proxy. You'll note that it's been deleted--although the comments formerly attached to it remain behind, so as to archive the wise and tasteful responses of our loyal readers.

Please forgive us, and continue reading as before.

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 31, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Politics, Riots, Protests and Civil Disobedience, Weird Universe, Comments, Corrections, Reader Recommendation

The Powers of Congress

Posted By: Paul - Sun May 17, 2009 - Comments (2)
Category: Dreams and Nightmares, Politics, 1940s

Cartoon Campaign Ad

Has there ever been another cartoon campaign ad in the past several elections? How could this great idea go unused?!? SpongeBob SquarePants for Obama! Pinky and the Brain for Bush and Cheney! Just imagine the possibilities!

Posted By: Paul - Wed May 13, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Politics, Cartoons, 1950s

Make Mine Freedom

An interesting political cartoon from the guys who brought you The Jetsons and The Flintstones, Hanna and Barbera.

Posted By: mdb777 - Fri May 08, 2009 - Comments (3)
Category: Politics, Cartoons

Citizens Vote Against Mayor’s Fashion Statement, Mustache Institute unhappy

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Dave Snarr, the Mayor of Murray, Utah may be losing his trademark handlebar mustache. Mr. Snarr has put the fate of his mustache up for a public vote and so far, it is not looking good for this favorite facial feature.

This is part of an event to to raise funds for the Children's Miracle Network. Unfortunately, even the charitable deeds of politicians are not without criticism. The ire in this case comes from the American Mustache Institute , which has written the mayor a letter and posted a blog entry about the event.

According to the letter, written by American Mustache Institute CEO Dr. Abraham Jonas Froman:

"...you represent a community of downtrodden Americans - Mustached Americans - for whom you stand as a sign that we are not only fit to hold positions in waste collection, motorcycle repair, and hospital equipment maintenance. You are proof that a Mustached American can be a mayor, a leader, a respected beacon of excellence."

The Mayor's response? "...whatever you do, you're damned".

Voting for the fate of the mustache is open until May 16th.

Posted By: dherlich - Fri May 08, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Body, Politics, Officials, Facial Hair