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Mark's Science Snippets
February 2012
February 23, 2012
February 22, 2012
February 21, 2012
Burglar found naked covered in chocolate & peanut butter. Grandfather says "this is not like him."
"Police say they found the 23-year-old Andrew Toothman inside the store wearing nothing but black boots, covered in chocolate and peanut butter. His grandfather thinks he knows why. "Somebody sneaked him something," said John Hall. "Maybe bath salts."...Hall says he raised his grandson like a son, and he says this is not like him."
From ksl.com via Onion-like Headlines In Real Life
February 20, 2012
February 19, 2012
February 18, 2012
The smell of cookies makes us act nicer to each other
Chocolate chips for everyone!
In a preliminary study, passersby in a large shopping mall were significantly more likely to help a same-sex accomplice (by retrieving a dropped pen or providing change for a dollar) when these helping opportunities took place in the presence of pleasant ambient odors (e.g., baking cookies, roasting coffee) than in the absence of such odors. Participants also reported significantly higher levels of positive affect in the presence of pleasant odors. In a second study, the order in which passersby were exposed to a helping opportunity and rated their current mood was systematically varied. Results similar to those of the first study were obtained; order of task had no effect on either mood or helping, but helping was significantly greater in the presence of pleasant fragrances than in their absence. In addition, there was some evidence that fragrance-induced increments in helping were mediated by increments in positive affect.
February 17, 2012
February 16, 2012
February 15, 2012
February 14, 2012
February 13, 2012
February 08, 2012
February 07, 2012
February 06, 2012
February 05, 2012
If this is class warfare, we're losing!
- “It is wrong for Warren Buffett’s secretary to pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett"
- Occupy: The Original
- CEO pay increased 27 - 40% in 2010
- Pepper Spray Cop joins the parade
- Fox News: Pepper spray is "a food product."
- In Congress Assembled, UC Davis edition
- Perspective on police brutality
- If you're not doing anything bad you have no reason to fear...
- Percentage of Millionaires: Why is tax policy so hard to change?
- We Are The One Percent!
- Batman: "I am the 1%"
- “Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance”
- James Madison spoke against concentrated wealth
- If this is class warfare, we're losing!
- Public perceptions of U.S. income inequality
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- Media Failures
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Favorite Comics
- Abstruse Goose
- ArgyleSweater
- Bizarro
- Calvin and Hobbes
- Crimes Against Hugh's Manatees
- Cyanide and Happiness
- Doonesbury
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- Questionable Content
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- Savage Chickens - Cartoons on Sticky Notes by Doug Savage
- Slow Wave
- Small Peculiar
- This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow
- xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe
Relentlessly Optimistic Links
- The thoughts of Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf
Should I be worried that the top Google result (update: in October of 1994) for Relentlessly Optimistic is to the former Iraqi Information Minister? That's somewhat offset by the fact that the #3 link is to Sponge Bob Square Pants. - The Meaning of Optimism
- StatCounter
- SiteMeter
- Learned Optimism
optimists and pessimists attribute the reasons for success and failure differently: it's personal for pessimists. - ITMFA
- Does pessimism soften the blow of bad news?
Science says yes, but that it isn't worth it. - Creative Commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. 
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