Do Pick-Up Lines Work?

Bars and Clubs are notorious for bad pick-up lines, and almost everyone's used one at least once in their lives. But how often do they actually work, and which ones work and which don't? Well, you'd be surprised to find out that the answers are quite simple. In a study published in the Journal of Social Psychology, a team of researchers tried to answer that elusive question by surveying 70 female university students about different pick-up lines asked by different men. The results were...un-staggering.

The study classified 3 types of pick-up lines: 'Flippant' lines, which are usually funny, witty, and make you look like a douche. Non-Flippant Direct lines, which are kinda like "Hey I saw you across the room and had to meet you!". And finally, Non-Flippant Innocuous lines, like "Hey I think I know you, did we have class together?" 

And here are the reactions: Flippant lines, such as "If I could re-arrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together" - Glen Quagmire, usually make the guy look humorous and sociable, which are a plus. On the negative side, they also make him look untrustworthy and unintelligent. Women looking for something more than a one-night-stand usually scorn at these types of lines.

The differences between Direct and Innocuous lines are minimal. Although women react better, on average, to Direct lines, the end result is the same (Meaning that if she doesn't like you, the line makes no difference...surprisingly).

In conclusion, if the woman in question is just looking for some fun (probably like most of you reading this), it makes no difference what you say as your entrance...she just has to find you attractive (mind you, your sociability usually falls into this). If the woman is looking for a long-term partner, however, she will usually be much more receptive to Direct and Innocuous lines, but they won't take you anywhere unless you pass her subconscious standards of a "good dad".

Source: http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/110114_pickup.htm

AIDS Has Been Cured

And these buggers are to blame.
Photo Credit: TopNews.com.nz

That's right! Unfortunately, it's only been done once because the procedure is quite rare and also quite dangerous. The man in question is an American citizen who was living in Germany three years ago. While infected with the HIV virus, he also developed Leukemia, cancer of the blood. In an attempt to cure his Leukemia, doctors in Germany treated the man with a Stem Cell Bone Marrow Transplant from a donor who who was a perfect match, and also coincidentally carried an HIV resistant gene.

Over time, the man's immune system was 'replaced' with that of the donor (the lucky son of a gun inherited the HIV resistance gene), and today (3 years later), he shows no signs of either AIDS, HIV, nor Leukemia.

So why did everyone miss the party of the century? Well unfortunately, this procedure is very rare. The donor has to be a perfect match AND contain the HIV resistance gene (a rarity in itself). Then, the procedure is extremely expensive, and most doctors won't treat you accordingly because they consider it unnecessary due to its risks as "drugs can keep HIV in check in most cases" - Dr. Michael Saag, which leads me to my next point - it's very risky. As it stands today, the death rate among these types of procedures is 5%, which means 1 in every 20 people who are treated will die from the procedure.


Ultimately though, it's still an amazing advancement in medicine, and will hopefully lead researchers to a more promising and practical cure to AIDS.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/6fcj3y6 

Are You An Amazing Problem Solver? You Might Be Depressed!

Pictured Above: Man analyzing his hate for the world.

Just kidding! But on a serious note, if the title statement were reversed (i.e. Are you depressed? You may be a good problem solver.) it would hold true in a lot of cases. New studies done at various universities across the U.S. found that people who suffer from depression are much better candidates for analyzing and making good decisions when confronted with high-stakes situations, such as buying a new home or hiring someone. The reasoning behind this is that sufferers of depression are often pessimistic, driving them to further investigate and analyze a situation before 'jumping the gun'.

Depressed people were also found to be especially apt at sequential decision making (i.e. situations where a decision is made, then an event occurs, then another decision is made, then another event occurs, so on and so so forth). For example, patients were found to make better decisions on whom to marry and when, for the same reasons mentioned above.

Tip of the Day: If you've been with your partner for a while and are thinking of popping the question, get depressed for a few days.


Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/73973/title/Thinking_better_with_depression

Birth Control Pill For......Men?

Besides the use of condoms, the burden of contraceptives has always fallen on women, ranging from oral hormone regulation (birth control pills) to vaginal insertions that block sperm. Although the idea has been around for a long time, no feasible male "Birth Control Pill" could be produced because of very common side-effects, such as losing your balls, and their inconsistent effectiveness across various men.

But now, new research from Colombia University offers a very real possibility for men to share that burden with women through the use of an oral contraceptive. The secret is, get this, Vitamin A! Not some crazy testicle warping machine, or even hormonal treatments. Just a simple vitamin. The team of researchers have found a chemical compound that blocks Vitamin A from reaching your boys. In turn, this vitamin deprivation halts the production of sperm from anywhere between 2 to 4 weeks. As opposed to previous methods of sterilization, where the male was permanently left in that state, this chemical only makes you sterile for a short period of time.

Although they haven't actually made such a pill yet, they're still experimenting with the topic and hoping to have something good for us soon. I'll keep you all posted on this.

Sources: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21505053
               http://news.discovery.com/human/male-birth-control-pill-drug-110606.html

Free Will: Why You Reading This Blog Might've Been Predicted

The debate over whether or not humans have free will has been raging since the dawn of humanity. However, a recent study published in Science offers a thought-provoking perspective on the topic. The study involved university students who were asked to complete a set of puzzles:

“S­tu­dents were seated at a ta­ble to work on two seem­ingly un­re­lat­ed lan­guage puz­zles. For some stu­dents, the first puz­zle in­clud­ed words re­lat­ed to achieve­ment (such as win or achieve), and for oth­ers it did not. Stu­dents who were ex­posed to achieve­ment words were found to out­per­form the oth­ers on the sec­ond puz­zle.”

So what the hell does this have to do with free will? Apparently lots, because the fact that a simple exposure to positive language impacts your performance implies that your conscious abilities and inclinations are directed by subconscious processes.

In other words, your brain decides what you're going to do, and how well you do it before you even consciously think about it. But wait, doesn't that mean I still have free will, like, my subconsciousness is still part of me, right? Well, kind of. Your subconscious mind is just that, SUBconscious, so you're never aware of it or its endeavors. The very idea of free will is something that hinges on a conscious level. We FEEL as though we make our own choices. But doesn't the fact that something we're not aware of, pre-determining our actions and choices, mean that we're not as free willed as we'd like to think? No one has a concrete answer to that, but it's definitely something to think about.

The main article's done, but keep reading if you'd like to know my perspective on free will.


Now, my perspective on free will. I know I've wrote quite a bit already, and you're most likely tired of this topic already, so I'll cut to the chase:

Imagine a game of billiards. Technically speaking, you can, with the right formulas, predict exactly where all the balls on the pool table will end up following a shot. In my opinion, the universe works the same way. We have atoms all around us that follow certain universal laws. Therefore, if one COULD (not saying will, because that's impossible) know the exact position, trajectory, and speed of every particle in the universe, one could possibly predict the entire future of the universe and everything in it (including the fact that you actually cared enough to read this far into the article).

Now if you're a physics major, you might argue that on a quantum level, our current laws of the universe don't make sense, and that merely observing a particle changes its behavior. I agree, but I am not arguing that its a possible task, because its not. I'm simply arguing that on a philosophical level, our future is already set in stone because there are laws to how the universe functions (on any level, we simply haven't gotten to that point of understanding yet.)

I might not be fully aware of some claims that I have made (maybe some of you physics majors know better), so please comment and share your knowledge with the rest of us :D.

Lost or Planning On Losing a Finger? No Worries!

If you've lost part of your finger in an accident recently, you might have a good shot at growing it back! All you need is a freshly cut finger and a pig's bladder. Once you have the bladder, you can extract (in powdered form) a substance called an Extracellular Matrix, which when applied to a raw severed part of your body, acts as a regeneration stimulant. Normally when you cut yourself (or lose a limb) your body naturally scars the area, which prevents it from growing anything back. When Extracellular Matrix is applied, however, "it begins to break down into surrounding tissue, [and] causes the cells in that tissue to start repairing the damage the way they would in a developing fetus (or a salamander that loses a limb) -- they divide and rebuild, creating new, normal tissue, not scar tissue." Using this method of regeneration, people have completely regrown sizable lengths of their fingers, fully functional and fully wired with all nerve cells.


On a deeper note, scientists have found it interesting that human fetuses can fully repair physical damage done in the womb, but lose this ability upon birth. Since fetuses achieve this through a combination of Stem Cells and Extracellular Matrix (Matrices?), it might be possible that the substance's application to raw body tissue puts cells in that region in a Stem Cell state, where they can repair and regenerate lost tissue.


At the moment, scientists are working on finding ways to fully regenerate lost limbs, and Extracellular 
Matrix might turn out to be the solution.


Source: http://tinyurl.com/4jpqfcn 

Irony At Its Best: Atheists know more about religion than believers!

Pictured Above: Haters hatin'

At least according to a study done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, where 3500 people were randomly asked 32 relatively simple/fundamental questions about their own and other popular religions. One such question, posed to Catholics, revealed that almost HALF of the them did not know that the Catholic Church believes the bread and wine given at communion actually and literally 'transform' into the flesh and blood of Christ. Funnier still, is that just "about as many Americans did not know that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist." On the other hand, Atheists and Agnostics (those who are unsure) polled seemed to have a significantly better understanding of a broad number of different religions.

But the saddest part of this whole ordeal is the fact that even government officials pushing religion on the public don't seem to know squat about it. To quote the original article: "Comedian Stephen Colbert interviewed Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, who co-sponsored a bill to require display of the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Colbert asked Westmoreland to name the Ten Commandments." To be fair to Congressman Westmoreland, ten is a LARGE number of items to remember, so we should all cut him some slack if he forgets a couple. Unfortunately for him, the sad truth remains that the Congressman could only name 3 of them. But don't worry!...because apparently 60% of the U.S. population can't name them either. Everyone wins! :D

Source: http://news.discovery.com/human/atheists-best-informed-about-religion.html