Fact O' The Day

[Peelz]

this is true in our household.

AIdan and I can function on little sleep.

[Krandall]

I'm here today on about 4 hours.

[rappyfreak]

so get insurance for the wife and don't ever let her sleep for more than 4 hours 

[disco]

My Cooper S is no match for my friends supercharged LT1 S-10.  It was ugly. 

[dragonz]

My Cooper S is no match for my friends supercharged LT1 S-10.  It was ugly. 

why don't you even the odds.
Try again on a tight twisty back-road................

Had a '66 Cooper S.
Was the fastest pice of rust you're ever seen!
I could kill anything on a winding road!

[disco]

Oh yeah, I'd destroy him if that was the case.  I replaced my factory tires after I wore them out and the new ones are pretty sucky but the car still handles good.  Slides and squeals a lot more.  I come into the parking lot at work pretty hot on occasion.    And the last 90 degree turn on the way home, the traction light has flashed on more than one occasion. 

[dragonz]

Oh yeah, I'd destroy him if that was the case.  I replaced my factory tires after I wore them out and the new ones are pretty sucky but the car still handles good.  Slides and squeals a lot more.  I come into the parking lot at work pretty hot on occasion.    And the last 90 degree turn on the way home, the traction light has flashed on more than one occasion. 

apparently they go rather well if you supercharge them............

[Krandall]

"Volunteering your free time makes you feel like you have more of it."


Researchers at UPenn, Harvard and Yale interrupted students who were working on a lab task and asked them to either perform some mundane busywork or write an encouraging letter to a sick child. Those who'd been interrupted for the latter task were more likely to feel that they had more time ahead of themselves. Researchers repeated the experiment but asked half of the participants to do something enjoyable -- whatever they wanted to do -- while the other half were asked to do something for someone else (again, chosen by the participant). Again, the latter group felt that their futures were brimming with free time. In a final experiment, participants were interrupted to help edit a disadvantaged high school student's application essay, but only half actually did so; the others were told the task was done and they were free to go. Those who had actually performed the task (who now had, by definition, less free time) felt they had more free time and were even more likely to commit their free time to other activities in the coming week.

[Krandall]

"Thoughts of scarcity make you eat more."



A University of Miami study invited participants to an M&M taste test, telling half of the participants that these were M&Ms made of a higher-calorie chocolate, while telling the others that they were reduced-calorie M&Ms. Participants were told they were allowed to sample the candy while they waited for the study to start. Some were also given a text to read that mentioned key words like "survival," "adversity" and "shortfall" (the control group read a text using only neutral words). The result: Scarcity-minded participants ate more "high-calorie" M&Ms than "low-calorie" M&Ms, and ate more "high-calorie" M&Ms than the non-scarcity-minded control group (in reality, of course, all the M&Ms were the same).

[Peelz]

"Thoughts of scarcity make you eat more."



A University of Miami study invited participants to an M&M taste test, telling half of the participants that these were M&Ms made of a higher-calorie chocolate, while telling the others that they were reduced-calorie M&Ms. Participants were told they were allowed to sample the candy while they waited for the study to start. Some were also given a text to read that mentioned key words like "survival," "adversity" and "shortfall" (the control group read a text using only neutral words). The result: Scarcity-minded participants ate more "high-calorie" M&Ms than "low-calorie" M&Ms, and ate more "high-calorie" M&Ms than the non-scarcity-minded control group (in reality, of course, all the M&Ms were the same).

If I worry too much about financial ruin, I end up feeling like I should eat... makes sense

[dragonz]

If I worry too much about financial ruin, I end up feeling like I should eat Krandall... makes no sense at all

I'll stick with the M&M's myself

[Krandall]

"Athletes perceive pain differently."


A metastudy at Heidelberg University in Germany indicates that athletes literally experience pain differently from people with a regular level of activity, though they share the same pain threshold. After examining 331 normally active people and 568 athletes, the study found that athletes had a significantly higher pain tolerance, though the details differed by sport. Endurance athletes had similar levels of tolerance compared to one another, indicating that they might be more physiologically similar overall, while athletes in game sports were more varied. Researchers are hopeful that pain perception can be modified by physical activity in a way that can benefit non-athletes with chronic conditions.

[Krandall]

"People with higher emotional intelligence are actually worse at detecting liars."


Emotional intelligence is the ability to detect and assess the feelings of other people, but it may actually cloud people's judgment when it comes to lying. A study published in the journal Legal and Criminological Psychology gave 116 participants a questionnaire to determine emotional intelligence, then showed them 20 videos depicting real people making pleas for the safe return of a missing loved one (in half of these cases, the person making the plea would later be found responsible for the loved one's murder or disappearance). People with a higher ability to perceive emotion were worse at spotting when people were lying -- partially, researchers say, because of their overconfidence in their own assessment abilities.

[Krandall]

duhhhhhhhhh


"Men tend to find unintelligent women more attractive (at least for a short-term relationship)."


A UT Austin study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior tested the theory that a woman being sexually exploitable is, unconsciously or not, more attractive to men ("exploitability" in evolutionary psychology just refers to the likelihood that a woman could be, in any sense, sexually available -- covering the entire spectrum from willingness to coercion). Researchers asked study participants to list cues, traits and characteristics that signify this availability. The 88 signs the participants came up with included items like "attention-seeking," "tight clothing," "sleepy" and "unintelligent." Researchers then compiled images of women expressing these signs and asked a new group of men to rate their attractiveness. The men noted that some women -- sleepy, intoxicated, unintelligent -- were more exploitable, but they also rated these women as more attractive and ideal for the purposes of a fling. Notably, though, they rated these same women as less desirable for long-term relationships.

[Krandall]

"Personality traits can account for longevity even more than actual habits."


Researchers have previously theorized that genetic makeup is often a factor in longevity, but a new study published in the journal Aging examined 243 centenarians and found that their most prominent common ground was actually in their personality traits. They were optimistic and easygoing; they also tended to be and less neurotic than the population at large. Furthermore, a related study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that centenarians often share the same unhealthy habits of everyone else, eating badly and smoking at the same rates as the rest of the population.