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Discoblog

Archive for the ‘NCBI ROFL’ Category

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NCBI ROFL: How dogs navigate to catch frisbees.

“Using micro-video cameras attached to the heads of 2 dogs, we examined their optical behavior while catching Frisbees. Our findings reveal that dogs use the same viewer-based navigational heuristics previously found with baseball players (i.e., maintaining the target along a linear optical trajectory, LOT, with optical speed constancy). (more…)

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February 7th, 2012 by ncbi rofl in fun with animals, NCBI ROFL | No comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Superbowl special: 5 funny football-related studies!

1. Sports fans who tailgate are more likely to get drunk.
 ”Our findings suggest that a significant number of attendees at professional sporting events may have elevated BAC levels, particularly young adults and those who participated in tailgating activities. ”

2. Sport fan identification in obituaries.
“To assess whether sport involvement, particularly as a fan, is central enough to one’s self-concept to be mentioned in obituary content, it was hypothesized that a greater proportion of men’s obituaries than women’s would mention the deceased individual’s sport fan identification.”
(more…)

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February 6th, 2012 by ncbi rofl in ethanol, NCBI ROFL, playing with balls | 1 Comment | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: The science of Facebook relationship status: It’s complicated.

It’s Facebook week on NCBI ROFL! All this week we’ll be featuring papers about everyone’s favorite social networking site. Enjoy!

“Are We Facebook Official?” Implications of Dating Partners’ Facebook Use and Profiles for Intimate Relationship Satisfaction.

“Extending previous research on positive and negative correlates of Facebook use for individuals’ outcomes, this study examined male and female dating partners’ (n=58 couples) Facebook use and portrayals of their intimate relationship on the Facebook profile. Confirming hypotheses from compatibility theories of mate selection, partners demonstrated similar Facebook intensity (e.g., usage, connection to Facebook), and were highly likely to portray their relationship on their Facebook profiles in similar ways (i.e., display partnered status and show their partner in profile picture). (more…)

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February 3rd, 2012 by ncbi rofl in feelings shmeelings, NCBI ROFL, rated G, teh interwebs | No comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: The “no sh*t, Sherlock” award: Facebook edition.

It’s Facebook week on NCBI ROFL! All this week we’ll be featuring papers about everyone’s favorite social networking site. Enjoy!

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus? Examining Gender Differences in Self-Presentation on Social Networking Sites.

“Psychological research on gender differences in self-presentation has already revealed that women place higher priority on creating a positive self-presentation, while men are less concerned about the image they present in face-to-face (ftf) communication. Nowadays, with the extensive use of new media, self-presentation is no longer so closely tied to ftf situations, but can also take place in the online world. (more…)

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February 2nd, 2012 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, rated G, reinforcing stereotypes, teh interwebs | No comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Who needs a doctor when you have Facebook?

It’s Facebook week on NCBI ROFL! All this week we’ll be featuring papers about everyone’s favorite social networking site. Enjoy!

Laypersons can seek help from their Facebook friends regarding medical diagnosis

“INTRODUCTION:
In contrast to Internet search engines, social media on the Internet such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. reach a large number of people, who are ready to help answering questions. This type of information aggregation has been dubbed “crowdsourcing” i.e. outsourcing a task to a large group of people or community (a crowd) through an open call. Our aim was to explore whether laypersons via Facebook friends could crowd source their way to a medical diagnosis based on a brief medical history, posted as a status update on Facebook. (more…)

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February 1st, 2012 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, teh interwebs | 3 Comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Social networks lack useful content for incontinence.

It’s Facebook week on NCBI ROFL! All this week we’ll be featuring papers about everyone’s favorite social networking site. Enjoy!

“OBJECTIVE: To assess the incontinence resources readily available for patients among social networks. Social networks allow users to connect with each other and share content and are a widely popular resource on the Internet. These sites attract millions of users; however, social media are underused in the healthcare industry. METHODS: A search for “incontinence” was performed on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in September 2010. The first 30 results were reviewed for each. The results were evaluated as useful or not useful and additionally catalogued as healthcare professionals, commercial products, or complementary and alternative medicine resources. (more…)

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January 31st, 2012 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, teh interwebs, WTF? | No comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Mirror, mirror on my Facebook wall: effects of exposure to Facebook on self-esteem.

It’s Facebook week on NCBI ROFL! All this week we’ll be featuring papers about everyone’s favorite social networking site. Enjoy!

“Contrasting hypotheses were posed to test the effect of Facebook exposure on self-esteem. Objective Self-Awareness (OSA) from social psychology and the Hyperpersonal Model from computer-mediated communication were used to argue that Facebook would either diminish or enhance self-esteem respectively. (more…)

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January 30th, 2012 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, teh interwebs | No comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Probably the most horrifying scientific lecture ever.

How (not) to communicate new scientific information: a memoir of the famous brindley lecture

“In 1983, at the Urodynamics Society meeting in Las Vegas, Professor G.S. Brindley first announced to the world his experiments on self-injection with papaverine to induce a penile erection. This was the first time that an effective medical therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED) was described, and was a historic development in the management of ED. The way in which this information was first reported was completely unique and memorable, and provides an interesting context for the development of therapies for ED. I was present at this extraordinary lecture, and the details are worth sharing. Although this lecture was given more than 20 years ago, the details have remained fresh in my mind, for reasons which will become obvious.

The lecture, which had an innocuous title along the lines of ‘Vaso-active therapy for erectile dysfunction’ was scheduled as an evening lecture of the Urodynamics Society in the hotel in which I was staying. I was a senior resident, hungry for knowledge, and at the AUA I went to every lecture that I could. About 15 min before the lecture I took the elevator to go to the lecture hall, and on the next floor a slight, elderly looking and bespectacled man, wearing a blue track suit and carrying a small cigar box, entered the elevator. He appeared quite nervous, and shuffled back and forth. He opened the box in the elevator, which became crowded, and started examining and ruffling through the 35 mm slides of micrographs inside. I was standing next to him, and could vaguely make out the content of the slides, which appeared to be a series of pictures of penile erection. I concluded that this was, indeed, Professor Brindley on his way to the lecture, although his dress seemed inappropriately casual. (more…)

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January 27th, 2012 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, penis friday, scientist...or perv? | 5 Comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Your rug is so ugly it makes me sick. Literally.

The sickening rug: a repeating static pattern that leads to motion-sickness-like symptoms.

“The nauseogenic properties of a patterned rug that reputedly caused motion-sickness-like symptoms in those who viewed it was the topic of this study. Naive observers viewed a 1:1 scale image of the black-and-white patterned rug and a homogeneous gray region of equivalent luminance in a counterbalanced within-subjects design. (more…)

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January 26th, 2012 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, rated G | 1 Comment | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Does it take one to know one? Endorsement of conspiracy theories is influenced by personal willingness to conspire.

“We advance a new account of why people endorse conspiracy theories, arguing that individuals use the social-cognitive tool of projection when making social judgements about others. In two studies, we found that individuals were more likely to endorse conspiracy theories if they thought they would be willing, personally, to participate in the alleged conspiracies. (more…)

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January 25th, 2012 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, rated G, reinforcing stereotypes, told you so | 1 Comment | RSS feed | Trackback >

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    • About the Blog

      Discoblog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Veronique Greenwood and Valerie Ross. Email tips and suggestions to vgreenwood [at] discovermagazine [dot] com.

      Discoblog also includes the daily feature NCBI ROFL, in which two prone-to-distraction grad students post real scientific articles with funny subjects. Email your tips to ncbirofl [at] gmail.com. Follow the ROFL feed here.

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