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Discoblog

Archive for the ‘ridiculous titles’ Category

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NCBI ROFL: Naturalistic observations of beer drinking among college students.

“We observed the beer drinking behavior of 308 university students in several bar and party settings. The following relationships were found: (more…)

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January 5th, 2012 by ncbi rofl in duh, ethanol, NCBI ROFL, ridiculous titles | 2 Comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Psychosexual study of communist era Hungarian twins.

“Our aim in this study is to describe the characteristics of sexual development in twins and estimate the role of heritability and environmental factors as causes of certain sexual disorders. Two hundred and ten adult same-sex twin pairs (92 monozygotic [MZ] female, 41 MZ male, 55 dizygotic [DZ] female and 22 DZ male pairs) were involved in the study. Data were collected in 1982 by self-administered questionnaires that included items on sexual maturation, sexual life, contraception, mutual sexual activity within twin pairs and alcohol use. (more…)

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December 23rd, 2011 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, penis friday, ridiculous titles, scientist...or perv? | 1 Comment | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: If I’m not hot, are you hot or not? Physical attractiveness evaluations and dating preferences as a function of one’s own attractiveness.

“Prior research has established that people’s own physical attractiveness affects their selection of romantic partners. This article provides further support for this effect and also examines a different, yet related, question: When less attractive people accept less attractive dates, do they persuade themselves that the people they choose to date are more physically attractive than others perceive them to be? (more…)

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December 16th, 2011 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, penis friday, ridiculous titles, scientist...or perv?, teh interwebs | 1 Comment | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Science discovers ideal mortician phone number is 1-800-CORPSES.

I 5683 you: dialing phone numbers on cell phones activates key-concordant concepts.

“When people perform actions, effects associated with the actions are activated mentally, even if those effects are not apparent. This study tested whether sequences of simulations of virtual action effects can be integrated into a meaning of their own. Cell phones were used to test this hypothesis because pressing a key on a phone is habitually associated with both digits (dialing numbers) and letters (typing text messages). In Experiment 1, dialing digit sequences induced the meaning of words that share the same key sequence (e.g., 5683, LOVE). (more…)

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September 26th, 2011 by ncbi rofl in analysis taken too far, holy correlation batman!, NCBI ROFL, ridiculous titles | 1 Comment | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Ooh girl, shock me like an electric eel.

The ‘electric stroke’ and the ‘electric spark’: anatomists and eroticism at George Baker’s electric eel exhibition in 1776 and 1777.

“In 1776 and 1777 five living electric eels exhibited in London became a sensational spectacle that appealed to anatomists, electricians and connoisseurs of erotica. George Baker’s exhibition made visible the ‘electric spark’ of the electrical eel and a series of experiments were both witnessed by and participated in by members of the Royal Society and the metropolitan elite. Some participants even grasped the eels firmly in their hands and felt the ‘electric stroke’ of the eel in addition to observing the spark. In their observation of the electric eel some of these spectators transposed the vivid electric spark from the sphere of electricians and anatomists into that of satirical and erotic literature. (more…)

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September 16th, 2011 by ncbi rofl in fun with animals, NCBI ROFL, old-skool, ridiculous titles, scientist...or perv?, WTF? | No comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Double feature: swinging and pumping techniques.

An assessment of swinger techniques for the playground swing oscillatory motion.

Much attention has been devoted to how playground swing amplitudes are built up by swinger techniques, i.e. body actions. However, very little attention has been given to the requirements that such swinger techniques place on the swinger himself. The purpose of this study was to find out whether different swinger techniques yield significantly different maximum torques, endurance and coordinative skills, and also to identify preferable techniques. We modelled the seated swinger as a rigid dumbbell and compared three different techniques. (more…)

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September 13th, 2011 by ncbi rofl in analysis taken too far, NCBI ROFL, rated G, ridiculous titles | No comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: When it comes to penis length and economic growth, size does matter.

Male organ and economic growth: does size matter?

“This paper explores the link between economic development and penile length between 1960 and 1985. It estimates an augmented Solow model utilizing the Mankiw-Romer-Weil 121 country dataset. The size of male organ is found to have an inverse U-shaped relationship with the level of GDP in 1985. (more…)

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July 22nd, 2011 by ncbi rofl in holy correlation batman!, NCBI ROFL, penis friday, ridiculous titles | 7 Comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: The tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth: how belief in the Tooth Fairy can engender false memories.

“To examine how children’s fantasy beliefs can affect memory for their experiences, 5- and 6-year-olds with differing levels of belief in the reality of the Tooth Fairy were prompted to recall their most recent primary tooth loss in either a truthful or fun manner. (more…)

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June 21st, 2011 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, rated G, ridiculous titles | 5 Comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: Amusing titles in scientific journals and article citation.

“The present study examines whether the use of humor in scientific article titles is associated with the number of citations an article receives. Four judges rated the degree of amusement and pleasantness of titles of articles published over 10 years (from 1985 to 1994) in two of the most prestigious journals in psychology, Psychological Bulletin and Psychological Review. We then examined the association between the levels of amusement and pleasantness and the article’s monthly citation average.

(more…)

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June 9th, 2011 by ncbi rofl in holy correlation batman!, NCBI ROFL, ridiculous titles | 2 Comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

NCBI ROFL: You probably think this paper’s about you: Narcissists’ perceptions of their personality and reputation.

“Do narcissists have insight into the negative aspects of their personality and reputation? Using both clinical and subclinical measures of narcissism, the authors examined others’ perceptions, self-perceptions, and meta-perceptions of narcissists across a wide range of traits for a new acquaintance and close other (Study 1), longitudinally with a group of new acquaintances (Study 2), and among coworkers (Study 3). (more…)

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June 6th, 2011 by ncbi rofl in NCBI ROFL, ridiculous titles | 2 Comments | 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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