Centives

Christina Cauterucci reported on a study that looked at how eating habits are affected by social context in Homo sapiens:

• Men who ate at an all you can eat buffet with women ate twice as much pizza as men who ate with other men.
• They also packed in 80% more salad.
• Women didn’t change their eating habits based on the gender of their companions, but they did say that when they ate with men they felt that that they had overeaten.
• This is in line with other studies which indicate that when men eat with women they take bigger bites and employ more “chewing power”.
• The reason seems to be that men want to prove their ability to pack calories into their guts.
• This could also help explain why eating competitions are particularly popular with men.
• Other research suggests that women seemed to find the scent of men who had eaten garlic more attractive than those who hadn’t.

Read more about the study over here.

Source: Slate

A surprising number of people have sex while they drive. Imagine what it’ll be like once they don’t even have to drive wrote Ben Guarino:

• The Mile High Club, of members who have had sex on an airplane, got started with a man who created the pre-cursor of the autopilot. This ultimately freed him up for other activities.
• Cars are at a similar stage of development with auto-pilot features being able to take control and drivers experimenting with sexual escapades.
• In fact car makers seem to be adapting cars so that there are fewer knobbly bits – like gear boxes – to poke people while they do their thing.
• The legality of the sex will be debated. If it’s done in view of a school bus full of primary schoolers then a judge will probably have something to say about it.
• But what if it happens on a highway where everybody can watch but nobody is in danger? The law isn’t clear on this.

Read other musings on the topic here.

Source: Inverse

Beth Mole covered caffeine charged peanut butter:

• Each tablespoon of STEEM peanut butter has as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.
• Its makers note that it’s perfect for those who don’t want to pay for over-priced coffee, or don’t want to bring an espresso machine with them when they go camping.
• Critics including New York Senator Charles Schumer argue that it is an irresponsible product – especially since caffeine is being put into something so closely associated with a children’s snack.
• While dogs typically love peanut butter this stuff is also unsuitable for pets. Most animals can’t digest caffeine.

You can find the product page here.

Source: Arstechnica

Firefighters might soon be equipped with jetpacks wrote Amy X. Wang:

• Dubai is filled with glittering skyscrapers which can make things difficult for firefighters.
• The government has thus signed an agreement to purchase 20 jetpacks for its firefighting force.
• They will have a top speed of 45 mph and will climb 900 meters.
• Thermal scanning technology will enable firefighters to identify those in need of assistance. The jet packs will also be able to carry medical equipment.
• They should be ready by the end of 2016, and each is thought to cost around $150,000.
• This will make a good addition to Dubai’s civil services, which also includes Lamborghini police cars.

Read more here.

Source: Quartz

Jason Karaian looked into the world of apparel for camels:

• A company in Abu Dhabi has come to be known for its upmarket camel beauty supplies.
• Now it is branching out into performance wear. The full body compression suit apparently makes race camels run faster and beauty camels look better.
• The suits are worn before and after camel races to increase blood flow.
• The advantages are similar to that which Under Armour marketed to become a billion human clothing company.

Read more about the business here.

Source: Quartz

Natalie Vail at Cracked composed a list of ways that your name can affect your life:

• People who have names that come early in the alphabet do better in life. This may be because in classrooms, for example, they’re called upon first, have their names mentioned first when they co-author something, or even have their names on the tops of ballots when they run for office.
• This helps explain why, in the past century, only six American Presidents have had a surname from the latter half of the alphabet.
• We’re also more likely to marry people whose names resemble our own.
• Children in conservative states get weirder names – such as “Serenity” or “Londyn” – than children in liberal ones. This might be because conservative mothers tend to be younger and thus may be more adventurous in their choice of names.
• In Germany, at least, having a noble sounding name – like Furst (“Prince”) – leads to better life outcomes.
• For male CEOs having a simple informal name – like Mark – seems to be an advantage. It makes them seem less intimidating, allowing people to be more comfortable around them.
• For female CEOs however a more complicated name – like Marissa – seems to be advantageous. This might be because it makes them seem more professional.

The full article has many more fascinating details, and as with all articles from Cracked has a good deal of humour in it. You should read it here.

Source: Cracked

Thanksgiving is coming up. Anna Lipin used the opportunity to examine turkey prices:

• Feeding turkeys can make up as much as 70% of a turkey’s production costs.
• This is especially true for pasture turkeys that are free to frolic about. Their increased activity means that they need twice as many calories as their factory farmed brethren.
• Turkey farms also have to pay for freezers. Your turkey may say that it is fresh and was never frozen, but according to industry standards as long as it wasn’t chilled below 10 degrees it wasn’t frozen.
• Despite all this though turkeys are a loss leader for a supermarket – you pay less than what it cost the store to buy it.
• This is because supermarkets know that you’ll also buy items like potatoes, cranberries, stuffing, and butter – and they jack up those prices to increase margins.

Read more here.

Source: Lucky Peach

Josie Rubio delved into the history of the waterbed:

• Waterbeds have been around for 3,000 years. They enjoyed a surge of popularity for a while in the late 1800s.
• However, being unable to regulate the temperature of the water meant that they soon lost appeal.
• In 1968 a university student created a water bed that suddenly became a symbol of sex appeal, with couples engaging in playful romps on the fluid filled mattresses.
• So strong was the link to sexual activity that dealers who sold the mattresses were described as “seedy” and sold them along with things like “orgy butter”.
• In New York City a Bloomingdale’s public water bed display became a meeting place for singles.
• Which is odd because landlords were increasingly banning water mattresses in NYC. They were difficult to get through the door and when moving out tenants had a tendency to leave the water bed rather than go through the trouble of draining and disposing of it.
• Some landlords even required that waterbed insurance be purchased in case the family cat Mr. Scruffles decided to scratch it open.
• Water beds eventually lost their sex appeal as they were soon marketed to the sick and elderly as therapeutic devices.

Read about the urban myths that flew around about water beds, the role they’ve played in popular culture, how Hugh Hefner liked his water bed, and other details here.

Source: Van Winkle’s

Faiz Siddiqui wrote about experiments in surge pricing for parking spots:

• In D.C. its estimated that 25% of downtown traffic congestion is merely due to drivers circling the block looking for parking – a classic case of demand outstripping supply.
• Demand based dynamic pricing, which could prices to go up to $8 an hour or more in the future, is expected to help reduce traffic.
• Critics say that this is a revenue raising measure which will increasingly price poor people out of certain areas of the city.
• However, when a similar program was run in San Francisco it was found that while in 31% of cases parking prices increased, on average they declined by 4% as prices plummeted during periods of low demand.
• In Los Angeles congestion decreased by 10% and average parking prices were lower at 60% of parking spots.
• Parking spots in the D.C. pilot are being fitted with sensors so that in the future it may be possible to track your car through an app.
• The aim is to have at least one open space on every block, although the cost of that last spot could be eye-watering.

Read more about the experiment, its supporters, and its critics here.

Source: The Washington Post

Via: Marginal Revolution