Random Thoughts

A recent survey of high school students shows that most have cheated on tests and homework and, as long the cheating requires effort, don't feel they're doing anything wrong. The study by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln gauged both the prevalence and perceptions of cheating among high-school students. It found the practice is widespread and many students carry misconceptions about academic dishonesty, and also identified patterns among students that may help teachers stop it. The study was published in the Mid-Western Educational Researcher. "Students generally understand what constitutes…

Musical ClownsWhy is it that so often a genius of comedy has brilliant musical talent?Or is it the other way round? I've also noticed that geniuses of comedy tend to be geniuses of language.  For example, I think Ken Dodd knows more about language than most professional linguists.  Victor Borge was also very talented in that department. What a fascinating topic this could be for a research project.  How many well-known singers, musicians or dancers are comedians; how many comedians have musical talents?  How do you rate ability anyway, without being subjective?  And…

"What is autism" is a medical science question.  "How can people with autism adapt to society" is a social science question.  "Why would someone pay to see a movie in a theater with the lights on, the sound turned down, and anyone in the audience able to dance or yell during the show" is a scientificblogging.com question. Movie chain AMC runs a monthly sensory friendly film.  And in their own words: The auditoriums dedicated to the program have their lights up, the sound turned down and audience members are invited to get up and dance, walk, shout or sing! Kind of sounds like…

There is a nice Internet site on Facebook about Grisha Perelman: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grigori-Perelman/41491033741?v=wall which claims to have 799 fans. Wonderful ! There is a guy who started there a discussion on Grisha: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=41491033741&topic=14910 Is Grisha yet another "slumdog millionaire" ? I do not think so. Moreover, on 30.04.2010 at 20:00 (Moscow time), the first channel of the Russian TV has aired an issue of a highly popular and esteemed talk-show "Pust' govoryat" ("Let them speak out") which was devoted to a discussion about Grisha…

The mainstream media is often accused of shilling for one political party or the other, but that accusation may not stick to all news sources. A new study in the Journal of Political Economy has found that local newspaper do a decent job of keeping politicians accountable to their constituents. In areas where members of Congress get lots of ink in local newspapers, voters are more informed and representatives do more to serve local interests, the study found. "Our findings support the idea that press coverage is important for electoral accountability," write the study's authors, James Snyder…

A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research has found that shoppers often expect to buy a certain number of unplanned items, and most have a fairly accurate estimate as to how much they will spend on them. The authors use the term "in-store slack" to describe the room shoppers leave in their budget for unplanned purchases. The researchers conducted a field study at several grocery stores in Texas. Shoppers were asked what they intended to purchase, how much they expected to spend on the planned items, and how much they intended to spend total. After shopping, participants provided their…

It's almost World Cup time again and the South Africa event has been plagued by problems but one thing can always squelch critics and get fans excited - a great song.    Well, the World Cup folks messed up that one too, picking a song by South American hottie Shakira(*), despite her lack of actual singing ability, to be the 'official' song.  But it got me thinking about a good CD mix for the car and therefore past sporting songs. The problem is I don't have enough to fill a whole CD once I eliminate tired choices like the Rocky theme song or "We Are The Champions", which have…

Watching too much TV may make children fat, bad at math and expose them to all kinds of other evils, say "child experts" writing in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The authors found that television exposure at age two forecasts negative consequences for kids, ranging from poor school adjustment to unhealthy habits. Since TV exposure encourages a sedentary lifestyle, television viewing must be curbed for toddlers to avoid the maintenance of passive mental and physical habits in later childhood, the researchers conclude. "We found every additional hour of TV exposure among…

Charles Darwin was probably correct about the effects of inbreeding in his family, according to a new study in BioScience. Darwin demonstrated the phenomenon of inbreeding depression in many plants, and was aware of research into the effects of marriage between relatives on the health of resulting children. He feared that his marriage might have been responsible for some of his children's health problems. The British Naturalist married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and his mother, Susannah Wedgwood, was the daughter of third cousins. The new study of 25 families, including 176 children,…

Despite significant declines in the cinematic depiction of smoking over the past 20 years, researchers writing in Thorax complain that tobacco imagery is still relatively common in UK films rated suitable for children and young teens. The findings suggest that movie ratings should take depictions of smoking into account, the authors say. Researchers analyzed the occurrence of depictions of tobacco use, including brand appearances and smoking paraphernalia, for periods of at least five minutes (tobacco intervals) in the 15 most commercially successful films screened in the UK between 1989…