Home | Archives | Links | Join Email List | Spam Me

Curious Times No. 266
October 14, 2004

STILL NO CURE FOR CANCER
The good folks over at the Annals of Improbable Research (www.improb.com) have posted the results of this year’s Ig Nobel Prize winners. The Ig Nobel awards are a tongue-in-cheek celebration of scientific research which we probably didn’t need. 2004 brought another round of real winners, including the prize in Medicine which went to a study carried out at Auburn University in Alabama, titled “The Effect of Country Music on Suicide.” That study proved that suicide rates are higher in cities with more country music radio stations. Their analysis concluded that country music nurtures ”a suicidal mood through its concerns with problems common in the suicidal population, such as marital discord, alcohol abuse, and alienation from work”. Other Ig Nobel Prizes were handed out in Physics (for a paper titled “Coordination Modes in the Multisegmental Dynamics of Hula Hooping”), Chemistry (to Coca-Cola, for the innovative technology which turned London’s river water into over-priced bottled water), Engineering (to the man who patented the combover), and Biology (for a study which found that herring can communicate by farting). Finally, in the area of Public Health, research finally put to rest the myth of the five-second-rule, which claims that food which falls to the floor is safe to eat for five seconds. In tests with floors deliberately contaminated with E. coli, the researchers found that gummy bears and fudge cookies pick up the contamination in less than five seconds. But in tests with real-world floors, the food picked up no contamination because real floors are rarely doused with harmful bacteria. (www.improb.com)

A FULL FOUR YEARS’ SUPPLY OF IRONY
The great gods of poetic justice made up for years of neglect during last week’s vice-presidential debate, during which Dick Cheney tried to cover up his lies by sending 60 million television viewers to the website factcheck.org. Unfortunately for the Bush campaign, Cheney actually sent people to factcheck.com, not .org. Within minutes of the debate the website was getting upwards of 100 hits per second, so the owner of the domain name factcheck.com decided to redirect all that traffic to someone who could better afford it, and aimed all incoming traffic to the website of vehemently anti-Bush billionaire George Soros. “Why we must not re-elect President Bush” exclaims the headline on factcheck.com, and states that “President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values.” Take that, Dick!

CHOKE THAT CHICKEN, DON’T CHOP IT!
An inexplicable report out of Romania claims that an old man who was trying to kill a chicken accidentally cut off his own penis instead. Constantin Mocanu, 67, kept awake all night by a noisy chicken, let his sleep deprivation get the better of him as he rushed out into the yard in order to shut the animal up. Instead, he hacked off his own penis. “I confused it with the chicken’s neck,’’ he told emergency room staff, “`I cut it ... and the dog rushed and ate it.’’ (Rompres News Agency)

GET YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO MIND POWER NEWS AND RECEIVE 4 MIND POWER E-BOOKS AS MY GIFT TO YOU!

Mind Power News is a free weekly e-zine about using the power of your mind to create health, wealth, success & happiness. Each week you'll receive the latest news headlines, the most cutting-edge scientific research, life-changing lessons from the world's greatest Mind Power mentors and the very best mind power resources available today.

www.MindPowerNews.com


THIS WOULD BE A GOOD REPLACEMENT FOR PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES
It’s time once again for the third annual World Rock Paper Scissors Championships. This year Toronto hosts the event on October 16 which will pit all comers against professional Rock Paper Scissor competitors for the prestigious title of World Champion and a $10,000 prize. Get all the details at www.rpschamps.com. But if boring old Rock Paper Scissors no longer challenges you, some internet geek has designed a new twist on the game called “Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard.” The website at samkass.com/theories/RPSSL.html has diagrams of the hand gestures needed to play the game, and explains that “scissors cuts paper covers rock crushes lizard poisons spock smashes scissors decapitates lizard eats paper disproves spock vaporizes rock crushes scissors.” (www.rpschamps.com)

YOUR DUMB FISH IS SMARTER THAN YOUR DUMB DOG
Next time you neglect to spend some quality time with your fish, remember this story. Researchers at Oxford University have discovered that fish may be even more intelligent than dogs. Dr. Theresa Burt de Perera, who admitted that “the public perception of fish is that they are pea-brained numbskulls who can’t remember things for more than a few seconds,” claimed that challenges and memory tests reveal that fish are capable of learning a wide range of mental skills and are able to remember them for many months. The research also revealed that the fish were able to complete complex mental tasks which routinely stump hamsters and dogs. Burt de Perara also claimed that fish can recognize their owners and will sometimes go into a sulk if somebody else tries to feed them. (Ananova)

HELPING TO END THE PLAGUE OF BAD MUSIC
Professor James Kellaris of the University of Cincinnati has embarked on a study of “Stuck Tune Syndrome,” which is his phrase for when some annoyingly repetitive piece of music gets stuck in your brain and refuses to leave. His leading theory so far is that certain types of music creates a “cognitive itch” in the brain, which can only be “scratched” by replaying the tune in your mind. The more the brain scratches, he says, the worse the itch gets. His ultimate goal is to find a way to end the horror of Stuck Tune Syndrome; remarkably, he feels the easiest way to remove a song from your head might be to pass it on to someone else, either by humming the melody, or by simply telling a person about the song stuck in your head. Then, magically, the tune will stop bothering you. However, if that doesn’t do it, technology comes to the rescue in the form of a website called “Maim That Tune,” Which promises to find an even catchier tune to counter-act the one stuck in your skull. And to really drive you insane, the songs all seem to have been recreated with a cheap Casio keyboard. Check it out at prettypictures.com (LA Times)