Screw you guys, I like blue
Women really do prefer pink, researchers say:
Boys like blue, girls like pink and there isn’t much anybody can do about it, researchers said on Monday in one of the first studies to show scientifically that there are gender-based color preferences.
Researchers said these differences may have a basis in evolution in which females developed a preference for reddish colors associated with riper fruit and healthier faces.
…
Afterwards, Hurlbert and colleagues plotted the results along the color spectrum and found that while men prefer blue, women gravitate towards the pinker end of the blue spectrum.
I’m a fan of grey-blues myself. I’ve always preferred blue. I only don’t loathe pinks that are duskier, less fucking sweetie pie.
Bipolar mice, good searches, bottles, dead old men, and frigid pigeons
Yes, they all connect up*.
- U.S. researchers create schizophrenic mice — I certainly did not know that mice liked to swim, I suppose I should look it up, and in future I’ll be able to get the best ever human-edited results.
- Wikipedia founder plans open-source search engine — will it be as not-quite-sure-if-it’s-entirely trustworthy as Wikipedia? Kind of like our next story, which is
- Bottled water and snake oil — bottled water is tap water in a bottle? I take that to work every day. It’s still as deadly and painful when lobbed through the air, and could kill, though ’sticks and stones can break my bones…’
- Man ‘died at hands of young mob’ — this poor man was killed by sticks and stones, called ‘missiles’ in the news. I was very nearly hit by a missile of pigeon poop the other day.
- Hollywood Pigeons to Be Put on the Pill — some sort of consequence must come of controlling birds’ reproductive cycles.
* In my mind
The House in Xiamen is killing the environment
A: “I read a story that we saw briefly on the news about why those patio heaters are bad.”
N: “… they’re bad for the environment, right?!”
A: “Yeah, so it seems.”
N: “Y’know, if a teevee journalist stopped me on the street and asked if I thought patio heaters were releasing too much carbon, I would say Not really, this is worse — *parp*!”
(Not verbatim — it happened yesterday. Cannae remember it word for word.)
(The House uses a lot of patio heaters.)
Getting religion makes animal poop less stinky
- ‘Chastity ring’ girl loses case — evidence that using the words ‘freedom’, ‘religion’, and ‘human rights’ may get you nowhere. It’s patently silly to claim that a jewellery trend is necessary to the practising of the girl’s faith, unless she can be proven to be the town bicycle when she’s not wearing the ring, then she’s got mental problems and any religion cannot save her.
- Judge grants Shambo reprieve — the bull who may or may not have TB was saved by religion, however. He is not a stud bull, just revered. His testing positive for bovine TB has meant his fate has swung from certain death to isolation, although the judge who ruled to save him has said his decision does not preclude putting Shambo down later (it depends on the relative danger of a consumptive Shambo versus the rights and desires of the community who house him).
- Less wasteful chicken breed — there is no such protection for chickens, however, as scientists are trying to breed chooks that poop less (and poop less stinky poop as well). My question is, Where does the poop go? Will I get darker, gamier meat in my chicken rice in future?
I said poop three times in one sentence.
The five-second rule debunked
It’s actually 30 seconds. Wah biang eh. For a klutz like me, this news is a Godsend.
Via not martha.
Apparently only homos spread HIV
This is why Singapore has a long, LONG way to go:
Just like homosexual sex advances the spread of the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus which robs the body of its natural defences against bacterial attack.
And unprotected heterosexual sex has an anti-HIV straight person magic condom applied automatically?
The commenter goes on to say that the resultant AIDS epidemic as a result of legalising consensual homosexual intercourse will wipe out the population. Eh, if they’re gay, there won’t BE any AIDS babies.
We are not against the people who practice homosexuality but it’s the root cause that needs to be dealt with.
…
Deal with the root and not legalize the growth.
So people who are born homosexual need to be dealt with.
On the other hand, gays are inherently all promiscuous.
Oh, this one is precious. Hear that, gays (I believe all these commenters are referring to gay men, not women)? You throw it about, every single one of you. None of you could have a normal, monogamous relationship because you are ABNORMAL.
You cannot go against the order of nature and not get noticed. Even animals get themselves partnered up with members of the opposite sex.
Please do some, I dunno, reading. Animals practice homosexuality and bisexuality.
I love how these people (on the first page) are calling for an objective and clear-headed discussion on repealing the law against homosexuality when they casually fling about very insulting and inaccurate stereotypes.
This is one of the reasons why people laugh at Singapore. We. Are. Children.
(Won’t even bother with the Slippery Slope fallacy from the original article that sparked the discussion.)
Via Tomorrow.
The human-hamster divide has been breached
Is it bad to find the possible implications of treating critically ill humans with hamster cells comedic?
Oliver Moody was lacking an enzyme that breaks down harmful chemicals in his organs. A £300,000 a year treatment developed by US scientists using genetically-modified Chinese hamster cells [insert joke about medical science cutting costs by using Chinese hamsters here] was finally brought to the UK, and ten months on, the boy can play sports with his friends.
I suppose it’s when he starts storing boiled white rice in his cheek pouches that we should start worrying (actually, when he starts developing cheek pouches is probably a good a time as any).
(This is not to say I think little of the boy and his parents — no one can blame parents for trying everything to help their children — although I do wonder who’s footing the bill.)
Trembly noses and ruminations abound
Go-ahead signalled for animal-human embryos:
Two teams of British researchers have applied for permission to create “cybrid” embryos that would be around 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent rabbit, cow, pig, sheep or goat to produce embryonic stem cells – the body’s building blocks that grow into all other types of cells.
…
Dr Calum MacKellar of the Scottish Council on Scottish Bioethics, said: “Millions of people in the UK would see the creation of animal-human embryo combinations as the creation of very profound ethical problems. These are not just a pile of cells, but have a special moral status as a human person.”
I, for one, welcome the possibility of future humans with long, furry ears.